The Two Tasks

by Charles Malik

In his widely acclaimed address at the dedication of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in 1980, Lebanese Ambassador Charles Malik argued with passion that the church must above all be faithful to its evangelistic and intellectual tasks. For two decades The Two Tasks has stimulated discussion and debate. This second edition brings Dr. Malik's penetrating analysis to a new generation of readers.

Genres: Education

46 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1980

About the author

Lebanese academic, diplomat, and philosopher.

He served as the Lebanese representative to the United Nations, the President of the Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations General Assembly, a member of the Lebanese Cabinet, a national minister of Education and the Arts, and of Foreign Affairs and Emigration, and theologian.

He was responsible for the drafting and adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Reviews

[Mitchell Dorris]

This book posits that one of the greatest challenges that we face as believers is the thought of anti-intellectualism. Malik says, "Anti-intellectualism is an absolutely self-defeating attitude." Christians should not adopt this in any form. We cannot afford to run to the hills. The college campus and universities should be places Christians strive to succeed in. Believers are called to save the soul, but also the mind. Malik ends his book by speaking to the task of evangelism in the intellectual circles by saying, "... evangelism must first intellectualize the university and therefore to save the world. This is the great task, the historic task, the most needed task, the task required loud and clear by the Holy Spirit himself..."

[Annie Crawford]

A very important lecture given at the dedication of Wheaton's Billy Graham Center by UN President Charles Malik. A prophetic call for “the twofold miracle of evangelizing the great universities and intellectualizing the great Evangelical movement.”

[Garrett Cash]

This essay was recommended to me by Dr. William Lane Craig, of whom I have the God-given privilege to learn from every week at his Defender's class in Atlanta, GA.
He described this to me as being one of the most influential essays in Christian intellectualism, and I can easily see it's influence on many of the Christian culture books anyone can find easily nowadays.
The difference with this essay is that while it is intellectual it is also passionate, it makes no light issue of what it faces: The destruction of Western civilization through the decay of universities.
This is a must read for Christians concerned about the intellectual well-being of followers of Christ and how it affects the world around us.

[Ron]

Ambassador Charles Malik, former President of the United Nations, delivers a stern challenge to the evangelical community that the two tasks are evangelization and regaining a foothold in the academy with introductions by Duane Lifkin and Billy Graham. This is a publication of the Billy Graham Center. A strong statement for the support of university and college outreach and discipleship ministries.