Many people, it appears, believe that anyone who approaches scripture with academic tools can t be a person who approaches an altar with an open prayer book. One was biblical scholarship and the other was faith and piety. They looked at first one gift, and then the other, and wondered if they could actually be used in the same spiritual enterprise. When people discuss their faith, they can be strident. It is one thing to write this off to ignorance, or lack of sophistication, but I think such dismissive behavior does no good.
People become strident about their religious views because they are talking about life and death.
Twenty-five years of pastoral experience has taught me that some of these folks have found that a deep, personal, absolute faith in Jesus is the only thing that brings order to lives afflicted with chaos and pathology. Naturally, they get testy if they sense that someone is undermining their faith. But there were also many people who had obviously studied religion and knew something about contemporary biblical scholarship, archaeology, and biblical history. One or two of them, in particular, made suggestions about where others might go to find answers to questions or useful approaches to theological issues. It was intriguing to watch people helping each other in these ways.