Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 249 pages
• Published by: NavPress Publishing Group July 1997
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1576830160
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1576830161
• Book Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 10.6 ounces

Product Description
PREPARE YOUR MIND FOR ACTION

The mind plays an important role in Christianity. Unfortunately, many of us leave our minds behind when it comes to our faith.

In Love Your God with All Your Mind, J.P. Moreland presents a logical case for the role of the mind in spiritual transformation. He challenges us to develop a Christian mind and to use our intellect to further God's kingdom through evangelism, apologetics, worship, and vocation.

"This exploration into the mind of evangelical Christianity is one of the most courageous books of our time. In language that is thoroughly erudite but compassionate, theological but practical, and scriptural but entirely relevant to today, the author presents the deeper significance of Paul's plea to the Christians at Phillipi: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.'" -D. James Kennedy, Ph.D., senior minister, coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

"This is more than just another Christian book. It is the wake-up call that the church requirements today. God gave us minds for a reason. It is crucial that we become like Christ in the way we think. If we heed J.P.'s words, we can counter the culture in which we live, work, think, and minister." -Josh McDowell, Josh McDowell Ministries

"J.P. Moreland exemplifies the Christian mind as it ought to be-tough and analytic, but also generous and caring. Christians who want to develop their minds in the service of Christ couldn't find a better teacher, or a better book for the task." -Phillip E. Johnson, author of Darwin on Trial

Publisher Description
An invaluable book aiding the concerned Christian in the battle for the Christian intellect, Love Your God With All Your Mind offers a no-holds-barred approach to fixing what's gone wrong in the Church. The author brilliantly identifies the reasons for the loss of the Christian intellect and how the Christian mind has been lost to the ever-growing popularity of anti-intellectualism.

Reader Reviews
Moreland does the Christian community a favor by writing this book, which could have easily been entitled, "Using Our Christian Mind in a World That Doesn't Want us to Think." Unfortunately, I have seen too many Christians pooh-pooh the concept of "loving God with all your mind" and instead focus on the "heart and soul." I just heard someone say, "The only thing that's important is loving Jesus." What does that mean? For her, it is pretty much forgetting anything intellectual. To reach her goal of worshipping Jesus, she apparently desires to continually sing worship choruses and read fluffy sections of the Bible every day. This is a dangerous trend in our evangelical Christian society today where, for many, nothing but good feelings matter. (And when you don't have "good feelings," does this mean God has stopped loving you? Or that you no longer love God? And how am I supposed to think of these things if my mind really doesn't matter? The problems with shutting down the mind are endless.) As Moreland points out, all aspects of our heart, soul, and mind play a role in the true worship of an all-holy God. He does a great job giving reasons why we need to make sharpening our intellect a priority. God has given us brains, so why should we not use them? At the same time, this does not put the mind at the top of our priorities and relegate everything else to a secondary status. I think Moreland tries really hard to show that he wants to avoid a Gnostic mentality. (I see some reviewers before me did not see this, but c'mon, give a break here. The entire premise of his book is stressing how the mind has taken a second-class status with too many Christians. What else was Moreland supposed to stress?) My only complaint is that the book does bog down in several areas. For instance, I don't think it was important in the heart of his book to take five pages and dedicate them to giving a "brief lesson in logic." I've studied logic, but I predict that these five pages would confuse the average layperson. Instead, he should have simplified such a section or else eliminated it and referred the reader to additional resource material. For this and several other "bogged down" areas, I might hesitate giving this book to someone who might be an "average" thinker, even though I might want to convince him that he needs to "love God with all his mind." The book's English is also choppy in several areas and could use a good revision. If we're trying to convince the Christian church, we need to realize that much of the population is currently feeding on sugar-coated eschatalogical "rapture" literature and other fictional nonsense. We don't need to scare them away from thinking--perhaps I'm off track, but I'd love to see a simpler book written for "Joe Christian" at 1st Baptist. Either that or revise this. Except for these minor complaints, I love this book. It proclaims 1 Peter 3:15-16 and says what I've been both thinking and preaching. Thus, every Christian, including church leaders and pastors (yes, even "senior" pastors!--see the last chapter), needs to study Moreland's challenge to the church.