Posted by Melissa Travis in Apologetics, Reviews | 1 Comment
Getting Out of Intellectual Neutral: A Review of J.P. Moreland’s Love Your God With All Your Mind
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” Matthew 5:13
In Love Your God With All Your Mind, J.P. Moreland sets forth the thesis that the extraordinarily diminished effort to cultivate the Christian mind has resulted in the marginalization of Christianity in society and a shallow faith becoming characteristic of today’s church. Whether because of apathy, intimidation, or something else altogether, many evangelical Christians devote very little of their time to intellectual development, and as a result do not have the ability to reason effectively, think critically, articulately defend their faith, or integrate their beliefs with other facets of their lives. In essence, many are not fulfilling the Biblical mandate of Matthew 22:37, to love the Lord God with all their minds.
This is not a problem that ends with the disobedience of the individual believer. The ramifications of anti-intellectualism are dire and far-reaching. The church is quickly becoming culturally irrelevant; it has become incompetent in the debate about worldview issues because of sheer lack of knowledge and apologetic training. It is no wonder that our society has fallen into such an amoral, relativistic state. The church has allowed it, and our Great Commission, evangelism, is becoming magnitudes more challenging and decreasingly prosperous. Christians are often perceived as being under-educated, superstitious, and prejudiced; this has a significant effect on how seriously we are taken when speaking about our faith to unbelievers, especially those who are highly educated in the secular sciences and humanities.
After a thoughtful overview of the deplorable state of Christian intellectualism and how this is affecting the various facets of our culture, Moreland elaborates on the solution: development of strong Christian minds within the body of Christ. He identifies the major areas in which intellectual development is essential: evangelism, apologetic reasoning, worship, fellowship, and vocational knowledge. The ultimate benefit is a full integration of our spiritual, intellectual, and vocational lives in such a way that we know God more, show God more, and offer a mature, respectable Christian voice in our overly-secularized society.
As Christians on a quest for holiness, for godliness, we must remember that God is a reasonable, rational being. As His image-bearers, we should seek to obey and glorify Him by strengthening our skills of reason and critical thinking as we endeavor to grow and use our minds to know Him and to competently serve Him in every aspect of life. It is with well-developed faculties that we correctly understand God’s truths as revealed in his general and special revelation, and are equipped with a Christian worldview that can be ubiquitously applied to our lives, most especially our chosen career. Furthermore, as we seek intellectual excellence in the extra-biblical knowledge required in our work, we become an articulate voice in the marketplace of ideas. As such, we gain an outlet by which to exert Christian influence on our culture in a manner that honors God and furthers His kingdom.
Love Your God With All Your Mind is essential reading for Christians, most especially church leadership. If the church is to recover from its unfortunate decline into anti-intellectualism, there is hard work to be done. We must reach beyond the comfortable, emotional side of our faith and do the hard work required for mind development. After all, we are called to present ourselves as well-equipped, holy vessels that can be used by God for the benefit of the Kingdom. This mandates a permanent shift out of intellectual neutral.
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When I was a christian, I felt the same way as Moreland. It bugged me to see so many people who just didn’t care to think deeply about intellectual things and how their faith fit into that. So me trying to teach apologetics was a way to help that problem. I would agree that the church is suffering from an anti-intellectualism which tends to lessen its credibility.