Love Your God With All Your Mind (Dr J.P. Moreland)

Love Your God With All Your Mind

(Dr J.P. Moreland)

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 256
Publisher: NAV Press
Publication Date: 1997
 ISBN: 1576830160
ISBN-13: 9781576830161

J.P. Moreland is concerned for the evangelical community. He feels that it is currently being held captive by a thoroughly modern understanding of Christianity which has diminished our ability to positively affect change in our culture. In other words, we are no longer salty, and cannot (do not) function as the salt of the earth. What does Jesus say about salt that has lost its flavor? It is good for nothing and must be thrown out (actually, Jesus, in his ever mild manner, says to throw it out and trample it underfoot).

Moreland argues that we need to recover true Christian intellect and rationality to once again become salt in this world.

Just what is it that makes us the salt of the earth? Moreland makes a convincing argument that our intellectual capabilities are a large part of that saltiness. The modern understanding of Christianity that has made us flavorless? A strong and deeply held conviction that Christianity is supposed to be anti-intellectual (supra-rational)? Thus, Moreland examines how pervasive anti-intellectualism was in Christianity during the twentieth century, and he argues that we need to recover true Christian intellect and rationality to once again become salt in this world.

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.

Moreland asks several very important questions regarding the relationship of intellect (mind) and faith. Those questions include: Why should the mind matter in Christianity? How can one develop a mature Christian mind? What does a mature Christian mind look like? How can we guarantee a future for the Christian mind? The answers are, obviously, well-thought out and well-reasoned. They are also informative, and the overall effect is a practical, rational book which teaches us to re-elevate reason to its proper status in the Christian life. After all, Jesus did summarize the law by telling us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.

Love Your God with all Your Mind offers an astute assessment of one of the evangelical Church’s biggest problems, anti-intellectualism. This book challenges its readers to conscientiously promote intellectualism, both individually and corporately.

About the author:

J. P. Moreland, Ph.D., (University of Southern California) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in La Mirada, California. He also serves as director of Eidos Christian Center. He has written, edited or contributed to twenty books with publishers ranging from Oxford University Press, Routledge, Wadsworth and Prometheus Books to Zondervan and InterVarsity Press. Among his books are Christianity and the Nature of Science, Does God Exist? (with Kai Nielsen) and Philosophical Naturalism: A Critical Analysis. He has also written helpful apologetic books for thinking people which include Body & Soul, Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview, The Creation Hypothesis, Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult, The God Conversation and To Everyone an Answer. Most recently he has authored The Lost Virtue of Happiness and In Search of a Confident Faith with Klaus Issler.