The inspiration of my life, and thought (#campusministry #dminlgp)
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark A. Noll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Noll adresses Evangelicalism's "scandal": The absence of deep thinking and the engagement of the arts and sciences from a Christian theological perspective.
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Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind by Mark A. Noll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great book. Refreshing to see someone focusing on the life of Jesus and the relevance he has for the mind and theology.
View these reviews, and all of my reviews here
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I just spent the past couple of weeks reading two books by Mark A. Noll. Though separated by 17 years, they both address the topic of the place of the mind in Evangelicalism. Noll's latter book encourages Evangelicals to not only allow Christology to shape how they engage the world, but to also allow Christology to inspire deep thinking in the arts and sciences.
Noll includes in Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind a quote from J.I. Packer's, The Bible in Use. Packer says,
The Bible has been given to us, not to define for us the realities of the created order, nor to restrain our interests in them, but to enable us to diagnose, understand, appreciate, and handle them as we meet them, so that we may use and enjoy them to the Creator's praise. (loc.1438)
Noll then adds,
For a truly biblical view of the Bible, it is important not to treat the Bible as a storehouse of information sufficient in itself for all things, but to embrace, rather, the Bible's own perspective that leads its readers to a God-ordained openness to all things.
What is it that Noll (and Packer) are saying? We must be careful to interpret this correctly, because it is extremely important.
I hear them both encouraging us to not view Scripture as a textbook for understanding the arts and sciences, but as a textbook for understanding the nature of the Creator, and to allow that understanding to inspire us to think deeply on the marvels of Creation.
I think this is an important disctinction. We approach God's Word to come to know the character of God, and to be utterly transformed into that same quality of character. We then walk in this world, illuminating it through our understanding of the Creator, applying what we know about God to our own contexts.
Neither Packer, nor Noll, are giving us permission to be OF the world, but they are encouraging us to be at work for the purpose of living out the Truth of God IN the world.
As campus ministers, our task is two-fold.
We are, firstly, to help students develop true godly character by teaching them to pursue it through study of Scripture. [Of course, there is more to spiritual formation than the study of Scripture, but this is certainly a key element.]
But, the second task, application, is also extremely important, and perhaps often neglected. We are to teach them to actively engage the Created Order, as Christ would, freeing them to "understand, diagnose, appreciate, and handle" (Packer's words) their world through the power of the Spirit at work in them. We should be encouraging them to pursue the arts and sciences from a deeply reflective theological perspective. [I recommend Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth (chapter 3) for an excellent discussion on the historical background of the separation of the Christian mind from the arts and sciences.]
Jesus, the Wisdom of God, the One who was with God in the Beginning, is certainly capable of guiding us through our engagement of the arts and sciences. As the inspiration of my life, and thought, he has freed me to embrace learning--enjoying my discoveries to the Creator's praise.
Posterous_api Comments (2)
Bill, What I understand you to be saying is that by coming to know the "character of God" we will experience and then reflect the "truth of God." Is that accurate?
That's right, Mike. And "knowing" God is much more than head knowledge...it is more about understanding, and wanting to model, the character of God.
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