Your Mind Matters Before he died in 1970, perhaps Christianity’s leading 20th century critic, philosopher Bertrand Russell made the cutting remark, ‘Most Christians would rather die than think—in fact they do.’ It’s the type of barb we’d expect from a man like Russell. But sharp critiques challenging evangelical anti-intellectualism were also coming from closer quarters at the same time. In 1963 Henry Blamire wrote a book simply entitled, The Christian Mind, in which he wrote, ‘There is no longer a Christian Mind….The Christian Mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness unmatched in Christian history.’ His remark is so remarkable that it warrants some reflection. Essentially, Blamire was looking back over the course of nearly 2,000 years of church history, including the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ and long centuries in which illiteracy and superstition reigned, and looked around at the evangelical sub-culture a generation ago and said, ‘Christians have never since the time of Christ so poorly engaged their brains.’ It was a stinging indictment that I fear has only gotten worse in the intervening four decades. Thankfully, one of the clearest Christian thinkers of the last century, John Stott, knew that unless we get it right in our heads, our hearts (convictions) and hands (actions) will also drift toward godless ways. As pastor of a bustling London congregation and university evangelist, Stott was convinced that if Christians are taught to think deeply and biblically, then their own Christian beliefs would remain steady in the storms of criticism and the stage would be set for a more hardy evangelism to a thinking world. The product of his passion, which can sharpen our own thoughtful analysis and engagement with the world around us today, is the little book called Your Mind Matters. Stott’s short treatise (just 47 pages long) is broken down into four parts. Part One puts our finger on the pulse of the modern evangelical world at large through its title, “Keen but clueless.” Citing Romans 10:2 he compares our church age with the first century Jews who possessed ‘zeal without knowledge.’ We are an age of energetic do-ers, but how many of our zealous deeds flow from thoughtful, biblical reflection? Writes Stott, ‘The modern world [and church] breeds pragmatists, whose first question about any idea is not “Is it true?” but “Does it work?”’ The only works which God commends are those first thought-through and found to be biblically true. We must learn to think first and act second. In Part Two Stott goes on to answer the question, “Why use our minds?” Because, unlike the rest of the animal world, we were uniquely created by God to be thinking beings first. On top of that biblical Christianity is a uniquely thoughtful worldview. In the Bible the gospel is always appealed to the mind first, then the emotions and will. Therefore, of all people in the world, Christians should be those most concerned with training themselves to think and think well. Thirdly, John Stott addresses us as Christian worshippers. He writes, ‘All Christian worship...should be an intelligent response to God’s self-revelation in his words and works recorded in Scripture.’ Worship is not being emotionally carried away by great praise music. Biblical worship is thoughtfully responding to all of life from a perspective which holds God at the very center. So, what good is all this thinking if it’s not translated into holy action? Good question! The book’s final section is called, “Acting on our knowledge.” Systematically Stott walks us through how godly thinking logically leads to active worship, faith, holiness and love. He sums up the matter well: ‘If we do not use the mind which God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality….At the same time, knowledge is given us to be used, to lead us to higher worship, greater faith, deeper holiness, better service. What we need is not less knowledge but more knowledge, so long as we act upon it.’ Your Mind Matters by John R.W. Stott, InterVarsity Press
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