Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God
Overview
We often pit thinking and feeling against each other, especially when it comes to the Christian experience. Glorifying God with our minds and hearts, however, is not either-or, but both-and. Focusing on the life of the mind will enable you to know God better, love him more, and care for the world. This book will help you think about thinking, and about how the heart and mind glorify God together.
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- Combines mind, heart, and faith passionately
- Encourages humble thinking that leads to the true knowledge of God
- Pleas to embrace serious thinking as a means of loving God and people
Clarifying the Aim of the Book
- My Pilgrimage
- Deep Help from a Dead Friend
Clarifying the Meaning of Thinking
- Reading as Thinking
Coming to Faith through Thinking
- Mental Adultery Is No Escape
- Rational Gospel, Spiritual Light
Clarifying the Meaning of Loving God
- Love for God: Treasuring God with All Your Mind
Facing the Challenge of Relativism
- Jesus Meets the Relativists
- The Immorality of Relativism
Facing the Challenge of Anti-intellectualism
- Unhelpful Anti-intellectual Impulses in Our History
- You Have Hidden These Things from the Wise and Understanding
- In the Wisdom of God, the World Did Not Know God through Wisdom
Finding a Humble Way of Knowing
- The Knowledge That Loves
- All Scholarship Is for the Love of God and Man
Encouraging Thinkers and Non-thinkers
- Conclusion: A Final Plea
Top Highlights
“Therefore, the main reason God has given us minds is that we might seek out and find all the reasons that exist for treasuring him in all things and above all things.” (Page 15)
“This book is a plea to embrace serious thinking as a means of loving God and people.” (Page 15)
“The ultimate goal of life is that God be displayed as glorious because of all that he is and all that he has made and done—especially the grace he has shown in the work of Christ. The way we glorify him is by knowing him truly, by treasuring him above all things, and by living in a way that shows he is our supreme treasure.” (Page 15)
“And, while it is true that mind and heart are mutually enlivening,8 it is also clear that the mind is mainly the servant of the heart. That is, the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires of the heart. The apex of glorifying God is enjoying him with the heart. But this is an empty emotionalism where that joy is not awakened and sustained by true views of God for who he really is. That is mainly what the mind is for.” (Pages 36–37)
“There comes a point when we choose to be intentional about our thinking, so that we grow in what we see and understand. If we don’t choose to think harder, we will settle for an adolescent level of understanding the rest of our lives.” (Page 48)
Thinking—the alert, meticulous, probing, logical, critical use of the mind—will be a highway either to godliness or to its opposite, depending on how it is done. Taking leads from Jonathan Edwards, John Piper surefootedly plots the true path here. His book should be, and I hope will be, widely read.
J. I. Packer, Late Board of Governors' Professor of Theology, Regent College
An essential dimension of Christian discipleship is the life of the mind, and this may well be the most neglected Christian responsibility of our times. God has made us intelligible creatures, and he has given us the stewardship of intellectual faculties that should drive us to think in ways that bring him greatest glory. In this new book, John Piper provides brilliant analysis, warm encouragement, and a faithful model of Christian thinking. This book is a primer for Christian thinking that is urgently needed in our time.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., President and Centennial Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Do you ever wish you could feel more deeply about things you know are true? Has it been a while since you were moved to tears at the thought of Christ’s death for your sins? It’s not mysterious: those who feel deeply about the gospel are those who think deeply about the gospel. In these pages John Piper will convince you that thinking is the sturdy foundation for our easily misguided affections. If you want to feel profoundly, learn to think carefully. And start by reading this book!
C. J. Mahaney, Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville
- Title: Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God
- Authors: John Piper, Mark Noll
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Pages: 222
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Thought and thinking › Religious aspects--Christianity; Learning and scholarship › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9781433520747, 9781433520716, 9781433520723, 9781433520730, 1433520745, 1433520710, 1433520729, 1433520737
- Resource ID: LLS:9781433520747
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T05:07:55Z