Our intellectual context is very complicated. There are competing pedagogues, divergent epistemological agendas, and flawed participants. The mind is a war zone.
The Old Testament depicts a battlefield between the sinful mind and God’s revelation.
Today, many Christians minimize the intellect and do not recognize how sin impacts thinking. Many do not know how to love God with the mind. Many suffer from anti-intellectual inertia. They think like consumers shopping for knowledge, learning formats, and instructors that conform to their buying preferences. They prefer junk food for their minds. They often fulfill the role assigned to them by the world—intellectual simplicity, private religiosity, and subjective spirituality.
By comprehensively examining Old Testament teaching concerning the mind, this book promotes a spirituality that puts thinking in its proper place. It explains what God requires intellectually of his vice-regents. It shows that our world is a labyrinth, but that God’s revelation is our reliable guide. This book motivates readers to strive for mental piety, wisdom, and intellectual development, for the glory of God and the fulfillment of our mandate on earth. Readers will learn from their ancient brethren how to better steward their minds.
Talk about a thought-provoking and challenging study!
From the get-go I was overwhelmed with how deep of a dive this book gets into the Old Testament. It is so comprehensive that it’s overwhelming when you try to read through it. This is not something that you can skim your way through, but instead it takes time. With study time and meditation, this becomes an invaluable resource.
I appreciate how the author gives a brief summary of what the chapter is going to entail, as well as giving verses ahead of time so that I could go to God’s Word and read what the Bible says before digging into the author’s commentary. This alone is huge to me as most books dive right in with their observations, but the author lets God’s Word speak to him instead of the other way around. Seeing Genesis 1 through a different lens was awakening, again solidifying the fact that God always has a purpose, even if we don’t see it.
This is so incredibly immersive and comprehensive that it’s a tad overwhelming for a simpleton like myself, but don’t let that deter you. Theology is a tough study for me but one that I know is so important for all of us, and I am so thankful that I now have this invaluable resource to help me navigate the deep waters.
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