By: Marc Andresen on February 17, 2017
For over a year we have been traveling Further Up and Further In. Our travels don’t take us deeper into the New Narnia as in The Chronicles, [1] but our further in has taken us deeper into the world of Global Leadership in cross-cultural environs.
By: Pablo Morales on February 17, 2017
In The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Stephen recently interviewed British comedian and TV producer Ricky Gervais to discuss his religious views. As an atheist, Ricky concludes, “You take any holy book or any fiction and destroy it. In a 1000 year time that wouldn’t come back the way it was but if you take…
By: Jason Kennedy on February 17, 2017
James K. A. Smith’s enlightening book, How Not to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor is a fascinating book. Smith’s aim is to synthesize the exhaustive work of Charles Taylors nine-hundred plus manuscript dealing with the secular age. Smith makes Taylor’s deep mind approachable. For Smith, Taylor is a cartographer of this present age or rather…
By: Phil Goldsberry on February 16, 2017
Introduction James Smith has a prophetic voice that captivated me from the first page of the Preface of his book, How Not to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor. I was the church planter from Terre Haute, Indiana, small-corn town USA that moved to the New York City Metro area out of a call in 1987. …
By: Aaron Cole on February 16, 2017
Summary: How (Not) To Be Secular Reading Charles Taylor by James K.A. Smith is a fascinating “cliff note” version of Charles Taylor’s classic: A Secular Age. In this concise book, Smith interrupts and unpacks Taylor’s ideology from key terms to consolidating Taylor’s concepts. In the preface, Smith defines Taylor’s book as a “different map”; “a…
By: Aaron Peterson on February 16, 2017
Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘love your neighbor who is no longer bothered by the “God question” as a question because they are disciples of “exclusive humanism” and who seek significance without…
By: Marc Andresen on February 16, 2017
The introductions, in and of themselves, were more than enough to stimulate reflective thinking. Charles Taylor, and James Smith as his interpreter, open to us a new way of looking at and regarding our society today, in their books (respectively) A Secular Age and How (Not) to Be Secular. Taylor gives his research question in…
By: Claire Appiah on February 16, 2017
James K. A. Smith –How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor Introduction James Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College where he holds the distinguished Gary and Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology and Worldview. He is the author of several noteworthy books. In these capacities he enlightens the church with…
By: Rose Anding on February 16, 2017
TO BE… by Charles Taylor, A Secular Age Introduction Does God really exist or is it just a mere childish belief in a supernatural existence? If there truly is a God who controls nature, why do many negative things happen while he keeps watch and does nothing? The answers to these questions…
By: Pablo Morales on February 10, 2017
In his first book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll lamented on the lack of cultivation of the mind that characterized much of evangelicalism. In his sequel, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, the author provides a theological framework that is meant to serve Christians in their intellectual pursuits. SUMMARY Using…
By: Jason Kennedy on February 10, 2017
One of my favorite family vacations every year is not on an island or a lake. No, my bliss is found in the mountains. Every year we load up our kids and go to Utah or Colorado for a bit of skiing. My oldest daughter, Clara, is a great little skier. In her young age…
By: Kevin Norwood on February 9, 2017
Most famous theologians have a book that they have written concerning Christology. What is Christology? Christology is Christian reflection, teaching, and doctrine concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Christology is the part of theology that is concerned with the nature and work of Jesus, including such matters as the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and his human and divine natures and their relationship.[1] Mark A Noll’s Christology…
By: Aaron Cole on February 9, 2017
Summary: Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind by Mark A. Noll is in essence a treatise on everything in our life and world can all be understood by knowing the person of Jesus. Noll goes to great lengths theologically and academically to not only present his view but to also prove it. He…
By: Phil Goldsberry on February 9, 2017
Introduction My religious roots as a child were in a classical Pentecostal tradition. It was balanced but narrow in scope, some of that due to the lack and exposure to the “life of the mind” as Mark Noll references it. It was not a literacy issue; it was an exposure and…
By: Aaron Peterson on February 9, 2017
Towards the end of his ministry on earth, Jesus turns and looks at his students and tells them that he, himself, is the way, the truth and the life. If you add to this declaration one part patristic creeds and one part a burning passion for study, you end up with Mark Noll’s book, Jesus…
By: Marc Andresen on February 9, 2017
From the the first pages of the Introduction to Jesus Christ and the life of the Mind, this book had a different and more positive tone than The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. The words, the topics, the stated goals are positive and are intended to encourage learning and thinking because of the realities of…
By: Garfield Harvey on February 9, 2017
In Noll’s book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994), he insisted Christians should pursue their beliefs on the biblical affirmation of creation. In other words, we should stand on our theological convictions, then explore and understand how creation should function under God. Such exploration would undoubtedly motivate Christians to pursue the role of science…
By: Claire Appiah on February 8, 2017
Mark Noll –Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind Introduction Mark Noll is a distinguished Reformed evangelical Christian acclaimed as one of the most influential evangelicals in America. He is a research professor at Regent College and a prolific author who has gained the respect of the academic community. Noll indicates he has only…
By: Rose Anding on February 8, 2017
“Gird up the loins of your mind …” (1 Peter 1:13 NKJV). You are probably thinking, What does that mean? It’s basically saying we need to get all the junk in our mind out of our way so we can keep running our race in Christ Jesus and have the victory God wants us…
By: Pablo Morales on February 4, 2017
In the book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, historian Mark Noll writes a lament about what he perceives to be the lack of cultivation of the mind in American evangelicalism. He writes as an insider, identifying himself as an Evangelical fundamentalist from the reformed tradition. Laments tend to have an emotional tone that focus…
