Love Your God With All Your Mind
by J.P. Moreland

• Title: Love Your God With All Your Mind:The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul
• Publish Date: 6/1/1997
• Discount: 32%
• Publisher: NavPress
• Audience: Beginner
• Kingdom Categories: Life of the Mind, Spiritual Formation

Love Your God With All Your Mind continues to be one of my bestselling books. It came out just a few years after Christian historian, Mark Noll, wrote his infamous book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Eerdmans, 1994), where he opened with these words: “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind” (3). Indeed, that was not too far from the mark at that time. Noll provided a historical-cultural treatment of the problem. Others have approached it differently. In some sense, my book tries to reckon with that “scandal,” but insofar as that scandal is among individuals and not merely cultural or historical phenomena, I think it is a scandal related to inadequately integrating and cultivating “the role of reason in the life of the soul,” which my subtitle suggests. In other words, the “scandal of the Evangelical mind” is a problem related to discipleship.

My book was part of a newly developed “Spiritual Formation Line” of books with NavPress. Dallas Willard, my dear friend and mentor, was the General Editor of the series and I was blessed to have him also write the General Introduction to the book. In my acknowledgments I said, “My prayer is that this book will contribute to restoration of the church’s intellectual life because it is the church that is the pillar and support of the truth.” I believed that then and I certainly believe that now. Jesus’ church, His Bride, is the chief steward and stakeholder of the “Christian mind.” As disciples of Jesus we have the resources to discipline the mind under the direction of God and His kingdom.

Thus, in four basic parts, I try to show how and why the mind matters to Christianity, how to develop a mature Christian mind, what such a mind looks like, and how we can guarantee a future for the Christian mind in our churches throughout the world.

In chapter 1, I provide a snapshot – which Noll describes in great detail – “how we lost the Christian mind and why we must recover it.” Short answer: We lost it because we permitted “faith” to be discussed and thought of as a concern independent of knowledge. Not accidentally, that orientation coupled with an emphasis on faith as merely a personal and private matter, helped spawn anti-intellectual currents in our midst. A disasters move especially in the wake of a growing, advantageous secular culture! Our default posture: withdraw and retreat. Net result: Christianity is marginalized from centers of social-cultural and institutional power.

Chapter 2 and 3 are essential discussion about how to think biblically about the life of the mind and its role in spiritual transformation. My experience has been that a decent amount of people understand that the mind, reason or knowledge is at least talked about in scripture; they may then reason that this has value because the Bible shows it to be valuable. But more often than not, I’ve found that people don’t know what to do with such facts in light of human maturation and spiritual transformation. That’s why in many ways my chapter 3 is the heart of my book’s thesis. We can know the mind’s role in spiritual transformation in light of the structure of the soul, how the mind relates to belief-formation, how it sees, and how it relates to willing, feeling, and desiring.

Chapter 4 and 5, which constitute part two of the book, are all about how to grow the mind, how to mature it and squarely deal with its “hobgoblins” and “cobwebs,” or as I so describe. I encourage readers to note and address the problem of the infantile, “empty self,” pride, and being controlling. I go on to say that if a mind is to be formed by virtue it must learn to cultivate wisdom and honesty, humility, faith and hope, vigilance and fortitude, and fidelity to God and His cause in this world. To help clear the “mental cobwebs,” my chapter 5 does helpfully provide a brief sketch of principles of logic and argumentation and an overview of various formal and informal logical fallacies.

Chapter 6, 7, 8 and 9, provide a powerful, coherent, and an encouraging vision for what a mature Christian mind can look like when cultivated with evangelism, apologetics, worship and fellowship, and the integration of the Christian worldview with vocation. All of these areas need a robust Christian mind to ensure their fruitfulness. Ignorance or raw feelings and passions won’t be sufficient. On the other hand, the Christian mind needs all of these areas in order for it to become mature, whole, and in touch with a bigger cause than merely “living in our heads.” For evangelism and apologetics, worship and fellowship, and living in light of our vocation/calling are all indispensible means for getting us out of our heads and thereby refusing to settle for mere intellectual ascent as success in Christian mind formation.

Chapter 10, which is also the fourth of the book, offers a vision for “recapturing the intellectual life in the church.” This is a necessary call for any generation of Christians. In many ways, it helps to capture the heartbeat behind my own writings, and it certainly reflects a core motivation in my own life. I think a handsome compliment to this chapter is also Dallas Willard’s final chapter, “Pastors as Teachers of the Nations,” in his wonderfully inspiring book, Knowing Christ Today (HarperOne, 2009). In this chapter I try to offer very practical, clear, and helpful recommendations for how the church can be strengthen in her leadership, organization, practice, and mission.

Ten years after Love Your God With All Your Mind was published, my book, Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul and Restore the Spirit’s Power (Zondervan, 1997) was released. In some sense, I think these two books are like demarcations in my book writing history or perhaps even book ends that start and continue different phases of emphasis in my writing on Christianity and contemporary life. Clearly, the former was pregnant with offspring for the latter and the latter seems to complete the former, but not in the sense of finish; perhaps extends it and helps it reach more of its own goal.

I am pleased to announce that probably come 2012 or 2013 NavPress will be releasing a revised and updated edition of Love Your God with All Your Mind. Stay tuned!

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