Tuesday, May 1, 2012
My Review of THINK CHRISTIANLY by Jonathan Morrow
Photo Credit: Zondervan
THINK CHRISTIANLY is a fresh perspective on the church’s call to engage the culture and carry the gospel into all the places where redemption is desperately needed. For many Christians faith is relegated to a Sunday morning activity, and many aren’t sure about how to integrate their faith into all the rest of their everyday lives. A ready example is the seeming war between faith in science. Christians often don’t know what to do with what science has discovered and the implications of those findings for faith in a Creator God. Blind faith or complete abandonment are the common solutions Christians turn to when confronted with this problem, but in THINK CHRISTIANLY, author Jonathan Morrow makes a compelling and vitally important case for cultivating a thoughtful faith that reveals itself in radical love. As the book points out, the early church didn’t have faith in Jesus in the absence of evidence; their faith was supported by a vast amount of evidence.
THINK CHRISTIANLY is a call for believers to engage with culture. Morrow points out that the Bible’s first “great commission” was something often called the cultural mandate. Humanity was designed to create culture, and believers have the story of the world encoded in their gospel-driven DNA, so they are especially charged to create culture that brings glory to God and draws the hearts of people toward him.
Morrow points out that churches are called by God to equip the next generation to be able to make a case for what they believe. I love how he encourages churches to face heavy issues head-on because believers should be hearing about these things in church first so they can be prepared for how to deal with it.
Morrow quotes Dallas Willard liberally, which I loved because Willard is one of my favorite authors. I really enjoyed the discussion on what constitutes knowledge. The section on spiritual formation is especially helpful because Christians are to live differently and experience transformation from following Jesus.
The book, after laying down the foundation for engaging culture as believers, explores several specific areas where believers need to engage. Topics such as sex, homosexuality, politics, bioethics, and media are discussed. Each chapter is valuably supplemented by interviews by some of the greatest minds in Christianity.
THINK CHRISTIANLY is easily one of the most important books I’ve ever read. Jonathan Morrow has done an incredible job of challenging churches to be creators of redemptive culture in the world. I can’t wait to put some of the ideas of this book into practice. Every Christian should read this and let it inform their spiritual journey.
I received this book for free for review from Zondervan, and the opinions expressed in this review are completely my own
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