Book: Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (John Piper)
Publisher: Crossway (2010)
Review by: Mark Dodd
Thinking and feeling have been pitted against each other throughout the centuries as mortal enemies. If not enemies, they have certainly been presented as two things that must be balanced against one another. Too much thought, it seems, makes a cold and distant person. Too much feeling, on the other hand, makes people unreliable and unstable.
How can it be, then, that this book is entitled Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God ?
The life of the mind (thought), and the love of God (feeling). It is said as if they are working together, for the same goal…and this is exactly the argument that John Piper makes in his latest book.
He recognizes the ways that thought and emotion have been pitted against one another, and why this has happened, yet attempts to show how they are meant to be used in service to one another. In the first page of his introduction, he states, “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.” This is the main idea behind this book: that the use of our minds in God’s service will cause us to treasure him more, to love him more, and to feel more strongly about him.
Piper challenges his readers to think hard about God, to work at understanding the scriptures, and to hone their logical skills. But he does not do this simply so that we would be good thinkers. Piper sees thinking as a gift that has been given to us by God, and for God, not as an end in itself. He says, “It’s about using the means God has given us to know him, love him, and serve people. Thinking is one of those means” (Piper 17).
What a breath of fresh air! This is a much needed read for the contemporary church. The idea that hard work and deep thought could actually help us to be people who feel more deeply about God, and care more for people, is one that seems paradoxical, but is so fruitful. If you have ever tread the path of cold intellectualism, I recommend this book to you. Likewise, if you have ever found your emotions to be founded on too little fact, please purchase this book.
But this book is not only about thought versus feeling. It also dives into timely debates over the importance of truth, and the danger of relativism, what it actually means to think, the importance of reading in the process of thinking, the grace of God in and through the process of thinking, and the importance of humility in the face of an objective truth.
If there is one thing that I have gleaned from Think, it is that God is real, and nothing I think can ever change one thing about Him. It is made very clear that thought is not for the purpose of self service, but rather, it is given to us so that we might know God truly, and love Him better.
I pray that you would read this book, that you would think hard, and that it would drive you to a deeper and more desperate love for God as He is found in the holy scriptures.
2 Comments on "Book Review: Think"
this book sounds RAD!!! i think a lot of ppl use thought as a high horse to parade around in verses a means to love people and love God.
Gotta love JP. Thanks for the review.