Review - Think, John Piper

Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God

Author John Piper

IVP, £8.99

978-1-84474-488-6

This is more an insight into the American evangelical psyche than a book about thinking. There have been some notable other books addressing this topic over the past 50 years and indeed Piper helpfully lists some of the evangelical ones in contradistinction to his own. So his book is "less historical than Mark Noll's Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, less punchy than Os Guinness's Fit Bodies Fat Minds, less philosophical than J P Moreland's Love Your God with All Your Mind, less vocational than James Sire's Habits of the Mind and less cultural than Gene Veith's Loving God with All Your Mind."

So what is Piper's book 'more of' than these or say Harry Blamire's classic The Christian Mind? Well, much more of Scripture. And much more of the 18th century theologian Jonathan Edwards with nothing of Hooker, Lewis or Pinker. It was a disappointing read for me, rehearsing old arguments that still seem to preoccupy much of North American evangelicalism. I liked Anna Moyle’s comment in her Amazon review; “Piper has a tendency throughout the book to get caught up in stale agendas and arguments… He thus devotes two entire chapters to the subject of relativism, which could have been better used to write positively about the rise of scholarship within the Christian community in the past few decades.”

There is a chapter on the meaning of ‘thinking’ where Piper explains that his main understanding of it is “working hard with our minds to figure out meaning from texts.” There are chapters on rationality and three chapters combatting anti-intellectualism. And he concludes by commending a humble attitude to Christian knowledge that will result in love of God and Man. It is a triumph of the cataphatic over the apophatic; of statements of faith and two sentence positions on abortion, divorce and homosexuality; with little of the struggle of faith seeking understanding, of acknowledging our limited rational powers before the Divine Mind. There is scant room for mystery or bewilderment and consequently not much engagement with how to work alongside other Christians who also ‘think’ but who come to very different conclusions about so many things.

Piper writes well and although I suppose he does set out with an admittedly limited agenda, this probably made better sermon material than a book. My guess is that the people who will benefit most from reading this book are not reading this review.

Published in the Church Times on 4th November 2011

Be Prepared! (3rd before Advent)

“But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Cor 2.16

1896 was an interesting year. The first ‘modern’ Olympic Games were held in Athens. Blackpool pleasure beach was opened. Queen Victoria became the longest reigning monarch. The speed limit was raised from 4 to 14 mph.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward Benson, died suddenly in church in Wales. Now he, his six children and wife could be the subject of a whole series of sermons.

Here at St Paul’s, the statue of the Virgin and Child was added above the Chapel of St Luke.

And in America, Charles Sheldon, a Christian socialist, wrote a novel called ‘In His Steps’. It was subtitled, ‘What would Jesus Do?’ It was hugely popular and translated into 21 languages by 1935. As recently as 2010, there was a film, WWJD, based on the book.

I remember in the 1990 when the bracelets with WWJD on them began to appear in the theological college where I taught. Some of the more reformed students also wore the answer to the question – WWJD? – it was FROG – fully rely on God.

FROG bracelets, despite the name, never really took off.

And then came all the spoof badges and bracelets.

WWCD – what would Cliff do? That’s Cliff Richard. Or what would Arnie do? - if that was more of your take on life.

And now, in the thousands of headline pictures and comments on the St Paul’s Cathedral débâcle, there’s that poster again – What Would Jesus Do?

Of course, through the century or so that this challenging little aphorism has been used, it has generally been employed by those who already know the answer to what Jesus would do in this or that particular moral situation, and it tends to be what they would do.

Jesus is just dragged in as a way of re-enforcing some particular message and trying to make any of us who disagree with them feel guilty.

We don’t know what Jesus would do, although if the Gospels are anything to go by, he would probably do nothing that anyone was expecting him to do.

This takes us back to our text. How do we know the mind of Christ as St Paul asserts we do?

Well the first thing to notice is that it is ‘we’ have the mind of Christ. Not ‘I’ have the mind of Christ.

It is to do with the corporate accumulation of Judaeo Christian wisdom and experience, extoled in today’s reading from the Book of Wisdom.

We celebrated Richard Hooker in the church calendar last week, the great 16th century Anglican theologian who gave us the three legged stool model of wisdom.

So we approach situations with the Scriptures, the traditions of the church and our God-given gift of reasoning.

This is what St Paul did. It isn’t easy, and it leads to a degree of messiness and latitude, but it helps us to move forward and in some senses, know the mind of Christ.

Let’s turn to the bridesmaids in today’s Gospel (Matthew 25.1-13). I must avoid the classical parson’s rhetoric here, based on the Authorized Version of course: “will you stay awake with the wise virgins, or will you sleep with the foolish virgins?”

Although, unlike the incident of Jesus with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, this is not about staying awake. Both sets of women fall asleep.

Rather it is about being prepared when they awoke. (Luke's final phrase, 'keep awake' (25.13) can be translated 'be prepared'.)

Only the five wise bridesmaids had thought to bring extra oil in case the bridegroom was delayed for a long time.

Like most of Jesus’ parables, this one has a slightly puzzling edge to it.

There would be a good argument for the wise women being generous with the poor women who had not thought to bring extra fuel. They could share it out a little, and would it matter if one or two lamps eventually went out?

Although I’m generally against trying to work in too many levels of symbolism or allegory within a parable, it is unavoidable here.

The oil and the light that it produces, represent the accumulated experience and wisdom of life - the light that Jesus tells us we must not hide under a pot.

The women were wise, not because they brought extra oil, but rather, they brought extra oil because they were wise.

And this oil, this wisdom, this accumulated common sense of life, can’t be given to another in a ‘moment’ – poured into their empty vessel.

There are no quick and infallible ways of knowing what Jesus would do, knowing the mind of Christ.

In other words Jesus is saying, there is no way in which the foolish guests could be given insight into life by cadging wisdom from the wise. It is a lifetime’s work.

The early Christians expected the return of Jesus at any time – an Advent theme we will take up in coming weeks – but his return would be delayed till an indeterminate midnight.

So the constant encouragement to the disciples to be vigilant, to stay alert, to be prepared – was indicating a manner of living.

Live to make each day count – carpe diem – grasp the day.

The unexamined life is not worth living, as Plato observed.

So reflect on your life and experiences, in prayer, with other fellow travellers, through reading and conversation.

Then you will have oil and enough to keep your light burning and as you do that, then you will also be passing on your accumulated wisdom to family and friends, little by little, and to all the pilgrims you meet along the way.

Being ready for whatever life brings us, and in the end, being ready for death, is only achieved by a lifetime’s experience and wisdom.

What would Jesus do? We don’t know.

But together, as the Body of Christ, we have the mind of Christ, and we walk in faith, believing that the church is a presence for good in our world, despite its mistakes and weaknesses.

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.
Though we are many we are one body, because we all share in one bread.

And as we do that, day by day, we can trust that, with Paul, the saints and all our brothers and sisters,

“we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Cor 2.16