A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
History demonstrates that wherever the cross is planted, the academy follows. But history alone cannot demonstrate why this is―and must be―the case. Green engages theology and philosophy to prove that the Christian vision of God, mankind, and the world provides the necessary precondition for an enduring foundation of meaningful intellectual life.
The Gospel and the Mind, deeply rooted in Augustinian and Reformed thought, shows that core principles of the West’s Christian inheritance―such as creation and the importance of history, the centrality of a telos to all things, and the logos and the value of words―form the matrix of any promising and sustainable intellectual life.
More than a lament of the state of the evangelical mind or even an argument for the primacy of a Christian worldview, The Gospel and the Mind is a paradigm-shifting declaration that the life of the mind starts at the cross.
Quote & Unquote
- “I had discovered that the gospel is first and foremost a set of historical events that occurred outside of me and for me.” (11)
- “…the Christian vision of things offers a particular understanding and construal of the life of the mind.” (14)
- “A sustainable and meaningful life of the mind will prosper and grow only in soil nurtured by such a Christian vision.” (24)
- “The history of modern thought, on the whole, is a history of skepticism, misplaced optimism, and intellectual dead ends.” (58)
- “One of the Christian faith’s great insights is that nothing lies outside the good and providential workings of God.” (93)
- “As we engage in the intellectual task, we must seek to take all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.” (99)
- “God himself is a speaking and communicating God.” (125)
- “To justify any sort of affirmation of the meaningfulness of language, we need to affirm that we really do live in God’s created world.” (132)