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99 pages

English

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In exploring Christian discipleship, Alister McGrath encourages readers to move beyond a superficial grasp of their faith to discover its depth and riches. He equips readers to grow in wisdom and develop an accurate Christian worldview that informs the way they think, imagine, and act. Helpfully drawing on the insights of other illuminating writers, including Dorothy L. Sayers, C. S. Lewis, John Stott, and J. I. Packer, McGrath offers counsel on holding on to hope while journeying through darkness and on how to live meaningfully in a world in which things don't always seem to make sense.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 janvier 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493417513
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0490€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2018 by Alister McGrath
Originally published by Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Published in North America by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1751-3
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotation labeled Good News is from the Good News Translation—Second Edition. Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotation labeled The Message is from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Dedication
To Regent College, Vancouver
Contents
Cover i
Half Title Page ii
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Introduction ix
Part 1: The Discipleship of the Mind: Five Reflections 1
1. The Lord Is My Light: On the Discipleship of the Mind 3
2. Belief: The Place of the Creeds in the Life of Faith 19
3. Habits of the Christian Mind: The Community of Faith and Personal Growth 35
4. Books and the Discipleship of the Mind 47
5. The Balcony and the Road: A Framework for Understanding Christian Discipleship 61
Part 2: Growing in Wisdom: Four Practitioners 71
6. The Creative Mind: Dorothy L. Sayers on Making Sense of Our World 73
7. C. S. Lewis on the Reasonableness of the Christian Faith 85
8. Listening and Engaging: John Stott on the Gospel and Our Culture 99
9. J. I. Packer on Theology and Spirituality 111
Part 3: Journeying in Hope: Four Sermons 121
10. Truth, Mystery, and Darkness: On the Limits of Human Understanding 123
11. Intelligibility and Coherence: The Christian Vision of Reality 131
12. Hope in the Darkness 139
13. The Hope of Heaven 143
Notes 147
Back Ad 161
Back Cover 162
Introduction
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
Edward O. Wilson 1
T his short book deals with the theme of Christian discipleship—the quest to go beyond a superficial grasp of our faith, discover its depths and riches, and be refreshed and transformed by them. “Discipleship” is not a biblical term; it is, however, most certainly a biblical theme. It is about a conscious and committed decision to be followers of Jesus Christ in every way possible, including the way we think, love, and act. It is about growing in our faith, as we quest for wisdom rather than the mere accumulation of information about Christianity. Discipleship is rooted in a secure, reflective, and deepening grasp of the Christian gospel. This kind of wisdom goes far beyond a simple (and often superficial) knowledge of basic Christian ideas. It arises from a deep and prolonged personal reflection on the Christian faith over an extended period of time, informing both thought and action.
This quest for Christian wisdom lies at the heart of a “discipleship of the mind”—an acquired habit of understanding and imagining ourselves and our world that is firmly rooted in the Christian gospel. It allows us to see things as they really are, stripping away illusions and misunderstandings. It also helps us with what the American philosopher John Dewey called the “deepest problem of modern life”—that we have failed to integrate our “thoughts about the world” with our thoughts about “value and purpose.” 2 We don’t just want to know how things work ; we want to know what they mean .
Yet the discipleship of the mind does not take the form of an immediate illumination of our minds, as if there is some dramatic moment of clarification through which we suddenly find ourselves in possession of full answers to all of life’s questions. Rather, it is a process of gradual growth in wisdom, paralleling an athlete’s training regime, through which we absorb and assimilate the Christian vision of reality and allow it to percolate through our minds and inform the way in which we think, imagine, and act. Happily, other people can help us do this—especially those who have thought about this over many years. This is one reason why engaging with writers who are thought to be wise—such as the four figures considered in the second part of this work—can be so helpful.
As in my earlier work Mere Theology (2010), 3 I engage regularly and appreciatively with C. S. Lewis, now widely regarded as one of the most significant Christian writers of the twentieth century. 4 I draw on Lewis in two ways. First, I endorse Lewis’s notion of a generous consensual Christian orthodoxy, famously set out in his classic work Mere Christianity (1952). This emphasizes the core ideas that Christians share in common, without advocating any specific denominational agenda. Christian discipleship transcends denominational boundaries, even though it can be enriched by the spiritual traditions of individual denominations.
Second, I frequently use Lewis himself as a point of reference in this work, not least on account of his idea of Christianity as offering a “big picture” of reality, which helps us to see ourselves and our world in a new way. This basic theme is expressed with particular clarity in an image used by Lewis in the concluding sentence of his landmark lecture “Is Theology Poetry?” (1945), which is explicitly referenced at three points in this work and implicitly assumed at many others: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” 5 For Lewis, the “big picture” that lies at the heart of the Christian faith allows us to discern the patterns of meaning and value that lie behind and beneath our observations. Discipleship is about grasping this picture and living meaningfully within its frame.
Each of the thirteen chapters gathered together in this collection addresses aspects of the theme of discipleship. Some had their origins as sermons, some as informal talks, and some as major public presentations over the period 2010–17. I have edited these lectures and presentations to reduce their size, achieve consistency of style, and sharpen their focus.
The work is divided into three parts. The first consists of five substantial chapters introducing the discipleship of the mind, developing the general theme of what I like to call the “reflective inhabitation” of the Christian faith. To be a Christian is not to passively accept a set of intellectual beliefs, but to take delight in them and explore their implications for the ways in which we think and behave. As the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset observed, we exist within a world that is shaped and nourished by beliefs, 6 which in turn shape our mental and spiritual life. These beliefs shape our vision of reality: “In them we live, move, and exist.” 7 They concern what really matters and the difference that this makes to the business of life.
Ludwig Wittgenstein made a similar point, suggesting that religious belief is about “passionately taking up” an interpretation of the world, so that it is not simply a way of thinking but “a way of living.” 8 Good theology is thus about fostering authentic and meaningful living, not simply right thinking. And for Christians, that life of faith is supported and nourished by the community of faith—by the church. 9
Christians stand within and belong to a community of reflection and proclamation, deeply rooted in the past yet able and willing to engage the issues of the present. We gain insights and wisdom from those who have journeyed in faith before us, as well as those who are now journeying alongside us on the road. These five chapters open up and explore some important themes, such as how the creeds help us deepen our faith, the role of the church in encouraging discipleship, and the place of books and mentors in our personal growth.
The second part of this work is more focused, looking at four leading recent exemplars of a discipleship of the mind—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), John Stott (1921–2011), and J. I. Packer (born 1926). These chapters were originally public lectures. These four writers have developed their own distinct modes of reflective inhabitation of the Christian faith from which there is much to be learned. These are only four of the writers who have become my fellow wayfarers on the road of faith. It goes without saying that many others—such as Marilynne Robinson—could easily have been included. I have highlighted some points made by these four that I personally find both wise and illuminating. Most of us end up adopting a group of writers as our trusted friends—not because we agree with them on everything, but because we find them to be thoughtful, engaging, and helpful. Even when we disagree with them on some things, we find others that they help us find new insights into.
Finally, the third part of this work brings together four sermons touching on the discipleship of the mind, focusing on how we cope with journeying in hope through darkness. The elusive word “hope” has been the subject of immense interest in recent years. Dozens of theories and definitions have been put forward about what the word means, and the difference that hope makes to human life. 10