The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

One of the primary cultural criticisms of Christianity over the past century has been its aura of anti-intellectualism--a preference of blind faith over a reasoned belief in God. In recent years, however, many brilliant theologians have given the lie to this mischaracterization of the Church, showing that faith and reason are far from incompatible.

Alister McGrath's The Passionate Intellect represents the latest defense of the faith against this charge. Unlike other books of this type, however, McGrath devotes his energy less to arguing specific aspects of Christian belief in an apologetic format and more to portraying orthodox theology as among the most intellectually challenging and rewarding intellectual disciplines.

In taking this approach, McGrath's focuses on the importance of loving God with all our minds, urging believers to engage deeply with the disciplines of study and reflection on Scripture. He gives a rousing exhortation of the transformative nature and power of the Gospel to give us the eyes to see the Lord's work. He explores the role of doubt in true faith--that theology alone cannot explain God--and describes the Christian view of creation and human thought.

For the first six chapters, when he confines himself to the book's putative subject (the discipleship of the mind), McGrath's work shines. For the final 5 chapters of the book, however, he turns his focus more narrowly toward the realm of science (specifically the historical interplay between orthodox Christianity and scientific discoveries) and refutations of New Athiest criticisms. These areas are, admittedly, McGrath's sweet spot--he did his undergraduate work in biology and has built much of his theological career on sparring with the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens--but in this case, the book suffers with the addition of these chapters. He would have done better to break these collected thoughts into two separate works.

Still, the focal drift of its second half does not completely undermine the value of the opening chapters of the book. For its carefully wrought portrayal of what McGrath calls "mere theology" (in a tip of the hat to C.S. Lewis) and its admirable reclamation of the life of the mind from secularism, The Passionate Intellect deserves to be read.

Not every Christian believes they are a theologian. For some, theology is a distant and unattainable discipline, only for those who have been to seminary and read certain books. Theology has become separated from the everyday part of the church. Alister McGrath, in this book, aims to bring the two together again.

Theology must be part of the everyday language of the church and of every believer, not because we must be intellectually superior but because it will help us engage our culture and be 'Christians' to our community. To read the Bible IS to do theology. McGrath, one of the most gifted theologians of today has managed to produce a book for EVERY christian, not just academics.

The first part of the book provides a short, but packed overview of the purpose, place and relevance of theology. It is one of the best summaries of Christian theology available. Part two brings the theology into the realm of our culture, showing how theology relates to everyday life, and especially is responding to the rise of New Atheism.

They say that to explain something simply requires profound understanding. McGrath has produced a book which explains simply the basics of theology and how it can relate to our culture. Those who read it will realize that theology is not a distant and unattainable discipline but a transforming and vital part of being a believer. To read this will give the reader a wonderful foundation and confidence from which to begin to explore more theology.

Highly recommended.

Recently, so-called "new atheists" have been making loud noises about how stupid and wicked religion is. Richard Dawkins thinks belief in God is a "delusion" to be replaced by scientific thinking. Daniel Dennett views religion as a "spell" that needs to be broken. Sam Harris longs for "the end of faith," whose absolutism he thinks leads only to violence. And Christopher Hitchens argues that "religion poisons everything."

Alister McGrath disagrees. Instead, in The Passionate Intellect, he argues for "the intellectual capaciousness of the Christian faith and its ability to bring about a new and deeply satisfying vision of reality." Furthermore, he argues that a "theologically informed discipleship of the mind sustains, nourishes and protects the Christian vision of reality, thus enabling the church to retain its saltiness and capacity to illuminate." Compared to this vision, the "simplistic metanarrative [of the new atheism] can only be sustained by doing violence to the facts of history, the norms of evidence-based argument and the realities of contemporary experience."

McGrath holds dual doctorates from Oxford in molecular biophysics and historical theology. He is chair of theology, ministry, and education at King's College, London, as well as head of its Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture. He has written A Scientific Theology, a three-volume systematic theology in conversation with the natural sciences; The Twilight of Atheism; two books in critique of Dawkins: Dawkins's God and The Dawkins Delusion; and his prestigious Gifford Lectures, A Fine-Tuned Universe.

Knowing McGrath's background, readers might not crack open The Passionate Intellect, intimidated because they think it an academic tome. Those who do so will discover, instead, a work of popular theology and apologetics self-consciously in the tradition of C. S. Lewis. McGrath writes clearly and gracefully. Those interested in pursuing the subject matter further can peruse the twenty-two pages of footnotes at the end of the book.