Growing In Grace

I recently finished reading the excellent little book by Alan Jacobs titled  How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds. In this post I will review some of the highlights of the book and make some applicational comments along the way. Towards the beginning of the book Jacobs quotes T. S. Eliot, "when we do not know, or when we do not know enough, we tend to substitute emotion for thoughts." (1)  In our emotionally charged and polarized world it certainly seems that Eliot was right on target. It is grieving that in our cultural moment disagreeing with someone comes with a knee jerk emotional response and a painting of the other person as the slimiest demogorgon imaginable. Why do we react to things we do not understand the way we do? Since we cannot possibly think about every decision we need to make in a given day our survival depends on having groups which help us to think. Jacobs writes, "Thinking independently, solitarily, 'for ourselves,' is ...

"In public discourse, the challenge is not to stifle robust debate, but rather to make sure that it is real debate. The first obligation for Christians is to listen carefully to opponents and if they are not willing to do so, then Christians should simply be silent. To engage in a war of words is to encourage in a symbolic voiolence that is fundamentally at odds with the gospel. - James Davison Hunter "To Change the World" (emphasis added) This is something that I have thought about quite a bit over the past few months. As someone that keeps up a blog and loves posting quotes and questions, I read this and was challenged as it made me ask myself the question, "Why do I post what I post?" Most of what I post are things that have ministered to or exhorted me and so I like to pass them along. Other times they are things that I have worked and thought through and I am trying to help others to do the same. But alas, there are other times when I have used quotes, ...