Think: A Review

John Piper is a personal hero. I've read many of his books, listened to dozens of his sermons, watched his videos, and attended his conferences. I always learn and am inspired when I sit under the teaching of John Piper.

Think is a good book and I found it helpful. I don't think that Think will end up on a Piper "must read" list. This book will not appeal to a wide audience. In fact, Piper states so much in the conclusion of the book. However, having said that, I do believe this book should be read by college students and other "thinkers" or people being challenged on an intellectual level. It is not so much an apologetic as it is an antidote to blindly accepting humanistic assumptions. And it is a call to Biblical thinking which is sorely lacking today.

The best chapters in the book are:

• Chapter 3- Reading as Thinking... for help in how to read and understand the Bible.
  
• Chapter 5- Rational Gospel, Spiritual Light... for understanding the relationship between human comprehension of the Gospel and the Divine unveiling of the Gospel to man.
• Chapter 6- Love for God: Treasuring God with All Your Mind... for unpacking the Biblical command to love the Lord your God with all your mind.
• Chapter 8- The Immorality of Relativism... for exposing the sinfulness and corruption of relativistic thinking.
  

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God." (p. 27)

"...at the bottom of human irrationality ("darkened in their understanding") and at the bottom of spiritual ignorance ("the ignorance that is in them") is hardness of heart. That is, our self-centered hearts distort our reason to the point where we cannot use it to draw true inferences from what is really there." (p. 63)

"What does it mean to love God "with all your mind"? I take it to mean that we direct our thinking in a certain way; namely, our thinking should be wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fullness of treasuring God above all things." (p. 83)

"...relativism only looks humble but is inherently a cloak of pride. It works like this. Truth with a capital T- Truth rooted in God's objective reality and word- is a massive, unchanging reality that we little humans must submit to. Coming to know this truth is the humble task of putting ourselves under this reality and submitting to it. Understanding is literally taking the humble position to stand under the truth and let it be our rule." (p. 112)

Below is a video of Piper introducing Think.