Engaging God’s World

Description

The Bible admonishes Christians to love God with the mind as well as with the heart. Engaging God's World clearly links this scriptural mandate with the pursuit of academic life, extolling the crucial role of Christian higher education in the intellectual and spiritual formation of believers.
Chiefly intended to serve as a primer for students beginning college careers but valuable to thoughtful Christians at every stage of life, this volume spells out the central themes of the Christian faith from a Reformed perspective. More important, however, the book shows how Christian higher education fits inside a view of the world and of human life that is formed by these ideas.
"Learning," Cornelius Plantinga writes, "is a spiritual calling; properly done, it attaches us to God." Approaching the topic of education from a variety of angles, Plantinga shows that Christ-centered learning teaches people to correctly see the world as God's creation, to see providence in history, to handle secular knowledge critically, to develop good judgment and, ultimately, to use faith-filled learning in the service of God's kingdom. George Marsden "Cornelius Plantinga, as usual, has done a masterful job."
John Ortberg "Reading Neal Plantinga on loving God with our minds is like listening to Louis Armstrong play jazz or watching Ben and Jerry make ice cream. A master craftsman is at work. He wears a mantle of rich learning with lightness and grace. To read him is to remember that learning — when it's done rightly — is an act of devotion and submission and fierce joy. I will give this book to my three children. I wish all students would read it. "
Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen "An absorbing and gracefully written introduction to the biblical drama and its importance for education and vocational reflection. Laced also with pithy metaphors and wry but well-placed humor, this is vintage Neal Plantinga."
Robert C. Andringa "This book will become required reading for thousands of students. But its fresh and engaging style will attract and inform faculty, parents, trustees, and others who have an interest in the growing movement of intentionally Christian colleges and universities. Neal Plantinga makes a case for why the Christian worldview makes a huge difference in how we learn and live. "
John G. Stackhouse Jr. "Welcome to Christian thought! Neal Plantinga has accomplished the extraordinary. This book introduces us to broad reaches of Christian theology with clarity, humor, balance, and verve. This book will intrigue and delight students and professors alike in Calvinist colleges (the context from which it emerges). But don't be put off by Plantinga's Dutch Calvinist accent! His is a voice of wide learning, cultural sensitivity, and deep spiritual conviction that never condescends as he simply and winsomely teaches us great truths of our universal Christian faith. And students and professors at secular universities will value this handbook of Christian as they, too, seek a Christian perspective on their academic vocations. "
Robert Benne "Would that all church-related colleges were willing to offer this text by Neal Plantinga to their students to make Christian sense of their education. Its argument is biblically grounded, theologically sound, wisely commended, and, as is usual with his writing, beautifully expressed. A great theological framework for Christian education! "
Library Journal "Plantinga has written a sage, mature, and avuncular ? even paternal ? guide to the essentials of the Christian life for the college student. Most valuable, perhaps, is the final section, where he holds forth a vision of how a student should use 'knowledge, skills, and virtues' in the service of God." Cornelius Plantinga is president emeritus of Calvin Theological Seminary and senior research fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. His previous books include Beyond Doubt, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be, and Engaging God's World, and his many articles and essays have appeared in such periodicals as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, and The Christian Century.

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