Skip to main content

Review: Virtuous Minds




VIRTUOUS MINDS [Paperback]



Philip E. Dow (Author)


  • Publisher: IVP Academic (2013)
  • ISBN-10: 0830827145
  • ISBN-13:  978-0830827145






This book brings up key issues facing the modern church and Christians alike. For quite some time the, "God did it, and that enough for me" answer was sufficient and the idea of a "God of the Gaps" seemed to be a valid response to the tough questions. However we live in a modern era of having to put aside not only rage, anger, brawling, and slander, but also intellectual laziness, arrogance, ignorance and cowardice. When taking God at His word, it doesn't mean that we simply stop seeking out truth or that we don't attempt to search out for completeness in our knowledge of who He is and how He operates in our world.

"Intellectual character is the force of accumulated thinking habits that shape and color every decision we make."

Being Virtuous in our mind has always had a connotation of upholding purity in our thoughts, which is valid and needed. But we must also hold up in our minds the intellect that God has given us. Honest curiosity seeks after the truth in a balanced and objective way.

I Love that Philip E. Dow breaks down "The Seven Intellectual Virtues" with such insight and understanding.
1. Intellectual Courage
2. Intellectual Carefulness
3. Intellectual Tenacity
4. Intellectual Fair-mindedness
5. Intellectual Curiosity
6. Intellectual Honesty
7. Intellectual Humility

Without one of these we run the risk of faltering on our journey to education, engagement, and integrity.


This book recommends that instead of shutting off when we feel tired, pick up a book and learn something. Like a marathon runner, you don't simply wake up one morning and jog the whole thing. You practice and build up stamina, start walking then build up with a half mile jog, keep going up to a full mile and so on. This analogy is a great one, since I am a runner I understand the difficulty that comes with a long run. Likewise we must train our minds daily to be ready when the time comes to put them to the test. These keys to Intellect are often overlooked in a world where it seems like “might makes right” or he that shouts loudest wins. With the rise of the New Atheist movement and those who are so clearly intellectually deficient, yelling at the top of their lungs falsehoods and lies. We must stand firm and rise up to a level of better thinking and truly Love God With All Our Minds!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Good, Good Enough?

Every language in the world has a word expressing good in the sense of having the right or desirable quality. Media has projected the idea of “good” like a sliding scale, from desirable like The Beach Boys who were looking for Good Vibrations, though in point of fact this good is regarding Transcendental Meditation. As the song of the same name indicates “Transcendental meditation can emancipate the man and get you feeling grand it's good, it’s good, it’s good.”1On the other end, good is something to be avoided as Billy Joel says in Only the Good Die Young, "They say there's a heaven for those who will wait, some say it's better but I say it ain’t, I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun... You know that only the good die young.”2 More recently The Black Eyed Peas twist “good” to involve spending the night partying in a way that they will probably not remember the next morning. “I’ve got a feeling, that tonight's…
Post a Comment
Read more

Is the Book of Mormon from God?

by Dave Miller, Ph.D.

How may a person distinguish between truth and error? Can a person know which religion is right? Must a person rely on subjective inner inclinations and feelings? Or is religious truth ascertainable and knowable based on objective assessment? Most religions (e.g., Buddhism and Hinduism) base their credibility on some mystical or transcendental experience. Even some “Christian” groups (e.g., Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, et al.) claim that their credibility and authenticity may be established on the basis of the Holy Spirit Whom, they say, gives them their assurance. But when the Bible is examined, no such role is assigned to the Holy Spirit. Mystical religions have always existed, and have insisted that they were the recipients of leading and guidance from superior forces that are “better felt than told.” The God of the Bible, on the other hand, always offered evidence—proof—of the divine origin of the message before He expected people to beli…
Post a Comment
Read more

God's Just Destruction of the Canaanites

by Eric Lyons, M.Min.Originally Published on Apologetics Press  Link to original Article here
In the 1930s and 40s, the Nazi regime committed state-sponsored genocide of so-called “inferior races.” Of the approximately nine million Jews who lived in Europe at the beginning of the 1930s, some six million of them were exterminated. The Nazis murdered approximately one million Jewish children, two million Jewish women, and three million Jewish men. The Jews were starved, gassed, and experimented on like animals. In addition, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime slaughtered another three million Poles, Soviets, gypsies, and people with disabilities (see “Holocaust,” 2011 for more information). Most sane people, including Christians and many atheists (e.g., Antony Flew, Wallace Matson), have interpreted the Nazis’ actions for what they were—cruel, callous, and nefarious.  Some 3,400 years before the Holocaust, the God of the Bible commanded the Israelites to “destroy all the inhabitants of the land” of…
Post a Comment
Read more