Reading two new books upon their arrival over the next few weeks. With family visits this summer and travels to the Northeast, my posts will be sparse, but I do hope to write up some thoughts once I receive these. Arriving first is Craig Keener’s newest The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking. I’m intrigued by this for a couple reasons: 1) it is by none other than Craig Keener (‘nough said) and 2) I have always thought that we live from the inside out and not only how we think but what we think matters immensely to our daily living (see my post here, for example). Book description reads:
This major work by a leading New Testament scholar explores an important but neglected area of Pauline theology, Paul’s teaching about the mind. In discussing matters such as the corrupted mind, the mind of Christ, and the renewal of the mind, Paul adapts language from popular intellectual thought in his day, but he does so in a way distinctively focused on Christ and Christ’s role in the believer’s transformation. Keener enables readers to understand this thought world so they can interpret Paul’s language for contemporary Christian life. The book helps overcome a false separation between following the Spirit and using human judgment and provides a new foundation for relating biblical studies and Christian counseling.
The second to arrive is Mike Bird’s What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine Through the Apostles’ Creed. For those who may not know, Bird is a machine when it comes to publishing, blogging, teaching, parenting, traveling, or speaking, and all while maintaining a great sense of humor (see his “The Now and Not Yet” series on YouTube).
Modern Christians have often hesitated to embrace the ancient creeds because of our “nothing but the Bible” tradition. In What Christians Ought to Believe Michael Bird opens our eyes to the possibilities of the Apostle’s Creed as a way to explore and understand the basic teachings of the Christian faith.
Bringing together theological commentary, tips for application, and memorable illustrations, What Christians Ought to Believe summarizes the basic tenets of the Christian faith using the Apostle’s Creed as its entryway. After first emphasizing the importance of creeds for the formation of the Christian faith, each chapter, following the Creed’s outline, introduces the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and the Church. An appendix includes the Apostles’ Creed in the original Latin and Greek.
What Christians Ought to Believe is ideally suited for both the classroom and the church setting to teach beginning students and laypersons the basics of what Christians ought to affirm if they are to be called Christians.