The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? [Paperback]

Harry Blamires (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

In a special study-guide edition of this Christian classic, noted scholar and author Harry Blamires calls for the recovery of the authentically Christian mind, arguing that distinctively Christian reasoning has been swept away by secular modes of thought.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

HARRY BLAMIRES is an Anglican theologian, literary critic, and novelist. Now retired, he served as head of the English department at King Alfred's College in Winchester, England. Blamires started writing at the encouragement of C. S. Lewis, his friend and tutor. The Christian Mind, his best-known work, has been used as a textbook at hundreds of bible colleges and seminaries around the world. He is also the author of The Bloomsday Book: A Guide through Ulysses and A Short History of English Literature, among many other works. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Vine Books; Study Gd edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569550441
• ISBN-13: 978-1569550441
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #488,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars to read, or do origami... that is the question., November 27, 2000

By 

Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? (Paperback)

Here is a book which I can unreservedly recommend to anyone who is currently thinking about how they should think. Of course, Blamires (pronounced "the choirs") is addressing himself mainly to the Christian reader, but ALL readers can benefit from this exclusively Christian author who is honest enough to begin his book with the words... "There is no longer a Christian mind." If you have ever wondered why Christian "thought" seems increasingly irrelevant, read this book and find out many of the reasons why your hunch is PERHAPS justified. I started to fold back the top corner of pages that I found especially illuminating, until I realized that I might as well just fold up the entire book. (see title of this review).

The author's call for the recovery of the authentic Christian mind is not a call for the abolition of, nor even the belittling of, the secular mind. It is a call for the critical understanding of the difference between the two. This difference forms the fundamental premise of the book, which is thus: "To think secularly is to think within a frame of reference bounded by the limits of our life here on earth: it is to keep one's calculations rooted in this-worldly criteria. To think christianly is to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man's eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God."

I especially appreciated the fact that Blamires posits a form of critical thinking that is predominantly POSITIVE. He legitamizes the need for examination of world views (in literature for instance) which the Christian may disagree with or even abhor, but laments the lack of current Christian dialogue regarding these views. There are issues in the human situation which may touch us pre-eminently "as a Christian" but the tragedy is that too often the only way we can pursue these currents of thought is by "more reading of non-Christian literature written by skeptics, and by discussion of it within the intellectual frame of reference which these skeptics have manufactured." This is sad and regettable, because the eternal perspective of the Christian mind is meant to challenge secular thinking, not be undermined by it. But how will it challenge, if it refuses to think? Be assured that the secular mindset will not hesitate to fill such a void. Indeed, from the first sentence onward, Blamires shows that we are living in a time when such temporal thinking prevails. Even so, the book has much POSITIVE to say to those who choose (at some point) to understand the nature of Christian truth as being objective, authoritative, unshakable, and God-given.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for closet Christians, October 3, 2000

By 

Richard T. Rossiter "Richard T. Rossiter" (National Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? (Paperback)

I was introduced to Blamires from his work on James Joyce's Ulysses. I figured anyone that could bring the clarity he did to Joyce's work is worth reading. I was not disappointed.

Blamires work is a self-examination. Throughout the book, I found myself saying; "That's me." I remember a reporter asking Mother Theresa why she bothered with people that are only going to be dead in a few hours. Without a blink, she answered, "They will live for eternity."

Blamires does not attack the secular mind (not in this work, anyway) he just shows how Christians have been conditioned to think secularly, to their lost.

Blamires work is clear and extremely well written. The reader will quickly see the influence of C.S. Lewis.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SMARTLY DELINEATES BETWEEN TRUE CHRISTIAN THINKING & MUSH., July 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think? (Paperback)

BLAMIRES, LIKE HIS TUTOR C. S. LEWIS, HAS A WONDERFUL KNACK FOR DEFINING & THEN CONFRONTING HIS SUBJECT. THE FIRST 1/2 OF HIS BOOK SUPORTS HIS MAIN HYPOTHESIS: "THERE IS NO LONGER A CHRISTIAN MIND". THERE IS A CHRISTIAN ETHIC & A CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, BUT THERE IS NO LONGER A CHRISTIAN MIND WHICH IS GIVEN SERIOUS CONSIDERATION IN THE MARKETPLACE OF INTELLIGENT THINKING. THIS IS BECAUSE THE CHRISTIAN MIND HAS LOST IT'S DISTINCTION HAVING SUCCOM TO SECULARIZATION. THE 2ND 1/2 OF HIS BOOK DEFINES WHAT THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN MIND WOULD BE IF SUCH EXISTED. NOTE, BLAMIRES INITIALLY WROTE THIS BOOK IN THE 1960'S BUT IT IS STILL FRESH AND RELEVANT TODAY 30 YEARS LATER.