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
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.
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41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must read for closet Christians, October 3, 2000
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.
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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
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.
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