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Head, Heart & Hands: Bringing Together Christian Thought, Passion and Action

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One of the many problems within Christianity today is the unhealthy division between the head, the heart and the hands- or thought, passion, and action. Different groups tend to emphasis one area of Christian life over the others. In doing so, they not only neglect what they de-emphasize, but what they do emphasize suffers from imbalance. To give examples, I would say the Reformed tradition tends to over-emphasize the mind, Charismatics the heart, and the emerging church the hands. Dennis Hollinger seeks to bring these elements together in his book Head, Heart & Hands.

"What we need today, in a fragmented world, is a whole faith of the head, heart and hands, with each dimension feeding and sustaining the others." (16) Dr. Hollinger begins by painting a picture of what we experience too often- fragmented people living fragmented lives. This sets the stage for looking at each area of Christian life individually.

There are two chapters on each the head, the heart and the hands. The first explains the Biblical foundation for the element and its implications for our lives. The second examines how the element is often distorted, either by neglect or by over-emphasis. Dr. Hollinger then presents the three elements integrated in three chapters. The first examines a number of Old and New Testament passages that make a case for the necessity of all three elements working together. The next chapter draws from non-Biblical examples of this model found in education, social psychology, and philosophy. The final chapter examines the implications of integration for our lives, and the challenges we must overcome.

At the very least, Dr. Hollinger is incredibly thorough. Had I written this book (which I did have in mind before this came along), I would not have been able to cover each element to the great detail that Dr. Hollinger does. The reason is that I tend to favor the mind, and therefore couldn't cover the heart and hands well. What makes this book good is that the presentation of each element is balanced.

What makes this book great, though, is how well Dr. Hollinger explains the relationships between these elements in the Christian life. "Our minds cannot be brought into harmony with God's designs and truth without hearts that are near to God and actions that reflect God's ways. Our hearts cannot experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit without knowledge of God to guide us and without actions that reflect the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And our actions of both proclamation and presence will wither without a theology to guide them and a heart to drive and sustain them. Head, heart and hands together. That is the paradigm from God's Word." (158)

Head, Heart & Hands is indispensable reading for those who wish to live a complete life completely surrendered to Christ. It should be required for every disciple of Christ who seeks to live to His glory.