Developing a Christian Mind

Les Henson

When we, both individually and as a faith community, confront issues that arise in everyday life, the danger is that we either take the easiest solution on offer or look for a proof-text that speaks to the problems. The alternative is to adopt the Christian line expressed by the Church on this or that issue. However, Harry Blamires, in his book, ‘The Christian Mind’ suggest that we take an alternative approach. He says that we should engage in a Christian dialogue seeking to express and understand the issue in all its complexity. Yet, he adds that even this is not sufficient, it is not the starting point of dealing with significant issues. Indeed, there is something that precedes dialogue, and that is the Christian mind. By this, he means a mind trained, informed, and equipped to deal with the range of issues that we need to face. Over time we must develop a framework for handling such matters from Christian presuppositions that have taken hold as a result of the training and discipleship of the mind to bring it into conformity with the mind of Christ.