Renewing Minds

On vacation I had the privilege and joy of reading a pre-publication version of David Dockery's forthcoming book, Renewing Minds: Serving Church and Society through Christian Higher Education, by David Dockery (president of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and chairman of the board of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities). The book is due out from B&H Academic in early October.

Here are a few blurbs for the book:

"There's no greater need for the church than to equip the coming generation of Christians to engage the postmodern culture. My friend David Dockery has given us an excellent resource for that effort. His new book challenges the academy to make biblical worldview the foundation for not only renewing minds but developing character. This is a timely and valuable resource."--Chuck Colson

"Renewing Minds is a robust and thoughtful defense of the necessity and ideals of Christian higher education, coupled with a shrewd and wise assessment of the challenges and strategies of the future."--Alister McGrath

"David Dockery is a rare combination of serious scholar, experienced academic leader, and Christian intellectual. In Renewing Minds he combines these roles and sets out a bold agenda for Christian higher education. This is an important and timely book that will challenge Christians to recover an authentically Christian vision of education, intellect, and learning."--Al Mohler

"Visionary and magisterial, Dockery's big-picture manifesto vividly blocks in the demanding standards, proper cultural contextualizing, and strategic global significance of thoroughgoing Christian higher education today. The Bible-anchored argumentation convinces the head, and the writer's zeal warms the heart. This is in every way a landmark book!"--J. I. Packer

The table of contents is as follows:

1. Loving God with Our Minds
2. Renewing Minds, Serving Church and Society
3. Shaping a Christian Worldview
4. Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition
5. Integrating Faith and Learning
6. Envisioning a Shared Community of Tradition, Belonging, and Renewing Minds
7. Establishing a Grace-Filled Academic Community
8. Developing a Theology for Christian Higher Education
9. Thinking Globally about the Future

It includes a foreword by Princeton's Robert George, as well as a very helpful Bibliography for Faith and Learning.

If you are involved in Christian higher education, this is a "must read." But even if you're not, this is a book well worth reading for its thoughtful exploration of the relationship between Christ and culture, faith and learning, and tradition and reformation.

I thank God for Dr. Dockery and this manifesto. May God use it to raise up many "grace-filled convictional communities of learning" and "Great Commandment colleges and universities" that seek "to understand and cherish God's revelation and holy creation" in their "discipline-related explorations."