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| Christian Mind |
- When Do I have to Develop a Christian Mind?
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- How Do I Develop a Christian Mind
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Mind Games
Survival Course Manual
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The Christian Mind
Does it really matter?
Rich Milne
- When do I have to develop a Christian mind?
- The sooner the better! The future will be worse.
- Time pressures increase with age.
Just wait! You think grades are an incentive; wait until you have to earn money to
eat!
- You may have better access to resources now than later.
Possible resources include libraries, Christian groups, friends, and Christian
professors. Make use of the resources around you while you have the chance.
- Integrate now!
- If you don't start to think through what you believe now, you'll be overwhelmed by
the time you leave college.
Knowledge is built one brick at a time. So is integration. The well-built Christian
mind is the result of having worked through a field from the foundations up, not
just a few hours of thought about the conclusions.
- Start slowly, in just one class.
If you begin systematizing and thinking through what you are learning now you
won't have only a pile of undigested notes at the end of your education. Make a
habit of it.
- Inertia or momentum. Which will you leave school with?
- If you put it off now, you're even more likely to put it off when you have less time
later.
- If you start now, you begin a habit that will help you all your life.
Example: Studying the Bible; if you don't schedule time for it, it won't get done.
- How do I develop a Christian mind?
- Learn to listen.
- Don't just sit there, think!
The listener must be as active as the speaker.{3}
- Take notes and develop them later.
What did they say? How does that fit with what else I know? Do I agree with what
was said?
- Learn to listen for what is not said. Learn to listen for statements that show the
world view of the speaker, even if he or she doesn't tell you what they believe.
- Learn to ask questions.
- To ask a question you need to have listened first.
You need to ask questions in your head, even if you don't have the chance to ask
them out loud. (See above.)
- Good questions will help you find out what isn't known yet.
They will also impress your teacher with the fact that you have been paying
attention.
- This is the basis of research in any field.
Progress in science is made by knowing what to ask.
"The essence of science: ask an important question and you are on the way to a
pertinent answer" (Jacob Bronowski).
(See also "Campus Christianity" notes, especially III. B.)
- Learn to read a book is trying to tell you something.
- Buy Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book! And read it!
- Learn to mark up books and ask questions of the book as you read.
- Reading is hard work, and you will not persevere if you don't learn some skills.
- Read deeply in some areas, widely in others.
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