September 20, 2016
My Annotation on 'Thinking Deeply'
In its truest form, critical thinking; within the context of Christianity, is an essential part of the believers daily life that cannot be overlooked. A technical definition from a reputable dictionary states it this way
“the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, which uses reasoned consideration to evidence, context, conceptualizations, methods, and criteria.”
Thinking critically sometimes receives a bad reputation within the Protestant church. People negatively associate this practice with being highly scientific; lacking authentic faith... namely "blind faith." Leaping to the conclusion that critical thinking is synonymous with skepticism and criticism occurs too often in Christian circles. Many believe that The practice of critical thinking originates from in academia mindset in which deceitful university teachers manipulate young adults away from their faith. This is NOT the connotation from which I use the phrase, 'Think deeply' within my gospel centered resources. Instead, I am describing the reflective nature of thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or what to do based upon thorough evaluation with a meditative posture.
In other words, you are “thinking about thinking. Because critical thinking has such negative connotations; I have chosen to use the term 'think deeply' to communicate the same message without distraction. In the end, my heart is for each reader to press into the mysteries that God so graciously desires for us to see within His word. This only occurs through thinking deeply about the things of God. There is so much more to tackle on this subject; but this platform is only to provide a brief description on the subject. Perhaps I will develop this into a Bible lesson to explore this topic more comprehensively in the future.
In other words, you are “thinking about thinking. Because critical thinking has such negative connotations; I have chosen to use the term 'think deeply' to communicate the same message without distraction. In the end, my heart is for each reader to press into the mysteries that God so graciously desires for us to see within His word. This only occurs through thinking deeply about the things of God. There is so much more to tackle on this subject; but this platform is only to provide a brief description on the subject. Perhaps I will develop this into a Bible lesson to explore this topic more comprehensively in the future.
