From an apologetic point of view, Moreland’s Kingdom Triangle is a valuable read. Really, he is making the case for a Christian life that is full, balanced, and powerful. He addresses the mind, the heart, and the spirit. This book is insightful, challenging, and very relevant.Read the full review here:
We met yesterday. The discussion centered around the supernatural workings of the Spirit and how that looks in our church.
Let me just say, if you're a person who has to have closure- you'd be frustrated by our meetings.
We floundered around for awhile, then never really landed the plane. There were passionate discussions followed by a resolve to keep seeking God for all he wants to do in our church.
So if you're looking for a "as a result of this meeting, we are going to..." I think the closest thing I can say is "...pray with more faith."
Good book. Especially encouraging to hear from man with his mind to be really implore his readers (who tend to come from more cessassionist backgrounds) to search out the supernatural especially with regards to the greater gifts...
It's also especially helpful to bring balance because sometimes peoples' pendulum's on these things goes too far one way or the other. I know mine did when first exposed the more spiritual side of things coming from my background where we did not talk about the Holy Spirit..
Sabau concludes her review this way:It is my hope and prayer that more Council for Christian College and University professors will take seriously the need to take our religion as a knowledge tradition and not just a faith tradition, a point central to me thesis in Kingdom Triangle. More generally, I offered the book to my Evangelical community in hopes that it would foment a conversation about the central ideas I offer in the book. This review is part of an answer to my prayers.
Moreland writes with insight and passion about a very difficult subject which is dear to his heart. He knows that before Christians in the Western traditional churches can become efficient at proclaiming and extending the influence of he Kingdom, they must put their inner house in order. This is what he has done, and this book is evidence that he is living and acting through the power of the Holy Spirit. I urge everyone to read this book. It has greatly helped me regain the vision of human life caught up in the divine conspiracy constituted by the progressive spread of the Kingdom of God. It has encouraged me to believe that God can use any of His children for His purposes when He recognizes His son in their minds and hearts (510).
For those of you headed to college, those who want to be thoughtful followers of Jesus, and those who want to engage culture in a constructive way, this is a very helpful subject.
Kingdom Triangle is a biblically grounded vision of Christian discipleship, uniting J.P Moreland's concern for the Christian mind with his pursuit of the spiritual disciplines, and calling for the whole Church to rediscover the power of the Holy Spirit ... Kingdom Triangle is a book for both the heart and the mind, the fruit of many years of thoughtful ministry, apologetic engagement and philosophical reflection, articulated with passion and erudition. It is not always easy reading. But then, why should it be? We have been lazy and simple for too long. If we are really going to exemplify the mind and character and power of Jesus Christ, enter the Kingdom Triangle and take our place in the Grand Drama—where the stakes are so high, and the rewards are eternal—it will demand our best efforts. But that's what we were created for.
If read, pondered, preached, taught, and applied, the teachings of Kingdom Triangle could spark revival, reformation, and reform in the church, as well as in the world at large. This is a triangle that Christians must not ignore.
... after carefully reading Kingdom Triangle, I cannot help but think in terms of comparison and contrast to the latter ministry efforts of the late Francis Schaeffer. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to me that Kingdom Triangle is parallel in certain ways to Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto, notably in the probing cultural critique it provides roughly a generation after Schaeffer’s piercing and passionate appeal.
However, there is also a huge difference between the two authors and their two timely volumes. Schaeffer’s appeal was for evangelicals to proceed to reclaim the culture from the standpoint of having the proper view of truth and the gospel. Moreland rightly says the church not only possesses the truth and the gospel, but also the power of the Spirit.
As I close, it is worth asking: Was Francis Schaeffer’s challenge in A Christian Manifesto largely greeted by yawns because the evangelical church had become so worldly and comfortable, or because it had become so fleshly (i.e., out of touch with the Holy Spirit)? My answer is “Yes”–it was worldly and comfortable, without a doubt; but it was, and has largely remained, under the control of the flesh, not the Spirit.Like Francis Schaeffer before him, J.P. Moreland has laid out why our culture is philosophically bankrupt and religiously confused. But, unlike Schaeffer, he has offered not just a clarion call to get off our collective spiritual rear ends, but also a power source that can sustain any individual and corporate transformation that must take place.
I salute this Spirit-led calculated risk of one of evangelicalism’s great minds and hearts (thank you, J.P.!). He has spoken the truth in love, knowing full well that, since those who short-sightedly cling to the fleshly status quo cannot adequately answer his powerful message, they will (and already do) savagely attack the messenger. Why has he done so, then? Because he is trusting the Lord to use his Spirit-led message to awaken many others who will choose to walk in faith, in the power of the Spirit, seeking to be spiritual transformation agents in the spheres of influence where the Lord has placed them. May the Lord multiply their–our–tribe!
While I find many of the biblical and theological arguments of cessationism compelling, I would be the first to admit that the primary reason I remain a cessationist is because I have never experienced any miracles, signs, or wonders and I have never seen or heard of a legitimate prophet. If someone were to ask me if I believe that God is still speaking through prophets and giving the gift of healing, I would confess my tentative cessationist beliefs. I have never seen nor heard of a prophet or divine healer, but this does not mean that God is not or cannot work in such a way today.
"If you only read one book by a philosopher this summer, read Kingdom Triangle. You’ll be impressed by J.P.’s grasp of the issues, the sweep of his critique of contemporary thought, and the laser-like focus of his recommendations. You’ll also be amazed to hear a philosopher speaking so personally, clearly, and boldly about the practical way out of our contemporary intellectual, moral, and spiritual morass."
"Moreland is his usual straight-up-get-a-life self in calling the followers of Christ to stop making excuses for insipidity in the spiritual life and roll up their sleeves and get to work on the disciplines needed to renew our souls."
"When J.P. and I were in college together, I suppose he would have been right above me in my list of guys least likely to do anything really too serious in Christian work. His life is proof that God can change anyone who has a willing heart. What a delight it is to see him standing forth as an accomplished voice of reason, spirit, and truth against the fleeing darkness of radical unbelief. J.P. Moreland has much to teach us, and Kingdom Triangle is as good a place to begin going to school with him as any he has written yet."
Ultimately, the vision for Christianity that Dr. Moreland outlines–a vision, he points out, which is not original to him–demands that each of us grow in our areas of weakness. We are, I think, better at some legs of the triangle than others. But Dr. Moreland challenges us to recognize that having one or two of the legs is not enough if we wish to be robust and effective proponents of the Gospel. We must recover all three if we wish to rescue the Church from cultural impotence, and discover the sort of dramatic lifestyles for which we were created.
If you buy and read one book in this decade, make it this one. If you buy one book for your pastor this decade, make it this one. If you buy one book for your small group leader, make it this one.
