My final impression of Renewing Minds is that it said a great many things that, as C.S. Lewis writes in the introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, I “half knew already.(5)” Integration—the assumption of a Christian worldview as the basis for all subjects—is of great value, but his description of it did not seem to include any novel insight. Neither did his excursus on schools with Christian roots but a currently secular worldview. For example, I wouldn’t have expected to find integrated models of education at universities like Princeton, Yale, or Harvard. Knowing the denominations they are associated with, one could hardly be surprised that the are basically secular. My surprise is meeting evangelical or orthodox mainline believers from schools like SMU.

I was also troubled by the author’s tendency to simplify complex issues into a dichotomy that relieves the reader of some of the difficult choices involved in coming to a position. For example, is it true that orthodoxy and inquiry must exist “in tension? (99)” Can inquiry not serve orthodoxy? It seems that the inquiry that led to the Trinitarian Controversy served orthodoxy in a magnificent way by forcing a explanation of the Godhead to emerge. Certainly orthodoxy places limits on the conclusions which can be reached or accepted, but what question cannot be pursued?

This book was well received, and garnered some significant praise from the right people. The content is good, though it could be significantly deeper, but the writing style made it an unpleasurable read.