Naturalism And The Crisis Of The Soul -- By: J. P. Moreland

Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 24:4 (NA 2008)
Article: Naturalism And The Crisis Of The Soul
Author: J. P. Moreland


Naturalism And The Crisis Of The Soul

J. P. Moreland

Distinguished Professor of Philosophy,
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University

Let me give you a piece of advice before I make my remarks. Due to the writings of Dallas Willard and others, we are now learning more and more about spiritual disciplines.1 Spiritual disciplines are about bringing your body into the practice of discipleship. Just as you train for tennis or playing the piano, you have to practice to get good at them. In the same way, training in life requires using your body to practice certain things. For example, you need to begin using your body in worship. You need to learn to raise your hands in worship and to hold your hands out. It will change your life. If you think I am wrong, do a study of the role of the body in worship in the Old and New Testament, and you will discover that there are all kinds of phrases about lifting up holy hands.

Remember, learning to do anything important is always awkward and insincere in the early stages of learning it. It is wooden. Learning to play golf is awkward and formal in the early stages. Learning to study the Bible is awkward and formal. Learning to open your body to God as you worship is also going to feel critical, awkward; you will feel like everyone is looking at you. However, you will not be as successful in making contact with God as you could if you do not learn to bring your body into your worship. I should not be looking into an audience of men and women going into the ministry, who will have an opportunity to train other people in how to worship, and see people who are worshipping like this. You would not do that at a football game. So let us practice it. There is nothing to be ashamed of in this. Remember, I am an old guy, and you can brush off everything I have to say. It is your business, but it will change your life. The single most important thing in my worship of God has been learning to use my body as a part of worship.

Let us turn now to our main topic of the day. Yesterday, I talked about the importance of worldview. It is not enough for you just to know the Scriptures and to teach the Scriptures in your churches unless you are teaching and equipping your people to think worldviewishly about what is going on in the world and in the culture. I said that there are three worldviews fighting for the hearts and minds of the people: Christianity, naturalism, and postmodernism.2 Learning how to see the world and how to think worldviewishly is very important.

Let me illustrate: When Peter Jennings was dying, Elizabeth Vargas took over

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