"Feelings and Faith" by Brian Borgman

 

“Feelings and Faith” by BrianBorgman

 

“I am a pastor who loves theology.  The theological stream I consciously drink from takes doctrine very seriously, something with which I wholeheartedly agree.  That’s one of the reasons I drink there.  My theological tradition (Reformed) puts a great deal of emphasis on the mind.  It is a strongly academic tradition and can become very cerebral.  So why am I writing a book about the emotions?  A few years ago I “felt” the need to teach on the emotions.  Since I believe that there is a biblical doctrine of the emotions and am convinced that in our mind-oriented tradition we could use some perspective on the emotions, I started a “short” sermon series…”

This book is the result of this sermon series.

 The book is solidly Bible-based.

Brian Borgman immerses us in the Bible’s perspectives on the emotions and the book is good teaching on emotions (and the negative and positive results).

Borgman writes, that the book is practical theology – and he quotes what was said about Jonathan Edwards:  “All of his doctrine was application and all of his application was doctrine.”

The Book has two major parts:  Foundations and Applications.

“Feelings and Faith” promises to expose the most common misunderstandings about emotions and provide a working definition.

He points to Jesus as the example of emotions.

 Within this book, Jesus is pointed to as the example of emotions and our distrust of emotions is revealed.

The chapters on anger are excellent.  I’ll provide an example from my past as a Sunday School teacher.  We presented the word “propitiation” and (as expected) one of the students asked the meaning. “Jesus’ death on the cross saved us from the wrath of God” – well the student asked, “what’s ‘wrath’?”  Anger. 

“well, that can’t be right because anger is a sin and if God gets angry, He can’t be God!”

“Feelings and Faith” clearly points out the difference between righteous anger and sinful anger in a way that is easy to understand (although not so easy to live out.)

Why does it matter?

In a world where feelings reign supreme, this book puts them in biblical perspective – we are created in the image of God – God feels emotions and we should also.

This is a book worth reading…and again.