Cultivating a Thoughtful Faith - Dunnam, Maxie D., and Steve G. W. Moore, eds. Abingdon, 2005. 108p. $14.00, Paperback. ISBN 0-687-33303-2. ISBN-13: 978-0-687-33303-5. 230 Theology. Christianity—Philosophy

Cultivating a Thoughtful Faith is a collection of eight challenging essays by editors Maxie D. Dunnam, Steve G. W. Moore, and five other writers. All but one are directly associated with Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and Florida.

While the term "theologian" may make some people uneasy, Moore says in “Theology and a Thoughtful Faith,” which introduces the volume, that “we are all theologians whether we want to be or not.” He makes this assertion because everyone has ideas about God, and our theology comprises these ideas. His down-to-earth statements set the tone for Cultivating a Thoughtful Faith.

Always an “enclave of resistance,” the church, Dunnam writes in the opening essay, “needs to think more of transformation than confrontation.” Steve Harper, in “Thinking as an Act of Worship,” asks what it means to be a Christian. He organizes his answer around four words: desire; design; development; and deployment. In the final chapter, author George G. Hunter III discusses “New Ways of Thinking About Church Growth.”

Clergy, seminary students, and laypersons will find this a thought-provoking collection of essays that deserves a place in church libraries.

Beverly M. Bixler
First Presbyterian Church
Ashland, Ohio