Usually when I read a book it's because its been recommended or because it's part of preparing to preach/teach at church. But when I saw the title, 'Feelings & Faith; Cultivating Godly emotions in the Christian Life', I was intruiged. The place of feelings and emotions in the Christian life causes people lots of problems for many different reasons; lack of feelings can cause people to question God himself, strong feelings all too often lead people to make immoral decisions, emotional attachments to religious places and things cause fights and arguments, and so on.
Brian S Borgman acknowledges that, at one extreme, there are those who place far too much importance on feelings and end up being controlled by them, while at the other end of the spectrum are those who say that emotions are untrustworthy and should be suppressed.
I guess I'd tend toward the latter, but have long wanted to find a sensible and biblical aunderstanding of the subject, and I think I've found one here. I haven't finished it yet, but so far, so good.
The most important point so far is that because Jesus showed emotions, we know they're good things to have. The problem comes when we're controlled by our emotions - when we allow them to dictate how we think and behave. Instead we should shape our emotions by the truth - the truth about God and the truth about ourselves. We should remember that just as our intellect and behaviour are affected by sin, so too are our emotions. But just as our intellect and behaviour can be redeemed and recreated by God, so too can our emotions. We're not helpless victims of emotion, not are we robots with no emotions.
So all good stuff so far. If there's more, I'll try to find time to post it here.
Well...a can of worms or what!Emotions have to be one of the most complex areas ever inbuilt to mankind,while in general they can be applied to all, they can also be as as individual as a fingerprint. I've thought about them many a time only to end up thinking that in the end only God understands the why and wherefor of them relevant to each person. They seem to drive some on to success others to failure and make us say or do things we never thought possible, so then I think of Luke 6;45 and decide that if our heart is Godly he will teach us to love and trust him and emotions will be expressed in a more positive way. Learning or experiencing love and trust(it seems to me)are the base foundations on which emotions either flourish positivly or not.
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