I was surprised by how much I loved this book. With as many sermons of John Piper as I have listened to several years ago (probably over 200 hours), my expectations were that it would be a kind of repackaging of the concepts of Christian hedonism in the context of thinking, coupled with some cheerleading for thinking deeply as a Christian, but I was wrong, and this book was much more helpful.

What made it so helpful was that Piper is aware that he is talking to a diverse audience who are at different places when it comes to thinking and has some pastoral words for everyone. It is written at an accessible level without a lot of technical work with philosophy or theology, so it would be plenty easy to pass along to a friend, yet the people with very active intellectual lives will find some good correctives towards the abuse of the intellect.

Particularly enjoyable was his refutation and strong denunciation of relativism. Without assaulting the reading with terms like "epistemology," he manages to explain the form that relativism takes, how it is self refuting, and the moral aspects of embracing relativism. A philosopher would likely desire more technical discussion, but the average reader will benefit by identifying relativism where is appears and articulating its implications on their lives.

For those who are heavy thinkers, Piper's focus is on avoiding pride and self serving use of knowledge. However, this does not merely stop at "showing off" but also the various positions Christians will take in order to be seen by others, to avoid being labeled "a fundamentalist" or to seek knowledge apart to the relevance of that knowledge to the kingdom of God and the love of people.

It's an easy and quick read, so I commend this generally to all Christians.