"The Consequences of Ideas" By R.C Sproul -Book Review-

Disclaimer: The author of this blog post is a novice at philosophy, so you will get no profound philosophical insight from this review, I shall speak on my own level here.

Overview

Ideas have consequences. It is by the very ideas of influential people that we arrive at our western civilization today. The Consequence of Ideas seeks to give a brief overview of influential thinkers and their ideas, more specifically, those who heavily affected the Western sphere of thought today.

From Plato to Freud, Sproul gives a brief overview of their worldviews. This book, according to Sproul, is written for the layman (of which I am chief!). Sproul briefly explains each thinker and their philosophies and sometimes offers his own critique.

Why Read This?

For me, this book served as an excellent intro class to the history of philosophy. Sproul, as mentioned before, has written a brief summary of the ideas of each influential thinker. He explains it quite well, in a way that an average person could understand (with difficulty, I must add). As many of you know, Sproul is a devout Christian, therefore, he really emphasizes on how each thinker viewed God and how their ideas affected the idea of God and Christianity.

I think it's important for Christians to understand the history behind why their own culture thinks the way it does. Sproul offers an excellent yet simple history of how Western thought (which, has many aspects that are contrary to the Christian faith) came to be. Knowing the reasons behind why people act a certain way can be very helpful when sharing the gospel or defending the faith.

Potential Pitfalls

This book, though written for the layman, is still quite difficult to read, so be sure to take your time.

That's it, I am not nearly smart enough to give any more insight into a sophisticated book such as this. I encourage you to use it for your own learning.