# Fit Bodies Fat Minds by Os Guiness



## Eoghan (Mar 13, 2012)

I am happy to review this book and having basically given a thumbs down to the Gravedigger Files feel much happier to recommend this book. Perhaps it is the fact that Os actually gives examples that makes the book lighter and more accessible. Subtitled "Why evangelicals don't think" it is a refutation of anti-intellectualism.

Os documents the shift from being a literate church to being a visual church. This is as much a change in society as a change in churches. (Churches is used in the broadest sense) The zeitgeist of the age has been compared with different American cities such as Chicago, the current zeitgeist is thought to be Las Vagas! (p78)

One of the most interesting thoughts is the importance of words. (p98) This I think sets the Bible (literature) at odds with the current trends of images. I noticed my church has started to project the words of the choruses we sing with not a plain background but an image. Quite how this helps worship I am at a loss to explain. It is obvious that an image behind words is a distraction and makes the text harder to see. Yet somehow this seems to be considered a worthy trade-off??

There are many interesting chapters but this emphasis on literature stands out clearly to me. Sadly we are losing the ability to receive the information in that form. How many of this generation can read the events of the last Passover and give an outline of what is conveyed by the dialogue. I am just waiting for someone to suggest we adopt the comic book bible as the pew bible (Amazon.com: The Comic Book Bible (9781577481430): Rob Suggs: Books).

Almost every talk at work is accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation - why? ...because we expect a visual input. We are seeing a generation that cannot access the literature of the Bible as previous generations could. As a child my comic was written stories (with illustrations) and 1 comic strip. This quickly became 1 written story and all comic strip. It marks a transition in comics but I think it signifies something much bigger and worrying.

Get the book if only to read those few pages dealing with G-d's choosing literature as the medium of revelation - don't skip the rest because it serves to lead up to p98. In fact just read the whole book! 

Highly recommended!!!!


----------

