Let’s start with the positive here: If you’re looking for materials that will help you develop a Christian worldview, this book can help. Unfortunately, it’s this book’s appendices that will help more in that matter than the actual text.

Douglas S. Huffman, ed. Christian Contours: How a Biblical Worldview Shapes the Mind and Heart. 240p., $22.99, Kregel Academic & Professional.

It’s also worth noting that the aforementioned back matter takes up 90 pages of the book (and the front matter 20 pages), leaving only a little more than half the book for the actual essays here. Which may be a blessing, because by and large they go on considerably about why a developed Christian worldview is so important and defining its terms (repeatedly) before presumably digging into the “how” questions that introduce each chapter… which unfortunately, it almost never does.

The one significant exception here would be chapter six, “How Do I Maintain a Biblical Worldview When I See That I Am Inconsistent?” by Mark Muska. In other words: What do I do when my actions don’t reflect my stated beliefs—but obviously, therefore, reflect what I really do believe? Muska does a pretty good job of exploring some of the “spiritual dissonance” therein. (To be fair, the closing essay on sharing your faith has a decent amount of applicational content as well; however, none of it’s terribly unique.)

Then come the appendices, which present a variety of resources for those who truly wish to develop a Christian worldview—websites, organizations, and about 50 pages of bibliography. Really, if you’re looking for something that delivers on this book’s titular promise, you can probably find it here. (Personally, I’d opt for something by James Sire, whose Universe of the Mind is included here — also, Habits of the Mind or the warmer, more spiritual-formation-oriented book I’m reading right now, Learning to Read Through the Psalms.)

Thus, this book doesn’t deliver on the “hows” it repeatedly promises—but at least it gives you places to go that likely will.