All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters. 15 You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “ Abba, Father. ” 16 The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. 17 But if we are children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him.
Laypersons are just as capable as professional theologians of intellectual hard work, but they no longer expect the church to ask this of them. Cobb discusses why it is important for Christians to think about their own beliefs and assumptions. He encourages readers to find and become conversation partners. He also suggests steps a Christian's thinking may take; sources the individual can draw on, including how professionals can help; and where this thinking may lead. Cobb asserts that if there is a renewal of thinking in the church, there will be church renewal. The goal is to focus and sharpen one's thinking so that it is one's own, and to apply that thinking to one's being and acting. Each chapter ends with a section "Doing Your Theology" which is a list of questions for reflection and discussion.
Chapter titles include: On Becoming What You Are: A Theologian; Ethics and Theology; Shaping Up; Biblical Authority; Christians and Jews; Professionals: Help and Hindrance; Christian Counterattack; A Critique of Economics; A Critique of the University; An Afterword on Church Theology