Posted on 11/29/2004 12:50:35 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
C. S. Lewis was born on this date in 1898, and forty-one years after his death, one thing has become startlingly clear: This Oxford don was not only a keen apologist but also a true prophet for our postmodern age.
For example, Lewis’s 1947 book, Miracles, was penned before most Christians were aware of the emerging philosophy of naturalism. This is the belief that there is a naturalistic explanation for everything in the universe.
Naturalism undercuts any objective morality, opening the door to tyranny. In his book The Abolition of Man, Lewis warned that naturalism turns humans into objects to be controlled. It turns values into “mere natural phenomena”—which can be selected and inculcated into a passive population by powerful Conditioners. Lewis predicted a time when those who want to remold human nature “will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique.” Sounds like the biotech debate today, doesn’t it?
Why was Lewis so uncannily prophetic? At first glance he seems an unlikely candidate. He was not a theologian; he was an English professor. What was it that made him such a keen observer of cultural and intellectual trends?
The answer may be somewhat discomfiting to modern evangelicals: One reason is precisely that Lewis was not an evangelical. He was a professor in the academy, with a specialty in medieval literature, which gave him a mental framework shaped by the whole scope of intellectual history and Christian thought. As a result, he was liberated from the narrow confines of the religious views of the day—which meant he was able to analyze and critique them.
Lewis once wrote than any new book “has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages.” Because he himself was steeped in that “great body of Christian thought,” he quickly discerned trends that ran counter to it.
But how many of us are familiar with that same panorama of Christian ideas “down the ages”? How many of us know the work of more than a few contemporary writers? How, then, can we stand against the destructive intellectual trends multiplying in our own day?
The problem is not that modern evangelicals are less intelligent than Lewis. As Mark Noll explains in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, the problem is that our sharpest intellects have been channeled into biblical scholarship, exegesis, and hermeneutics. While that is a vital enterprise, we rarely give the same scholarly attention to history, literature, politics, philosophy, economics, or the arts. As a result, we are less aware of the culture than we should be, less equipped to defend a biblical worldview, and less capable of being a redemptive force in our postmodern society—less aware, as well, of the threats headed our way from cultural elites.
You and I need to follow Lewis’s lead. We must liberate ourselves from the prison of our own narrow perspective and immerse ourselves in Christian ideas “down the ages.” Only then can we critique our culture and trace the trends.
The best way to celebrate Lewis’s birthday is to be at our posts, as he liked to say—with renewed spirits and with probing and informed minds.
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I used to search before posting every day, but it didn't help, I never avoided a duplicate post that way, so I quit. Sorry about the extra bandwidth, but...
LOL! Mr S. - this one could only have been found under original title at Townhall (sans "discerning the trends"). Not to worry...happens to all of us from time-to-time.
Is there a "CS Lewis" ping list?
Not that I'm aware of, but I'd bet there is one. And if there's not, there should be.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience" -- C.S. Lewis
C.S.Lewis really wrote,.....'1984'......?
This has NOTHING to do with Britains' HISTORIC Idolatry of 'Darwin'.....evolution...
........move on.....
Canada/U.S.A. are still, really,.....truly,... British colonies?
'V'
Can't stand C.S. Lewis as a fiction writer. I had heard about his stuff for years, so finally read one of his fiction books (for adults, not the Narnia series). It was dated, but I found it readable ... until I got to the end, where it was revealed that the heroine of the book had made a huge mistake years before by actually using birth control in her relationship with her husband, which resulted in the person who was supposed to be born to save Mankind not being born! Ick. I mean, really ... no birth control at all? Only a small segment of the population goes for that now. Very dated attitude. Charles Miller is a far superior Christian fantasist. He was a friend of Lewis's but his fiction has stood up better to the test of time.
Sorry, but your post is 100% incoherent. Come again?
OK! I just got a list from my bedside table: "Most Important Books [C.S. Lewis] read"
Phantastes -George MacDonald
The Everlasting Man - G.K. Chesterton
The Aeneid- Virgil
The Temple-George Herbert
The Prelude-Wordsworth
The Idea of the Holy- Rudolph Otto
Consolation of Philosophy-Boethius
Theism & Humanism-Balfour
Descent into Hell- Charles William
I'll get started...
"It turns values into 'mere natural phenomena'—which can be selected and inculcated into a passive population by powerful Conditioners."Millions of Americans were inculcated into supporting the shockingly unfit John Kerry by powerful Conditioners in the "Newsmedia", academia, Hollywood, and the Democrat Party in what amounted to the most relentless barrage of propaganda in history.
The great miracle is that far more people resisted this inculcation--a magnificent accomplishment.
I cannot avoid an attitude of condescension toward Kerry supporters. They have proven themselves to be dangerously passive and dangerously susceptible to inculcation by powerful Conditioners. It's hard not to be scornful of such people.
Cool! Bookmarked!
so finally read one of his fiction books
Which one? (just out of curiosity)
If I may I'd suggest "That Hidious Strength"
...and the most dangerous.
Leftists are the contemporary recrudescence of the Puritans. They would love to force smokers to wear scarlet letters, for example. Their furvor in forcing conformity on others matches the most puritannical religious fanaticism.
They would hate this comparison, but, if they had sufficient honest insight, they would see that it is true. Of course, if they were capable of that kind of honesty and insight, they wouldn't be Leftists in the first place.
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