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.
When Richard Nixon asked Russell Kirk what one book he should read if he could only read one, Russell Kirk told him it was "The Abolition of Man". For a scholar like Kirk to make that claim is a big endorsement for the book, I would say.
As in "Vote or Die"? I'll put my hat on sideways, wear my pants below my ? 'till my underwear is clearly visible when I have succumbed to 'the most puritannical religious fanaticism.' Nice catch, brotha.
Never heard of him! Always exciting to find a new author.
On which parts did you think he was smoking?
"Good morning. Your dress is pretty.""You'll hear from my lawyer! That's sexual harrassment!"
I don't have my copy with me today, since I finished it. I will try to remember it tomorrow so I can answer your question better. Naturally I remember the parts that I thought were really profound, and can't recall the others.
Today is actually Lewis's birthday. Just wanted to stop by here and say HAPPY C.S. LEWIS'S BIRTHDAY!
Medeival-mental-framework bump.
For those who enjoy C.S. Lewis' work, I highly recommend Peter Kreeft.
Name another "medicine" the primary purpose of which is to prevent the body's proper operation. "Birth control" is simply a euphemism for sterility-inducing poison.
That and "Mere Christianity" are my favorites. "Abolition" contains a devastating critique of modern schooling, the root of all evils in the modern world.
True, but those attitudes are a betrayal of conservative values, while they emobody what the Left stands for. Controlling the lives of others is their raison d'etre.
As Reagan said, the greatest resource is the creativity of the human mind.
Truth has no expiration date, nor is it dependent on majority approval.
Birth control is popular because people believe they should be able to spend their lives the way they want, and in doing so they do a lot of damage to the one or two kids they do have.
In a situation where someone is on welfare with eight kids, the problem part of the equation is the welfare. Society could provide for those children without filtering 72 cents of every dollar into the pockets of bureaucrats. Also, next time you hear a population control advocate or even a feminist say anything nice about welfare, call them the hypocrite that they are, because welfare not only subsidizes increase in population, but subsidizes childbearing in the single least responsible situation that can legally exist.
For example, I read one account of how the church in one of the early Massachusetts colony towns (I think it was Plymouth itself) kicked a man out because he wouldn't have sex with his wife anymore. They had tried sending some of the local men to talk to him, but he refused to listen so they disfellowshipped him.
If you asked a liberal what Puritan's thought about female sexuality, they'd probably say the Puritans used women and that women had no power or rights. They would find the idea of the community endorsing a woman's sexuality and taking "her side" against any man, for any reason, to be impossible. And so would people "educated" in the liberal schools.
Precisely why we don't homeschool our kids using a 'religious' curriculum. We're using secular materials, Great Books, reference books, etc. so that they can understand the world in which they live. We have our religious instruction separate, but blended with the other materials when they intersect.
Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: THAT'S NOT FUNNY! I'LL SUE!
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