There are few writers from the 20th century that come close to either the amount or the influence owned by Clive Staples Lewis. Although primarily known today for his religious writings, Lewis seemingly wrote something about nearly every topic under the sun during his 50-year writing career. And like G.K. Chesterton before him, Lewis shined most brightly as an essayist. Although he certainly wrote his share of long-form books and novels, his brilliance and eloquence were most readily on display when he limited his writing to fewer than ten pages. God in the Dock, an eclectic collection of some of his essays and articles, is a great introduction to his polemical and apologetic writings, in addition to being a magnificent example of how Christianity should be thought about and lived out in the world around us.
We live in a time of tremendous abundance as far as sound theological literature is concerned, and for that we ought to be grateful. It was not always so. The church almost lost several centuries of the most helpful theological works imaginable. As the only minister in the family, I have inherited my Grandmother’s theological library, such as it was. When I look at what she had available to her in the 1940s and 1950s, I am dismayed. About the best she could do was the Barclay’s Commentaries and the Abingdon Bible Dictionary. But Barclay was a theological liberal who didn’t believe in the Resurrection or in miracles, and the Abingdon Bible Dictionary represented the dominance of theological liberalism in the mainline churches of the day. Good theology was far harder to come by. For instance, Martyn Lloyd Jones was instrumental in pulling together a theological lending library in the 1930’s and 1940’s in order to preserve old copies of Puritan works so that they could be rediscovered by pastors and scholars. Many of these volumes were well over 100 years old then. One had to travel to London to read some of them, as they were not allowed to leave the building. He also helped found the Banner of Truth Trust in 1957, in order to make modern reprints of these books available.
Two words that almost never go together are "concise" and "theology." Many authors have tried to write short summaries of Christian theology that appeal to the average Christian sitting in the pew, and most of them have failed. The difficulty is not so much with the subject, but with the writers themselves. This is not because the writers aren't knowledgeable; in fact the opposite is most often the case—they are too knowledgeable. Publishers will often recruit a seasoned pastor or a seminary professor thinking that these men are the most qualified to write a summary work for layman. The theory is sound, but the reality is seldom pretty. These knowledgeable pastors and professors are generally not accustomed to the constraint of the 15-second sound-bite attention span of the average reader. They have more than a bit of difficulty being brief and concise in print, because they seldom need to be brief in their sermons and classroom lectures.
I have something of a love/hate relationship with "daily devotional" books: I love the idea of them, but hate the reality of them. Creating a book filled with daily inspirational and motivational readings is a great concept, but more often than not the final product ends up being an emotional mess of a book, filled with page after page of "Christianity Lite." It has gotten so bad that a particular series of books, sadly one of the best-selling ones, admits that it is nothing more "chicken soup for the soul." Chicken soup doesn't actually do much for you when you have an illness, but it does make you feel better. Such is the state of nearly all of the devotional books available for the "Christian soul."
The following is a letter from James W. Alexander (1804-1859) to his younger brother. James was a Presbyterian minister and the eldest son of Archibald Alexander (1772-1851). In his letter, James gives his brother excellent advice that is just as needed today, more than 150 years later.
My dear brother,
You must not suppose, from what I said in my last letter, that the school is
the only place where you can acquire knowledge. I would by no means have you
to play all the time, which you are not employed at your tasks. There are a
great many hours, especially in these long winter evenings, in which you may
be filling your mind with something useful. For this purpose you should
always have some instructive book at hand. Your parents have many such
books, and are always glad to give you the use of them.
President Obama has stated that he believes our children need to spend more time in school. He has proposed lengthening the school day and shortening the summer vacation in an effort to stay educationally competitive with other countries. [1] It is always fascinating to me that whenever the government gets involved in anything the solution is always more. More money, more time, more education, etc. Admitting that our current school system is broken is simply an admission that the government has no business being involved in it in the first place. The public schools have had a monopoly on education for nearly 100 years and the system has only gotten worse. Keeping students in the classroom longer isn't going to solve the educational problem; it will just give it more time to waste.
One of the primary concerns of this website is to educate and enable Christians to realize the importance of worldviews. It is our contention that most Christians do not understand why worldview thinking is so critical. It is not that convincing people of the importance of a worldview is a difficult thing, I can communicate this to my children without too much difficulty. The motivation behind any particular action is far more significant than the action itself. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason or doing the wrong thing for the right reason is still wrong. Most people recognize and will readily admit that how we view the world is a key ingredient to what we will do in that world. But the task becomes far more difficult when run in reverse—getting people to admit that their actions are wrong because they stem from wrong beliefs.
The following is a classic account of the importance of first-hand observation,
and careful, intense, focused study. It teaches lessons that apply to almost
any discipline. Indeed, it is widely used in colleges and universities across
the U.S. as a teaching tool in both the humanities and the sciences. Its lessons certainly apply to studying the Bible.
St. Augustine is credited with this famous interpretation principle: “The New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed.” While this is a helpful little ditty that can make us sound profound and pious, what exactly does it mean? More importantly, how does this principle actually work? Exactly how does the New Testament (NT) “reveal” the often confusing and obscure stories of the Old Testament (OT)? And if the NT does in fact “reveal” the true meaning of the OT, why is there still so much disagreement, even among professing Christians, about what the OT is saying?
The television game show is a format that never seems to go away. Just when you thought it was permanently relegated to the daytime daypart, Who Wants to be a Millionaire brought it back to primetime. Comedian Howie Mandel recently resurrected his own career with an NBC game show called Deal or No Deal and now Jeff Foxworthy is getting in on the action on FOX with his show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Taking initial advantage of a cushy time slot after American Idol when it debuted two years ago, Are YouSmarter is still turning in relatively high ratings.
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