Jack

1143 times. That is the amount of times that someone has asked me if my middle name started with an "S". Imagine if it did? Two C.S.Lewis' in the world- no way! Unfortunately, or otherwise my middle name does not begin with an S. The only reason I bring this up is because I chose a class specifically devoted to the writings of C.S.Lewis as my very last class at Tyndale- the last one! Where does the time go...

I think over the next little while much of what makes in onto this blog is going to be devoted to sharing what this 20th century literary artist has to say. I begin with a quote from book one of Mere Christianity,

"The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials 'for the sake of humanity,' and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man."

Absolutism... it's destructive. Thinking that I am right, that I have all the answers to the most pertinent questions is destructive. Now, there are things that I believe to be absolutely true and I don't think that Lewis was essentially arguing for an absolute principle. But in the context of the church...here is exactly what I wrestle with: who is right, who is wrong and does it really, honestly, truly matter? At the moment, I'm not convinced that it does. Of course, if someone started baptizing in a church with pig's blood while wearing little to no clothing...my 'not caring' would probably go out the window and I'd look for some sort of standard by which to function as the body of Christ. The bible you say? I just need to talk to Nathan Colquhoun about this...

Jokes. Really, he's a great guy who's asking some questions too.

In other news, I'm also going to be giving a thesis report every now and again. So far in terms of page numbers I'm 0/70, but that's not terrible...it could be worse, right? I could not have a topic... well, let's not get into that.