Author Archives: Dr Snyder

Christian Principled Constitutional Conservatism: A Personal Manifesto

  

I’ve been consistently concerned now for the last couple of years with respect to what is happening in our political realm. I come at politics and government from a very definite perspective. Here, therefore, is my attempt at a personal manifesto. I believe in Christian principled constitutional conservatism. Let me now explain what that means to me. Christian Jesus Christ is Lord of all aspects of life. My own life would have no meaning without His love, His forgiveness, and… Read more »

God’s Foolishness vs. Man’s Wisdom

  

I love learning. I’d better love it, seeing as how I live in an academic environment. Reading, studying, going deeper into a knowledge of history and government naturally draws me. Yet that plunge into knowledge can never be divorced from the proper heart motive—love of God and His ways. The temptation for people like me is to think that we have become experts, which can then border on arrogance, which is decidedly opposed to God’s will for our lives. It’s… Read more »

Lewis on Sayers’s “The Mind of the Maker” (Part One)

  

In a previous post, I wrote about why C. S. Lewis liked the writings of Dorothy Sayers, and I focused on her radio plays The Man Born to Be King, which she turned into a book. There was another Sayers book that Lewis read prior to that one: The Mind of the Maker. It was published in 1941; Lewis wrote a short review of it in the journal Theology. He introduces the theme immediately: “The purpose of this book is… Read more »

About Those Ongoing Investigations

  

I have studiously avoided saying much about the ongoing Russia probe and the accusations of spying by the FBI on the Trump team. Why? Because it’s all so up in the air when it comes to actually knowing what happened and whether any of it makes any difference. To be sure, there were contacts made by some of Trump’s people with Russians. Trump Jr. is a solid example. He went to a meeting expecting to get dirt on Hillary and… Read more »

On Lewis Reading Sayers

  

Dorothy Sayers was never present at an Inklings meeting. She was never considered as a member of that weekly sharing of readings and thoughts. Yet she is often seen in conjunction with the Inklings because she graduated from Oxford herself and was friends with two of its leading members: Charles Williams and C. S. Lewis. Lewis, responding during the last year of his life about his connections with Sayers, gave this summary: Dorothy Sayers, so far as I know, was… Read more »

An Encouragement to All Who Teach

  

As a professor for nearly thirty years, my aim has been to instill solid Biblical principles and sound historical teaching based on original sources and insightful secondary works, with the ultimate goal that students would be able to see for themselves how those principles and sources reveal truth. The trendy phrase is “to develop critical thinking.” Professors/teachers sometimes wonder how successful this endeavor has been, especially when teaching a class that few of the students seem to care about or… Read more »

The Lewisian View of Democracy

  

My doctorate is in history. My teaching career included seven years in a graduate school of government, showing how history needs to be taken into account when considering the function of government and public policy. And of course the basis for everything I have taught has been Biblical principles. Therefore, it’s not hard to understand why I maintain an active interest in politics and current affairs. I seek to educate others in those principles and hope to see them influence… Read more »