Reflections on God … Man … Life
Lest there be any alarm at the title of this post, let me give the broader context first. I firmly believe that God is capable of doing whatever He chooses. Further, Scripture makes it abundantly clear that He will be the one to decide when this thing called history will come to an end. I also believe this verse is true: It’s a wonderful assurance that the Lord is an active God who works in our behalf. Keep in mind,… Read more »
In a previous post, I laid out what I hope is a God-inspired plan to examine what C. S. Lewis had to say about history: its significance, its limitations, how Christians should view it. I’m on this path of research because I am a historian and have taught history at the university level for more than thirty years. If this research leads to presentations at conferences, articles in journals, or even a book, to be it. If it leads to… Read more »
I’ve been teaching a special class at my church on C. S. Lewis. We meet every Monday evening (both in person and on Zoom) to cover some of Lewis’s most thoughtful discourses on life, death, and eternity. My opening slide for the class revealed what we were going to read. We’ve concluded our discussion of Surprised by Joy and just this past Monday finished key chapters in The Problem of Pain. The most jarring and challenging was the chapter on… Read more »
One of my pet peeves is the phrase about being “on the right side of history.” Its corollary is to avoid being “on the wrong side of history.” Both posit an untruth, one that I labor to show students in my classes: these phrases assume an inevitability. They push us to believe that history is something that has a mind of its own and is going down a preordained path—and you had better get on that path or be swept… Read more »
Decisions. Hard choices. Encountering a crossroad and not sure which way to go. Why is life so difficult at times? What about that little shortcut I see? Maybe I can take that and experience less pain. After all, isn’t that what life is—finding the best way to avoid pain and misery? Yet what if I’m mistaken? What if life’s pains are where I find the greatest meaning over time? C. S. Lewis, in an essay, “The Vision of John Bunyan,”… Read more »
In my ongoing quest to read everything C. S. Lewis wrote, I have not yet gotten to his preface to Paradise Lost, and I decided not to read it until I had first read the poem myself. So I’ve been wading through Milton’s epic. It’s not an easy read, but I’m getting the hang of it. Every once in a while, I come across some pearls, both theologically and in Milton’s choice of words. For instance, now I’m aware of… Read more »
The smoke (literally) has not cleared totally on the Ferguson riots. Since I wrote my blog a couple of days ago, protesters/criminals have continued to cause problems. The National Guard, which was conspicuously not called in by Missouri governor Nixon on the night of the grand jury decision, has helped calm the area, working in tandem with the police and state law enforcement officials. That’s probably not what most National Guardsmen signed up for. Our military is supposed to protect… Read more »