📄The Areopagus Update – Jan/Feb 2018
Our Areopagus seminar for the first semester of 2018 is one of my favorite courses in our catalogue: “C. S. Lewis: The Life and Works of a ‘Mere Christian’.” As most Christians know, Lewis was an intellectual dynamo and one of the 20th century’s most gifted and prolific writers. A first-rate scholar, Christian apologist, poet, sci-fi writer, and author of children’s fantasy novels, he wrote with charm, wit, profound insight, and occasional eloquence. Disinterested in impressing the literati and the academic elite, he wrote for the common man in a conversational and accessible tone without pandering to his audience.
Mere Christianity, Lewis’ informal primer in Christian apologetics, is arguably the most significant Christian book of the 20th century. In 2000 Christianity Today magazine voted it the most influential Christian book of the century, and The Screwtape Letters was #2 on the list. More than 50 years after his death, 36 of his books are still in print, and collectively they have sold over 250 million copies.
Lewis was one of the great Christian thinkers of the 20th century. Although th neither a professional philosopher, a theologian, a Bible scholar, a historian, a psychologist, nor a social scientist, he wrote perceptively in all of these areas. Furthermore, and a rarity among intellectuals, he reconciled and balanced reason and imagination. Lewis understood that when taken to extremes, reason leads to Rationalism and imagination leads to Romanticism (and escapism).
As a Christian writing in a post Christian age, Lewis offered a scathing critique of modernistic secular humanism. Like J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis’ writings were self-consciously and deliberately at variance with 20 century trends and fads. Paradoxically, because his writings address the perennial issues of life, they are timeless and always relevant. Lewis was a “mere Christian” – a “Great Tradition Christian” as he described himself – and as such he appeals to serious believers across theological and denominational lines. Throughout his Christian life he was convinced that sectarianism is one of the Devil’s most effective weapons against Christianity.
As the early Christian scholar Clement of Alexandria taught, every committed Christian should aspire to be…
- A Bible scholar;
- A theologian;
- A philosopher;
- An apologist; and
- A social critic.
To the extent that Lewis incorporated all of these traits, he serves as an inspiring example for us all.
Join us as we learn about this devout and gifted man who contributed so much to making the Christian faith understandable, credible and relevant to modern man.
Also in this issue… 2017 Recommended Books & Movies by Jefrey Breshears
