![]() ![]() ![]() Take for example his famous lunatic, liar, or Lord argument. It’s okay to twist the truth as long as it’s for the glory of God. He is selling something, and like most effective sales reps, he is leaving out an awful lot.Ĭall it the art of holy deception. I used to give him a pass on these things, but at this stage in my life I am ready to call him out on this deception. Lewis keeps making these inexcusable jumps from premises to conclusions without detailing the five or six hidden turns required to get from point A to point F. In his case, however, I believe his critics were right. I know what it feels like to be surrounded by a culture that doesn’t get you, and the insecurity can make you defensive. Embracing Jesus in mid-life the way that he did made him an instant celebrity among the devout, but his conversion also entailed a walk of shame among his academic cohorts who believed his newfound faith made him soft in the head. His change of allegiances put him in a position of defending perspectives that aren’t really defensible for those not already committed to agreeing with his conclusions. I am beginning to understand why Lewis had such a chip on his shoulder about having found Jesus so late in life, and in such an unexpected academic setting. ![]() It is riddled with holes that I somehow overlooked back when I was still emotionally invested in finding it persuasive. It is an articulate mess, for the lack of a better way to put it-not really a word salad so much as an argument salad. Rereading his Mere Christianity-now from the perspective of someone on the outside of Christianity looking in-I find myself inundated with premature turns and hasty conclusions and inexcusable leaps of logic that I never noticed before. For a former evangelical who once thought Lewis was the bees knees, that is a strange realization to ingest. I am not saying I will ever be as intelligent or as gifted or as articulate as this wildly successful author and professor was, but I am saying that I know things he didn’t know. It is finally dawning on me that, at this point in my life, I understand a few things better than Lewis did. I’ve been around the block enough times now to recognize the distinctive aroma of Lewis’s pseudo-intellectual anti-intellectualism, and I understand why the church still loves him so much for it even to this day. He was everything they’ve ever wanted: an atheist-turned-Christian professor who wore robes to teach and who spoke with such pomp and eloquence about how silly intellectuals sound when they use all those big words to make themselves sound so smart.Įducated evangelicals like Lewis love to disparage their own erudition the same way that teenagers love to trash talk the people who taught them how to tie their own shoes and wipe their own butts and, frankly, I am over it. Lewis among evangelical Christians today. Beyond that, I have also studied theology in a formal setting, something Lewis humblebragged that he had never done.ĭoes it strike you as ironic that an Oxbridge don would brag about not having formally studied the subjects on which he was so often called to speak? If so, then you are well on your way toward understanding the enduring mystique of C.S. Like him, I have been a teacher for decades but unlike him, I have also spent decades parenting several children and stepchildren. Lewis was when he first delivered the Broadcast Talks for BBC Radio upon which his later book Mere Christianity was based. It only recently occurred to me that I am now older than C.S. The best sales reps are the one who have convinced even themselves that they are telling the whole truth. ![]()
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