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Five things I learned on my literary tour of England

imagesThis summer I had the opportunity to teach on C. S. Lewis and his apologetics for our seminary while at Oxford University. To teach on one of my favorite authors, in Oxford where he lived and taught most of his adult life, is a dream come true. To say I am a fan of Lewis is a bit of an understatement. I visited all the sites connected to Lewis—the Kilns where he lived, Magdalen college where he taught, The Eagle and Child where he so often ate, Holy Trinity Church where he worshipped and is now buried.

Was Jesus just a Great Moral Teacher?

imagesThe question of Jesus’ identity has perplexed and fascinated us since he arrived on the scene 2,000 years ago. In our own day we seem to have a Jesus for everyone: Super-hero Jesus, Common Guy Jesus, Homosexual Jesus, Traditional Marriage Jesus, Democrat Jesus, Republican Jesus, Mormon Jesus, Oriental Jesus, and so on. Pick a cause or an agenda, and there is a Jesus waiting in the wings, ready to offer his support.[1] Why does everyone want a piece of Jesus, yet so often, not the whole? That is, why are we so ready to ascribe to Jesus the status of a great moral teacher, a teacher who we can use for our own personal or political agenda, yet we hesitate to call him Lord?

Soul Cravings

UnknownIt is a datum of human experience that we crave. We want, long, yearn, desire. Some things are petty—tickets to the Packer game, a box of Raisinets©, a new fountain pen—other things are more central to our well-being—staying healthy, material possessions—and some are essential to our well-being—intimacy, meaning, purpose.

Daniel Dennett, the Future of Religion, and Disenchantment

imagesEarlier this week, the Tufts university professor of philosophy and new atheist provocateur Daniel Dennett wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal explaining Why the Future of Religion is Bleak. The basic thrust of the article is that religion thrives whenever information and knowledge is repressed and/or personal or corporate calamity leads the ignorant masses to turn to deity for a crutch. In the age of the internet and mass media, religious dogmatist are no longer able to dupe their followers into thinking there is truth to their religious doctrines, and thus, the future of religion is bleak.

Does Jesus answer our biggest questions?

UnknownAristotle said, “All men desire to know.” He was right. We long to be rightly related to reality. We long to know the truth and to find ourselves in a story that is satisfying. I believe that we can know the truth, and when we find it, we will find answers that satisfy our soul. The answers to our perennial questions of existence, meaning, purpose, love, beauty, morality, and God are found in Jesus Christ and the religion he founded.

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