Tag Archives: Christianity

The Screwtape Letters

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The Screwtape Letters

Uncle Screwtape and Toadwood his Scribe

Uncle Screwtape and Toadwood his Scribe

I had an opportunity to go and see FPA Theatre Company’s production of C.S. Lewis‘ “The Screwtape Letters” a week ago. It is playing at the old Mercury Theater at 3745 N. Southport in Chicago. It stars Max McLean (who also co-adapted the script) as “His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape,” and Karen Eleanor Wight as “Toadpipe,” his demonic personal secretary and scribe.

C. S. LEWIS (Author) (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer and apologist of his day. He published The Screwtape Letters in 1942 wherein he presented a humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils named Screwtape and Wormwood. He used the book to deal with moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace.

Here is C.S. Lewis’ own INTRODUCTION:

I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence, which I now offer to the public, fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true, even from his own angle.

There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

C.S. Lewis
July 5, 1941
The Screwtape Letters

How Christianity Shaped the West

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Dinesh D'Souza

The November issue of Imprimis, the monthly newsletter of Hillsdale College, features an article adapted from a speech delivered by Dinesh D’Souza. Dinesh is a conservative author, thinker and speaker who worked as a policy analyst in the Reagan White House. His articles currently appear in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, The New Republic and National Review to name a few.

His speech draws heavily from the research he did for his latest book called: What’s So Great About Christianity.

Dinesh uses the example of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence to connect the dots between what American’s believe about “self-evident” freedoms, and the roots of that idea in Christianity. He further strengthens that connection through writings of Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and others.

In contrast to the earlier Greek and Roman democracies, Christianity contributed a much higher view of human life, worth and dignity that radically affected slaves, women and children, and in more recent years, African-Americans for the good.

When it comes to our own history as a country, the First Great Awakening set the religious and spiritual groundwork for our nations Independence. Historian Paul Johnson writes that the War for Independence was,

“inconceivable… without this religious background.”

Likewise, John Adams wrote,

“What do we mean by the American Revolution? The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people… a change in their religious sentiments.”

Dinesh points out that Christianity played a vital role in establishing a new concept of freedom based upon it’s assertion that humans are created in God’s image and are moral agents, with the ability/responsibility to be the architects of their own lives.

In conclusion Dinesh points out that it was Friedrich Nietzsche who said that the ideas that formed Western civilization were based on Christianity and that if we remove Christianity, the ideals will also fall. Nietzsche also warned that with a decline in Christianity, new and opposing ideas would arise.

We see this decline happening today with the redefinition of family, marriage, the revival of eugenics, and even arguments for infanticide. These are all signs of the gradual extinction of the foundational principles that uphold human dignity.

I agree with Dinesh that if we cherish the distinctive principles of Western civilization – no matter what our own personal religious views – we would do well to better understand, appreciate and respect, rather than denigrate our Christian roots.

What is the “Faith” of Barack Obama?

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The Faith of Barack Obama

Cover: The Faith of Barack Obama

I recently finished reading The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield [Thomas Nelson, publisher].

I agree with Mansfield’s introductory book premise that understanding a man’s religious vision and personal faith will illuminate how he will lead. To Mansfield, Barack’s faith uniquely positions him as a “healer” and prophetic conscience for our nation, on the level of Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, William Wilberforce and others.

The pertinent question, then, is what IS Barack Obama’s faith and religious vision and how will it inform his leadership?

Although Barack professes to have a personal relationship with Jesus (the historical object of Christian faith), this book reveals little about how Barack’s faith is rooted in that relationship. To me the book reveals his faith to be more rooted in traditions, ethics, black liberation theology and an attractive community life that fits with his personal values, rather than in a personal submission to the God-man, Jesus Christ, as revealed to us in Scripture.

As Mansfield observes, Barack’s faith is in a belief that “Christianity is but one religious tree rooted in the common ethical soil of all human experience.” For Barack, “there are many paths to the same place.”

According to Mansfield, Obama “is the product of a new, post-modern generation that picks and chooses its own truth from traditional faith, much as a man customizes his meal at a buffet.”

I also find it enlightening that his religious vision and faith is guided, not by revealed truth, but by doubt. “Doubt is at the heart of Obama’s religion. Indeed, it is not going too far to say that for Obama, doubt is a form of worship.”

Mansfield moves from these quotes and statements to his conclusions in the last chapter. That religion, to Barack Obama, “is transforming, lifelong and real. It is who he is at the core . . . While Americans are used to religious insincerity from their political leaders, Obama seems to be sincere in what he proclaims. It was his faith that gave him the will to serve in public office and the worldview of that faith that shaped his understanding of what he would do once he came to office.”

“Obama’s faith infuses his public policy, so that his faith is not just limited to the personal realms of his life; it also informs his leadership.”

In what way will a faith rooted in doubt and customized at will inform leadership? Every person must wrestle with doubt, but do doubt and uncertainty qualify a person for leadership? What does it say about our times and culture that our most admired individuals are those who cannot affirm what they believe? That not knowing truth is valued above knowing truth? If doubt is a form of worship for Barack Obama then our country’s infatuation with Barack Obama belies an infatuation with doubters and those who readily admit that truth is unknowable.

We would all do well to remember the famous and timely words of C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

In conclusion, there is much to admire about Barack Obama. He is gifted and able in many areas. I commend him for his many good qualities, and respect the hardships he has overcome, and hope that many will emulate the positive choices he has made in his life. But on the question as to whether or not his faith as presented in this book makes him more attractive to me as a leader and presidential candidate, it does not. Rather, the faith of Barack Obama is deeply concerning to me–for him as a person, and for our country.

Unlike Mr. Mansfield, I do not see Barack Obama as a prophet, ready to heal the wounds of our nation. Rather, he is a brilliant politician, a winsome, sincere and transparent communicator, who is seriously confused about the object of his professed faith.

Even though I disagree with the conclusion of this book, I would recommend it to anyone seriously following the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama and the critically important choice ahead for our nation on November 4th.