What Christians Believe? Peter Kreeft - 3

What Christians Believe? Peter Kreeft – 3
cinops be gone Monday, April 7, 2008
Continued from a talk given at the C.S. Lewis Summer Conference 2003. A tape from St. Joseph Radio – P.O. Box 2983, Orange, Ca. 92859 (714) 744-1998 –
www.stjosephradio.com This is a classic on Lewis’s book, Mere Christianity.

“Chapter 3 follows the image of the war; the title is, The Shocking Alternative. Here is Jesus who claims to be the son of the Emperor over the Seas who has landed to claim his rightful Kingdom and here we have perhaps Lewis’s famous effective argument in all of his works; the either God or a bad man argument about Christ himself which by the way was one of the oldest and most traditional arguments in the early Church Fathers: – Again Lewis’s secret of success is not being original:

“Chapter 4 entitled, The Perfect Penitent is really about the Church’s relation to us – about the atonement, about salvation and finally Chapter 5 Practical Conclusions is about our relation to Christ about the end of all religion as incorporation into Christ.

“Each of these 5 chapters shows a distinctive Lewis’s quality. These qualities could be expressed negatively or affirmatively. Our Culture brings 5 charges against C.S. Lewis.

“It blames him for 3 things, especially, it blames Mere Christianity not just the book but the reality. Imagine a court case. I am sure you have heard the famous saying. If you were brought to court on the charge of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you. Lewis answers, “Yep,” guilty as charged.

“Here are 5 charges often given to mere Christians. # 1 He is divisive. # 2 He is insensitive or unfeeling. # 3 He is simplistic. # 4 He is fanatical, probably the most withering criticism of the modern mind and there are these new F words. If you are a fanatic they will not listen to you. Finally, he is amateurish. I would like to defend these 5 characteristics.

“I would call them with nicer names. I would say he is confrontational instead of divisive; challenging instead of insensitive; clear instead of simplistic; Christ centric instead of amateurish.

“So if you like alliterative, confrontational, challenging, clear, Christ centric and concrete and more clearly, he is polemical. He gives you an either or, makes you choose. He is honest and blunt and rubs your nose In the truth. He is short and to the point and very clear. He is indeed Christo centric and finally he is utterly practical.” (To be continued)

George H. Kubeck, Duplicate and or translate into Spanish and Vietnamese