Do you have any obscure hobby that people don't really know about? I do. As strange as it may sound, I actually love to read quotes and to ponder on them. It doesn't matter if they're intellegent, or comedic, insightful, or just plain rhetoric- as long as there's something that I can consider, I'll check it out. And then, if I've found it to be particularly good, I'll jot it down somewhere (or nowadays, put it into a word document).
So today, I wanted to ponder a quote from a very famous 20th century Christian author by the name of C.S. Lewis. For those who don't actually know any more about Lewis than him being the author of the Narnia series of books, he was a whole lot more. If you're interested in finding out more about the man, just Google or Wiki him.
Now, on to the quote!
"It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books...
"If you join at eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said."
I find this quote to be absolutely fascinating. I am an avid reader, and am also an aficionado of both modern and certain areas of ancient history too. And with this quote, Lewis deftly pulls them both together with a sickening thud. At least, it would be sickening if I was someone who only reads modern material.
But I find that the concept itself is pure gold. The Western society of this age has been rooted and grounded in a concept that is referred to as existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individual human beings create the meaning and essence of their lives, generally postulating that the absence of a transcendent force [such as God] means that the individual is entirely free, and, therefore, ultimately responsible. We can primarily thank Kierkegaard and Nietzsche for this modern philosophy (though they pre-dated the term existential by nearly a century).
While I don't believe that a book can be truly Christian (God through Jesus centred) and be existentialist (I-centred) too, there's no doubting that a lot of Western Christian material written in this "modern age" has been influenced by this philosophy. Indeed, one only needs to look at how many church goers live with a Me-Church ideology to see that we've not been unsusceptible to the "I-centered" philosophy. And authors will write to where there's a perceived need, otherwise their books won't sell right?. Indeed, "There's a lot of qualified garbage out there," as my former Bible College Principal, Dr Wayne Richards said.
Let's take a moment to think on a (very) few things that seem prevalent in our age:
- These days there are as many self help books in a Christian bookstore as in a regular bookstore...
- There are tele-evangelists who proclaim an erroneous type of prosperity doctrine that appears to say that God's only interest is in making you "prosperous" with your finances (Note: let me say that I do believe God prospers His children, but that is not something that is neccesarily tied in to money at all)...
- There are thousands of altar calls asking people if they want to get saved that are based on nothing more than an appeal to humanism, because the foundation of those altar calls is solely "Do you want to get to nice heaven and escape that old nasty hell?" (Let me elaborate: if you could choose to have that nice huge digitally-tuned 1080HD plasma-screen television, or some nasty small old black-and-white CRT television with poor reception quality, which would you pick? Now don't be falsely modest here friend- you'd pick the plasma TV, wouldn't you? I'll be honest- I certainly would! The point is that this principle is similar for some altar calls- even in "mega-churches". If you could choose to go to that nice heaven, or leave it and end up in old nasty hell- which would you pick?!)
Now, as I mentioned earlier- I love quotes, and I love to ponder on them. This quote from Lewis has made me consider our own generation's failings- and how we as Christians need to live our lives with a firm eye on the 2,000 years of history that we have as "Christians", and the thousands more that preceeded that in Judaism.
I definitely agree with Lewis' statement, "Every age has it's own outlook." Truth be told, our age has a lot that is not going well for it at the moment- and that includes some of the things that are being done in the name of God too. But if we, as Christian's, are able to take the amazing revelation that God is giving us in this age, while tempering and weighing it up in light of historical Christianity as well... looking beyond the borders of our age as it were... I believe we will be able to find a more fulfilling hope in the Gospel through the testimony of the ages.
And that's something well worth pondering, isn't it?
- Shane Miller.
Shane Miller is the founder of the web-site and blog, The God Shack, and has been actively involved in numerous Christian minitries over the last decade. These have included being a youth leader for seven years, being involved in creative arts ministries (including CD recordings), as well as being a missions assistant to Kazakhstan for a year (working with Teen Challenge). Shane is married to his beautiful wife Marie, lives in Sydney Australia, where he works for his home church, as well as being a Core Team member and consultant for the internationally developing youth movement, Generation Fire.
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