You all will be relieved to hear that I successfully completed my essay assignment over J. Gresham Machen's provocative treatise, "Christianity & Culture." I ended up enjoying myself, discovering one of my favorite themes, "mental fight" (William Blake), entrenched squarely in the whole argument. Here's an excerpt (from my paper): Earth is a war zone. As Dostoevsky wrote, “God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.”[1]...Pastors must be men of courage, like Luther at Worms,[3] advancing with gospel weapons in their hands. The truth must saturate their minds and fortify their spines. The need is for humble defiance, a nonconformist’s audacity— “I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is strongest”[4]—but in Christ’s strength. Christianity, as characterized by C.S. Lewis, is “a fighting religion.”[5]
Thrilling stuff, eh.
All that goes to say that now I'm back to my usual pastime, writing bittersweet stuff that makes people say, "Huh."
[1] Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (New York: Random House, 1990), 108.
[2] Available only in the full-text version. :) If you just have to read it, send me a note.
[3] Worms was the context for Luther’s famous statement: “My mind is held captive by the Word of God… Here I stand. God help me. I cannot do otherwise.”
[4] Henry D. Thoreau: Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience (Thoreau Reader, 2004). 23 November 2004, available from http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil.html
[5] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1980), 37.
Friday, November 26, 2004
A Pastor Will Rise
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1 comments:
I was reading about J. Gresham Machen in the car today (history of Christianity book). Now I read his name on your site. Probably had not seen his name in a decade. Twice. One more time today and I'll pronounce a trend.
I was not driving, btw.
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