Current Sermon
Dealing with Disillusionment
This is one of my rare topical sermons, but it needed to be preached because of a situation that had developed in the church involving one of our leaders who had fallen into sin, refused to repent, and eventually had to be dismissed. For a long time I considered this message too private for publication, meant only for our immediate church family. But because other churches and other believers face similar problems, and because many professed to be profoundly blessed by the biblical way in which we were given the grace to handle this one, I have decided after more than a decade has passed to make this teaching available while hiding the names of the parties involved. In this situation, we needed first explain what had happened. Second, we needed to bring Scripture to bear on it so we could know how to deal with it biblically. And third, we needed, on that basis, to pull together as a congregation so that we could face what lie ahead.
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Reviews
C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion
Surely one of the most controversial books in the history of Lewis studies was the first edition of John Beversluis's C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion, originally published by Eerdmans in 1985. Billing itself as the only book-length critical study of Lewis's rational apologetic for Christian faith, it concluded that none of his arguments succeeded. Reviewing the first edition in Mythlore 43 (Autumn 1985), Nancy-Lou Patterson called it "as waspish a work" as it had ever been her "disagreeable task to review," concluding that the faith, "including its reasoned elements" would survive the book (42). Patterson was right: the first edition sometimes gave the impression that Beversluis thought accusing Lewis of a fallacy was equivalent to demonstrating that he had committed it. Few readers who had appreciated Lewis's apologetic works were convinced by Beversluis's arguments.
Now we have a new revised, updated, and expanded edition. It has already caused much exultation on atheist websites and much dismissive eye-rolling among Lewis fans. Neither reaction is justified.
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Essays
Humanity And Faerie: J. R. R. Tolkien And The Place Of Narrative In Conceptualizing The Christian Life
Few matters have a greater influence on how we understand ourselves and deal with life's problems than how we tell our own life story, how we see and interpret our own personal narrative. Therefore one of the most helpful things a biblical counselor can do to understand clients is to hear and understand the way they tell their own stories. And one of the most helpful things he can do to serve them is to help them see their own personal story in the light of, and as part of, the grand Story that Scripture presents as the key to the meaning of human existence. Without this kind of vision, our clients can never develop a truly and deeply biblical self concept. Our very understanding of what human nature is will depend on our ability to see that larger Story as meaningful and as true. No one has done more to help us pursue that kind of understanding than G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien.
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"The Mind Is Its Own Place": Satan's Philosophy And The Modern Dilemma
Satan began his career by rebelling against his Maker and proceeded by trying to enlist others in his rebellion. Many readers have thought that Milton's Satan began by rebelling against his author and has proceeded by trying to enlist others in that rebellion. A sufficient number of critics seem to have joined up in any case. Whatever we make of his cause or his case, Satan continues to demand our attention, and Milton's characterization of his arch villain remains one of the most fascinating aspects of his great spiritual epic. To the extent that Milton's portrait of the real Enemy of our souls is accurate, it gives us insight not only into Milton's poetry but also into the spiritual battles in which we are still engaged.
Discussion of whether Satan is-intentionally or not-Milton's "real hero" in Paradise Lost has tended to center on Satan's personality. After the defiant freedom fighter of Books I and II-Satan as Che Guevara-the slightly pompous and definitely defensive Theology Professor which is Milton's portrayal of God in Book III can seem a bit of a let down, even to those who have not missed the fact that this picture of Satan is created by accepting at face value his own view of himself. Did Milton fail to anticipate how much less obvious the contrast between the self-serving image created by Satan's propaganda machine and the plain unvarnished truth of Heaven (well analyzed by Stein and others) would be to a generation jaded by constant exposure to spin doctors? No doubt. In this paper we will examine another set of clues Milton gave us as to how we should take his great Antagonist, a set that has perhaps not received the attention it deserves
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Comment
As I look at the current scene, I see a church in desperate need of three great movements of God:
Renaissance:
A recovery of the life of the mind. An increasingly illiterate generation is harder to reach with a faith founded on the message of a Book; an increasingly illiterate church is incapable of experiencing full-orbed Christianity based on the whole counsel of God;
Reformation:
A recovery of sound doctrine. Otherwise, we gorge ourselves on spiritual junk food while the great truths of the faith slip through our fingers;
Revival:
A recovery of vital spirituality. The great error of our generation is to believe that this recovery is possible apart from the first two. Biblically and historically it is not. Without Renaissance and Reformation, all our zeal for Revival is vanity and striving after wind.
On February 2, 2002, I delivered 5 Theses on Ministry at University Church in Athens, GA. This sermon is a revision of my "Final Tirade and Last Diatribe at Trinity Fellowship of Toccoa." It is available here as a Microsoft Word document: 5 Theses on Ministry.