On Wednesday, Mer and I finally caught up with Mike Murray, the former student of ours who had gone on a several-month mission trip to South Africa. We agreed to meet at a Cold Stone Creamery in Montrose (western Akron). Mer and I wanted to see Mike, and with ice cream thrown in, it was a good prospect.
We visited with Mike for about an hour. Sadly, my ice cream was pretty bland; I think they forgot some of the toppings I requested. Mike had a lot of good things to say about South Africa, but I had trouble hearing Mike. He is soft-spoken, and the “background” music at Cold Stone was pretty loud. It sounds as if Mike had ups and downs, but that his training for the trip had prepared him as much as possible for the downs (like homesickness toward the end of the trip). Mike got to serve both in a large and modern city, where most of his ministry took place, as well as on some visits to very remote villages. He worked mostly with kids by putting on church camps focused on kids.
Mer and I had to leave after about an hour because we had a lecture to attend. Years ago, I got some lectures on the author C.S. Lewis that were published by The Teaching Company. The lecturer’s name was Dr. Louis Markos, and they were excellent talks. Two local churches and a local ministry teamed up to bring Dr. Markos to the area for two lectures over two evenings: one on C.S. Lewis and modern thought, and one on C.S. Lewis and postmodern thought. We were very excited to go, and we had the added bonus that Mer’s parents wanted to go as well. When we got to the church, we saw our friend Dubbs, so it was a merry little company for the evening.
Wednesday’s lecture was on C.S. Lewis and modern thought. Modern thought, in a simplified nutshell, focuses on logic and reason. Lewis, as the 20th century’s most well-known Christian author, wanted to show modern thinkers that Christianity is a logical faith. Lewis maintained that the “leap of faith” that many people feel Christianity requires is actually more of a small step of faith. Faith is still required, but there are logical and reasonable underpinnings of the faith.
Markos explained that Lewis first tried to establish that morals must come from outside human experience since basic morals cross cultures. He also pointed out that even hardened atheists will demand what is “fair,” but if there is no outside morality, there is no “fair” to which one can appeal. Lewis answers that the outside morality must come from a supernatural (outside of nature) source, and develops that argument to point toward God (theism – belief in God, even if not necessarily Christianity). Markos then talked us through Lewis’ reasoning that based on the claims that Jesus made, specifically that he was equal with God, Jesus must be the world’s foremost liar, a complete lunatic, or he must be what he claims – the Lord. Lewis pointed out that Jesus’ teachings were too consistent and rational for Jesus to be insane. He also argued that Jesus would not have suffered all he did for a lie. So, according to Markos and Lewis, that leaves Jesus as Lord. It was a well-done lecture.
On Wednesday, Markos was having a questions and answers session at The Root Cafe, a coffeehouse in the basement of a nearby church. I took off from work early so Mer and I could go together. The talk was very informal, mostly about Lewis growing up, with a little bit of Tolkien’s life thrown in for good measure. Mer had a Root gift certificate, so we had some good munchies as well.
In the evening, Dale and Carlene joined us again, and we met Dubbs again, for the second lecture: Markos explaining Lewis’ ideas as related to postmodern thought. My take on postmodern thought is that it is more emotional and puts more emphasis on story and the experience of individuals. For this, Markos explained, Lewis appealed to myth. Lewis was a great scholar, and knew many myths of gods who died and came back to life, and for a long time Lewis though that the story of Jesus was just another myth. Then, one day, when Lewis and Tolkien were walking and talking, Tolkien asked Lewis if he had ever considered that Jesus might be “the myths made fact” – that is, that all the myths were types or examples preparing the way for the myth that became a fact in history. That clicked for Lewis, and persuaded him to embrace Christianity. Lewis used the same argument with the miracles of Jesus – all prior stories of miracles pointed ahead to Jesus. Lewis pointed out that Jesus’ miracles tended to be within nature. For instance, Jesus made water into wine; Lewis points out that this happens all the time in grapes, but it takes much longer. So, for Lewis, older stories of mythological miracles in which nature is violated, such as when men are turned into animals, lack a ring of possibility and truth, whereas Jesus’ miracles take place within a natural scheme of things, and so carry weight.
It was a very interesting lecture, and Mer and I were very pleased to have gotten to meet one of our literary heroes.