Integrative Essay

Christopher Thyberg

IDIS 150-07 - DCM - C.S. Lewis

January 24^th, 2011

Professors Paulo and Adriana Ribeiro

Over the past three weeks we have been given a great deal of knowledge. We have received wisdom from C.S. Lewis, Cornelius Plantinga, as well as from both our professors. We have read a multitude of works, discussed a variety of topics, and have participated in some deep self-discovery. The question that now arises is; how does this new information shift our views on life, and more importantly how does it change the way we live from here on out? Because we were given such a wide array of knowledge there is no conceivable way that I could thoroughly discuss each subject to a satisfactory degree. Instead I will discuss Lewis’ works: Weight Of Glory, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters. In addition to this I will evaluate Plantinga’s work with a focus on vocation. It is my hope that I can find ways to integrate these pieces, not just together, but also into our every day lives.

The first piece that I want to discuss is Mere Christianity. This piece is one of the best apologetic writings I have ever read. Our moral conscience is something that we generally just accept. We feel guilt and remorse for our actions, as well as frustration when people act in ways that we deem unfair, but we don’t often stop to question why some things are considered fair and others aren’t. If some things are fairer than others, than there must be some sort of standard to compare them to. Even on a global scale throughout different time periods and cultures, our basic morality has stayed the same. Certainly details, names, and some reasons have changed, but the basic principles remain. Lewis explains this more in his piece The Abolition of Man where he describes the morality of different cultures, finding them to be far more similar than different. From his findings there seems to be a natural law that transcends time and culture. It has been said that our moral law is nothing more than a pack instinct where we want to do what is best to preserve the group. But this is not fully satisfactory. When we hear a man’s cry for help we have two instincts. The first is the self-preservation instinct; we don’t act because we want to keep ourselves safe. The second is the pack instinct that wants to help the man. In addition to these two impulses, there is a third thing, which tells you that you ought to follow the impulse to help, and suppress the impulse to run away.  Since this thing judges the two instincts, and decides which should be encouraged, it cannot be either one of these two instincts. "The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys." (Lewis, Mere Christianity) Lewis believes that our moral code comes from a higher being. He uses all of Mere Christianity to explain why it is a higher being, and then from there he explains why he believes it is the god of the Christian religion.

With a strong apologetic argument in place for why we should believe in God, it can now be examined for what this means for each of us in our daily lives.  Stated plainly, it changes everything. Our lives are not based on simple chance and a random accident. We were created by God, to live in community with Him for eternity. In his work The Weight Of Glory Lewis describes the potential that is found in each and every one of us. We are all souls, not only that, but we are immortal souls. We have the opportunity to find eternal peace with God, or everlasting pain in Hell. But we don’t often work like that do we? "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like and ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (Lewis, Weight Of Glory) In our lives, we find satisfaction in half-hearted exploits. We seek simple, passing happiness that dissipates in the wind through time. This is not how God intended us to live. These things are not in themselves bad. In fact, they are often attached to God in some way. But we cannot mistake them for the real thing; our life in eternity is on the line. The next important part of this is that what we do to either help or hinder others in their personal spiritual journeys has a significant impact on their future. We must treat each other with the utmost care. We are not dealing with passing objects or mortal beings; each human being is an immortal spirit that should be treated with respect.

If there is an all-powerful God, and we are immortal souls created to live with Him, we must live in accordance with this design. In The Screwtape Letters Lewis shows some of the ways that we as Christians often fail in this task. The story is of a Head Devil, Screwtape, writing to his nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is in the process of tempting a “patient,” a newly converted Christian man. Throughout the entire book Lewis lists countless different aspects of human weakness and how we can be manipulated by the devil, however in our class we focused on Chapter 12. In this chapter Lewis delves into how small habits can be used against us to pull us away from God. When we become complacent with our situation and do not strive to get closer to God we will drift away. Our faith cannot stay in one place. It either grows or it recedes. If the devil can have us satisfied with basic temptations he can draw our attention away from God. Screwtape even goes as far as to tell Wormwood that, “indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (Lewis, The Screwtape Letters) We do not need to commit major sins, if a minor one is enough. Every action, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant is pointless. Everything we do has an effect and can never be undone, we can change our situation and fix things certainly, but we cannot go back in time to stop it from happening. From The Screwtape Letters we see the danger of us become idle in our faith. We should not fear the pleasure in life that God gives us, because many things in life are God’s gift to us. But we must be conscientious of what we follow and if it distracts us from God. And we must always be aware of the “dim uneasiness” we feel when we become distant from God. We cannot let the uneasiness grow; rather, we should face it head on in prayer. That is the only way that we can become fully aware of our situation.

            In addition to Lewis’ works, Plantinga’s book, Engaging God’s World, allows us to view the world from a Christian Reformed view. The chapter that is most useful to our everyday application is vocation. Plantinga explains that vocation is so much more than just our job. It is our deepest calling in life; it is our role in the plan that God has made for us. God has dominion over everything, but He also gives us power over our own kingdoms. “In fact, to some extent we are all rulers just because God has created us in his own image to have responsible dominion.” (Plantinga, 107) Our vocation is to integrate our kingdom into shalom with God’s kingdom. This will transcend every aspect of our life. Family, friends, church, jobs, hobbies, and all other parts of our existence will come into place. “Successful living in God’s world depends not only on taking responsibility for our own realm and preserving it if we can. Success depends on meshing our kingdom with the kingdoms of others.” (Plantinga, 108)

            In my opinion, vocation is the answer to how we integrate what we learned from C.S. Lewis and Plantinga into our everyday life. From Mere Christianity Lewis makes a decisive argument to the existence of God. This puts a huge impact on how we live life. The moral code is no longer an animalistic instinct, it is the law of God. Therefore, our vocation should be in the pursuit of justice. We do not all need to become police officers, but morality and integrity should be ingrained in the way we conduct ourselves, be it at work or with our loved ones. Following this in Weight of Glory, if God created us as immortal souls, we deserve each other’s respect. Part of vocation is bringing our personal kingdoms into harmony with others. We have the potential to help others to Heaven or Hell, and it is part of our duty to be a strong a supporter to them as we possibly can be. And finally as described in The Screwtape Letters, there are the distractions offered by the devil to lure us away from our vocation. Satan wants nothing more than to lead us from the light. We must always be aware of our state with God, praying constantly, so that we can be sure that we are right with Him, following our vocation.

            College is the time for us to learn about our vocation, and to see the plan that God has for us. College is our time for training and preparing ourselves for the future. College is where you get the skills for your new career, it is where many people meet their future spouse, and it is where people “discover themselves.” This can be done at any college, but at Calvin College we are offered the unique opportunity to grow spiritually, looking at the world from a different perspective. Calvin gives us the chance to take our theology and integrate into every inch of our life. Every piece of literature we read, every math problem we solve, every friendship we make, every Bible passage we discuss, all of this is a part of our vocational training. We integrate what we learned in this class the same way we integrate anything we learn, we pray and we use our discernment for God’s judgment, and then take that knowledge to make us more of the person that God intended us to be.

WORKS CITED

Lewis, C.S. “The Weight of Glory.” Calvin College ~pribeiro. N.p.: n.d. Web. 24 January 2011

Lewis, C.S. “Mere Christianity.” Calvin College ~pribeiro. N.p.: n.d. Web. 24 January 2011

Lewis, C.S. “The Screwtape Letters.” Calvin College ~pribeiro. N.p.: n.d. Web. 24 January 2011

Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God's World. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2002. 103-137. Print.

                       

The Paradox of Pain

We all have pain, it is one of the most inevitable facts of life. But we were created by a God who loves us and who wants to bring us joy. If God is omnipotent and all powerful as we believe, then why do we all suffer every day? Why is there tragedy and hardship in all our lives? In his talk Kreeft even says that this has been cited as one of, if not the biggest argument against Christianity. It is something that I think all of us have struggled with at one point or another. Lewis' book, "The Problem of Pain" tries to answer how a God who is all powerful and fully good can allow pain and suffering to be present in the world.

One of the first things that Lewis talks about is that a lot of pain comes from human beings. Where fallen creatures live together there is bound to be conflict. Humans have created weapons, have fought each other, lied, cheated and caused pain to others. God does not cause this pain.

However, what about the other forms of pain in our life? Natural disasters, It seems funny at first to think that God allows pain in our lives. Perhaps funny isn't a strong enough word. Backwards, paradoxical, wrong even. But Lewis' explains why pain can be a good thing in our lives. When our lives are going well, aren't we fully content with our situation. We want for nothing. The problem with this is, that we don't want for God. We are usually consumed with our present situation and think to ourselves that we are content with what we have. Friends, money--later in life, our own family, a house. We acquire small things and we think they are enough to keep us happy. We look for anything and everything to find happiness in. Everything except for God. But think about when a tragedy occurs, we turn again to God. When life is difficult we turn to prayer, to God's comfort.

Lewis believes that God uses pain as a way to remind us to turn to Him. God is not proud. If He were, He would only accept us if we turned to Him with pure intentions. But as Lewis says, God "stoops to conquer." He is willing to meet us anyway He can.
So perhaps pain and suffering in our lives is not a paradox against the existence of God. Maybe God uses pain so that we realize the finitude of the things we search for, so that we realized we need something bigger than ourselves. We live in a fallen, broken world, and we are searching for answers. God is trying to help us look for Him. We will always fall short, but through God's grace, we still find forgiveness and redemption.

Are We Men Or Rabbits?

When I read C.S. Lewis paper on "Man or Rabbit?" The thing that I was most struck by was when Lewis spoke about Confucius, Socrates, and J. S. Mill. Lewis seems to talk about hoping that God will find mercy for these men because they were in an honest state of ignorance, or in J. S. Mill's case, he was in an honest state of error. I have always really struggled with the idea of eternal damnation that is given to those who do not follow God. I have always had a hard time with this because God is a loving God. I understand that He is also a just God and therefore we need to face our sentence. But it still confuses me many times when I think about God sending people to an eternity in Hell. I think when I become most confused is in the two examples that Lewis talks about between Socrates and Confucius as well as J. S. Mill's.
Socrates and Confucius were great human beings who worked for the betterment of men. But they did not know God, because Jesus and his message had not reached them. They were ignorant of God's existence. It seems harsh that God could damn them when it was completely outside of their control whether or not they had heard of him. They were members of honest ignorance. It seems like Lewis' says that he hopes that God finds a way to have mercy on them, and I agree with him. "I hope and believe that the skill and mercy of God will remedy the evils which their ignorance, left to itself, would naturally produce both for them and for those whom they influenced."
 On an even grander scale is J. S. Mill. He was not ignorant of God's existence, but he could not come to terms with it. But from what I understood from Lewis, Mill tried as hard as he could to understand Christianity and he could not believe it. Lewis describes this as an honest error. I often wonder about people of other religions and what their fate in eternity will be. I really cringe at the idea that people who are searching for truth, who want to serve God, but maybe have grown up in a different religion, will be damned. I think this idea is scary to me because I think had I been raised in a different religion I would be that religion. I grew up in a Christian household, and although I have chosen this faith for myself now, I do think that it is really tough to abandon what you have been taught by your family and friends. Religion is a huge part of culture and so it defines a lot of how we are raised and what we believe. Certainly we have time to grow and change, but if we are being honest we know that it is difficult. The Bible even says for parents to teach their children in the faith. I do not like the idea that God will save only those who will have been exposed to his teachings in the right atmosphere. In my opinion it doesn't seem loving or just to create human beings if they have no purpose other than to live and then go to Hell. I know it is not my place to question God, and there really is no way for us to know if those people go to Heaven or Hell. I liked that Lewis left this question open ended. But this question has always been a difficult struggle in my faith. And I certainly hope that God finds a way in His mercy to redeem us. Because we all make mistakes, and we are all ignorant.

Vocation

The idea of vocation is one of the biggest aspect's of college life in my opinion. We are not just learning skills for future careers, but also the abilities to discern what God is calling us to do in many aspects of our life. From marriage, to children, to church, to how we spend our free time--college is designed to teach us how to sift through all these major life issues, and to see how we can use them to fit into the kingdom.

I think a part of this that I found most insightful, was the concept of all of us having our own individual kingdoms. That Christ is King of Kings, but this means that there are steps and levels of control that we all have. It's an interesting concept to think about, because in a way it makes a lot of sense. God rules over all, but here on earth we need various leaders to represent countries, other leaders to represent states, others still for cities, even more for business, and the list goes on and on for the many different aspects of life that we have "dominion" (I use this term loosely since all our power and control is from God) over. I really like this as an analogy for us reaching towards shalom. All of our kingdoms, family, work, friends, church, neighborhoods and community, nationally, and internationally are meshed together with God reigning over us. It is a really beautiful idea.

This concentric circle can be seen as the connecting circles of kingdoms in our lives as God is the overarching circle that encompasses us all.

As I mentioned before, college is the time for us to be getting our "training" for these kingdoms. Plantinga says, and I agree, that there is a real advantage to going to a Christian college. Educational training for work is a great thing, but it is only one aspect of our vocation. We want to learn how to look at the world from a Christian perspective so we can see where God wants us, and not just where the best jobs are. We are given Christian professors who genuinely care about our well being and who will take care of us. This is a great thing because without guidance we can often fall into dangerous situations that will lead us away from our vocation.

 Something I really appreciated that Plantinga mentioned though, was that we cannot just have a Christian education and expect everything to work out. It will require time, energy, and a lot of hard work to achieve anything academically and spiritually. We cannot just swallow the information we are told. We need to decide for ourselves if we believe it so when we step out into the world, we are as prepared as we possibly can be. In addition to this, I also was thankful for Plantinga's mention that non-Christians can contribute to shalom. It is true that it is more an indirect action, or only half the story when they do this, but it is important to always remember that we are not better than anyone else, and God uses all people.
We have a great opportunity here at Calvin to learn in a great environment and have God show us the way to our vocation, all we have to do is listen and have responsible dominion over our kingdom.

The Inner Ring

Are cliques a good thing or a bad thing? If you look at what we are taught by our parents, the church, and usually our teachers, we are always taught that cliques are a bad thing. Regardless of their negative connotation cliques are everywhere. In fact, it is rather impossible not to be involved in one, and if you aren't in it then you are outside another. Cliques seem to dominate all of our lives, from all stages of schooling, to sports teams, to friends, to work, even in the church. C.S. Lewis says that cliques "[are] not only a bad thing, it is (in itself) a good thing, that personal friendship should grow up between those who work together." But Lewis' does not let inner rings end there, and for good reason. Although it is quite natural that we have cliques and that we have a natural affinity for those that we have similar interests with, that does not mean that what we do to form them is okay.

The greatest danger in an inner ring is the exclusion factor. "Exclusion is no accident; it is the essence." Lewis talks about how when we join an inner ring it is often a long and difficult journey for us, and after we have achieved our goal we generally make it just as difficult for incomers to get in simply because we had to struggle as well. It is a vicious cycle that has no end insight. Cliques get their worth from their exclusivity. This is not a good thing by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the reality. As we discussed this in class I was a little surprised at first at the idea of cliques in heaven. Upon further reflection though, it seems to make perfect sense. As I mentioned before, circles of friends are not inherently bad. If I love soccer it only makes sense that I will become close with those who share my love and we will spend time together playing soccer. On the other hand if you enjoy golf, we are less likely to spend a saturday afternoon together playing sports. The difference here is the intent. It is natural to spend time with those I am similar to, but we are not intentionally excluding people, in heaven anyone and everyone will be able to access these groups, they will have the choice. The other thing is that in heaven we will all have the unifier of worshiping God together, so we will always have one body that we are all apart of.
Something that was interesting to me when we were discussing this in our small groups was the idea of best friends and relationships in heaven. It seems to make sense that we have specific people who God made for us, or that we were made for. In either case we all feel a level of closeness to specific people that it seems no one else can match. But in Heaven will this feeling be across the board for everyone? We will all be living in loving community with one another praising God. But will we be like cells that all connect together but are their own piece, or one solidified group? I am no theologian and do not have the answers to these questions. But I thought it was a thought provoking question to consider.

Eros

I loved the reading that we had today on Eros. It was really insightful, thoughtful, and humorous. I could talk about a wide variety of the things that Lewis addresses, but I think a few of the things I found most profound was his belief that we shouldn't take sex too seriously, that our body is "Brother Ass", and that falling in love and being in love are two very different things.
To begin, Lewis says that it is vital that we do not take sex too seriously, and we cannot take it in the wrong sense of seriousness. This seems particularly insightful to me. In our culture sex is either considered taboo and shameful, or it is put on a pedestal and given privilege that it does not really deserve. On the one hand, it seems to me that the church is very restrained about talking about sex. In my youth group in high school, we did not ever once talk about sex. This past year there was one day that was designated for it. My friend told me that about 3 people out of our youth group of 35 went. Sex is so taboo. It is sort of that idea, out of sight out of mind. And this frankly cannot stand. If we treat sex so seriously that we cannot talk about it to teenagers, how will they ever learn what is moral? I think this becomes most apparent in college when we are given freedom. Calvin does a great job providing healthy boundaries. But consider a state school where there are no restrictions on open hours. A student who has never been talked to about sex will not know how to set healthy boundaries for their own safety. Conversely, we cannot take it to the extreme and make sex so serious that we see it above other aspects of life. I see this most in the media and in the way sex is portrayed in movies and television. Sex is represented as this ultimate desire. It is made to be the true shape of love and what we all want, and this frankly just isn't true. Sex was made to be a beautiful part of life, but we cannot say that it is the most important impulse. It needs to be controlled just as any other impulse. As with anything we need to find a healthy balance with sex, treating it with a sense of humor but seeing the gravity of it's consequences.
The second thing that I found so interesting is how Saint Francis referred to the body as Brother Ass. It is so fitting. I think we often take body image very seriously. It is why we work out, why we eat healthily, why we take care of ourselves. We want our bodies to represent physical health. But our bodies aren't the epitome of our being. They aren't even really that important. Our bodies don't have souls, we are souls that have bodies that are fleeting. That doesn't mean they don't have worth and we shouldn't take care of them. God calls our bodies temples, and we should treat them as such. But at the same time, we should not become obsessed with self-image.
Finally, I thought Lewis' analogy of falling in love with diving was really apt. When we fall in love it is like diving off the board to the water. When we are in love, it is being in the water when we no longer dive, we must swim. All throughout this time, we need our partner to dive with us and they must swim with us once we are swimming. I just really like this analogy because it makes so much sense to me. I was a swimmer all through high school so the analogy really applies. When you are at the starting blocks you take a hard strong dive, this momentum and push is the fastest you go the entire race, but of course it can't last. Once you are in the water, you stay in diving position as long as you can, but eventually you loose speed. You then have to start swimming or you will just float to the surface and stop. Swimming is a lot harder than diving, but it is just as important. You need to swim and to swim hard or you won't finish the race. In the same way, falling in love is the most exhilarating and fastest part of love. But then time passes and things slow down. You have to work to maintain the love. If you try to coast off of the initial love you will never make it. And being in love is much harder than falling in love. But it is the most important part, to keep going so that you can finish the race.

Redemption

"Everybody wants liberty. The problem is that everybody wants it on his own terms. But salvation doesn't work that way. God doesn't save people (from slaver, from addiction, from sin and shame) and then cut them loose to do what they want, because without the guidance of God 'doing what we want' is a recipe for falling right back into slavery."
When we think about redemption, we can see all the many things God is doing in us to bring us into shalom. There is a healing quality that is very present. But at the same time, we are still completely entrenched in our shortcomings. It seems like so much of what we want is not what God wants for us. We think we know best, we think we can achieve happiness and freedom by doing whatever we want. An ironic and tragic mistake, because the things that we think bring freedom really trap us. The freedom to use narcotics will in many cases lead you to an addiction that traps you. You no longer are free to use it, you are forced to use it. This example is applicable to many other examples. Over and over again, it seems that when we go our way we end up trapped and inflicting ourselves with detrimental tendencies. This is why we need to rely on God. We need His guidance so that we can be liberated truly.
Of course this is much easier said than done. It is easy to see the shortcomings in others, much harder to see them in ourselves. What is even harder is after we acknowledge our faults we must change them. And of course we will not succeed perfectly. We will fail, time after time. But God is redeeming this world, and He is bringing us closer to Him.
Through sanctification and justification, also known as double grace, God is giving us the ability to grow closer to Him. God justifies us, even though we do not deserve it. He forgives us of our sins and our faults. Beyond this, He sanctifies us, helping us grow closer to Him, bringing us out of these ruts and trenches we have dug ourselves into. We will never reach perfection while we live on this broken earth, but we can grow closer to God and see the power of His redemption if we move towards him. Nicholas Wolterstorff explains this process with two terms, our "authentic christian commitment" and our "actual christian commitment." Our authentic christian commitment put simply, is who God wants us to be. Our actual christian commitment is who we truly are. Our entire life is this process of bringing our actual christian commitment closer to our authentic christian commitment. As we get older and the more we grow the farther our authentic commitment goes, we can never catch it. But if at the end of our life we look back at the progression we made, day after day, month after month, year after year, we will be worlds apart from where we were. This is sanctification, in this world. In Heaven we will be able to achieve this completely. But for now it is a clear way to see just how God is redeeming us and creation in the present.