The first of Lewis’s Christian apologetics books, and I didn’t understand it.
One of my life goals is to read everything that C.S. Lewis wrote. I’m a long way from meeting that goal, but inching along, book by book, essay by essay, article by article. I’m sort of going in order that the books were written—though not exactly. I’m putting off reading his fiction, the space trilogy, in favor of non-fiction. I may not stick with that, but that’s what I’m doing right now.
So, after finishing and reviewing my last book, I decided it was time for a C.S. Lewis book. The next one in order was The Problem of Pain, his 1940 book, written by request, to help explain to the common man what Christianity was all about. The world was at war—at least Europe was , so Lewis took up the challenge. Thus this was his first book written on what we call Christiam apologetics, a fancy word for defense of Christianity.
Alas, I struggled with the book, much as I did the first two or three times I tried to read Lewis’s later book Mere Christianity. Lewis lost me early on when he mentioned the “Numinous”. Here is, I think, his first reference to it.
In all developed religion we find three strands or elements, and in Christianity one more. The first of these is what Professor Otto calls the experience of the Numinous.
Huh? What the heck is a Numinous?
Lewis took a long paragraph to explain what Numinous was, but this brought no clarity to me. Since this was in the Introduction, it seemed, as I read, that grasping what that meant perhaps was essential to understanding the whole book. Since I didn’t understand it, I suspect it caused me to partially shut my mind off. I read the rest of the book, but truthfully I didn’t comprehend what I was reading.
Alas, I never really recovered from the partial mind shutdown. I say that to my shame. I know this is Lewis’s way, to bring up terms and -isms in a shorthand way, expecting his less-well educated audience to somehow grasp the concept. I kept feeling that in Mere Christianity, and in a very deja vu kind of way with The Problem of Pain.
So, how do I rate this book, is it a keeper, and will I ever read it again? 3-star, yes, and yes. I think I really need to understand this to understand Lewis. I’m sure there’s good stuff in it, stuff that will help me in my Christian walk. But I won’t get back to this very soon. It’s on to the next book, whatever that is.
Perhaps harder than cutting with scissors right-handed is taking a picture of cutting with scissors right-handed.
Tuesday night, after a quiet afternoon and evening, while the TV was running, more for background noise than anything, I had a need to cut something and grabbed scissors from the drawer in the end table between my wife’s and my reading chairs. Except only my wife’s chair is there at present. I was sitting in it. My chair hasn’t yet been returned to its normal spot after it was moved for two months while water damage remediation was going on in our house. I don’t know if the chair would know how to act if it was moved back now.
The chair doesn’t actually enter into the story. I just thought of it. Anyhow, I took the scissors out of the drawer and prepared to do some snipping. But I remembered the problem with scissors. Ninety-five percent of you won’t know what the problem is. Not that they are sharp and moderately dangerous, but that they are made for a right-handed person.
Two features of the scissors make them righthanded. One is the holes the fingers go in. Most scissors have holes that fit fingers on the right hand but not on the left. A right-handed person doesn’t know this, but a lefthander does from years of having the fingers of the left hand in those uncomfortable scissor holes. Cut long enough and the fingers hurt.
Some scissors have “neutral” holes that are the same left-handed or right-handed, but they are rarer. But even with neutral holes, you still have the problem that the sharp edges are made for a right-handed person. The left-hander, after putting his fingers in the backwards holes, learns that you have to squeeze the two part of the scissors in a way that is unnatural in order for them to cut.
Yet you learn to do it. All through grade school you cut things with the handicap of backwards scissors. At some point you learn that they make left-handed scissors. Maybe you find a pair somewhere and try them. While the holes may feel more natural, you find you can’t cut with them even though the sharp edges are, in theory, just right for you. So you keep using the right-handed scissors uncomfortably and somehow get the job done.
But what happens if you ever have to cut something using your right hand? What would make you do this? Maybe if you’re wearing a jacket with buttoned sleeves and see a thread hanging on the left sleeve. You grab the scissors on your desk, snag the errant thread, and cut. Except you can’t cut with your right hand. Though the scissors are made for that hand, you’re too used to squeezing them the other way. You can’t cut even a simple little thread without taking the jacket off and cutting with your left hand.
I suppose that is all incidental to the main story. On Tuesday, the day I reached for the scissors, I intended to use them right-handed. Why? Not for a hanging thread, but to cut three bands off my left wrist. Why did I have them there? Because Tuesday morning, I had a heart catheterization as an outpatient. You see, I have a genetically abnormal aortic valve. I’ve lived with it just fine for 72 years. But now my cardiologist believes it’s time to replace it. So last month I had a trans-esophageal-echocardiogram, and Tuesday the heart cath. The purpose of the tests was to see if everything needed is present to do the valve swap-out in the least invasive way, through the groin.
The way things are these days, I had the results almost immediately through the patient portal. While they are not in English (but rather in medicalese), they are supplemented by what the cardiologist told Lynda. He feels that it’s not very clear that they can go through the groin and I will need open heart surgery. But I must undergo more appointments and see other doctors before we make that decision. And however it’s done, it likely won’t happen until July.
But back to the scissors. I could not get the bands cut with my right hand. I tried and tried, but those scissors sharp sides just wouldn’t cut the bands. I twisted them first one way then the other. No dice, no cut. Should I call my wife and have her do it? I decided to keep trying it. On about the tenth try, I was able to stretch the band to the right place and squeeze the scissors just right, and the first band snapped.
The other two bands cut a little easier. For maybe the first time in my life I successfully used scissors in my right hand. A small life triumph.
Now, as to the heart surgery, I don’t expect it to be easier than cutting three flimsy bands right-handed. But if it must be open-heart, then so be it. I just hope the heart surgeon has the right scissors for whatever handed he/she is.
Now, I have a thread hanging from my left sleeve that needs to be separated from its source.
Easter Sunday. Christ is risen! I write this on Sunday for posting on Monday, April 1, describing the progress I made in March and establishing some goals for April.
First, progress in March relative to goals set.
Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Did this, all with meaningful posts.
Attend three writing group meetings. Did this. Good meetings.
Make major progress on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8. I hope to be about 90 percent done with it by month’s end. I exceeded this goal, being only one section of one chapter away from finishing the first draft. I may take a little time on Sunday to complete the last 600 words.
Publish Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. Very doable by early in the month. I did this, publishing the e-book on March 2 and the paperback on March 5. Had seven sales of it this month on Amazon.
Make website changes as a result to the new publication. I did this, making fewer changes than I thought I would. I’ll probably look at this again in April.
More source reading for the Documenting America series. No, I blew this off in favor of spending the time on the Bible study.
Consider changes to the covers for the AWTHW series, though still encompassing my granddaughter’s artwork. I brainstormed this a little, but did not actual work on it.
Well, what about for April? I will likely lose a little time due to a heart catheterization on April 2. But here are the goals I start the month with, as always subject to change as the month proceeds.
Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
Attend two writers meetings. I’ll miss one due to the heart cath. I am the presenter at another.
Make two rounds of edits on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8.
Begin outlining the next volume to write in the Bible study. Maybe, if other things go faster than I expect, I’ll be able to actually start writing this.
Do some website upgrades.
Continue with scanning old documents and saving them as e-files.
That will be it. Yardwork ramps up in April and I need to keep on top of it, so I’ll lose a little time each day to that. But it’s good to have ambitious goals.
Easter 1974 became a new day for me, a total change in life direction.
It was Easter Sunday, 1974, senior year in college. I was living “down the line,” as we called it at URI. But it was in a small bedroom at my grandparents’ house in Snug Harbor, about 10 miles away. So was I down the line or commuting from home? Not that matters, because it has almost no bearing on the story.
That Sunday morning, I took my grandmother to church, my grandfather not feeling well enough to go. It was a fairly early service and we were back home by 10:00 a.m. After a late breakfast, I went to my bedroom to make an important decision.
I had been active in the job hunt that semester and had four job offers to choose between. Three of them were in the Boston area; the fourth in Kansas City. I knew one of the Boston offers wouldn’t be my choice, so it was really a choice of three jobs. Two in Boston—within commuting distance from my dad’s home in Cranston via bus and commuter rail. One 1500 miles away. I knew this was a decision I couldn’t make on my own, so I stopped to pray about it.
At this point I need to break into my own narrative and explain my spiritual journey. I arrived at college with a basic understanding of liturgical Christianity but no personal relationship with Christ. I attended that denomination one time on campus, and when I went home from time to time. Through the witness of some Navigators on campus, and observing spiritual progress of friends, I had made a commitment to Christ the previous summer while watching a Billy Graham crusade on TV. However, while I had the knowledge I needed, I didn’t turn away from sin. In fact, I fell into the most serious of my sins after that.
But back to the main story. I came to that Easter Sunday morning unconverted. I had three jobs to decide between and felt that I had to do it that day. As I said above, I stopped to pray and ask for guidance. But I realized I had no standing with God that I could ask him for anything or expect an answer.
I stopped my deliberations and bowed my head to pray. Alone, in my bedroom. Just me praying silently and God on the other end, I assumed listening. I prayed a prayer of repentance and asked God to reinstate me—or maybe instate me for the first time. Also that he would guide me through the decision I had to make. I ended my prayer and I felt…nothing.
No bolt of lightning. No hearing God’s voice. No feeling of jubilation.
But I guess I sensed that God heard me. So I prayed again that he would guide my decision, that if he wasn’t going to speak directly to me, he would at least guide me to make the decision he wanted me to make.
And I’m sure he did. I chose the job in Kansas City, and a little over two months later, I loaded up almost all my earthly possessions into my 1966 Plymouth Valiant, with the slant-6 engine, three-speed on the column, and well-worn snow tires on the rear and drove 1,500 miles to begin my professional career. That led me to marriage, then fatherhood, then to Saudi Arabia, then to North Carolina, then to Kuwait and the wartime interruption, then to Northwest Arkansas.
But that’s actually another story, the one that starts my fledgling autobiography, Tales Of A Vagabond. Look for that in maybe 15 to 20 years.
So today is the 50th anniversary of the start of my walk with Jesus, a walk that has been imperfect, but unbroken. I’m not sure what day of what month it was in 1974. I looked it up once. It was sometime in early April, I think, but I choose to remember it on whatever day Easter falls on that year.
I don’t know how many more of these anniversaries I’ll have, but it will always be a special day in my year—the most special day.
I’m writing this Thursday afternoon, March 28. I’ve had a busy day. Devotions. Stock trading accounting. Writing in my work-in-progress. Stock trading. Writing a letter to my #2 grandson. Weekly trip to Walmart for groceries (mainly). Quick swing through the bank drive-through. Dealing with a minor insurance issue. Working on plans for a trip east. Lots of bits and pieces.
This weekend will be a three-day weekend. Tomorrow, Good Friday, is sort of a holiday. I have my work planned out. Trading accounting. Write 1,200 words in my w-i-p. Some yardwork. Filing of financial papers. Scan/e-file as many genealogy papers as I can; maybe some writing papers. Putting things back in place after the work in the house. Updating the checkbook and budget. Begin doing our personal income taxes. Cook some banana bread. Yes, lots to do.
Next Monday will be my regular post, which, being the 1st of the month, will be my progress and goals report. I will have a special post on Sunday, not a normal posting day. It’s a special 50th anniversary for me that I want to tell you about.
Then, next Tuesday, I will have a heart catheterization, hopefully as an out-patient. This is preparatory for me to have my genetically defective/abnormal aortic valve replaced. I don’t yet know when that will be. The heart cath is needed for the doctors to know if they can replace the valve in a minimally invasive way rather than by open heart surgery.
All of which just talks of the busyness of life. Friday will be busy, as will Saturday. I’m hoping to carve out a little time for Bible reading and prayer. I’ll start the days with that.
I love studying history and learning things they never taught in history class.
In my U.S. history studies, I discovered James Otis Jr. and his writings early in the growing dispute between Great Britain and her American colonies. In his The Rights of British of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved in 1764, he wrote this.
That the colonists, black and white, born here, are free born British subjects, and entitled to all the essential civil rights of such, is a truth not only manifest from the provincial charters, from the principles of the common law, and acts of parliament; but from the British constitution, which was reestablished at the revolution [of 1688], with a professed design to lecture the liberties of all the subjects to all generations.
Well, so far so good. Rights are for both blacks and whites. Otis was far, far ahead of most leaders in the colonies in being against slavery, in believing whites and blacks had the same rights. I’m not 100 percent sure he meant this for all blacks as opposed to free blacks, but he definitely was against slavery.
But Otis also exhibited what I call a colonial blind spot concerning slavery, for he also wrote this:
We all think ourselves happy under Great Britain. We love, esteem and reverence our mother country, and adore our King. And could the choice of independency be offered the colonies, or subjection to Great Britain upon any terms above absolute slavery, I am convinced they would accept the latter.
Per Otis, Great Britain could do almost anything to the colonies in the way of short of “absolute slavery” and the colonies would stay with Britain. But he falls into the trap of equating lack of representation in Parliament with slavery. Here’s how I explained it in Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution:
But I think Otis, to some extent, falls into a trap so many of the Founders did when he wrote that the colonists would be willing to accept more British control “upon any terms above absolute slavery.” I find this echoed in the writings of many of the Founders. Taxation without representation equals slavery is a common theme. They go on to say, We won’t be slaves, and a revolution resulted. They are essentially saying, Slavery is a bad thing. Yet many saying that owned slaves and treated them like a commodity, to be used up until they died then buy some more.
If you carry the logic out, were they not saying, Slavery is acceptable for Africans but not for Europeans. Or, Slavery is acceptable for people with black skin but not for those with white? Why was it not acceptable for whites? Because it was evil. So they were really admitting, We will treat black-skinned people in an evil manner, but we will not let others treat us white people that way. Yes, it was racism.
Fortunately, we have come a long way since then. We don’t think that government oppression, however we might define that, is slavery. No, slavery—especially the race-based slavery of the 1700s—was something much, much worse. Those that hated what Parliament was doing and said it made them slaves, didn’t understand what slavery really was.
So the way the leaders in America brought forth the arguments that led to the American Revolution were blind as far as slavery went. Surprise, surprise.
I usually try to have the posts for the blog go live around 7:30 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays. Usually I try to write these a day ahead so that I don’t have to rush them on posting day. But here it is, nearly 8:00 a.m. on Friday, and I’m just writing today’s post.
This week has been very busy as we are dog-sitting again. Our neighbor’s dog, Rocky, has been with us since Saturday. He’s a good dog, but he gets homesick a lot. At his house he goes outside without a leash to do his business. At our house, if we let him out without a leash he will hand around a few minutes, then run home. We then have to go uphill, pass the three wooded lots between our houses, and find and fetch him.
Still, it’s been good to have him here. He’s older now, and I figured out this morning that we may be walking him more than we need, for he didn’t come right out of his nighttime kennel and run to the door. I think I will walk him less today. When we came back from a long walk a couple of days ago, we passed some neighbors out on their porch and stopped to chat for a while. I told them one of us was worn out. The other was a dog.
It’s been good to get my steps in every day. My weight is down (helped by a little sickness on Tuesday) and I’m very close to reaching a major milestone on weight loss. Look for an announcement soon.
On the second walk today, three deer were grazing. Caught two of them in this shot.
Rocky goes home tonight and, despite the work involved with his care, we will miss him. Because of the early morning walks, twice I encountered a herd of around eight deer grazing in the lot north of us. Never would have seen them under normal circumstances. Alas, I didn’t get my camera out in time to snap a picture before they scattered.
Meanwhile, in other news, the water/mold remediation work inside the house is finally done. Two men were here yesterday to re-install the built-in bookcase. All water damaged areas have been removed and replaced. Corrective actions have been made in three areas to keep it from happening again. The painting is not yet done, for we will have Rocky’s owner, who is a professional painter, to do that, hopefully soon. But today I will start putting books back on the shelves. We’ve already put some stuff back in the master bathroom.
I’ve also been able to mostly keep up my writing schedule. Monday through Wednesday, I completed one chapter in the Bible study I’m writing. Yesterday I planned out the next chapter and edited the gospel harmony it’s based on. Today I will try to write one section in it. By the time my writing is done tomorrow I hope to have two more sections done, which is actually a little ahead of the weekly schedule I’ve set for myself.
As far as my special projects are concerned, I’ve fallen a bit behind on them. I’m transcribing letters from our years in Saudi Arabia, intending to put them in a book. But I found a folder with eight items in it from our Kuwait years. The last few days I worked on them, typing and formatting them. They will have to go into the book on the Kuwait years and I’ll have to republish it. All for family, of course. The project of scanning genealogy papers and e-filing them has fallen on hard times. Perhaps I can get back to that in a few days.
No, the taxes! I forgot I still have our taxes to do. Got the business taxes done and in before the March 15 deadline, but still have to do our personal income taxes. I suppose I will have to start on that tomorrow. Alas.
I’m writing this post Sunday afternoon, just in case I’m not able to write more before my deadline.
The last two days have been strange. I have been beset by waves of tiredness. Part of it is we are dog-sitting for our neighbors. We’ve done this before. Rocky is now getting older (like us), and makes fewer demands on us than years ago. Still, there’s walking him. That forces me—and Lynda—to take him out. Yesterday the app on my new Samsung phone had discovered workouts amounting to over a mile.
I found myself exhausted by 4 p.m. yesterday, and today I was exhausted before leaving church. Yet, Saturday was a good day of accomplishment. I started with my weekly accounting (spreadsheet) for stock trading. I had a mistake somewhere, but was able to find and fix it. Next was going through books on my literature/writing bookshelf in the storeroom to see what I could get rid of. I brought a couple of dozen books up to the garage and inventoried them.
I’m working on transcribing letters from our years in Saudi Arabia in anticipation of putting them in a book for family members. Though similar to the project I did a couple of years ago with the letters from our Kuwait years, this is, I think, a bigger project, one that I’m tackling at a slower pace. On Saturday I transcribed 5 or 6 letters from 1982. Alas, the 1982 pile doesn’t look any smaller than it did two weeks ago.
I took Rocky outside to drink up the sun while I did some yardwork. That included transplanting one tiny evergreen tree from where it shouldn’t be to a place where I hope it will grow. One down, three more to transplant. I also was able to pull weeds from front yard, staying ahead of the main weed growing season.
In the afternoon, after yardwork, I was able to take an hour to write a section in the Bible study I’m writing. That was sort of unexpected, as I wasn’t sure I’d get to write at all yesterday.
We began moving a few things back in place in our master bathroom. The water remediation work in that part of the house is done but we put off moving our stuff back due to the work involved. But we got a little done.
The evening was dedicated to studying to teach Life Group today (Sunday). I don’t know that taught a very good class, but at least I was reasonably well prepared.
So that was a fairly full day. I suppose the tiredness was earned, not a result of sickness or something unexplained. Today was less busy, as a Sunday should be. I just got back from walking Rocky almost a mile, and we’re both tired. I’m glad we have enough leftovers that I don’t have to cook.
Possibly I’ll revisit this in the morning before it posts, and see if anything should be added.
3-stars is the best I can give this. It could have easily been 2. Yet I’m going to read it again to see if I’m being too harsh with it.
Back in January, I went to an event at our church titled: “How to Navigate the 2024 Election Year”. The evening involved dinner and a book, as well as a guest speaker. His name is Eric Costanzo, and one of the books to choose between was his, Inalienable: How Marginalized Voices Can Help Save The American Church, coauthored with Daniel Yang and Matthew Soerens. That’s the one I chose. The event was okay, not great. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I went mainly to be supportive of our pastor.
So I read the book, taking over a month to go through it. It was published in 2022, which means it was mostly written in 2020 and 2021. I found the book a little difficult to read. One was the frequent references interspersed—but the authors said in the first chapter they would do that, so it wasn’t a surprise. The other was the frequent use of buzzwords. I have a internal buzzword meter that is kind of fine-tuned. Use a buzzword once and I ignore it. Use it twice and I get a little irked. Use if four or five times in every chapter and I have to fight the urge to puke. That’s where this book is.
The first chapter takes the place of an introduction, with the title “Why the American Church Needs Saving”. Very early comes the phrase, “many evangelical Christians in the United States have silently tolerated or openly embraced nationalism, sexism, and racism, ‘compromising our values for power.” That’s pretty clear for the premise they hope to prove.
Since I am part of the evangelical church, I guess he’s talking about me. Seems that whatever I—we—have done in our Christian walk is all wrong. Yet, in the entire 221 page book, they skirt the issue of who is responsible and give no action steps other than listen to the voices of the “global south,” which is defined in the book as those parts of the world lying south of white Europe and white America.
In an attempt to not offend people, they don’t give names of who is to blame. It’s clear that they are opposed to the evangelical church’s embrace of right-wing Republican politics. They condemn that embrace, as I do. But they don’t mention names, and they really don’t get into specific issues. It would have been nice for them to have picked a date, place, and time when the American church started to go bad to the point that it needs saving, because, assuming they are correct, that would give us a point in time to go back to, figure out what we did wrong, and make corrections going forward.
As to racism, the point is well taken. Sunday mornings tend to be the most segregated moment of the week, and that’s sad. Why is that so? The book didn’t really say, but they strongly imply it’s white racism that is the root cause. The authors seem to imply that forced diversity is the answer. I’ve always been a proponent of natural diversity, where, as an individual of reasonable intelligence and loving care, I come to recognize my prejudices, set them aside with God’s help, and embrace all people as equals before God.
To me it seems wrong-headed to say, Hey, our congregation is too white. We need to find some blacks, Asians, and Hispanics to reach out to. But I may not know any. Why? Simply because in my day-to-day roamings—to the grocery store, the doctor, on my walks, or wherever the chores of a given day take me—I may not meet people who are different than me, or the circumstances may not be right for discussing church with someone.
The other, main problem I see in the book is the continuation of the war on the individual. My review is much too long already, but throughout the book the authors work in that the existence of marginalized groups is due to individualism. I reject that, but explaining why will take more than one post.
Two other things about this book that irk me. While it includes many references to and quotes from their primary sources, the notes are endnote rather than footnotes. I hate endnotes. If it’s important enough to make a reference to it, it’s important enough to have it right on the page where I can easily see it without flipping a hundred pages away. And second, it does not include a list of suggested reading. The quote from probably two hundred sources (see the endnotes to find the names), but don’t suggest the 5, 10, or 20 that will help the reader the most in continued study of what’s wrong with American evangelicalism.
As it is, I give the book 3-stars. I almost gave it 2, but I realize the authors are trying to do a good thing here and address a problem they see. I’m not discarding the book. I hope to read it again, in the not too distant future, in hopes of learning something I missed, and to better understand the authors’ opinions.
I love studying history and learning things they never taught in history class.
My study for writing Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution resulted in me learning an awful lot about that time. We tend to look back at the American Revolution as a glorious event in our history, and the Founding Fathers as great men, who broke with an over-bearing Great Britain and forged a new nation. But was that the truth?
One document I looked at was the Resolves of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765. Written by Patrick Henry, it gave the Virginia response to the Stamp Act. The resolves covered the typical colonial complaints about taxes without representation. Then the last resolve reads:
Resolved, that any person who shall, by speaking or writing, assert or maintain that any person or persons other than the General Assembly of this Colony have any right or power to impose or lay any taxation on the people here, shall be deemed an enemy to His Majesty’s Colony.
Then, after other things Great Britain did didn’t sit well, the New York Sons of Liberty made several resolutions in 1773, the last of which was:
Resolved, That whoever shall sell, or buy, or in any manner contribute to the sale, or purchase of tea…shall be deemed an enemy of the liberties of America.
Really? You disagree with someone’s opinion as to how government shall work and they designate you an enemy? That seems rather extreme, to dismiss someone simply because they hold a different opinion than you. Who knew that, in the 1760 and 1770s in Colonial America they cast you out as an enemy if you analyzed an issue and came to a different conclusion. Kind of like cancel culture, no?
That kind of thought process, coming from two different colonies about two different issues nine years apart shows that this wasn’t a rare thing. It may, in fact, have been a dominant opinion at the time.
It was documents such as these that hit me hard as I researched and wrote the book. Not everything the colonists did was nice. Not everything was right. They have some things to answer for in history. Not that I think the outcome was all that bad, but I’ve come to question some of their methods.
But I need to file this in the “More Research Needed” category.
