Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Popular English Writers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Popular English Writers. Show all posts

Sunday, November 21, 2021

C.S. Lewis - The Reluctant Convert


English Professor and Author, Clive Staples Lewis


C.S. Lewis - The Reluctant Convert

by R.E. Slater


Recently I viewed "The Most Reluctant Convert" in the theaters on November 20, 2021, after its release date on November 3. I cannot say I am a Clive Staples Lewis fan although I did my obligatory readings of several of his authored writings in my collegiate days. Where nuance of the English tongue is wanted I much prefer Lewis' Inkling friend J.R.R. Tolkien. In fact, I have most of Tolkien's books and have read many of them.

Lewis, on the other hand, was more of an oddity to me. His friend, Sheldon Vanauken, who wrote "A Severe Mercy," of his wife's death was probably my first glimpse of Lewis. After that, Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters, A Grief Observed, and much later, Shadowlands, were my next and last readings of Lewis, but never Surprised by Joy, which tells of the famous author's reluctant journey into Christianity.

To be frank - and this can be chalked up to my own philosophical and theological outlooks - any of Lewis' children's tales I have disliked intensely as silly pandering to Christianity's eschatological envisioning of the future which I find a most unhelpful reading of the Old and New Testament Scriptures in mythological portrayal by Lewis. Even so, his adult books have been quite inspirational to the many who read them, and in my young adulthood, I had liked them too. However, for greater depth of reading I would recommend The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. I believe the classic theistic reader will find Tozer's thoughts to be more deeply inspiring for sheer weight of insight. (Btw, when Google Blogger switched over to its new publisher system all my earlier year's of writings became smaller in font size. To rectify, simply zoom the display +25% and they will be more easily read).

When reading Lewis, everything from his pen sounds deeply philosophical, interlaced with profound somber feelings of introspection and critique of the world as he understood it. Here, in his conversion story, he begins the atheist's journey with many valid arguments against Christianity. Fortunately for him he had Christian friends which put the emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus. Something he couldn't argue well against though well he tried.

And so, I was pleasantly surprised how Lewis' story moved from the philosophical argument to the Christological argument and lastly to his own personal story of a childhood which needed healing in order for his faith to get right and finally settle into a course which much suited his need for faith in turbulent times. A faith that could lay out his being and brought to him a peace he couldn't find in anything else. And most notably a faith which became intensely personal based upon a deeply personal relationship with Jesus.

Below please find a trailer of the Lewis' life (remember it'll be deeply philosophical then Christological... it was how Lewis was... he wasn't an easy conversationalist unless he was hanging around children). Then an interview with the main actor and narrator of the film, John West. And finally... to my surprise again!... a 90 minute piece reciting most of Lewis' book, Surprised by Joy! which I'm listening to as the very dense film dearly requires a second hearing.

Ps. As a film purist, you loose nothing by skipping the film's first 10-15 minutes. It tends to ruin the movie. Afterwards feel free to go back and watch it. You'll see then why I suggest skipping ahead.

Enjoy,

R.E. Slater
November 21, 2021



THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT:
THE UNTOLD STORY OF C.S. LEWIS | OFFICIAL TRAILER
Sep 8, 2021




Actor Max McLean Discusses His New C.S. Lewis Film
 "The Most Reluctant Convert" with John West
Oct 19, 2021

Actor Max McLean discusses his new film about the life of C. S. Lewis, "The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis," with Discovery Institute Vice President John West, editor of the book "The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society."  "The Most Reluctant Convert"  premieres in theaters in the United States and Canada for one-night only on Nov. 3. For more information, visit https://www.cslewismovie.com.  Get a discussion guide for the film at https://www.cslewismovie.com/resources/.

 


SURPRISED BY JOY ➤ Affirmations of the I AM:
Confidence, Positive Energy, Abundance, Peace & Joy
Jan 22, 2020




The Life of C.S. Lewis

Birthed in Belfast Ireland on Nov. 29, 1898, Clive Staples Lewis (nicknamed Jack) grew up with a profound love for reading novels. A few of his favorites were the Beatrix Potter tales. He had a fascination for writing and displaying his animal tales.

Losing his mother from a young age had a profound effect on Lewis’s life. Without her knowledge and godly influence, he finally walked away from his religion, getting an atheist education under agnostic-and-atheistic schooling later as a teenager.

Serving in World War I, Lewis faced pain and hardship after being injured and continued his search for meaning in existence through his early years of young adulthood. C.S. Lewis eventually came back to God at age 32, heavily affected by the inspirational writings of George McDonald along with other coworkers and friends, including J. R. R. Tolkien and G. K Chesterton.

Since Lewis’s beliefs grew stronger through the years, his writings and operations profoundly touched countless lives during World War II and the years which followed. It was then that a few of his best works were printed. In his later years, C.S. Lewis suddenly met the love of his life, American author, Joy Davidman. Both wed; however, only four years later, he lost his beloved wife to early death. She was just 45. Their romance was told via the award-winning film Shadowlands.



C.S. Lewis - A Bite-Sized Overview
Aug 15, 2019




#Biography
C.S. Lewis: The Friendship That Changed His Life
May 16, 2019


Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), was an Oxford graduate and a British Army Lieutenant for the Somerset Light Infantry. He lead a literary club called, "The Inklings" with one of his closest friends, J.R.R. Tolkien.  


References

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