CS Lewis changed my life when I discovered him in college… I grew up having read Narnia, but I didn’t realize until I got older how much my understanding of God has been shaped by him. I think of the Last Battle often in more recent years, where people claiming to speak for Aslan are in fact doing the opposite of what Aslan would want.
The only thing controversial is proposing that YWHW is acting "under the name of a pagan deity" when the text makes no such claim. Is it a surprise that God is at work among the Nations to liberate from oppression and injustice? Isn't that part of his nature revealed throughout scripture? I agree this is a wonderful and overlooked passage which bears more attention.
This reminds me of a story I once read in a book by Frank Schaeffer about an orthodox Christian who asked to see a truly Christ-like soul, and the Christian was taken to a Muslim ghetto and shown a Muslim old woman there who selflessly served the poor and needy with all her might and with what little she had.
It may not have been Frank Schaeffer who wrote about this story . . . but I think it was . . . and I probably butchered the story too, but the important and shocking essence is there that I remember very much unsettled my Evangelical soul back then when I read it . . . and, to be honest, still does. Praise the LORD!
That's very interesting! As a troubled agnostic, I find it quite the opposite of unsettling.
My biggest stumbling block is "except through me", understood in terms of personal epistemology. It seems preposterous that a failure to swear intellectual allegiance to a specific version of historical events can damn a morally and spiritually beautiful soul. I know the central belief required for salvation is that Jesus is the Son of God, but that in itself seems to be supported by a large quantity of historical ancillaries.
I didn’t say that I DISliked being unsettled, Zookie. In fact, I said, “Praise the LORD!” I like it when He unsettles me. Had He not once done so . . . and keeps doing so, by the way . . . I’m pretty sure that I’d already be barking in Hell.
CS Lewis changed my life when I discovered him in college… I grew up having read Narnia, but I didn’t realize until I got older how much my understanding of God has been shaped by him. I think of the Last Battle often in more recent years, where people claiming to speak for Aslan are in fact doing the opposite of what Aslan would want.
The only thing controversial is proposing that YWHW is acting "under the name of a pagan deity" when the text makes no such claim. Is it a surprise that God is at work among the Nations to liberate from oppression and injustice? Isn't that part of his nature revealed throughout scripture? I agree this is a wonderful and overlooked passage which bears more attention.
This reminds me of a story I once read in a book by Frank Schaeffer about an orthodox Christian who asked to see a truly Christ-like soul, and the Christian was taken to a Muslim ghetto and shown a Muslim old woman there who selflessly served the poor and needy with all her might and with what little she had.
It may not have been Frank Schaeffer who wrote about this story . . . but I think it was . . . and I probably butchered the story too, but the important and shocking essence is there that I remember very much unsettled my Evangelical soul back then when I read it . . . and, to be honest, still does. Praise the LORD!
That's very interesting! As a troubled agnostic, I find it quite the opposite of unsettling.
My biggest stumbling block is "except through me", understood in terms of personal epistemology. It seems preposterous that a failure to swear intellectual allegiance to a specific version of historical events can damn a morally and spiritually beautiful soul. I know the central belief required for salvation is that Jesus is the Son of God, but that in itself seems to be supported by a large quantity of historical ancillaries.
I'm more of a "many mansions" gal myself..
I didn’t say that I DISliked being unsettled, Zookie. In fact, I said, “Praise the LORD!” I like it when He unsettles me. Had He not once done so . . . and keeps doing so, by the way . . . I’m pretty sure that I’d already be barking in Hell.