Screwtape complains:
He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least– sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side.
~ Letter 22
This is better than a theology that emphasizes “common grace.” This is a theology that emphasizes creation.
All things are naturally good because all things come from God.
So, this ought to influence our approach to culture. We don’t have to drastically alter the natural state of things. All we need to do is remove the evil that may have infected them. Remove the evil from rock music, and that which is left will simply be “Christian rock.” No need to add extra sugar on top.
Remove any evil that may be in our practice of Logic and Math, and the leftover will be “Christian Logic” and “Christian Math.”
This is important because unbelievers didn’t invent these things. God did.
And that’s what will separate the good from the bad&ugly “worldviews.”
It’s funny, I just picked up this book and randomly read this chapter this morning. Coincidentally it fits into a Sunday school class I am teaching, and then I find it here. Lewis is amazing and this little book is so good.
That was such a great book…
I hate it when people use Christian as an adjective for things like music, logic, literature, etc. I suppose I understand why they do it, but really, there’s only good and bad as defined by God.
And when we label things “Christian” it’s like we’re allowing for the possibility that there could be any other legitimate sort, when in reality, any true discipline when done correctly must reflect a creator God and must follow his established rules.
Good post.
I really like this, and mainly because this understanding of the goodness of Creation frees the Christian artist to create something truly beautiful without forcing some half-strained allusion to Christianity or the Bible. A T-shirt that is plain and white is a good T-shirt. It does not have to have a stupid Christian joke or a witty line about Jesus on it to be a Christian T-shirt.