Integrative Essay

I find it very hard to sum up all I learned in this class into one essay. We looked at passages from C.S. Lewis that dealt with lots of areas of life, such as happiness, love, truth, pain, morality, temptation, and much more. We also read a book by Cornelius Plantinga that dealt primarily with the creation, fall, and redemption of man, as well as what Christians are called to do. I have decided to divide what I learned in this class into three categories: what we believe, how we find truth, and what we are called to do.

Both Lewis and Plantinga wrote a lot about what we as Christians believe. Plantinga includes three chapters on what Christians believe about creation, the fall, and redemption. He writes mainly about what Christians believe rather than why. His main points, which I agree with, were that God created us as beautiful creatures, that we fell beginning with the sins of Adam and Eve, and that we are redeemed through the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because I have already been exposed to most of what Plantinga wrote in these chapters, I did not learn much from reading it. However, these chapters could be very useful to someone who is not as familiar with what Christians believe.

Lewis, in talking about our beliefs, takes it to a very basic level. Unlike Plantinga, who simply wrote what Christians believe, Lewis gives us logical reasons for why we should believe in God. In Mere Christianity, Lewis essentially argues with atheists, proving that there is a God. He proves the existence of God saying that “The only packet I am allowed to open is Man. Where I do, especially when I open that particular man called Myself, I find that I do not exist on my own, that I am under a law; that somebody or something wants me to behave in a certain way.”₁ He says that from his experience as a man, he sees that he didn’t make himself, and that a higher force made him to behave in a certain way. He then assumes that the rest of the world was made in a similar way by a higher power. I find this to be a very interesting way to prove the existence of a god to an Atheist.

The second major category that I learned a lot about was how we find truth. This was an area that was covered much more by Lewis than Plantinga. Lewis wrote a lot about the truth as well as common ways we obstruct the truth. One of the things that Lewis sees us doing that corrupts the truth is a thing that he calls Bulverism. In his essay on Bulverism, Lewis explains that “…you must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. The modern method is to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became to be so silly.”₂ In what Lewis refers to as the “modern method”, we try to attack the flaws of a person rather than weigh up what he is saying and decide whether or not he is right. In doing this we never actually think about the issue itself, but only about the people who argue for or against it.

Lewis also introduces us to subjectivism, which is another fallacy that people commit a lot. Lewis, referring to subjectivism, says that “[The modern view] does not believe that value judgements are really judgements at all. They are sentiments, or complexes, or attitudes, produced in a community by the pressure of its environment and its traditions, and differing from one community to another.”₃ Our society is beginning to think that values are something that people can decide for themselves. Lewis logically explains that in all humanity, there is a moral right and wrong that can’t be changed by anyone’s preferences. What is wrong will always be wrong no matter how many people want to think that it is right. I found this to be an issue that is very relevant in today’s culture.

One of the most important things that we learned about was our calling as Christians. Plantinga wrote a lot about this in the fifth chapter in his book. According to Plantinga, we need to be a “prime” citizen of the kingdom of heaven, one who “passionately yearns for the kingdom.”₄ God calls us to be active Christians who are committed to the faith. We can choose to follow that calling or choose to be passive Christians. By being passive, we are still part of the kingdom, but we miss a big part of the meaning of Christianity. We don’t experience much of the satisfaction we get from working for the advancement of Christianity. We also don’t do a very good job of spreading Christianity when we aren’t committed to it. I think that this is one of the biggest problems with Christianity in America. People don’t see the vibrance of an active faith because many of us don’t have that. Outsiders commonly view Christians as hypocrites which is sadly true. This is an issue that I struggle with a lot. I find it to be very easy to just push Christianity to the side and concern myselve more with the “pressing” issues of Earthly things. As Christians, our primary concern needs to be for the kingdom of God. When all on Earth passes away, only the kingdom of heaven will remain. I think that many Christians, myself included, need to set our priorities straight.

When we talk about being active members of the kingdom, we usually think about missionaries dedicating their lives to spreading the gospel. Lewis, in his essay, Learning in Wartime, explains that “We are members of one body, but differentiated members, each with his own vocation. A man's upbringing, his talents, his circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation.”₅ The truth is that anything that we do, if done for the glory of God, glorifies God. Whatever career we choose can be done for the kingdom. We need to keep the kingdom of heaven in the front of our minds, but it does not matter what we decide to do. I find this to be especially comforting because my major is not one that is directly related to Christianity. I can still use my career, as well as the other parts of my life, to glorify God.

In conclusion, I thought that this was a very valuable class which I don’t regret taking at all. We were able to discuss lots of real issues from a Christian perspective. C.S. Lewis in particular wrote about a lot of different issues and offered an interesting perspective on them. Plantinga also had some very good points, especially about our vocation as Christians. What I especially enjoyed was a class full of people who were each willing to contribute their own ideas to the discussion, offering lots of different views. Through these discussions, I was able to form my own views about these issues, often changing them from what they were before. I will remember all that I learned in this class for a very long time.

Works Cited

1. Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, 1952.

2. Lewis, C.S., “Bulverism.” From God in the Dock, 1994.

3. Lewis, C.S., “The Poison of Subjectivism.” From Christian Reflections, 1967

4. Plantinga, Cornelius Jr., Engaging God’s World: A Reformed Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living, 2002.

5. Lewis, C.S., Learning in Wartime. Originally preached in 1939.