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  Bible reading for weekend September 10 -- 12 Sep 10 -- Ezekiel 13 and Psalms 52-54 Sep 11 -- Ezekiel 14 and Psalm 55 Sep 12 -- Ezekiel 15 and Psalms 56-57 ================   "Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 13:22-23) POPULAR RELIGION CONDEMNED (ch 13-14). Three groups are called out for condemnation: false prophets, and prophetesses, and some key leaders. They were all saying what the people wanted to hear -- things will be all right, peace and security is near, and your best life is arriving soon (cf Jer 6:14; Mic 3:5). It was a popular religion of the day (cf 1 Thess 5:3). All this originated in their own minds and imaginations, which they mistook for the Lord spe...

After finishing The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, by Alan Jacobs, I was interested to read more from T. S. Eliot, one of the figures discussed in this excellent book.      I have begun Eliot's Christianity and Culture (1948).  In the first essay, "The Idea of a Christian Society", Eliot addresses the nature and consequences of Liberalism in both political and religious forms.  Here are few highlights...               "By destroying traditional social habits of the people, by dissolving their natural collective consciousness into individual constituents, by licensing the opinions of the most foolish, by substituting instruction for education, by encouraging cleverness rather than wisdom, the upstart rather than the qualified, by fostering a notion of getting on to which the alternative is a hopeless apathy, Liberalism can prepare the way for that which is its own negation: the artifi...

I'm currently reading two books on Christian engagement, Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option , and Russell Moore's Onward .  There's much to think about in both, but I'm attracted to Moore's prophetic-minority engagement model.   Here are a few early highlights...  I don’t accept the narrative of progressive secularization, that religion itself will inevitably decline as humanity evolves toward more and more consistent forms of rationalism. As a matter of fact, I think the future of the church is incandescently bright. That’s not because of promises made at Independence Hall, but a promise made at Caesarea Philippi—“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). I believe that promise because I believe the One who spoke those words is alive, and moving history toward his reign. That is not to say that the church’s witness in the next generation will be the same. The secularizing forces mentioned before are real—obviou...

From my bookshelf I picked up again the classic little work, The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think (SPCK, 1963; Servant Books, 1978), by Harry Blamires.  This author was encouraged to write by none other than C. S. Lewis, his tutor at Oxford.  Writing from mid-twentieth century Britain, Blamires examines our wholesale surrender to secularism and how to recover a uniquely Christian approach to thinking and dialogue.   "We twentieth-century Christians have chosen the way of compromise. We withdraw our Christian consciousness from the fields of public, commercial, and social life.  When we enter these fields we are compelled to accept for purposes of discussion the secular frame of reference established there.  We have no alternative -- except that of silence.  We have to use the only language spoken in these areas." (p. 27) "We have stepped mentally into secularism.  We have trained, even disciplined ourselves, to think secularly about s...

"How is this world of assumptions formed? Obviously through all the means of education and communication existing in society. Who controls those means? The question of power is inescapable. Whatever their pretensions, schools teach children to believe something and not something else. There is no ‘secular’ neutrality."  ( Lesslie Newbigin)

I just finished a most enlightening and penetrating book on the nature of secularism -- what it is and how we got here.  It is James K. A. Smith's How (Not) To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (Eerdmans, 2014).  Charles Taylor is author of the magisterial volume, A Secular Age , and Smith is making him accessible for folks like me, a sort of Cliff's Notes on Charles Taylor's book.   Very, very helpful!  Here are some highlights to whet your interest...  "Our age is haunted. On the one hand, we live under a brass heaven, ensconced in immanence. We live in the twilight of both  gods and idols. But their ghosts have refused to depart, and every once in a while we might be surprised to find ourselves  tempted by belief, by intimations of transcendence."  "Most of us live in this cross-pressured space, where both our  agnosticism and our devotion are mutually haunted and haunting..." "But although we are more informed [than our ancestors...

It appears the momentum for political decisions being made these days in the U.S. -- no matter what the social issue -- really seems to be the logical outcome of American humanism of the second half of the twentieth century.  Below is a quote from Francis Schaeffer, speaking in a lecture in 1982, over 30 years ago.  He saw then where this was all heading... [quote photo courtesy of Tony Felich ]