Christian Bookstores

Bookstores are some of my favorite places on earth. I love to rifle through shelves, looking for bargains on exceptional works of literature. Nevertheless, certain stores depress me, particularly those that sell poorly written books--what I have come to call twaddle. This evening, my family and I stepped into a Christian bookstore. Every time I enter one of these bastions of warm, fuzzy religious feelings, I come away depressed. Why? Because I can't help believing that these stores represent Christ inaccurately to the world. I recently had an intense and fascinating discussion of this issue with several dear friends, and wanted to take the time to summarize my perspective here.

The Problem of Pain

"'But please, please--won't you--can't you give me something that will cure Mother?' Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great front feet and the huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his Mother than he was himself.

Man is not God

Ok, so I have to confess I've been tardy on the reading list. I wrote out a beautiful schedule, and as soon as debate and community college season came along, I forgot about it. This only serves to remind me once again of my imperfections.

The Great Books

One of my goals for the next year is to complete a survey of world history via the great books. I am currently up to the Roman Empire. Hopefully, the next ten months or so will see me through the Early Church, Medieval literature, Enlightenment philosophy, the Revolutionary war, all the way up to Marx, Darwin, Nietzche and Freud.

Shadows in the Cave: Plato's Allegory in C.S. Lewis

Since it was first published, C.S. Lewis’s series for children, The Chronicles of Narnia, has gained worldwide acclaim. However, the ideas contained within the Chronicles’ pages are far from average storybook fare. In the seventh and final book, The Last Battle, Lewis introduces the concept of Shadowlands: that this physical world is only a reflection of actual reality, and that Heaven will be the fulfillment and perfection of the good we see on earth. This idea is powerful and inspiring on its own, however, as the reader’s literary experience grows, new depths of meaning to this idea appear. His oft-repeated statement, “It’s all in Plato,” sheds light on the origins of the philosophy behind the concept of Shadowlands. On the basis of a passage in Plato’s Republic, C.S. Lewis constructed a profound view of reality in this world and the next.

"The Law," Government Regulation, and Personal Responsibility

Today, the United States government regulates almost every sector of its citizens’ lives. It supports citizens that cannot or could not support themselves. It funds public schools to ensure its citizens know what it determines they should. It even monitors marriage. Within the past several months, it has paid out $700 billion in taxpayer money to bail out the mortgage industry, and then proposed spending almost 800 more on a stimulus package. In the midst of all this activity, few people have stopped to ask whether the government should actually be doing any of these things. Fortunately, Frederic Bastiat answered this question over a century ago in his treatise, The Law. In particular, he masterfully addresses the distinction between the roles of government and society, and in particular why the law should enforce justice and not other sectors of society.