Integrated Essay

Throughout my life as a Christian I have struggled with how to grapple with my faith, and how to share it with others in a way that would be effective. Growing up in a strong Christian family with my father being a pastor and my mother , a woman after God’s own heart was great for a foundation and an example, but one thing that may have been disadvantageous for a while was the complacency that caused for a while. When one is in such an atmosphere one can become stagnant in the Christian Walk, because you feel you already know everything, and there is no need to learn.

Although recently I have been able to learn much more about my convictions and have grown in my faith considerably, this class has spurred me to learn even more, and apply logic and reasoning to my faith, something that people tend to find contradictory. The guidance of Plantinga and CS Lewis have been of tremendous importance in teaching me day by day more about the fundamental pillars of my faith, and have allowed me ways to share my faith effectively.

The first Chapter of Plantinga touched on issues that I myself have thought about many a time. I had always throughout my life felt an unexplainable longing for something more, whether in a relationship, friendship or even when I created an artwork. There was always an intangible standard I was measuring things to, a kind of longing for something greater and bigger. As Plantinga states in the first chapter, we cannot be fulfilled by anything we wish for, and nothing on this earth can satisfy us. Lewis calls this kind of longing Sehnsucht, “seeking union with something from which we are separated.” But what is it I had been longing for?

At the time I thought it was true happiness, after all, that’s what our world seems to be in pursuit of. However, after reading Lewis’s “No Right to Happiness” I discovered that that was not, in fact what I was longing for. I learnt from that reading that happiness is not something that is guaranteed us in our Christian lives, but rather we are encouraged to seek and long for the Lord’s joy that he freely offers us. We, in fact have no right to demand happiness from God, or demand anything else for that matter, as everything has been given to us by grace. We all experience happy moments in our lives, but we need to realize that it would be very unwise to chase something as impermanent as happiness when we have been promised something deeper and higher: joy. Put simply in his words, “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

The question I most often find myself facing when discussing my faith is the “can’t I just lead a good life without being Christian?” one, and before reading Lewis my answer to this was always fuzzy. The paper, “Man or Rabbit?” talks about this clearly without reservations. When we ask this we are actually trying to evade the actual question; whether or not there is truth to the Christian or Materialistic claims. As Lewis puts it, when people pay no attention to the real question, whether or not Christianity is true, they can stay “safe and blameless without knocking at that dreadful door and making sure whether there is, or isn't someone inside?” It seems to stem from a dread that there could actually be some truth in the rumor, if he knows that there is no truth to it, he would not be asking the question at all.

Another thing I found a great help was the reading, “Meditation in a Tool shed”, especially when I am trying to discuss my faith with others. The concept of looking at things is what has pervaded our modern thought. We have come to the conclusion that the “external account of a thing somehow refutes or ‘debunks’ the account given from inside” so we are reluctant to take anything seriously that is explained from the inside because it cannot be quantified or analyzed or measured from an external viewpoint. However Lewis impresses on us the importance of looking at things from both viewpoints, because if the outside vision were the correct one, all thought would be valueless, and this is self contradictory. You cannot have a proof that no proofs matter.”

This leads to the development of Lewis’s rational apologist arguments in Mere Christianity. I have never come across such clear logic to explain the Moral law, the struggling point for many unbelievers, because they know that is what would convict them, as it does all of us. The most vital point he made to me was that simply because we are taught something does not mean it is a human construct. He uses math as a parallel for this, mathematics exists independent of the methods we use to order and categorize it. In the same way, Moral law exists.

The Plantinga chapter on Creation was one which provided fresh insight into the phenomenon which we call creation, an act that was completely in the nature of our God. I had usually skimmed over this part of the creation story because I felt it was negated by our chaotic fall. However, I have learnt the gravity of the the creation in the first place.

One great point that was made was that God did not need to create us, as he already had relationships within the Trinitarian perichoresis and was clearly not simply bored, but rather because t was within his nature to create. This I felt was a great insight into the very nature of God, we see glimpses of his glory in nature, what we see around us, but that is not who he is, it is not a part of himself, but simply a demonstration of his personality.

This relates quite closely to “The Weight of Glory”. In the reading I see the amazing illustration of the relationship between the Creator and created. Glory, as he defines it it not “luminosity” but a kind of “approval or (I might say) “appreciation’ by God” which he backs up with the text “well done thou good and faithful servant” explaining that this kind of recognition is the greatest thing that can be bestowed on one, the recognition by God the pleasure of the “inferior” specifically of a “creature before its Creator”. This is the greatest honor that we can be promised, to be singled out by our Lord and praised for the humble attempts we have made to serve him.

Probably the most applicable thing I learnt from the readings was “Learning in War Time” when Lewis enlightens us with the knowledge that “Christianity does not simply replace our natural life and substitute a new one: it is rather a new organization which exploits, to its own supernatural ends, these natural materials.” We must do everything we do to the glory of God, there is no need to go out and do something grand and public, but rather, God takes pleasure in us serving him in our everyday activities, which for me, is going to school. Plantinga agrees with this in his fifth chapter, on vocation, we all have a part to play in the furthering of God’s kingdom in our activities. At this time, my education is where I have been placed, and thus I must learn to the glory to God.

Plantinga’s writing has allowed me to think about the classic Christian ideas in a new light, understanding them in their full gravity, and the writings of Lewis have completed and complimented them, putting them rationally in such a way that even the most stubborn debator would have to agree without “bulverising”. This class has been incredibly important in developing concepts that are not just useful in explaining my faith, but also in developing it, and growing closer to God and the knowledge of his ways.