C. S. Lewis and The Crisis of a Christian by Gregory S. Cootsona

Author:Gregory S. Cootsona
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611645361
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

He also portrayed this conviction in The Last Battle, where the character of Emeth embodies this other side: that those who don’t hear about Jesus in life can be saved. Put another way, there is salvation outside of the church. (This has been a famous theological question through the ages: “Is there salvation outside the walls of the church?” In other words, salvation for those who haven’t heard.) Emeth (whose name means “truth” in Hebrew) has been a Calormene prince who has never served Aslan but who instead serves the god of his country, Tash. When he dies, he’s surprised to find that Aslan greets him in the life to come with allusions to Jeremiah 29:13 and Matthew 7:7: “All the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me…. For all find what they truly seek.”20

EVALUATION

My overall contention in this book is that Lewis has something to say not simply to mid-twentieth-century Christians but to contemporary Christians well. How, then, do I evaluate Lewis’s fulfillment model of Jesus in a world of pluralism? How well does the “liar, Lord, lunatic” argument work today?

I’ll begin with some concerns.

His “liar, Lord, or lunatic” argument needs further engagement with other noncanonical gospels, especially those popularized by books such as the bestseller of all time, The Da Vinci Code. These noncanonical sources have only gained in acclaim since his death. In my opinion, many of them are so late and tainted by gnostic thought that they are not historically useful, at least not useful in understanding the historical Jesus of Nazareth. Nevertheless, in some there is some strong historical tradition, such as that embedded within the Gospel of Thomas. Although I realize this topic engenders considerable debate today, historically the most secure documents for finding out about Jesus are the biblical Gospels.21 And yet, Lewis’s argument would have been stronger had he engaged more thoroughly with these sources.

The contemporary reader probably also brings a higher degree of skepticism about the Christian church. Lewis does not spend much time on the uniqueness of the Christian church, which remains a key issue today for those outside the church. Or perhaps better formulated, Lewis sees a fairly direct line of continuity between believing in Jesus and the community of believers in Jesus as the church. We will see in the next chapter that the authority of the Bible depends, for Lewis, on the testimony of the Christian community or the church. Certainly, as he famously wrote, he promoted “mere Christianity,” not any particular denomination. Still, for many there is no direct line from belief in Jesus as the Son of God to belief in the church, but the church’s witness—and its veracity—is critical to judging the Gospels as reliable.

In some ways, it would be nicer to soften the Gospels’ claim of the unique status of Jesus. As much as that would make our lives easier, the emphasis of the Bible and the confessions of Christianity over time state that something singular happened in Jesus.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.