In response to The Weight of Glory I found interesting how C.S. Lewis makes the point that Christianity has been falsely influenced by Kant and the Stoics. The example that he gives says that “If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Even though this is a side note to the meat of the essay, I thought about the importance of possible outside sources on the Christian faith and the implications thereof. Lewis points out that the idea that our desire for joy isn’t a bad thing. However, the avenues that we use to fulfill our need for joy are what determines whether we will be filled with eternal joy or just temporarily satisfied. Also along these lines brings back a memory of a conversation that happened this past semester. In English 101, professor Fondse was taking about how the Dutch Christian Reformed Church claimed that everything in the world was redeemable. However, Christians weren’t allowed to go to the movies, play card games, or dance. The argument given at the time was the slippery slope argument that if Christians were allowed to do these activities then sin would be the result. Even the Great poet Robert Frost claimed that “dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire” With the kind of dancing that goes on in clubs I sort of agree with him. But where I disagree with the Old Christina Reformed Church and Frost would be that in hindsight if we didn’t look into dancing they we would have missed out on things like worship through liturgical dance or the joy that young teen feel with going to prom for the first time which are good things. So im kind of torn because there are some things that shouldn’t ever be done to obtain joy and there are others that are sort of a grey area because it done properly they can be used for the glorification of God however if we aren’t carefully sin could result. So in order to properly explore our gifts in this world the importance of discernment can’t ever be stressed enough.
Luke, I like how you point out the importance of worldly things and their influence on Christianity. You are right, certain actions we typically right off as sinful can actually benefit our faith. Just look at rock and roll. When it first emerged, it was considered by many to be radical and inappropriate. Yet, if it weren't for that style, we wouldn't have Christian rock bands. Such bands offer another worship style that others find appealing.
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