Integrative Essay

Jenna Kennedy

1/25/2011

Professor Ribeiro

DCM Integrative Essay

            If I had to summarize this whole interim, it would be in one cycle.  It would be a cycle of learning new things, changing our world view, and then changing our behavior.  C.S Lewis and Plantinga both stressed the importance of learning more about your faith and then letting what you learn affect what you believe and how you act.  I believe this is a cycle we need to continue to go through our whole lives.

            Learning is one of the keys to our humanity.  Lewis says in “Man or Rabbit”, “One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human.” It is this thirst for knowledge that helps us learn.  Since we were born we have been learning.  We had to learn how to walk, how to communicate, and we had to learn how to learn.  These are things we learn though experience and education.  However, C.S. Lewis (in “Learning in War Time”) differentiated between education and learning.  He explained education as what prepares us to be good human beings.  This is the mandatory kindergarten through eighth grade education we have that helps us develop the basic skills of reading, writing, and finding meaning.  In high school we start learning how to learn and interpret what we are learning.  We learn to make connections between classes, and bring in example from life experiences and books we have read.  Than in college we start really learning.  We start learning for the sake of learning. In the Plenary session, Laura Smitt talked about the autotelic experiences.  She encouraged us to take at least one class per semester that you learn just for the sake of learning.  This is true learning. C.S. Lewis challenges us in the English Syllabus that, “the proper question for a college freshman is not ‘what will do me the most good?’ but ‘What do I most want to know?’”.   This is a radical concept because our culture tends to tell us that we need to go to college to get at degree, to get a job.  At times it seems like people get so focused on getting the degree they don’t actually learn all that they could.  C.S. Lewis wisely says, “though you may come here only to be educated, you will never receive that precise educational gift which a university has to give you unless you can at least pretend, so long as you are with us, that you are concerned not with education but with knowledge for its own sake”.  In my own experience if I cram study for a test, no matter how well I do on that test I will not remember the material nearly as well as if I am paying attention throughout the entire section and diligently do my homework.  When you are just working for a degree this wouldn’t matter because the grade is all that matters.  But what then after college, mediocrity in the work place? It becomes an ongoing cycle of less than excellence.  When we learn for the same of learning not only do we get more enjoyment out of the learning but learn better.  C.S. Lewis says in “Learning in War time”, “Real learning occurs when we face something new. It is a struggle for which we are unprepared, a challenge to the rhythm of our thoughts and actions. The heart of learning appears when we learn how to change, to grow to adjust, to become something different. Universities can help, but it's the leper colonies, the demands of humility or courage, that teach us best.” In is not only at school that we should be learning for the sake of learning; in everything we do we can learn.  We can learn through our work, even if we have a dead end, minimum wage job, through our relationships, with our friendships as well as our business relationships, and through our experiences, no matter how humbling.  We must seek truth in everything we do.

However, we should not learn just to know only for the sake of knowing.  We must contemplate what we learn and how that affects what we believe.  If what we learn doesn’t change us, if it doesn’t help us to see things more clearly, if it doesn’t influence what we believe than why we are learning it.  Our worldview should be constantly changed and improved by what we learn.  What we learn will either strengthen or weaken our preexisting beliefs.  In “Man or Rabbit” C.S. Lewis explains that whether you believe in Christianity or believe that it is a huge myth you should still fight to show people the light or the error of their beliefs.  He says, “Either that's true, or it isn't. And if it isn't, then what the door really conceals is simply the greatest fraud, the most colossal 'sell' on record. Isn't it obviously the job of every man (that is a man and not a rabbit) to try to find out which, and then to devote his full energies either to serving this tremendous secret or to exposing and destroying this gigantic humbug?”.  This quote just shows the importance of learning and then taking what you learn to be true to heart. In Prelude we talked a lot about worldview.  We discussed how everyone has a worldview and how important it is because it shapes how we see the world.  In Chapter two of Engaging God’ World Plantinga talks about how just the knowledge that God is the creature of the world should shape our worldview so dramatically that all our actions would be worshipping this all-powerful God.  Our world view is also affected by our own selfish ambitions.  We have a tendency to take what we want from what we learn.   We take to heart what is convenient as well as true, not just all that is true.  This is another thing that C.S. Lewis warned about in “Man or Rabbit”.  When talking of Christianity he says, “If Christianity is untrue then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all”.  We must make sure that we don’t separate what we learn and will affect our world view by its usefulness but rather but by its truth.  In this way our learning should affect our worldview. 

Our worldview should affect how we live.  In Prelude we talked about how there can’t be a great difference between our actions and our worldview because eventually start to converge; either your actions will conform to your worldview, or your worldview will start to conform to your actions.  This became much clearer throughout this interim.   If you really believe what you say you believe than your actions will follow.  Professor Ribeiro told us “theory needs practice, ideas need action, beliefs need behavior”.  I couldn’t put this better myself.  Just as we need to test out theories and our beliefs need to be acted out.  In Chapter 5 of Engaging God’s World Plantinga describes vocation not as an occupation but a lifestyle.  In “Learning in War time” C.S. Lewis suggests that our lives as born again Christians are like soldiers.  Although we will do a lot of the same things we did before we were born again, they are also different because we go about them as Christians.  Everything we do should be affected by our vocation to be Christians just as everything is affected by the vocation of being a soldier.  I think this is a great description of our vocation as Christians.  He talks about how there is much more to being a soldier than combat.  There is continual training, and even on leave they must act like soldiers and even where their uniforms for certain occasions.  This is also the life of a Christian; we must be continually growing in our spiritual life.  Professor Ribeiro also talked about although our spiritual life may have highs and lows it will always be tending up as we grow closer to God, or down as we fall away from God.   Just like a soldier moving up the ranks and becoming a better soldier, we must also be growing in our faith and wisdom.

 What we believe should affect everything we do.  That is perhaps what I like most about C.S. Lewis.  He was continually changing his worldview as he learned more, but also changing how he thought we should as.  Him humility was always present in his writing and he taught the importance of this virtue both indirectly and directly.   This cycle of learning new things, modifying our worldview as we take it to heart, and then living out what we believe is so important because it helps us to live a contagiously virtuous life.  I was drawn to C.S. Lewis’ writings because they elegantly showed wisdom, but it was his life that made this genuine.  In the same way we must also live out our beliefs.  However, we cannot give C.S. Lewis all the credit for teaching us this wise way to live.  C.S. Lewis was simply following Christ’s example in such a way that we could see Christ through him.  Our vocation is also to live a life that is so centered on God that others can see him through us.  As C.S. Lewis wisely says, we must “die daily” to ourselves in order that we may fully give ourselves to Christ. 

Works Cited

Lewis, C. S. “Learning in Wartime.” God in the Dock; Essays on Theology and Ethics. Grand Rapids.            Eerdmans, 1970. Print.

Lewis, C. S. "Man or Rabbit. God in the Dock; Essays on Theology and Ethics. Grand Rapids. Eerdmans,   1970. Print.

Lewis, C. S. "Our English Syllabus." Rehabilitations and Other Essays. Philadelphia: R.

West, 1978. 81-93. Print. 

Plantinga, Cornelius Jr. Engaging God's World. Grand Rapids. William B. Eerdmans, 2002. Print

Human Pain

                C.S. Lewis start out this chapter of the Problem of Pain with the question of why do we have so much pain in the world.  He first suggested that it is because we have sinful creatures and that sinfulness hurts other people.  However, what about the pain not caused by humans, and why do we have so much power to hurt our neighbors?

                C.S. Lewis then goes on to define good as “to surrender itself to its Creator – to enact intellectually, volitionally, and emotionally, that relationship which is given in the mere fact of its being a creature”.  This is a deep goodness that is beyond human understanding except once they have surrendered themselves.  However, in our world today no one seems to want to fully submit to the Lord.  I think this goes back to our selfishness.  Because we can’t understand the joy we will receive from committing our lives to the Lord we only see the problems it will cause to chasing our own dreams.  Instead of lining up our dreams with the Lords, we want him to line his will up with ours.  He says that we need to “die daily”, because we are still rebellious and sinful at heart.  This dying of ourselves does not come without a cost though.  It is hard to give up our own desires and it takes some time to start trusting God and letting him work in our hearts.  Lewis goes on to explain that we need this pain to provide both fear and pity both of which help us to love and bring us back to the Lord. I have also noticed in my own life that fear can help you to prioritize your life.  For example, when you fear death you want to be more cautious as well as to what are most important before you die.  You realize there are much more important things to do because the sand in our hourglass is falling out.  When God is not with you however, fear can paralyze us.  At times I because too cautious when I have an unhealthy fear.  God teaches us through our pain.  He uses that pain to bring us back to him.  This is an interesting concept.  This is an interesting concept for me to try to understand.  I mean if God works through pain to make us stronger Christians does He intentionally give us pain so we can grow closer to him?  If so than does that mean God wants us to be in pain at least temporarily? Or if it’s just a useful consequence of our sin and God doesn’t want us to have to endure pain that wouldn’t he be in a way stunting us from our growth because our adversities can help us grow in a way our prosperity cannot.  It’s a confusing concept all around.  However, even with all the confusion, it is clear that God can work through our pain to bring us closer to him.

C.S. Lewis also explains that in prosperity we are less willing to give up our own free will in order to follow God’s will.  This reminds me of AA.  One of the pastors at my church is a recovering alcoholic and so we have a very strong AA program and we also incorporate Alcoholics anonymous examples in a lot of our messages.  I specifically remember my pastor talking about how most people who successfully go through AA had to hit rock bottom before the program actually worked.  For some reason we don’t ask for help or a better way unless our way isn’t working at all.  Even if we barely getting by we stubbornly keep up our own way of life, unless we are overwhelmed and can’t do it by ourselves.  That is when we ask for help.  We aren’t all alcoholics, but we are all sinful and it’s easier for us to submit to God’s call for our lives, when we have tried our way and it didn’t work.  When we have no other option we go back to God. 

One more thing I really liked that C.S. Lewis talks about is how easy it is to ignore our sins  though they are impossible to ignore.  He says, “We can rest contentedly in ours sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can  ignore even pleasure”. I thought this quote interesting first because it touches on how easy it is for us to take our blessings for granted.  When we aren’t in pain we forget what pain is like.  Also this imagery made me picture how easy it is for us to cause pain to others just by being gluttonous we can be.  By indulging and misusing resources we are keeping others from using those resources. It is easy for us to not consider the consequences of these types of actions and not realize that we can cause pain for others by our own glutton. 

This chapter helped me realize, first, that though we are sinful God can lead us and teach us through that pain. Also, I learned that we must be mindful of what we are doing and not to cause pain to others.  Instead we must die every day to our own sinful desires but instead submit our lives fully to the Lord. 

Plantinga Chaper 5

                Plantinga starts by explaining that perhaps our prosperity can draw us away from wanting God’s kingdom to come.  We can get so caught up with our own lives and our own little kingdoms that we forget about being part of Gods bigger kingdom.  God gives us areas to rule over, our own little kingdoms; However, we must also connect our little kingdoms with others as well as cooperate with others in our kingdom such as our family. 

                He then talks about how we must not just be good citizens in God’s kingdom but rather we need to be prime citizens that work hard to create a better community. He suggests that a Christian’s first vocation is to be a prime citizen in God’s kingdom: an agent of change, a seeker of joy, and a fighter for justice.  The first way he proposes to become this type of person is to be involved in a church.  It is important that we are in a community of other who are also elected to be prime citizens.  Christian groups and institutions can also be great supports, but it is not limited to Christian organizations because God works through all things.  Plantinga quotes Arthur Holmes who had said “all truth is God’s truth”.  God can show us truth even through non-Christians. 

                A lot of times people think of vocation as an occupation, however, God wants our vocation to be a lifestyle.  Not only should we our vocation impact our occupation but also our relaxation.  He uses the example that we may have to spend time tending a healing friend after a surgery.  This may not be our occupation but it is something we do as Christians.  This leads to the idea of education.  He says that education helps to prepare us for our vocations. College should help prepare us for our occupation but also prepares us for live, College is a time of not just acquiring book knowledge but also life skills.  We must learn to use our discression to make decisions and question the information given to us.  This fits in really well with Learning in war time as well as the Wonder of Learning.  In learning in war time Lewis suggests that our lives as born again Christians are like soldiers.  Although we will do a lot of the same things we did before we were born again, they are also different because we go about them as Christians.  Everything we do should be affected by our vocation to be Christians just as everything is affected by the vocation of being a soldier.  Even are education should be changed.  How can we go to school just for a degree when we are supposed to be doing everything for the Lord?  This also reminded me of The Wonder of Learning because at college we must be learning In everything we are doing. It is not just our classes but everything that we experience, our triumphs and mistakes.  We must learn to have our vocation be being a prime citizen and do all we can to learn how to do this better.  This means diving into Gods word, participating in our community, and learning from those around us.  We must worship God in all we do. 

Man or Rabbit?

The provoking title of this article in fitting as C.S. Lewis paints a interesting picture of the differences between animals and humans.  When posed with the question of whether you can lead a good life and not be a Christian.

  He says, “One of the things that distinguish man from the other animals is that he want to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing.  When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human”.  This means that our thirst for knowledge is key to our humanity.  It seems unnatural than that we would want to ignore the something we think may be untrue just because it isn’t helpful to us.  He then goes on to explain that the lack of knowledge can be very detrimental to humanity.  Why would we be content with this lack of knowledge if it could help us even if it wasn’t convenient to our views of a happy life.  He articulates this splendidly by saying, “Are we ready to run the risk of working in the dark all our lives and doing infinite harm, provided only someone will assure us that our own skins will be safe, that no one will punish us or harm us?”.  C.S. Lewis had explained in some earlier reading about the moral law that being selfish in not valued in any culture or society.  This is the epitome of selfishness. 

C.S. Lewis then makes a crucial distinction between someone who is ignorant of Christianity or unable to believe Christianity, and someone who is simply not sure enough that they want to put the time into learning of whether Christianity is right or someone who simply doesn’t want to change their lifestyle or follow the instructions of the Bible.  He first explains that he hopes God will have mercy for someone that is ignorant or mistaken.   This could bring up some controversy because the Bible notes that the only way to heaven is through Christ, therefore, without knowing or understanding Christianity these people would be dammed, right?  However, these types of people would never be asking whether they could live a good life without Christianity.  They would either not know about Christianity at all or not think it important enough to affect the quality of life. The person who isn’t sure enough to continue their search for truth or the person who just doesn’t want to be changed by Christianity is a whole different idea.  It is a type of laziness or selfishness.  C.S. Lewis wisely says, “Isn’t it obviously the job of every man (that is a man and not a rabbit) to try to find out which, and then to devote his full energies either to serving this tremendous secret or to exposing and destroying this gigantic humbug?”.  It only seems fitting that something as important as Christianity whether true of false should be devoted a life’s work to crediting or discrediting. 

While reading this it really reminded me that I cannot be a luke warm Christian.  I should either be pursuing it with all my heart if I believe it to be true, which I do, or trying to save people from this elaborate fallacy.  As humans we must search for truth and continue to discover if Christianity is true or not. 

The Inner Ring

                This article was particularly insightful to me.  This subject has been something I have struggled with all my life and I think that it is something we all must consider.

                What first caught my attention in this essay is that C.S. Lewis differentiates between friendship and an inner circle.  These terms are usually used somewhat interchangeably in our culture, however, Lewis describes a key difference: in a friendship you feel secure and accepted without having to try while in an inner circle it is a constant for getting into the circle, maintaining your spot in the circle, and excluding others from the circle.  I thought this was so relevant because almost everyone I know has been in some way or another in an inner circle and a friendship. 

                In my experience, it’s hard to resist the temptation to feel accepted at any cost.  It is part of our human nature to see acceptance.  I believe that God gives us the desire to be accepted which we try to fill with acceptance from other people when it should really be filled with a search for acceptance from God.  However, when we don’t feel content with our relationship with God, we look anywhere else to fulfill this gap. Friendships don’t come easy and we can often become unsatisfied with our friendships when wooed by people who have more social power.  The urge to become more socially influential can overcome our appreciation for our real friendships.  Then we start to try to fit in with these more important groups however this leads to a cycle because there is always a more important inner circle to be in.  No one can feel completely accepted.  We are all outsiders to some groups.  I think the main flaw in our society is that we don’t think this is ok.  We are constantly fighting in the losing battle for acceptance.  Lewis beautiful describes this by saying, “the circle cannot have from within the charm it had from outside.  By the very act of admitting you it has lost its magic”.  He also explains this in the metaphor of inner circles being like an onion and when you get to the middle there is no fulfillment, nothing remains.  I think it is important to realize that the acceptance we are searching for is only an allusion.   Not only are these inner circle relationships unfulfilling but also unsustainable.  There is always another circle to be accepted into, but also we aren’t finding quality friends.  C.S. Lewis describes the lack of satisfaction without surprise he says, “Once the first novelty is worn off, the members of this circle will be no more interesting than your old friends.  Why should they be?  You were not looking for virtue or kindness or loyalty or humour or learning or wit or any of the things that can really be enjoyed.  You merely wanted to be ‘in’”. 

                Inner circles are so harmful though not because they are unsustainable and unsatisfying but because of the extreme lengths that people will go to fit in.  Getting into a new inner circle usually means deserting your previous circle of friends.  This is very mild on the spectrum of things people will do to fit in.  Some inner circles demand much more.  C.S. Lewis describes a situation in which a businessman slowly gives more and more time into his work in hopes of moving up in the company as his life soon becomes absorbed with work.  In the most extreme cases such as entry into the most hardcore gangs, crimes may be committed just to feel accepted.  Someone once told me of a song by Immortal Technique called “Dance with the Devil”, which described the horrible consequences that can occur when making money, acceptance, and power the most important things in one’s life. 

                Therefore not only are we not content in the inner circle, we usually end up hurting others on the way to being in the group we also exclude others to maintain our spot in the group.  Lewis rights that “exclusion is no accident; it is the essence”.  In an inner group everyone is jockeying for power, for a better spot in the group.   To do this we tend to put others in the group down to make ourselves look better.  Therefore not only are we putting down others in the inner circles that are less powerful; we are also excluding others from joining the group.  Since it was so hard for us to get accepted we think it must be hard for the next person as well.  This creates an ongoing process of dissatisfaction and betrayal. 

                Being aware of the effects of inner circles is very important for us as Christians.  We must  make a conscious effort to not fall into the trap of looking for most for acceptance and power.  We must look to God to fulfill us and accept us.  I think we would live in a much different world if we focused more on pleasing God rather than our peers. 

The Four Loves-Eros

                C.S. Lewis differentiates between four different types of love.  In chapter four he focuses on Eros, love between the sexes.  I thought it was interesting that we talked about this because I feel like it is something we don’t usually talk about, and when we talk about the mystery of being married or the excitement of falling in love.  It is easy to misunderstand what a relationship the extremes of the media not taking sex and love serious enough and the church who sometimes takes them too seriously.  In discussing how we must think of sex I thought it was interesting that C.S. Lewis said, “Natural things are dangerous when they seem divine.”  I really liked this because I think it is very true yet I had never thought of it that way.  We so often make natural things into idols.  Whether it is sex or the person we love, we many times let that thing become more important than our relationship with God.  It seems as though God’s greatest gifts to us can also be our greatest stumbling blocks in faith if we use them incorrectly. 

                I thought it was interesting that he described falling in love first as a preoccupation with the one you love, thinking about him or her all the time.  Than after this preoccupation comes sexual feeling for her.  This makes sense, however, in our culture its usually described as first finding a girl attractive and having sexual feelings for her, than getting to know her and falling in love.  I think it’s important that to have a strong biblically based relationship, the sexual desires must be pushed to the back of the mind til you are in a relationship in which it is decent to do so, a marriage relationship.  However, as obvious as this sounds its quite countercultural.  He described another man who didn’t want a woman because he loved her but simply because of the sexual sensations she could give him.  He went on to describe this man with a metaphor of a woman being like a pack of cigarettes in which just as he throw away the pack after he had smoked all the cigarettes, he dumped the woman after she had given him the sexual stimulation he had wanted.  This is a shocking comparison.  Everyone knows you can’t treat a woman like that.  And yet it has become somewhat acceptable in our society. 

                I really liked the class discussion we had about submission.  I am not sure how I feel about it.  Although I know in the Bible it says wives submit to your husbands, that was also an extremely patriarchal society.  I have learned my whole life that I am equal to a man.  I can be just as smart, have the same job, and should receive the same wage for the same job.  However, if the wife is to the husband as the church is to Christ, than we are not equal.  Although Christ loves the church, the church has no part in decisions because Christ is subordinate to Christ in every way.  When I think of a husband and wife making decision I think of the man and the woman discussing and helping each other to see the errors in their ideas so they can compromise on the best plan.  When I think of Christ making a decision I think of an all-powerful, all-knowing God that knows much better than the church.  The Church can’t be give any helpful criticism because God knows infinitely more than the church.  We are his humble servants who he provides for and loves in spite of our sinfulness.  In biblical times, the husband would be much older and therefore have much more knowledge from experience, and also have much more schooling.  It would only seem fitting that the man would make all the decisions because he was much wiser.   In society today men and women are generally pretty equally educated and therefore both equally able to make decisions.  Although I do realize that women and men think differently and that men are generally stronger, I think it’s important to realize that there has been a pretty large paradigm shift in the role of women in society.  As a woman, I personally don’t want to be the head of the household; I don’t want to make the final decisions in my marriage.  However, I also realize that is partly because of my upbringing and my personality.  However, I know many couples in which the woman gladly takes on this role or they share it equally.  I was having a conversation with one of my high school teachers about this one time and he explained it to me this way.  He said that from an on lookers perspective it would seem as if he has a 50 50 relationship with his wife.  He says he doesn’t make decisions without his wife’s input and makes sure they find a good compromise.  However, at the end of the day his wife lets him have the final say.  He says in that way it is more of a 51 49 relationship.  He then made it clear that these percentages were only for decision making.  He said that to make a marriage work you must be giving 110% and not expecting anything in return.  I think this is an important idea as well.  I think that when you do this you make each other more beautiful.  This Monday I went to a January series talk and the speaker used a metaphor of different cultures polishing each other like a rock polisher.  They bump there sharp and dirty points and end up with something beautiful.  I think this is also how a marriage relationship should be.  You are going to have differences and but when you listen to each other and the compromise can make you both more beautiful.

                As college students, we need to start thinking about things like this.  As much as we joke about it here at Calvin, a lot of people do find their spouse in college.  If we want to be in godly intentional relationships we must consider thinks such as love sex and marriage.