What Christian Literature Is Essay - 4677 Words

What Christian Literature Is Lewis here writes about Christianity and literature, specifically what is Christian literature and how does it differ with secular literature. He read this paper to a religious society at Oxford fairly early in his Christian walk. The question he seems to be answering is, What is Christian literature? His main argument is that the rules for good literature are the same for both Christian and non-Christian. He writes, The rules for writing a good passion play or a good devotional lyric are simply the rules for writing tragedy or lyric in general; He goes on to use a typical Lewisian styly argument by discussing a Christian cook book, Boiling an egg is the same process whether you are a Christian or a†¦show more content†¦Or is the other way around? The cultural minded person is less able to come to Christ and he must lay down all of his cultural understanding to come to Christ? The argument he is putting forward goes something like this, culture is a reflection of Christian values. These values are not explicitly the same as Christian virtues, they are shadows or remembrances of the real thing. The illustrations he uses are very good. He says, They resemble the regenerate life only as affection resembles charity, or honour resembles virtue, or the moon the sun. But though the like is not the same, it is better than unlike. In this sense culture can be an instrument of salvation for some, though not all. This will also give a good reason for the pursuit of a better cultural understanding, through the understanding of culture we better understand how the biblical truths become relevant in society. His argument seems to me to be sound. He is addressing people who are interested in theology and he is making a strong theological argument. As far as problems or weaknesses in it I would say I wished he held to the total depravity of man because from my own perspective I dont see that as a contradiction to what he is saying. We from a reformed perspective do believe that man still shows forth in some degree the Glory of God. This doesnt mean the same thing as total depravityShow MoreRelatedSupernatural, Supernatural And Supernatural1327 Words   |  6 Pagesthey read and analyze literature, there is a multitude of ways that the supernatural can be interpreted. A reader should consider what is supernatural about a certain situation in the text. Are there faeries, witches, wizards and ghosts? What about spells, dragons or angels and devils? By observation, the supernatural or magical senses usually involve a character with certain power, usually the main character or hero of the stor y. 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