This summer I made up a list of books to read. Some of you may have taken a look at that list. I have been in many facebook discussions with one of my friends, Austin, who recently proclaimed to the facebook world that he has become an atheist. Prior to that, in January I had taken an agnostic friend with me to Passion. In regards to these friends and conversations, I have spent a lot of time reading apologetics. I believe I must be able to give reasons for the hope that is within, and I want to be prepared when friends ask me questions or when they attack my faith. A lot of the books on my list have grown out of these discussions. I have planned to read a lot of apologetics.
Apologetics is a good thing. Blind faith does not glorify God. It says more about your raw willpower than about the object of your faith. If I ask, why are you a Christian, and your response is, "just because I believe", or "I take on it blind faith", you have done nothing to distinguish your God from any other god. It would be like saying you closed your eyes and just picked this one. How happy would your wife be if, when asked, you said you just closed your eyes and picked one. If asked, why do you love her, you should have a good response.
Faith should not be divorced from reason, but faith centered only on apologetics misses the point. If all I did was read apologetics and argue with atheists, I would be entirely missing the point. I would be neglecting to enjoy the Reality - the Person - that I am arguing for. I would be standing at the door inviting people into a house that I had neglected to really live in and make a home of.
All that to say, I am making some revisions to my reading list. I have moved one book to the top of it. Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard. I have been surprised afresh at the sinfulness of my heart and at my ability to be easily angered, to resent, to indulge, to be prideful, to be impatient. My heart continues to need rescue. I have revised my list to attend to issues of my heart.
Dallas Willard very recently died, and his legacy has been a good one. He was a professional philosopher and author of some quality books on the spiritual life and on discipleship. He did not feel the necessity to churn out a book every year, and the books that he has left are worth reading so far as I can tell. I recommend them.
I like reading Dallas Willard because he reads differently than some of the other authors I frequent. He is not Calvinist, and it seems like a lot of the more modern authors I read, like John Piper and Tim Keller and Francis Schaeffer, are Calvinist. He, like CS Lewis, is a refreshing change of pace. I am glad to be alive and hopeful for what God has in store for my life when I read any of these authors, and that is my feeling now as I am reading this book.
I am two chapters into the book. I am trying to force myself to go at a slower pace to actually digest what I am reading. I wanted to use my blog as a forum to write into my own words some of the insights I am gleaning. I hope you are helped...
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1. In order to properly care for something, we must understand it. If I am going to properly care for a dog, I must know something about dogs and perhaps about this particular dog, what it is like, what its needs are, what its habits are. If I want to live life well, I need to grow in my knowledge and understanding of what a human is and who I am in particular. The heart is at the center of who I am, so I need to grow in my understanding of the heart.
2. Many of the things we attempt to do to fix ourselves are shallow attempts. They aim at our outer behaviors, or maybe they even get deeper to aim at specific things we think. But we need to aim at the heart, which is really the control center of our selves, the deep-seated place from which we act.
3. Our actions indicate our heart. If we blow it, we are the sort of person who blows it. This is a painful realization. Our actions indicate the sort of people we are. What is within comes out.
4. Humans are complex and have the following aspects: thought, feeling, choice, body, social context, and soul. Redemption will involve a rescue and proper ordering of all these aspects.
5. Our world today teaches us to live from our feelings. We are accordingly at the mercy of circumstances that produce certain feelings that control our actions. This is a type of bondage that Christ would free us from. For freedom Christ has set us free.
6. "Passivity was for the Israelites, and it is for us one of the greatest dangers and difficulties of our spiritual existence. The land promised to them was one of incredible goodness - "flowing with milk and honey," as it is repeatedly described. But it still had to be conquered by careful, persistent, and intelligent human action, over a long period of time. In the beginning of the conquest of the Promised Land, the walls of Jericho fell down, to make clear God's presence and power. Welcome to the Kingdom! But that never happened again. The Israelites had to take the remaining cities through hand-to-hand warfare, though always still with divine assistance. What was then true of the Promised Land of the Israelites is now true of individual human beings who come to God." (Willard)
More to come...
