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Literary Apologetics from Lewis and Tolkien

29/6/2018

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When scholarly writers of literary apologetics write critically about the writing process, what it means to be a reader, an author, and even their own process as a writer, it is worth taking notice. All the more so when two of those writers happen to be friends, dialoguing and critiquing one another’s work. So it was with CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, though not as much as popular legend may have liked. Regardless, there is enough within the body of work between these two men to recognize the patterns of similarity and difference in their approach to literary apologetics respectively, as regards general methods of criticism of story, the foundations from myth which both sought in their work, and the inextricable role of “fairy stories” to these writers. This can be a valuable framework for our own understanding of literature as apologetic, how it may be thought to work, and what its value may be to us today.

Music: http://www.purple-planet.com ​

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​16. Letters to Prison #4: Imaginative / Rational Approaches

20/6/2018

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This letter centers on something deep and very important here that I only learned a few years ago. Moreover, it was the model used for my most recent grad-work in apologetics, and the framework for the entire program. So, I’ll start this time with a related structural idea, one that I got from CS Lewis. 

It’s a simple idea:
​The rational and the imaginative need each other. 

That’s it. To go deeper there is no better place to start than Lewis himself. In his essay “Bluspels and Flanasferes” (crazy title using made-up words to make his point!) Lewis makes the distinction between meaning and truth.

He writes:
“Meaning... is the antecedent condition both of truth and falsehood whose antithesis is not error but nonsense. I am a rationalist. For me reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth but its condition.”

What he means by this has been the subject of much study, but very little debate. It is clear what he means by meaning, and that he believed that imagination is the key to understanding “full” truth. In my first letter I used the terms “Newtonian” and “Darwinist” to mean a similar thing. We have talked much about material vs. functional ontology (thanks to Walton) and Jordan Peterson’s key framework is “order versus chaos” which if you think about it is another version of the same thing. The act of doing anything is the act of bringing order to chaos, but simultaneously using our chaotic capacity to imagine and then actualize reality to sort-of bring about what we want. This goes for our spiritual lives too. The very act of saying “God I can’t do it alone…” is by definition a choice which has been acted upon. Worth meditating on. You will see it everywhere if you pay attention.

Topics in this letter: 
RATIONAL AND IMAGINATIVE APPROACHES
TRANSLATION WORD CHOICES
CAPITALIZING HE/HIS/HIM
GREAT SEA CREATURES
A GENOCIDAL GOD?

Music: http://www.purple-planet.com ​

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15. SciFi Apologetics and Star Wars

8/6/2018

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I LOVE Science fiction! 

CS Lewis did not shy away from smuggled theology, and neither should we. He once wrote of his third entry in the Ransom Trilogy that:

“This is a ‘tall story’ about devilry, though it has behind it a serious ‘point’ which I have tried to make in my Abolition of Man.” 

An extremely popular form of speculative fiction is science fiction. It is a broad genre, deserving of its own distinctness beyond fantasy or other forms, mostly because it has the potential to grapple with apologetic themes in not only a more compelling way, but also by striking directly to the heart of the matters at hand. Let’s look at why this is true.
​
  • Science fiction is a complex “what if” statement.
  • All speculative fiction has apologetic value
  • Finally, apologetic value is easy to spot because faith ITSELF is often a MAJOR theme in SciFi.

Science fiction challenges us scientifically, socially, and yes, also spiritually. And that is a very good thing!    
SO HOW DOES STAR WARS STAND UP TO THIS? Unfortunately, not very well from a Christian perspective, but it's a great way to start a conversation! Here's why...

Music: http://www.purple-planet.com 

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14. Letters to Prison #3: Scripture

1/6/2018

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​Letters to Prison #3: The Scripture and Translation Letter

This was my third letter to my friend in prison who has been asking such wonderful questions. This letter is all about scripture and translation and how we can know we have an accurate bible, and why we should believe it at all.  

Consider this quote from a second century man named Lucian who wrote the ancient text *How to Write History* saying in it:

“Let it be adorned […] by the interweaving of the matter.”

They didn’t have cameras or tape recorders. It was all based on eye-witness testimony of hundreds and in a few cases “the multitudes.” Guys who didn’t know each other wrote corroborating accounts based on oral eye-witnesses. They were a culture of oral story-tellers, and they were a lot more flexible with the details than we are today and a lot better at preserving the really important stuff. It’s the differences that make the Gospels believable.

More "Letters to Prison" episodes coming soon! 

Music: http://www.purple-planet.com 

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    Doc Brackin is a scholar, philosopher, and Christian apologist. He has a PhD in Humanities and various degrees in Cultural Apologetics, Education, Art, and English.

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