Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The problem with selling Christianity

What at any rate seems certain is that when Friendship bears fruit which the community can use it has to do so accidentally, as a by-product. rightonReligions devised for a social purpose, like Roman emperor-worship or modern attempts to “sell” Christianity as a means of “saving civilization,” do not come to much. The little knots of Friends who turn their backs on the “World” are those who really transform it. Egyptian and Babylonian Mathematics were practical and social, pursued in the service of Agriculture and Magic. But the free Greek Mathematics, pursued by Friends as a leisure occupation, have mattered to us more.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960; Harcourt Brace: 1991) 68-69.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 16, 2010 at 6:45 PM

    I'll put Pat Robertson's book right up there next to G.W. Bush's auto bio. If they are for me than they are not against me. Didn't Jesus say that to his disciple's?
    If Pat has the worlds "financial solutions" solved maybe he should run for president, again. Just thinking, anonymous

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  2. Ken SymesJune 18, 2010 at 3:14 AM

    It maybe wasn't entirely fair to put Pat's book there. I was just aiming at the whole concept of "selling Christianity." And if anyone is on the TV trying to sell Christianity as the solution to all of America's problems, it would be Pat Robertson!

    After all, it was Pat who actually suggested that Haiti suffered the earthquake and poverty due to a pact the people had allegedly made with the devil. Almost as if to say if that's the deal you get from the devil, why not buy this deal from God instead?

    Am I too cynical? ;)

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