Missionaries to Great Britain! (Advice to Apologists, Part 6)

Our great danger at present is lest the Church should continue to practise a merely missionary technique in what has become a missionary situation. A century ago our task was to edify those who had been brought up in the Faith: our present task is chiefly to convert and instruct infidels. Great Britain is as much part of the mission field as China. Now if you were sent to the Bantus you would be taught their language and traditions. You need similar teaching about the language and mental habits of your own uneducated and unbelieving fellow countrymen. Many priests are quite ignorant on this subject. What I know about it I have learned from talking in R.A.F. camps. They were mostly inhabited by Englishmen and, therefore, some of what I shall say may be irrelevant to the situation in Wales. You will sift out what does not apply....

C.S. Lewis, "Christian Apologetics" (1945) included in God in the Dock (Eerdmans, 1970) 94.

Technorati Tags: C.S. Lewis,Apologetics,Great Britain,missions,missionaries,contemporary language,clarity,evangelism

Talking in today's language: Advice to Apologists (Part 5)

Our business is to present that which is timeless (the same
yesterday, today, and tomorrow [Hebrews 13:8]) in the particular language of our own age.  The bad preacher does exactly the opposite: he takes the ideas of our own age and tricks them out in the traditional language of Christianity. Thus, for example, he may think about the Beveridge Report [on the social security system in Britain] and talk about the coming of the Kingdom. The core of his thought is merely contemporary; only the superficies is traditional. But your teaching must be timeless at its heart and wear a modern dress.

C.S. Lewis, "Christian Apologetics" (1945) included in God in the Dock (Eerdmans, 1970) 93-94.

Technorati Tags: C.S. Lewis,Apologetics,Communication,Biblical Interpretation,Preaching,Today's New International Version,Translation