Reading “Mere Christianity” at The Eagle And Child

LewisAs you may have noticed, I have not been posting much on the blog recently. I have been far from idle, but I haven’t found time to sit down and write. Two main projects are occupying my time at the moment.

The first is a podcast which I hope to launch next month.

The second item consuming my time is a new CS Lewis reading group which is starting next month. This group, “The Eagle and Child”, named after the pub in which CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien met with The Inklings, will be a monthly meeting to discuss the works of CS Lewis.

The first book we will be reading is Lewis’ classic “Mere Christianity”. This book grew out of talks Lewis gave on the radio during World War II, in which he outlines, with his usual charm and humour, his case for Christianity.

Rather than having the blog go completely quiet, I will be posting my notes for “Mere Christianity” as I read through it in preparation for each of our meetings. You’re invited to read along with me 🙂

Preface (Podcast)

Book I – “Right and wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe” (Summary)
Chapter 1 – “The Law of Human Nature” (Podcast)
Chapter 2 – “Some Objections” (Podcast)
Chapter 3 – “The Reality of the Law” (Podcast)
Chapter 4 – “What lies behind the Law” (Podcast)
Chapter 5 – “We have cause to be uneasy” (Podcast)

Book II – “What Christians believe” (Summary)
Chapter 1 – “Rival Conceptions of God” (Podcast)
Chapter 2 – “The Invasion” (Podcast)
Chapter 3 – “The Shocking Alternative” (Podcast)
Chapter 4 – “The Perfect Penitent” (Podcast)
Chapter 5 – “The Practical Conclusion” (Podcast)

Book III – “Christianity Morality” (Summary)
Chapter 1 – “The Three Parts of Morality” (Podcast)
Chapter 2 – “The ‘Cardinal Virtues'” (Podcast)
Chapter 3 – “Social Morality” (Podcast)
Chapter 4 – “Morality and Psychoanalysis” (Podcast)
Chapter 5 – “Sexual Morality” (Podcast)
Chapter 6 – “Christian Marriage” (Podcast)
Chapter 7 – “Forgiveness” (Podcast)
Chapter 8 – “The Great Sin” (Podcast)
Chapter 9 – “Charity” (Podcast)
Chapter 10 – “Hope” (Podcast)
Chapter 11 – “Faith” (Podcast)
Chapter 12 – “Faith” (Podcast)

BOOK IV – “Beyond personality: Or first steps into the doctrine of the Trinity” (Summary)
Chapter 1 – “Making and begetting” (Podcast)
Chapter 2 – “The Three-Personal God” (Podcast)
Chapter 3 – “Time and beyond time” (Podcast)
Chapter 4 – “Good infection” (Podcast)
Chapter 5 – “The obstinate toy soldiers” (Podcast)
Chapter 6 – “Two notes” (Podcast)
Chapter 7 – “Let’s pretend” (Podcast)
Chapter 8 – “Is Christianity hard or easy?” (Podcast)
Chapter 9 – “Counting the cost” (Podcast)
Chapter 10 – “Nice People or new men?” (Podcast)
Chapter 11 – “The new man” (Podcast)

Being able to thank your mother…

A couple of days ago I had a quick post where I pointed out that Planned Parenthood, the abortion provider, doesn’t appear to understand irony. Well, they strike once again, this time by retweeting a Mother’s Day message from their president Cecile Richards…

Thanks to the work of Planned Parenthood, 50 million people never had the chance to tell their mothers that they loved them and a similar number never got to hear it…

TEA: Evangelization For The Terrified (SPC Retreat)

Terrified

I know I said I wouldn’t be posting during Lent, but this weekend I gave a talk, “Evangelization for the terrified”, at the San Pedro Calungsod Young Adult Retreat in San Diego and promised that I’d upload the audio the following week, together with links to the resources I mentioned in my talk.

The Talk

Evangelization For The Terrified – Extended Edition (Download)

Unfortunately, the original recording has the last ten minutes cut off… 🙁 Fortunately, I just re-recorded the entire talk here at home. Since I didn’t have the time restrictions I had on the retreat, this recording is a little longer. Think of it as the Director’s Cut or the Extended Edition, which includes ten minutes of never-before-heard material!

Referenced Resources

David and SarahI began my talk by referencing the Papal Encyclical Evangelization In The Modern World.

When I speak about learning your faith, I mention a number of low-cost services which will help you learn the Catholic Faith:

FORMED (Catholic Answers)
ClaritasU (Brandon Vogt)
New St. Thomas Institute (Dr. Taylor Marshall)

I also mentioned recommend the following sites which are completely free:

Institute of Catholic Culture
St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

I mention that you can buy cheap books/CDs/DVDs to give away from Dynamic Catholic.

For staying up-to-date with Catholicism in the media, I recommend listening to Hearts & Minds and the Don Johnson Show.

If you would like lots of good examples of how seasoned apologists engage non-Catholics, please check out Catholic Answers Live.

The talk was concluded with a retelling of the story of the Sun and the Wind from Aesop’s Fables.

Evaluating Horn and White’s Debate

A while ago I posted the video of the debate between Dr. James White and Trent Horn on the issue of whether or not it is possible for a Christian to lose his salvation.

The broad response that I’ve seen on the Internet (from both Catholic and Protestant alike) is that Trent put forward the significantly stronger case, and I would agree with this assessment. I’m a fan of Dr. White in many areas and I’ve seen him more successful in other debates debating Catholics, but in this case, I think his position was shown to be very weak.

Dr. White recently put out a video in response to this consensus, explaining how it is that he thinks we should evaluate debates. I literally just came across the following YouTube video which examines this video. It’s a little bit polemic, but if you’ve seen the debate, I think it’s well worth a watch…

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