G.K. Chesterton, “St. Thomas Aquinas”

“St. Thomas did not reconcile Christ to Aristotle; he reconciled Aristotle to Christ.”  (28) Chesterton sees Aquinas as a very practical thinker: commonsensical rather than abstract-to-the-extreme as more modern thinkers are.  Chesterton is also critical of both Augustine and Luther to an extent.  Nothing wrong with the flesh:  That’s part of who we are.

Paul E. Little, “Know What You Believe”

Some notes:  (1) At the beginning, he makes the point (that I also make elsewhere on this site) that it actually made good sense for God to want to have His words written down.  (2) He argues toward the end that faith determines Heaven or Hell, but works determine the level in either.

C.S. Lewis, “Christian Reflections”

Just a couple of notes: (1) The first part of his “Psalms’ (115-17) — on what we have in common with (and how we differ from) the Greeks and Romans versus the Hebrews — is great. (2) It’s thought-provoking that he thinks Jesus got some genes from Mary (121).

Predestination

The question of predestination is one of an intricacy disproportionate to its interest, to paraphrase Chief Justice John Marshall, or at least its relevance to us on earth in leading our lives (interesting phrase, by the way: leading a life instead of, say, living it). What I mean is that we cannot be so sure … [Read more…]

Fun Facts about the Bible

Every biblical author but one (Luke, who also wrote Acts) was Jewish. One the other hand, Luke and Acts together are one-fourth of the New Testament. Also on the other hand, there are two other books (besides Luke) named for Gentiles, namely Ruth and Job. Job, by the way, is considered the oldest book in … [Read more…]

Three Challenges

There are three challenges that a Christian faces:  (1) maintaining his faith in God; (2) figuring out what God wants us to do; and (3) doing it.  Different people might find different challenges most difficult; we all may face any of them from time to time; and of course it’s not just the committed Christian … [Read more…]

How Should You “Cultivate Faith”?

I’ve noted elsewhere on this site (see especially “Why I Am a Christian (and You Should Be, Too), in 600 Words”) my take on Pascal’s Wager as pressing Christians to cultivate the faith they choose to declare.  That is, one doesn’t just say, okay, I believe, and then forget about it; one must act accordingly … [Read more…]