Entries that relate to Pascal’s wager.
Walker Percy is one of my favorite authors, and this book was given to me by Professor Michael DeBow, one of my favorite people, who picked it up in St. Francisville, Louisiana, at the annual Walker Percy Weekend there. Percy is a Southern Catholic existentialist — an interesting combination. This book devotes a chapter each … [Read more…]
Happy Easter! He is risen! Since I’m writing something about every other book of the New Testament, it would be odd to skip the Gospels. On the other hand, one always worries that it is presumptuous at best to try to boil down God’s word, and that is especially so with the Gospels. What’s more, … [Read more…]
This is a very good book by a well-known and acclaimed Christian author today, the first of his I think I’ve read. The first part talks about how life and the universe itself is miraculous (the narrow range of conditions essential, etc.), and the second part is series of modern-day miracles attested to by people … [Read more…]
As the title advertises, this biography focuses on C.S. Lewis’s spiritual life; its method is largely to quote from Lewis’s own words and letters, and there is not a lot of authorial speculation. So the book is straightforward and reliable, but there’s not much to surprise anyone already familiar with Lewis’s life and works. Still … [Read more…]
This is a 1995 anthology responding to the Jesus Seminar. It’s very impressive: dense, serious, persuasive, straightforward, and concise, with contributions from the likes of William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, Craig Blomberg, Craig Evans, etc. Some notes: In chapter 1, John Meier’s A Marginal Jew is cited favorably as generally supportive. Religious experience can be … [Read more…]
This is a wonderful collection of letters, and a long but very enjoyable read. The letters reveal that the famous Georgia author was a charming, funny, sensible woman, very Christian and very Catholic. They end sadly with her untimely death. I noted that she praised C.S. Lewis’s book on prayer and his Miracles (572). And there … [Read more…]
This is a really good book, and it ends with a chapter that is explicitly Christian. I think the author sometimes overstates what he has shown, but he does show a lot and it is always helpful, even if it is not quite as definitive as he sometimes claims. Obviously the existence of life after … [Read more…]
This book is a very good summary of Lewis’s writing, though organized by theme, not by the work: reasons for Lewis’s success, reasons to believe, what God is like, who is Christ, miracles, faith and reason, rivals of Christianity (little on Islam, by the way), Christian living, prayer, death and beyond. I wrote down this … [Read more…]
Here are some thoughts on effective evangelism, from someone who may or may not be an especially effective evangelist: You need to have good answers to obvious questions like: (1) Why does God let children die of cancer? (2) Why are good people who don’t believe in Jesus sent to Hell? On the other hand, … [Read more…]
Some Christians say yes, and criticize those who would make it easy. But let me hazard a more laid-back answer. And let me note at the outset that Our Savior said, “For my yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Matthew 11:30. It’s not so bad being a Christian, considering the alternative, which is … [Read more…]