“The greatest barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the
minds of my audience of any sense of sin... The early Christian
preachers could assume in their hearers, whether Jews, Metuentes, or
Pagans, a sense of guilt. (That this was common among Pagans is shown by
the fact that both Epicureanism and the mystery religions both claimed,
though in different ways, to assuage it.) Thus the Christian message
was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It
promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince
our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to
welcome the news of the remedy.
The ancient man approached God
(or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the
modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the
dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable
defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is
ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But
the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”
―
C.S. Lewis,
God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
Which leads to discussions like this:
So very excited to read Bad Religion with our small group this summer.
