I don’t find this article especially relevant to HN, but I have to say reading CS Lewis has been an absolute gem in reconnecting with my faith. Logic and reason and thinking compared to what modern evangelical leaders use - only emotions.
Still rings hollow to me, his arguments always seemed founded on fantasies and fallacies.
And anyway the world is dark enough as it is. We don't need to be teaching kids they also face eternal flames and torment.
I think his apologetics are best suited for people who genuinely want to believe but find themselves unable to reason their way into it. He demonstrates that while you can't depend on reason for belief, you don't have to abandon it either.
The general stance of apologists is to elide contradiction or paradox, or construct elaborate arguments for why they aren't actually there. He more often goes at them head on, and then clearly points out what you need to accept or believe for them to make sense. It's not convincing if you're not looking to be convinced I don't think. But if you are and are just trying to work out the details, well that's why so many christians admire his apologetics.
FWIW I read his work while I still wanted to believe. In that case I suppose it's a nice warm blanket of 'reason'. But it all fell to pieces once I looked critically at the "evidence" and decided that believing without seeing was a fools' errand.
What good is reasoning that digs oneself deeper into a pit of ignorance?
There are plenty of modern evangelical leaders who don't use emotions. E.g. Tim Keller.
Perhaps, but in my experience they are much more difficult to find for those who do not come from a religious upbringing. Even coming from a religious upbringing, depending on the denomination, you may have missed entire swaths of material due to it not aligning with a given particular brand of Christianity. I am generally skeptical of most modern material aimed at a general audience as it has become too “influencer”-y; it’s about who has the best catchphrases and the signal to noise ratio drops off a cliff.
It’s because of that I felt Tim Keller’s recent passing so much more.
Yes, you might be right there. It's rare to encounter mind-expanding books like Mere Christianity and the Prodigal God anywhere though, not just in Christian literature.
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