Integrative Essay

At the beginning of this Interim course I did not think that there was any way that C.S. Lewis and Cornelius Plantinga Jr. would relate to each other, other than the fact that they are both Christians. I found most of the writings by Lewis to be appealing, new, and very applicable to my life, whereas I found Plantinga’s book, Engaging God’s World, to be quite boring and uninteresting because I have grown up learning all of these concepts already, and none of it was new to me. Despite the fact that I was not excited to read Plantinga’s book, there were some similarities between the two authors and they actually complimented each other quite nicely.

I think one of the most influential essays, for me at least, by Lewis that we looked at is called “Meditation in a Toolshed.” In this essay Lewis talks about the differences between looking “along” something and looking “at” something. He says, “You get one experience of a thing when you look along it and another when you look at it” (2). He says that looking along something is like when you actually experience something, whereas looking at something is when you just observe something from a distance and do not actually experience it. He then goes on to say, “One must look both along and at everything…we must start with no prejudice for or against either kind of looking” (2). I found this essay to be very relevant to my life because I sometimes make decisions or judge things just based on one of these ways of looking at something. Lewis tells us that that is not a wise thing to do though; we must look at everything from two different perspectives.

In his sermon entitled “The Weight of Glory”, C.S. Lewis says many profound things that tie in nicely with some of the concepts that Plantinga talks about in this book. Lewis scared me a bit in this sermon when he talks being “noticed” by God, and he mentions a passage in the New Testament that deals with people that never really “knew” God. He says, “There we are warned that it may happen to any one of us to appear at last before the face of God and hear only the appalling words: ‘I never knew you. Depart from me’” (4). I like this quote from Lewis a lot and I think it ties in with some things that Plantinga talks about, but it also frightens me quite a bit as well. Plantinga says that God wants us to have relationships with Him, He always has wanted that, but it has become much more difficult since evil has crept into our world and infected all of us. He defines evil as “any spoiling of shalom” (1). This “spoiling of shalom” that Plantinga talks about is important because this means that shalom, the way things were always supposed to be, has been ruined now. There is nothing we can do now but to ask for forgiveness from God and try to move on.

I also appreciate what Lewis says towards the end of “The Weight of Glory” sermon when he says, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal” (4). This is a great quote, not only because it is simple and thought provoking, but also because it is insightful. I have never thought of other people in this way before. I believe that here Lewis is indirectly hinting at the fact that we are all created in the “image of God”, and I think that Plantinga would appreciate that as well. Plantinga states that all of humanity is created in the “image of God” and, even though we have sinned, we have the opportunity to be redeemed (1). I have always been taught that we are all human and we have all been created in the image of God, but what Lewis mentions in his sermon made me think and reflect more on this idea. If we are all made in God’s image, then when we disrespect someone else, we are really disrespecting God and His creation. This is an interesting concept because we are all humans, and most of the time we think we are nothing more than mortals. This quote by Lewis connects to another thing that Plantinga says, and that is that God is “King of kings” (1), which also implies that we are kings and queens and we rule over our own little kingdoms. Plantinga says that we are not mere mortals, indirectly of course. If we truly believe that we are all kings and queens and we are created in God’s image, then I think we would not only have a different outlook on each other, but on God’s creation as well.

One of the most applicable pieces of Lewis’s writings that can be used today by many college students is entitled “Our English Syllabus.” In this essay Lewis explains the importance of education and the difference between education and vocational training. He says, “You see at once that education is essentially for freemen and vocational training for slaves” (3). Here Lewis weighs in on the importance of education because through education an individual can learn so many different things that can be useful for the rest of one’s life, but vocational training limits an individual because here a person is only learning about one certain subject, they are not learning a good foundation of information that can spill over into other areas of learning.

Plantinga also mentions vocation in his book. Plantinga says that our vocation is our calling, and a Christian’s main vocation is to be a “prime citizen” of the kingdom, which means we are to passionately yearn for the kingdom (1). I think that these two glances at vocation are related in an important way. God calls us to “passionately yearn for the kingdom”, and I think that if we learn as much as we can we are at least trying to become prime citizens. If we do not learn very much from a broad range of topics I think that we are not taking advantage of all of the gifts that God has given us, and we are not fulfilling our calls to be prime citizens.

One of my favorite quotes from this essay is when Lewis talks about students needing to figure things out for themselves. He says, “Do not tell me that you would sooner have a nice composite menu of dishes from half the world drawn up for you. You are too old for that. It is time you learned to wrestle with nature yourself” (3). I like this quote a lot because this is where Lewis tells us that we, as college students, should begin to learn on our own. We do not need a professor to be holding our hands and feeding us spoonfuls of information, we need to “wrestle with nature.” I think that this not only happens in our school work, but the opposite happens in our faith. God has made us right with Him by justification, so now all we have to do is ask for His help. It seems that too many times we think we can do things on our own without God’s help, just like Lewis mentions in the essay when he was talking of a professor’s help, but that only leads to us making an even greater mess of things. We need God to walk next to us and hold our hand, which is what Jesus is for. If we “wrestle with nature” without God’s help, we are going to be completely lost.

Also in the essay “Our English Syllabus” Lewis talks about the importance of a liberal arts education and he stresses the need to learn a bit about many different subjects. He says that a liberal arts education is necessary because, as impossible as it may seem, we need to have knowledge of everything (3). We must apply several subjects together to be well-rounded (3). It may be difficult to know a little of everything, it may even be impossible, but we must attempt this important feat. Plantinga also talks of the importance of a liberal arts education in his book, and he specifically talks about how Calvin College began and the troubles that it faced early on when the college was forming. Plantinga would agree with Lewis that a liberal arts education is extremely important so that you may have“knowledge of everything.” I think that Plantinga would not disagree with Lewis when Lewis says that we should not limit our learning to college (3), instead we should learn new things every day even when we are not in school anymore.

I used to have a soccer coach in high school that would ask me how my day was going every single day. When I replied, “It was okay, nothing special,” he would ask me if I had learned anything that day. I would say, “Of course I did.” Then he would just nod his head and tell me that it was a good day. I never thought much of his odd question until I read this essay by Lewis, and I now understand that it is important to take advantage of all of the knowledge around us and we must try to soak in everything we can because it may be beneficial later in life.

I knew going into this course that I would learn quite a bit of new information, what I did not realize was all of the ways that this new knowledge will hopefully benefit me in the future. I knew C.S. Lewis was a great writer even though I had not read many of his books or writings before I took this class. This class has taught me that knowledge is extremely important and that I must try to learn as many things as possible while I have the opportunities. My professors were great as well, and the discussions were very helpful in helping me learn different views and perspectives on these interesting and provocative writings.

Works Cited

1) Jr., Cornelius Plantinga. ENGAGING GOD'S WORLD A REFORMED VISION OF FAITH, LEARNING, AND LIVING. Boston: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2002. Print.

2) Lewis, C. S. God in the Dock Essays on Theology and Ethics. Boston: Wm. B. Eerdmans Company, 1994. Print.

3) "Our English Syllabus," in Rehabilitations and Other Essays. London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1939.

4) "The Weight of Glory." Google. Web. 23 Jan. 2010. .