This forum was closed on October 1st, 2010. However, the archives are open to the public and filled with vast amounts of good reading and information for you to enjoy. If you wish to meet some Wardrobians, please visit the Into the Wardrobe Facebook group.

Lewis' Successor?

Comprising most of Lewis' writings.
Forum rules
Please keep all discussion on topic and in line with our code of conduct.

Lewis' Successor?

Postby The Bigsleep J » April 3rd, 2006, 12:50 pm

Here's a simple quetion: who would you consider to be Lewis' successor in the field of apologetics? Just asking. :)
Insert supposedly witty but random absurd comment here and add water
User avatar
The Bigsleep J
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 3236
Joined: May 2002
Location: South Africa

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby A#minor » April 3rd, 2006, 3:07 pm

Not possible. There's nobody that could fill his shoes.
"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
User avatar
A#minor
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 7323
Joined: May 2005
Location: Georgia, USA

Re: re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby The Bigsleep J » April 3rd, 2006, 5:48 pm

Insert supposedly witty but random absurd comment here and add water
User avatar
The Bigsleep J
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 3236
Joined: May 2002
Location: South Africa

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby Stanley Anderson » April 3rd, 2006, 6:08 pm

It's not quite clear what a successor would be like -- anyone too close to Lewis' style would just be seen as an imitator. Asking the question in a reverse sort of way, was Lewis the successor to someone else? One might say Chesterton, I suppose, but I suspect they're as different as Lewis would be to anyone that might be suggested as Lewis' successor. I guess the idea of Lewis' successor would have to be someone who "did what was not done before in a widely accessible manner"

--Stanley
…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
User avatar
Stanley Anderson
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 3251
Joined: Aug 1996
Location: Southern California

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby bekados » April 3rd, 2006, 6:30 pm

Well then, did Lewis mentor anyone?
Diamonds on the soles of my shoes...

No harm in him: only needs a smack or so.
C.S. Lewis' first impression of Tolkien
User avatar
bekados
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 310
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Florida--Hurricane Alley

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby WolfVanZandt » April 6th, 2006, 10:43 pm

Josh McDowell has done a lot of apologetics work. There are also several organizations that specialize in that area - Watchmen Fellowship, the Apologetics Instutute, etc. The thing is, there's nobody that makes the subject so approachable to the common man. R. B. Theime sorta approaches it but lacks the style.
WolfVanZandt
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1266
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Selma, Alabama

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby David » April 7th, 2006, 11:47 am

The way, the weather, the terrain, the discipline, the leadership. --Sun Tzu
User avatar
David
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1044
Joined: May 2005
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Re: re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby Stanley Anderson » April 7th, 2006, 3:22 pm

…on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a fair green country under a swift sunrise.
User avatar
Stanley Anderson
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 3251
Joined: Aug 1996
Location: Southern California

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby contra mundum » April 7th, 2006, 8:10 pm

The key phrase here is "in the field of apologetics." Undoubtedly Lewis's fictional works are great apologetic vehicles, but if we're looking for someone who does excellent work of the kind Lewis did in Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, or Miracles, I would say that N. T. Wright is as close to a successor as exists today. (The fact that his latest book is a popular apologetic titled Simply Christian makes this nomination pretty obvioius.)
“Doubt no longer, then, when you see death mocked and scorned by those who believe in Christ, that by Christ death was destroyed . . .”

Athanasius
User avatar
contra mundum
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 216
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Virginia, USA

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby WolfVanZandt » April 7th, 2006, 10:16 pm

WolfVanZandt
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1266
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Selma, Alabama

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby YHWH_is_Semper_Fi » April 8th, 2006, 4:48 am

For apologetic clarity, Ravi Zacharias could be a good pick. I've heard him speak, and read some of his works, (he's coming back to USNA this month, so i get to hear him again). Can Man Live Without God and Jesus Among other gods are two of his classics.
"...If I am inclined to doubt, steady my faith; if I am tempted, make me strong to resist; if I should miss the mark, give me courage to try again. Guide me with the light of truth and keep before me the life of Him by whose example and help I trust to obtain the answer to my prayer, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen."
---Midshipman's Prayer

Member of the 2456317 club
User avatar
YHWH_is_Semper_Fi
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 48
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Annapolis, MD, USA

Re: re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby Karen » April 8th, 2006, 1:38 pm

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. -- Jorge Luis Borges
User avatar
Karen
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 3733
Joined: Jul 2002
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby Monica » April 8th, 2006, 5:32 pm

[quote="Stanley Anderson have we seen a "successor" to the Beatles? [/quote]

The Monkees? :-)
User avatar
Monica
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 273
Joined: Oct 1996

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby contra mundum » April 12th, 2006, 6:40 pm

Having now completed N. T. Wright's Simply Christian, which I mentioned in my previous post, I can now confirm that he is a worthy successor to Lewis, at least in the field of apologetics.

Notably, Wright starts Simply Christian in exactly the same place that Lewis started Mere Christianity: the human sense of, and longing for, justice and fair play. After starting from the same point, the two men approach the defense of Christianity from substantially different angles (Lewis's defense being more philosophical, Wright's more historical). But we're looking for a successor, not a clone. And there are many striking similarities between the two men. For example, as Karen also noted, Wright is the most elegant writer to defend the Christian faith this side of Lewis. Wright, like Lewis, is more concerned to defend the core docrines of Christianity than denominational distinctives, and prefers to revive dying words rather than euthanizing them (see, for example, his discussion of the word "church" in Simply Christian). Finally, Wright, like Lewis, is happy to uphold traditional morality at points where it has come under attack, but does it in a winsome manner--with no excessive austerity or foaming at the mouth.
“Doubt no longer, then, when you see death mocked and scorned by those who believe in Christ, that by Christ death was destroyed . . .”

Athanasius
User avatar
contra mundum
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 216
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Virginia, USA

re: Lewis' Successor?

Postby Josh » April 14th, 2006, 6:27 pm

I'm probably in the minority here, but I have never seen CSL's greatness in his apologetics. He was good, not great, at classical apologetics. His three classical apologetic works--The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and Mere Christianity (first part)--are all well argued, systematic, and (with the exception maybe of the crazy stuff about pets in heaven in Miracles) very, very solid. Though not really a Christian apologetic work, I thought Abolition of Man was outstanding.

His real genius, though, was in translating Christian theology and practice into a concise language that all of Christendom could understand, whether through allegorical fiction or prose. I think his greatest accomplishments were the Narnia series, the Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces, The Four Loves, and various essays, i.e., Weight of Glory. That could be considered a different, non-classical type of apologetics.

I don't think he has a real successor yet in that regard (which is one reason that he's the most quoted Christian writer since John finished Revelation). I think Francis Shaeffer (who was close to being a contemporary of CSL) and JI Packer come the closest.

If we're just talking about CSL as a classical apologist, I would go with Alvin Plantinga before Josh McDowell or a someone like Lee Strobel. Those guys have made a living off a somewhat shallow brand of classical evidentiary apologetics. CSL's apologetics had more depth and were closer to Plantinga, although Plantinga is a philosopher by trade and cannot come close to CSL as a writer.
ecclesia semper reformata, semper reformanda.

--John Calvin
User avatar
Josh
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 588
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: So long and thanks for all the fish.

Next

Return to Apologetics & Other Works

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered members and 15 guests

cron