“Remember your Aristotle—the universal form adheres within particulars. If you set out to tell a story about Everything, you’ll get nothing. It will be so broad and ambitious that it ends up signifying nothing. But if you, for instance, tell a story about an ordinary family in an ordinary Texas town, you might end up with an incredible story of love and loyalty and duty, of courage during times of trouble, and of fidelity to people and to place, that speaks in universally accessible language. By committing yourself to a particular confessional (and orthodox) tradition, you open to yourself the full riches of Mere Christianity. To paraphrase Lewis: Aim for the particulars of a specific confessional tradition and get the universals of mere Christendom thrown in. Aim for mere Christendom without any confessional roots, and you’ll get neither.”
Jake Meador, from The Invisible Anglicanism of C.S. Lewis, at Mere Orthodoxy.
This is a brilliant article pointing out how valuable C.S. Lewis was because, not in spite, of his devotion to a particular (orthodox) tradition. This reminds me of something Rich Mullins once said about how people should be more devoted to their own churches and denominations and not less. That struck me as strange at the time, but worked on me. We live in an era of Do-It-Yourself spirituality, and are finding so many chains in our supposed freedom. Like the culture’s experiments with sex and subversion, we will find that it can grow very cold for us, once we have burned all our homes. -Sam
“…we will find that it can grow very cold for us, once we have burned all our homes.”
Well said, Sam.
Sam, that’s a really powerful description: “It can grow very cold for us, once we have burned all our homes.” So very true!
Don’t you think it’s difficult, as a Christian writer particularly, to narrow down what it is you’re wanting to say in your story? We seem to feel this bizarre burden to illuminate absolutely every essential truth about God and the universe and include the complete plan of salvation in our stories. It’s silly. How humbling to see that a genius writer like Lewis felt no such obligation. He understood how grand the small stories are. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for posting this… Great insight. I want to hear more about the rich Mullins quote and how this has shaped your thoughts!
I’m having trouble with this one, especially after reading the full article.
It calls to deep longing in me, a desire to belong to something more tangible than the mysterious universal church.
But for one thing, I’m not convinced there is a qualitative methodological difference between choosing a faith tradition, or choosing to affirm specific doctrines individually.
In either case, we choose based on our rationalistic judgments and preferences. And arguments could be made that the “noble” Bereans used this very method, to the approval of the apostles.
Secondly, even granting a difference, let’s not forget that all Christian traditions, including the Roman catholic and Anglican traditions, were built by men who were not satisfied to take what had been handed down to them without examining and re-codifying it.
What to do if the tradition is found wanting?
I honestly don’t know. But I can’t reconcile myself to just swallowing it.
I should add, for readers who aren’t SD Smith, that I am deeply committed to a small church in the little town where I live. But it is not orthordox in the way Anglicans use the word, and unaffiliated with a larger denomination.
I have my reservations about that, as I said. But the alternative…