Serious Times--the second half

In my last blog I mentioned a challenging book called Serious Times. It started by giving a history of worldviews, beginning with the Middle Ages and continuing to modern times. The author, James Emery White, talked about the results of the current worldview, one which has been shaped by moral relativism, autonomous individualism, narcissistic hedonism, and reductive naturalism. What does our world look like now? It is one with a crisis in values, a lack of vision, an abundance of empty souls, and the feeling of an inadequate human experience. White uses the second half of his book to suggest what our response as Christians should be to this world. There’s a lot to this part, and I don’t want to rush it, so I will go over part of it here and the rest in one additional blog. Please slow down, read, and think about his challenge to us today.

First, he believes we should deepen our souls. We need to seek God and live like Jesus. How do we do this? We start by reading our Bibles and meditating on what we have read. We develop a better prayer life. We seek a time of silence and solitude. We develop a spiritual direction from reading or talking to people. He stresses the need to set up our own spiritual disciplines much like Christians have done since the time of St. Benedict. There are a lot of books and articles to help in this area. But we must do this slowly at first so that we don't feel overwhelmed. It was this area that challenged me greatly since I seem to be in a hurry throughout my day with little time for meditation, prayer, or solitude. This is where I need a lot of work.

Secondly, White says we must develop our minds. We badly need a Christian worldview that helps us understand and react to the world as it is. We need to be able to answer key questions of life -- Who am I? What's wrong with the human race? What's the remedy? We must read good books and reflect on what we read. Now, for me this part comes much easier. I read a lot and use some of my blog space to share my findings. For other people, this section may be more of a challenge. If this is your situation, feel free to e-mail me, and I can send you a list of good resources to develop a Christian mind (radio stations, Internet sites, books, etc.). I also have started an apologetics class at our church, Emmanuel Faith, where we meet to explore rational defenses of the Christian faith in a skeptical age--this both strengthens Christians and helps them interact with those who don't believe. The church also has worldview classes that look at various worldviews and why the Christian one is superior. Ask me for further info on any of these (zachs@cox.net).