Reading for Preaching
Mere Christianity, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
Lewis compares individual morality to what a person does to his own ship (his own life) and group morality to the intermeshing of all the ships in the convoy and its destination. Then this: “Let’s go back to the person who says that a thing cannot be wrong unless it hurts some other human being. ...
“Literature and Moral Purpose”
What you want to avoid: “moral boys in fiction.” They’re typically so good they’re awful. Used to be magazines that were “heavy with tales of noble boys who imposed their moral superiority on everybody around them.” Also moral animals: e.g. Beautiful Joe, who is a canine Christian. He was a powerfully moral dog. Moreover, he...
The Problem of Pain
All civilizations have (1) a sense of the numinous; (2) a sense of a morality that they cannot live up to fully; but (3) the Jews bring these together: the dreadful God who lives on mountaintops and who issues the law is the same being! The fearful one at the same time loves and also...
“The Good War”
“Our ancestors were better than we are at the ‘hard’ virtues, like courage and chastity. We are better at the ‘soft’ virtues like kindness and philanthropy. But you can no more specialize in Virtues than in anatomical organs. The virtues are like organs in a body; interdependent. Compassion without courage ceases under pressure, and compassion...
The Diary of a Yuppie
Robert Service (a yuppie lawyer) explains his moral code to two other men: “The trouble with you and Blakelock is that neither of you has the remotest understanding of the moral climate in which we live today. It’s all a game, but a game with very strict rules. You have to stay meticulously within the...
The Winter of Our Discontent
“To most of the world success is never bad. When Hitler moved unchecked and triumphant, many honorable men sought and found virtue in him. And Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Vichy collaborated for the good of France, and whatever else Stalin was, he was strong. Strength and success—they are above morality, above...
Additional content related to Morality
Matthew 5:21-37
This is our last week with the Sermon on the Mount, but it is important to remember that context. Jesus started this sermon with blessings for the struggling, encouragement for the blessed, and is describing the high calling of kingdom citizenship. We are still in that spirit. Living the way that Jesus is describing will…
Preaching Connection: Morality