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Thursday,
June 1, 2006
Gaithersburg, MD
Dear All (and Sundry),
The Chesterton Society would like to
announce our summer reading for 2006. If you're interested in joining us this
fall, or just following along with what we're up to, we encourage you to read
G.K. Chesterton's novella The Man Who Was Thursday. It's not too long,
and it is an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
Why Thursday? In many ways,
this book was our inspiration for starting the club. We liked the idea of a
close-knit group of Last Men fighting against the encroachment of anarchistic,
anti-Christian culture. These themes are just as relevant now as when
Chesterton wrote the book. Chesterton also had a delicious knack for the
well-turned phrase. We think you'll enjoy the book.
We'd also like to give you a sneak
peek at what we'll be discussing this year. At PHC, our mission is to be
preparing ourselves to shape our culture for Christ, whether through politics,
or writing, or teaching, or raising families, or film-making, or business --
really, whatever God calls us to do. We soon, however, encounter the obvious
but difficult question: What does it mean
to shape the culture for Christ?
We believe this comprises more than evangelism, although evangelism is
indispensable. Not only do individuals need regeneration, but our culture, our
institutions, our laws and systems of government, and our traditions ought to
honor Christ.
However, if we stop here, we commit
another error, for we assume we actually know what a Christ-honoring culture would
look like. This is foolish. We have grown up in the United States. We have never known
anything different, except for those fortunate few of us who have had formative
experiences in other countries. In some ways, they have much to teach us
because they can think outside the American frame of mind; but no one has
experienced a national culture that truly glorifies the Lord. We have no
example; no frame of reference; no point in time we can look back upon and say,
"Yes, that is what we should be." Some periods in our national
history seem more Christian in retrospect, and we often feel a sense of
nostalgia in remembering these bygone times. But our nation has always had
horrible flaws, and often even in the name of Christianity. From the very
beginning we allowed human slavery, one of the worst evils mankind has ever
inflicted on itself, and almost as soon as we got rid of it, new evils sprung
up; the worst being the rejection of God in a wide variety of national
institutions and churches and the substitution of humanistic philosophy for a
foundering Christianity. These faults came about in large measure because of an
inaccurate understanding of the Gospel.
So if we want to influence the
culture for Christ, we must know what a Christian culture looks like; and to
have a Christian understanding of culture we must understand what Christianity
is. We must understand that it revolves around the Gospel and God's revelation
of Christ through the Bible, and that the Gospel applies directly to every
question, every theory, every tradition, every system of government, and passes
judgment on them. And we must affirm that the regenerating work of the Holy
Spirit is as necessary for regenerating a culture as it is for every human
heart. In short, only by pursuing a sound Christianity can we hope to have any
beneficial influence on the world around us.
With these goals in mind, we would
like to recommend for optional summer reading two books. T.S. Eliot's
four-chapter essay Christ and Culture discusses what's wrong with a
humanistic concept of culture and why a distinctly Christian culture is so
important. Graeme Goldsworthy's According to Plan: The Unfolding
Revelation of God in the Bible is a simple introduction to Biblical
theology that will serve us well and inform our discussions of what this
Christianity is that we are attempting to bring to our culture. Get and read
both of these books if you possibly can. Goldsworthy especially deserves
careful study and personal application.
Have a Gospel-centered, grace-filled
summer! God bless all of you.
Peter Schellhase and Jacob Holt
The Chesterton Society of Patrick Henry College
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