When (Seemingly) Opposites Meet: Tim Keller and John Piper on C.S. Lewis

one of the things I've been most affected by from college days on especially in their early days was I didn't know it but was only on the lookout for people who brought together what felt like opposites he's called there's a little booklet called romantic rationalist mmm romantic not meaning fall in love easy but that you have a remarkably imaginative way of seeing the world the affections matter Beauty matters people and relationships matter and over here is this unbelievably razor-sharp logic and and when I saw that I there's very few people who put that together so the question I suppose would be how does how does that happen first do you see him that way and how does a person like that come into being or how does he hold the two together because most people feel them as as opposites like if I'm going to be right to be impersonal that's the hardest question you've asked me I think it probably had to do with with the the way Lewis was educated in the way a lot of the people in his day and time were educated in place on the one hand he had his his mentor his tutor the great knock Kilpatrick who you can read about in that one fascinating chapter and surprised by joy where he shows how Kilpatrick just made him back up everything he said yeah it was it wasn't it on the way yes she picked off from the real same story in mind right and he said on the way he says oh I love the country or something is it's a it's a Wilder I think was wild country or yeah and he says well how do you define wild and and why would you say that and you know back up yeah so you have no right to have an opinion right yet he was he was forced to always have a reason for everything he said he was forced that he wouldn't had a debate so he's rational but it was very clear he was a poet he wanted to be how it turned out not to be sure that didn't kill him I mean didn't know it didn't kiss imagination and kill it at all it just put them together right it put them together so is there a way we can help that happen I mean I really would like people to be like that it is remarkable because on the one hand when you read mayor christianity which I know is not necessary the first book I give to somebody it's it's demanding out I think for the average person today who is used to images and has a short attention span and yet on the one hand it's as I mentioned it's just filled with pictures more pictures than I fill a book with and yet there's lots of long trains of reasoning very very sharp reasoning a puts it together it's it is how can we learn to do that I guess maybe we have to I we in our churches I suppose if we preach that way John that would be probably the best thing that you and I can do is to combine the two ourselves another another juxtaposition I saw a list of books that you read in impactful in college and seminary the college can be louis i think yeah to correct this if it's wrong and then there's a big reform cluster Packer stroll and and others right how do those how does Louis and this feeder group from reform historic Puritan roots fit together cuz let's just didn't look upon Puritan now he didn't like it but he had a respect for it in a sense that he knew it wasn't what people said it was it wasn't as negative right but it was very god centered and and his teacher McDonald had no time for Calvinism whatsoever so you didn't go that direction you didn't follow McDonald Louis saying he's great into anti Calvinism or anti reform you had these other guys so how they come together that's a good question predestination my God use what other means well I'll be actually you're asking now how did I mean I don't want to set myself up as as being as either as rationally smart or as as imaginative as Louis but that's what what happened to me what happened was in Semin to a more imaginative kind of Christianity because of Louis yeah I loved it when I went off to seminary I came under the influence of a couple teachers that convinced me a little bit against my my preferences that that reformed Christianity was true when I got into reformed Christianity I found that it was a probably the most rational and demanding logically demanding of the various traditions I could see and I think that's what brought it together I I loved Calvinism eventually and and loved the rigor of the was systematic thinking but I never lost my love for for Lewis and the other people many of whom are don't like Calvinism at all still to this day there's other yeah they they don't like it for that very reason but for some reason I've liked it and I think it's helped I think it's enriched my ability to minister

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 115,869

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords: John Piper, Tim Keller, C. S. Lewis (Saint)

Id: EQWHCv5UR-Q

Length: 5min 9sec (309 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2013