Dr Paul Allen

Cover of The Everlasting Man C.S. Lewis is among the most influential Christian writers of the twentieth century.  Most people are somewhat surprised to learn that Lewis, who was dutifully reared in a traditional Christian household in Ireland, actually became an avowed atheist in his early teens while attending public school at the prestigious Malvern College in England. It would be years later, after World War I and well into his years at Oxford University, before he began his great search for a deeper and richer understanding of God’s existence. Lewis writes that there were two events in his life that ultimately led him to the Christian faith . The first step began when he read G. K. Chesterton’s book, Everlasting Man , and the second, he has written, had a “shattering impact” on him. This event occurred one night when one of the more militant atheists on the Oxford faculty staff, a man by the name of T. D. Weldon, came to his room and confided that he believed that th...

English: The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (www.wamm.org) presents Victoria, the nation's first legal medical marijuana plant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) How should we think theologically about the movement to decriminalize marijuana ?   Author: think Christian. To do so, it’s helpful to ponder the phrase “ substance abuse .” This phrase, commonly used to describe drug abuse, can also be read as a theological explanation of both the goodness of creation and the nature of sin. A proper doctrine of creation reminds us that material substances are not evil in and of themselves. In philosophical circles, “substance” simply describes any particular thing, including material things. In contrast, sin is not a physical substance , like a germ or bacteria that infects us. This may seem counterintuitive because we often associate evil with material things. As G. K. Chesterton points out , however, “The work of heaven alone was material; the making of a material world...