Dr Paul Allen

Aquinas ’s Summa contra gentiles , written to combat Greco- Arabic philosophy , is the greatest apologetic work of the Middle Ages and so merits our attention. Thomas develops a framework for the relationship of faith and reason that includes the Augustinian signs of credibility. He begins by making a distinction within truths about God.  On the one hand, there are truths that completely surpass the capability of human reason, for example, the doctrine of the Trinity . On the other hand, many truths lie within the grasp of human reason, such as the existence of God. In the first three volumes of the Summa contra gentiles, Thomas attempts to prove these truths of reason, including the existence and nature of God , the orders of creation, the nature and end of man, and so forth. But when he comes to the fourth volume, in which he handles subjects like the Trinity, the incarnation, the sacraments, and the last things, he suddenly changes his method of approach. He states that t...

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...

C.S. Lewis was a twentieth-century novelist, Christian apologist , and lay theologian. Today marks the 50th anniversary of his death. You can find more resources on C.S. Lewis here . November 22, 1963, the date of President Kennedy's assassination , was also the day C.S. Lewis died. Seven years earlier he had thus described death: "The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning." The metaphor inherent in these words is striking. It comes from the world of students and pupils, but only a teacher would employ it as a metaphor for death. The words (from The Last Battle) bring down the curtain — or perhaps better, close the wardrobe door — on Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. But they also open a window into who C.S. Lewis really was. The Student . Clive Staples Lewis ("Jack" to his friends) was born on 29 November 1898 in Belfast, Northern Ireland , the second son of Albert Lewis , a promising attorney and his wife, Florence (...