8B
RELIGIONAEIe Charlotte $oat
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Author attempts 21st century
classic with ‘Simply Christian’
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The late C.S. Lewis is win
ning new readers through
"The Chronicles of Narnia,”
the successful movie version
of his children’s novel “The
Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe.”
Lewis was also a heavy
weight literature scholar, but
his writings that explain
Christianity from a layman’s
perspective are more influen
tial.
The most popular of tiiese,
“Mere Christianity” collects
33 radio talks about basics of
the faith he delivered during
World War 11. This little clas
sic, only slightly dated
decades later, continues to
open inquiring minds to
Christian claims.
Fellow Brit N.T. Wright
attempts a 21st-century
coimterpart in “Simply Chris
tian; Why Christianity
Makes ■ Sense” (HarperSan-
Frandsco). It’s doubtful any
one will soon match Lewis’
achievement, but Wright’s
offering is notably clear, read
able and thought-provoking.
Like Lewis, Wright is an
Anglican who has tau^t at
Oxfoiri and Cambridge and
writes both popular-level
books like this one and schol
arly tomes.
(One Wright fan is Anne
Rice, the vampire novelist
who now writes about Jesus;
theyTl appear together May
14 at San Francisco’s Grace
Cathedral during Wright’s
book tour.)
Unlike Lewis, a one-time
atheist and a layman, Wright
is a lifelong Christian and a
clergyman. He’s now bishop of
Durham, the Church of Eng
land’s No. 4 post.
The world Wright addresses
continues to suffer war and
devastation like Lewis’ hsten-
ers experienced, but features
new forms of skepticism. For
instance, influential Harvard
sodobiologist Edward O. Wil
son writes that the puipose-
less”'blLnd force” of Darwinian
evolution has eliminated God
so humanity should “drain
the fever swamps” of religion.
Many find that constricted
outlook leaves too many ques
tions imasked and iman-
swaed, such as Lewis’ start
ing point: How to explain
humanity’s universal sense of
right and wrong.
Wright is dubiotts about
classical arguments for God’s
existence: "The difficulty is
that speaking of God in any
thing like the Christian smse
is like staring into the sim.”
Instead, he says we all hear
“echoes of a voice” that hint
things are imperfect and
there’s a better world.
His starting points;
Justice.
Rather like Lewis, Wri^t
says even children on play-
grotmds have an inborn sense
of justice and its absence;
"That’s not fair!” We know
matters are wrong and should
be put right Is this fantasy, or
is there a just realm to which
we truly belor^? Is "someone
speaking to us”? Judaism and
Christianity (and Islam) say
there is, and it’s God.
(Yes, Christians have been
unjust throughout history he
acknowledges, but they’ve
also acknowledged sins and
strived to overcome injus
tices.)
Spirituality
Some innate sense points
us “away from the bleak land
scape of modem secularism
and toward the possibility
that we humans are made for
more than this.” That tmder-
lies widespread religious
experience, the “haimting
possibility of another world,”
and realization that hmnans
are badly damaged by evil
and need ‘^scue from out
side themselves.”
Relationships.
TOth this universal human
hunger, "we aU know we are
made to live together, but we
aU find that doing so is more
difficult than we had imag
ined.” As part of it, humans
see ffiat all bonds within the
present world are transitory
The fact of death provides a
stark, constant reminder. Are
relationships God-given? Can
they be ennobled?
Beauty
We aH realize “the world is
full of beauty,” yet also saise
that this beauty is incomplete
and feel somehow dissatis
fied. “Whose glory is it?”
God’s, perhaps? Wright con
tends that ‘beauty points
away fiom the present world
to a different one altogether.”
PRAISE
The Rev. B.J. Cloud par
ticipates in a praise and
worship service at Chap
pell Memorial Baptist
Church’s pre women’s
conference praise party.
The event was held last
Friday at the church on
Bradford Drive.
Human remains at constmetion site
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GEORGETOWN, S.C.-
Construction on a home in a
Georgetown Coimty subdivi
sion has stopped after work
ers recovered bone fragments
likely fium a former church
cemetery
This kind of discovery wiU
happen more often as coastal
development reaches into
rural lands where people used
to bury their dead. Coroner
Kenny Johnson said.
The remains were
unearihed last week by heavy
equipment. Workers plan to
look for more bones Thm^day
Local and state experts wfil
then try to find descendants
and figure out where to bury
them.
The construction site is on
llie former cemetery for St.
Marys Chapel, a black church
that likely existed in the
1700s, Johnson said.
The church moved its grave
yard in 1977, but apparently
some unmarked graves were
left behind.
“It does not appear that it
will be a large amount of
bones,” Johnson said. “I’m not
anticipating findir^ a large
number of hiunan remains.”
Some bones were foimd
more than a week ago, but
Johnson was not contacted by
deputies imtil two days later.
It is a felony to move a
graveyard without permission
or desecrate a grave and the
coroner must be called when
any human remains are
fotmd, even those in a former
cemetery, Johnson said.
When using Black-targeted Newspapers,
marketers reach the numher one spender in the
household—Women; Women with Children at
home. The opportunity for long term growth and
branding of goods & services.
MEN~AGE 18 4
WOMEN"AGE 18
47.3
I
STAGE IN LIFE STAGE IN LIFE STAGE IN LIFE STAGE IN LIFE
CYCLE..CHIU3REN CYCLE-CHILDREN CYCLE-CHILDREN 6 CYCUE-CHILOREN
ANYAGEATHOME UNDER 6 AT HOME PLUSATHOME 13PLUSATHOME
Source: The Media Audit National Biaok-targeted newspaper report 2003
Information that is always on line,
24 hours a day
www.thecharlottepost.com
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
But the workers and
deputies won’t face charges in
this ceise because they did not
know about the law, Johnson
said.
‘I’ve talked with tiie sheriff
to make sure that we go in
together and make sure it’s
not a crime,” the coroner said.
The church no longer exists
and its records have not been
found, so Johnson plans to
advertise in local papers to
determine if there are descen
dants of the people buried in
the cemetery
Property owner Ariane
lieberman said the discovery
will,not change construction
plans for the house.
“We had known when we
bov^t the property that it
might have been an old grave
site,” she said.
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