{"id":103386,"date":"2024-01-08T09:52:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=103386"},"modified":"2024-01-18T19:15:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T02:15:13","slug":"exclusivism-brokenness-and-good-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/01\/exclusivism-brokenness-and-good-health.html","title":{"rendered":"Exclusivism, brokenness, and good health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a>
Magdalene Bridge and College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (Wikimedia Commons photograph by Simon Palmer)
Relatively late in his teaching career, C. S. Lewis left Magdalen College, Oxford, and took a professorship in this college, Magdalene College, in the University of Cambridge. Both are roughly a couple of hours outside of London, albeit in quite different directions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As I say, I re-read C. S. Lewis\u2019s book Mere Christianity<\/em> on the flight over. \u00a0It has been a fair while since I\u2019ve read that particular book, and here are a couple of the many passages that struck me. \u00a0I supply no page references both because there are multiple editions and because I was reading it on my iPad:<\/p>\n
\n
I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe.\u00a0 If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through.\u00a0 If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake.\u00a0 If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.\u00a0 When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.\u00a0 But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong..\u00a0 As in arithmetic \u2013 there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.<\/p>\n
The first big division of humanity is into the majority, who believe in some kind of God or gods, and the minority who do not.\u00a0 On this point, Christianity lines up with the majority \u2013 lines up with ancient Greeks and Romans, modern savages, Stoics, Platonists, Hindus, Mohammedans, etc., against the modern Western European materialists. (C. S. Lewis, \u201cThe Rival Conceptions of God,\u201d in Mere Christianity<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And this, from a few pages later:<\/p>\n\n
My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.\u00a0 But how had I got this idea of just<\/em> and unjust<\/em>?\u00a0 A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.\u00a0 What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?\u00a0 If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it?\u00a0 A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal; a fish would not feel wet.\u00a0 Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own.\u00a0 But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too \u2013 for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies.\u00a0 Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist \u2013 in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless \u2013 I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality \u2013 namely my idea of justice \u2013 was full of sense.\u00a0 Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple.\u00a0 If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creature with eyes, we should never know it was dark.\u00a0 Dark<\/em> would be a word without meaning.\u00a0 (C. S. Lewis, \u201cThe Rival Conceptions of God,\u201d in Mere Christianity<\/em>)<\/p>\n
<\/a>
Magdalen Tower, from High Street
Magdalen College, Oxford, where C. S. Lewis spent much of his academic career, was founded in 1458.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n
But now \u2014 partly adhering, though not by design, to a celebration of British authors \u2014 I serve up something from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122, which never fails in its steady stream of horrors visited upon innocent humanity:<\/p>\n
Michael W. Parker, DSW; <\/span>
W. A. Achenbaum, PhD; <\/span>
Walter L. Larimore, MD, <\/span>
and Harold G. Koenig, MD<\/span>, \u201cRowe and Kahn\u2019s Model of Successful Aging Revisited: Positive Spirituality\u2014The Forgotten Factor,\u201d
The Gerontologist <\/span><\/em>
42\/5 (2002), 613\u2013620. \u00a0At the time of this article\u2019s publication, the authors were affiliated, respectively, with the <\/span>Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; the Department of Social Work, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; the
College of Humanities, Fine Arts and Communication, The University <\/span>
of Houston, Texas; <\/span>Focus on the Family
, Colorado Springs, Colorado; and <\/span>Duke University Medical Center and GRECC, VA Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina:<\/div>\n
\n "\n
Purpose:<\/strong> We explain a new concept, positive spirituality,<\/span><\/span><\/span>and offer evidence that links positive spirituality with <\/span>health; describe effective partnerships between health <\/span>professionals and religious communities; and summa<\/span>rize the information as a basis for strengthening the exist<\/span>ing successful aging model proposed by Rowe and <\/span>Kahn.<\/span>Design and Methods:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 A missing component to <\/span>Rowe and Kahn\u2019s three-factor model of successful aging is <\/span>identi\ufb01ed, and we propose strengthening the model with a <\/span>fourth factor, positive spirituality.<\/span>Results:<\/strong><\/span> We devel<\/span>oped an enhanced model of successful aging based on <\/span>Rowe and Kahn\u2019s theoretical framework. Evidence pre<\/span>sented suggests that the addition of spirituality to interven<\/span>tions focused on health promotion has been received <\/span>positively by older adults.<\/span>Implications<\/strong>:<\/span>Leaders in ger<\/span>ontology often fail to incorporate the growing body of sci<\/span>enti\ufb01c evidence regarding health, aging, and spirituality\u00a0<\/span>into their conceptual models to promote successful aging. <\/span>The proposed enhancement of Rowe and Kahn\u2019s model<\/span> will help health professionals, religious organizations, <\/span>and governmental agencies work collaboratively to pro<\/span>mote wellness among older adults.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In other words, the authors argue that religion and spirituality are good for the health of older people \u2014 a group in whom, by the way, and rather curiously and for no obvious reason, I seem to take an ever-growing interest.<\/p>\n
Posted from London, England<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 As I say, I re-read C. S. Lewis\u2019s book Mere Christianity on the flight over. \u00a0It has been a fair while since I\u2019ve read that particular book, and here are a couple of the many passages that struck me. \u00a0I supply no page references both because there are multiple editions and because I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":20496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1543,870,5448,17150,740,37080],"class_list":["post-103386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-christianity","tag-exclusivism","tag-harold-koenig","tag-morality","tag-other-religions"],"yoast_head":"\nExclusivism, brokenness, and good health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" As I say, I re-read C. S. 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