For Christmas this year, David gave Matt a book by Dr. Chris R. Armstrong called “Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians”, in which the author encourages his readers to draw from the riches of the Medieval Church, using C.S. Lewis as their model. In today’s episode Matt discusses this book with the author.
S4E37: “After Hours” with Chris R. Armstrong (Download)
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Timestamps
00:00 – Entering “The Eagle & Child”…
00:10 – Welcome
01:23 – Dr. Chris R. Armstrong
02:53 – Quote-of-the-week
03:59 – Drink-of-the-week
04:17 – Patreon Toast
05:24 – Discussion
58:11 – “Last Call” Bell and Closing Thoughts
YouTube Version
After Show Skype Session
No Skype Session today!
Show Notes
Biographical Information
Dr. Chris R. Armstrong is an educator, academic entrepreneur, author, editor, and church historian (trained at Duke University and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary). He currently serves as Program Fellow in Faith, Work, and Economics for the Kern Family Foundation (WI). Before that he taught for nine years at Bethel Seminary (MN) and served as faculty member and founding director of a faith and vocation institute at Wheaton College (IL). Chris serves as Senior Editor of Christian History magazine. He also blogs now and then at GratefulToTheDead.com. He is author of Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians.
Biographical information about Dr. Chris R. Armstrong
Fun Fact: Chris grew up in a home where his father, a theology professor, read to him and his brothers C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkein, George MacDonald and others, which greatly shaped his imagination and faith. If only my Father read me those things it would have saved me a lot of trouble!
Quote-of-the-week
“Recognize that the road to the church’s future is through its past. And break out the candles and incense. Pray the lectio divina. Tap all the riches of Christian tradition that you can find.”
Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians
Drink-of-the-week
- The next thing is our drink-of-the-week, which today is Spindrift and La Croix.
Patreon Toast
- Finally, we toast one of our Gold-level Patreon supporters. Today we are toasting Matt from the UK:
May you create the space daily for Christ to continue forming within you and drawing you up into the Trinitarian dance Lewis describes!
Patreon toast for Matt from the UK
Discussion
Biography
- How were you first introduced to C.S. Lewis?
- Can you walk us through what brought you to studying the wisdom of the Medieval Church?
The Book
- What did you see lacking with the modern Church and what has the Medieval Church taught you? How does Evangelical Immediatism fit into this?
- Now to Lewis: Why did you choose him to be the Guide and how does he Guide us?
- How did the medieval impact his work, his theology, and his life?
- We have gone through Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, and The Screwtape Letters. How do we see the influence of the Medieval church coming through these works?
- You discuss the relationship between Tradition / Church Mediation / Sacraments and Immediatism / Individual Relationship. Can you unpack the relationship you see between those two?
- One fear of those with the idea of tradition is it usurps Scripture or has authority separate scripture. But this is a misunderstanding. What is the relationship between tradition and scripture? What does scripture say about tradition?
- What practices / teachings did Lewis adopt and appreciate from the Medieval Church?
