“How To Be A Good Apologist,” Revisited

Where the Inklings met — The Eagle and Child pub (aka “The Bird and the Boy”) in Oxford, where the “Inklings” (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and several others) met on Tuesdays during academic terms in order to talk to share their works-in-progress. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo). I’ve made the pilgrimage there several times. And the food’s not bad, either — except for the fact that, so far as I can recall, there are no tacos, burritos, chiles rellenos, taquitos, or enchiladas on the menu.

Tarik LaCour has responded to me over at his blog, The Mad Dog Naturalist:

He’s right. If we disagree at all on the general task or tasks of apologetics, the disagreement seems very slight. I agree that the “heavyweights” of sophisticated philosophical atheism merit response, and he agrees that lightweight anti-theistic and anti-Mormon popularizers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and the “CES Letter” need to be addressed.

We differ very strongly, though, on the matter of C. S. Lewis. He dislikes Lewis, which I find unfathomable, while I’m in absolute awe of Lewis’s versatility, insight, and literary ability. I’ll be candid: I regard failure to appreciate C. S. Lewis as a mysterious defect, a tragic flaw. It’s even more mysterious to me than believing in socialism or liking the Star Wars prequels. It reminds me a little bit of my late and sorely missed friend Bill Hamblin: He hated Mexican food. To me, that was a regrettable blemish on his personality. A weird quirk in an otherwise admirable fellow.

Oh well. We live in a fallen world.

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This went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:

Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 41: “There Could Not Be a Happier People” 3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi

The Interpreter Radio Roundtable for Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Lesson 41, “There Could Not Be a Happier People,” on 3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi, has been posted on the Foundation’s website. The panelists for this scripture roundtable were Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen. This roundtable was extracted for your convenience from the 13 September 2020 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show, liberated from commercial and other interruptions. The complete show may also be heard, at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-september-13-2020/.

Also newly posted on the Interpreter Foundation website, from Jonn Claybaugh:

Come, Follow Me — Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 41, October 19-25: 3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi — “There Could Not Be a Happier People”

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“Jews should condemn attacks against Amy Coney Barrett based on her faith: That criticism should be worrisome to believers of any religion, including Jews.”

And, finally, here are two updates from the indispensable Neville-Neville Land blog:

“Real scholarship vs. gut feeling”

“”He whose name shall not be mentioned