{"id":82922,"date":"2020-02-15T22:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T05:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=82922"},"modified":"2020-02-17T23:37:23","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T06:37:23","slug":"unrivalled-silliness-and-conceit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/unrivalled-silliness-and-conceit.html","title":{"rendered":"Unrivalled silliness and conceit?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_82925\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-82925\" style=\"width: 597px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/02\/Resized_20200215_182311.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-82925\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/02\/Resized_20200215_182311.jpeg\" alt=\"A sunset along I 17.\" width=\"597\" height=\"448\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-82925\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Driving back to Phoenix from Sedona this evening, our friend Kent Flack took this photograph from our car. The sunset over Phoenix the previous night was much more beautiful, though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_82926\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-82926\" style=\"width: 597px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/02\/Resized_20200215_184728.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-82926\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/02\/Resized_20200215_184728.jpeg\" alt=\"Phoenix Arizona Temple, by Kent Flack\" width=\"597\" height=\"448\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-82926\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Almost back to our lodgings after a day in Sedona, we dropped by the Phoenix Arizona Temple, just for a look. Kent Flack took this photograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve always wanted to visit Sedona, but somehow, prior to today, I never had. \u00a0It\u2019s a gorgeous place, though a bit crowded with heavy traffic on this long holiday weekend. \u00a0Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my razor, which remains, accordingly, just as dull was it was before. \u00a0(Much like me, I suppose.) \u00a0On the positive side, though, I was neither sucked into a vortex nor abducted by UFO aliens. \u00a0And I didn\u2019t buy a single crystal.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For various reasons, chief but not alone among them the fact that my wife and I love the writings of C. S. Lewis, we have lately been reading a passage every night from a volume that we acquired a few weeks ago at a book exchange party: \u00a0<em>A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works<\/em>. \u00a0Here is the one from two nights ago, 13 February, on page 49:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">We can all understand how a man forgives offenses against himself. \u00a0You tread on my toes and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. \u00a0But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men\u2019s toes and stealing other men\u2019s money? \u00a0Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. \u00a0Yet this is what Jesus did. \u00a0He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. \u00a0He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offenses. \u00a0This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. \u00a0In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. \u00a0Still less do unprejudiced readers. \u00a0Christ says that He is \u201chumble and meek\u201d and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings. \u00a0(from <em>Mere Christianity<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Posted from Phoenix, Arizona<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve always wanted to visit Sedona, but somehow, prior to today, I never had. \u00a0It\u2019s a gorgeous place, though a bit crowded with heavy traffic on this long holiday weekend. \u00a0Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my razor, which remains, accordingly, just as dull was it was before. \u00a0(Much like me, I suppose.) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1543,1356,4021,84,4967,1369,2625],"class_list":["post-82922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-christ","tag-deity","tag-deity-of-christ","tag-divinity","tag-jesus","tag-new-testament"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unrivalled silliness and conceit?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; I&#039;ve always wanted to visit Sedona, but somehow, prior to today, I never had. \u00a0It&#039;s a gorgeous place, though a bit crowded with heavy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/unrivalled-silliness-and-conceit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unrivalled silliness and conceit?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; I&#039;ve always wanted to visit Sedona, but somehow, prior to today, I never had. \u00a0It&#039;s a gorgeous place, though a bit crowded with heavy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/unrivalled-silliness-and-conceit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-16T05:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-18T06:37:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2020\/02\/Resized_20200215_182311.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/unrivalled-silliness-and-conceit.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/unrivalled-silliness-and-conceit.html\",\"name\":\"Unrivalled silliness and conceit?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-16T05:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-18T06:37:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; 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