August 13, 2008

On the Incarnation - "Old Books"

After recently reading The Shack (which I liked), I have followed the advice of C.S. Lewis and am currently reading On the Incarnation: De Incarnatione Verbi Dei by St. Athanasius.

The forward was written by Lewis and in it he says, "The only safety [to the dangers of an exclusively contemporary diet of books] is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity ('mere Christianity' as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

"The only palliative is to keep the clean breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can only be done by reading old books."

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