all while concealing the discussions past generations and
thinkers have had about such topics?
C. S. Lewis would have said yes. In his famous intro-
duction to Athanasius’ work, On the Incarnation, Lewis
cautioned viewing the problems of culture only through
the lens of popular and current thought. 2 He wrote: “Every
age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain
truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all,
therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic
mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.”
Lewis goes on to explain: “All contemporary writers share
to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like
myself, who seem most opposed to it. ... We may be sure that
the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the
blindness about which posterity will ask, ‘But how could they
have thought that?’—lies where we have never suspected
it and concerns something about which there is untroubled
agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between
Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape
this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it and weaken
our guard against it if we read only modern books. Where
they are true, they will give us truths, which we half knew
already. Where they are false, they will aggravate the error
with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative
is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through
our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.”
Lest one think that Lewis invokes the past out of love for
nostalgia, his next words put such a thought to rest: “Not, of
course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no
cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes
as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in
the errors we are already committing; and their own errors,
being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two
heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but
because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.”
Today’s children are experiencing a barrage of new
books—in school, in libraries, and even at home—which
encourages them to fight for social justice, to question the
past and its authorities, to assert their own opinions and
fight for them. What happens if we expose them to such
viewpoints without allowing them to mature or provide a
biblical frame of reference? ■
Annie Holmquist is a senior writer for Intellectual Takeout. In her role, she assists with web-
site content production and social media messaging. Annie received a B.A. in Biblical Stud-
ies from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. She also brings 20+ years of experience
as a music educator and a volunteer teacher—particularly with inner-city children—to the
table in her research and writing. In her spare time, Annie enjoys the outdoors, gardening,
reading, and events with family and friends.
ENDNOTES
1. Danica Russell and Jason Russell, A Little Radical: The ABCs of Activism (2017).
2. Saint Athanasius, On the Incarnation (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012).
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