The time is always ripe for reunion. Divisions between Christians are a sin and a scandal, and Christians ought at all times to be making contributions toward reunion, if it is only by their prayers. I am only a layman and a recent Christian, and I do not know much about these things, but in all things which I have written and thought I have always been stuck to traditional dogmatic positions. The result is that letters of agreement reach me from what are ordinarily regarded as the most different kinds of Christians; for instance, I get letters from Jesuits, monks, nuns, and also from Quakers and Welsh Dissenters, and so on. So it seems to me that the ‘extremist’ elements in every church are nearest one another and the liberal and ‘broad-minded’ people in each Body could never be united at all. The world of ‘broad-mindedness’ and watered-down ‘religion’ is a world where a small number of people (all the same type) say totally different things and change their minds every few minutes. We shall never get reunion from them. – C.S. Lewis
This is from Lewis’ “Answers to Questions on Christianity”,
but, as it happens, it is also the January 16 reading from “The Business of
Heaven” section of a collected works volume I bought recently.
At first glance the fact that 'extremists' find more agreement than the 'moderates', or what we would call 'liberals' today, seems counter-intuitive. I refer back to my post from yesterday about the cone. The closer we get to Christ, the closer we are to one another.
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