I hope I'm growing well, too. It's been a rough year.
I just finished reading A Case For Christ, actually, and will probably be reading some other books and doing some more in-depth research in the next few months. I finally realized that God isn't something you figure out in a week or two (I'm a person who wants to know things immediately--I'm working on taking things in stride and getting over my need to have things done NOW), so I plan on spending at least the next quarter or two reading books on the side and doing some extensive research on the topics of religion and faith. There are already a few books on the top of my "Religion Research" stack, but if I run low I may pick up Mere Christianity and see what Lewis has to say.
I'm glad to know you're giving this some serious thought. It really isn't something you can figure out quickly. In fact, it's something you will (hopefully) spend your entire life figuring out.
While you're reading religious stuff, I would strongly recommend Mere Christianity. It's probably the best general book on Christianity I've read… the only part that wasn't excellent was the 6 (or so) short chapters Lewis spends trying to explain the Trinity (obviously based on the Creeds). It would have made so much more sense for him (with his acceptance of theosis, etc.) to adopt a different interpretation of the Trinity.
At any rate, C.S. Lewis was an Atheist who eventually converted to Christianity and joined the Anglican Church. It is entertaining to read about his "memories" of these experiences.
One of my personal favourites: "You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalene, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." (from Surprised by Joy)
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chiming
no subject
Date: 2005-08-29 10:42 am (UTC)From:I'd highly recommend you pick up Mere Christianity and give it a read sometime.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-29 09:44 pm (UTC)From:I just finished reading A Case For Christ, actually, and will probably be reading some other books and doing some more in-depth research in the next few months. I finally realized that God isn't something you figure out in a week or two (I'm a person who wants to know things immediately--I'm working on taking things in stride and getting over my need to have things done NOW), so I plan on spending at least the next quarter or two reading books on the side and doing some extensive research on the topics of religion and faith. There are already a few books on the top of my "Religion Research" stack, but if I run low I may pick up Mere Christianity and see what Lewis has to say.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-29 10:39 pm (UTC)From:While you're reading religious stuff, I would strongly recommend Mere Christianity. It's probably the best general book on Christianity I've read… the only part that wasn't excellent was the 6 (or so) short chapters Lewis spends trying to explain the Trinity (obviously based on the Creeds). It would have made so much more sense for him (with his acceptance of theosis, etc.) to adopt a different interpretation of the Trinity.
At any rate, C.S. Lewis was an Atheist who eventually converted to Christianity and joined the Anglican Church. It is entertaining to read about his "memories" of these experiences.
One of my personal favourites:
"You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalene, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
(from Surprised by Joy)