Anti-Climacus

WELL: I'm going to have to disagree a little with Jollyblogger on the subject of whether it's okay to leave the church, mostly because I did it for about four years, and found the experience to be largely beneficial. A couple exceptions that should probably be noted: this was end-of-high school, beginning-of-college, and I was coming out of an extremely evangelical environment (very anti-intellectual, sad to say, so I was always regarded a bit suspiciously for reading the Great Books, etc) which actually hadn't put much of an emphasis on dogma, rather more on participation. I also didn't, I think, leave the church in one of the more important senses: I spent more time learning about theology during the period when I was on my own than at any other time (this is when I read most of my Luther, Calvin, Lewis and Kierkegaard). Largely, I think it was the period when I made that switch from doing the things a Christian is supposed to do because they're supposed to do them to doing them because I totally passionately wanted to do them; I'm not sure that would've happened if I'd stayed active in the intervening years.

Then again, there's the story that C.S. Lewis tells (in God in the Dock, I think, though I might be wrong) about how when he first became a Christian, he thought it was more or less like continuing in his academic work, that you could do it without ever having to go to church. But there's something really powerful about being surrounded by other believers that you can't have Christian faith without. So I suppose the question reduces to whether you ought to be in church anyway even if you can't feel that: now, I'd say yes, but I'm aware there was a time I would've said no, and I think I'm a better Christian for having had that time.

Comments, critiques, etc appreciated.