The Post-Christian Mind

According to Blamires (former head of the English department at King Alfreds College, Winchester), the gulf between the modern mind and the traditional Christian worldview has never been greater. In an earlier book, The Christian Mind, Blamires mapped out the main tenets of the orthodox Christian faith and how they interacted with the world of the mind. In this follow-up, he explores the views and attitudes of modern secular society, pinpointing the preconceptions undergirding popular contemporary attitudes and showing how they represent positions antagonistic to the Christian faith. Analyzing such areas as marriage and family, discrimination, the human body, democracy and freedom of expression, Blamires charts the decline that occurs when traditional Christian morality is set aside. The result of this drift from tradition, he says, is disastrous for our civilization. We have reached the turn of the century and the post-Christian society isnt working. Its as simple as that. Blamires constructs his case by quoting from a variety of press clippings from U.K. newspapers. Focusing not only on trends that trouble him but also on the way they are reported, he aims much of his disgust at the popular media for furthering the relativistic mind-set. Blamires was a student of C.S. Lewis, and like his mentor, his highly readable arguments are spiced with memorable anecdotes and built on a firm foundation of common sense. Though a bit of a curmudgeon at times, Blamires gracefully delivers his thesis with wit and logic. (May)