Via Andrew Sullivan and his readers comes reminders that Pope Benedict and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (the symbolic head of Eastern Orthodoxy) have been outspoken on the holy obligation to care for the planet. Benedict's next encylical is reportedly on the environment and Christianity.
Meanwhile, in my little corner of the world, a businessman read C.S. Lewis, had a Christian conversion and eventually started a market devoted to green living.
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How wonderful! C.S. Lewis strikes again. I know of at least three other people (including myself) for whom Mere Christianity led to the same sort of llife-changing conversion. For you atheists and agnostics who comment here (and whose regular presence tells me that you're still searching), if you haven't read Lewis, please give him a try. But do it with an open heart and mind. You never know – you might just find yourself, like I did, weeping with joy on the treadmill at your neighborhood gym, wondering why nobody ever said it like THAT before...
I know people who have been converted by Lewis, too, though bizarrely, I also know at least two people (both clergymen; one Orthodox, one Anglican) for whom the road to conversion began with Bertrand Russell's 'Why I Am Not A Christian'. In both cases the rationale was the same - "Russell is supposed to be a great thinker and those were the best arguments he could come up with? Maybe there is something to this Christianity lark after all".
Nick -- Actually, one of the things that led to my conversion to Catholicism were the legions of bitter ex-Catholics I knew who couldn't stop talking about how awful and stupid Catholicism was. At some point, I just had to ask, "Well, if it's all a bunch of hooey, then why are you so obsessed with it?" That certainly wasn't the clincher for me, but it did pique my curiosity. God took over the rest from there...
A friend of mine who is a member of the Anglican clergy is quite convinced that Malcolm Muggeridge persuaded Bertrand Russell, at the very end of his life, to convert to Anglicanism. I have been unable, however, to find any coonfirmation of this. Any information on this questiob would be most appreciated.
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