We’ve been reading through C.S. Lewis’s book Preparing for Easter since the beginning of March and just finished it yesterday.

‘What are we to make of Christ?’ There is no question of what we can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what He intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story.

Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in.

C.S. Lewis, ‘Preparing for Easter’

I was listening to a podcast recently and the person interviewed recounted a Q & A show he watched during the “Festival of Dangerous Ideas” here in Sydney. Three panellists, who included Germaine Greer and Peter Hitchens, were asked:

Which dangerous idea has the greatest potential to change the world for the better?

When the compere asked Peter Hitchens, his answer clearly startled the others. “The most dangerous idea in human history and philosophy remains the belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and rose from the dead and that is the most dangerous idea you will ever encounter.”  

The compere didn’t appear to understand the danger of the resurrection and so asked “Why dangerous?”  To which Mr Hitchens replied: “Because it alters the whole of human behaviour and all our responsibilities. It turns the universe from a meaningless chaos into a designed place in which there is justice and there is hope and, therefore, we all have a duty to discover the nature of that justice and work towards that hope. It alters us all. If we reject it, it alters us all as well. It is incredibly dangerous. It’s why so many people turn against it.”

He was right: It is the most dangerous idea. If true, it changes everything; if false, it is a monstrous lie. He was also right that its impact is so great that many people ‘turn against it’. 

The Rest is History Podcast looks at Crucifixion (Episode 175) from a secular viewpoint. The hosts trace the origins and evolution of crucifixion as well as the historical accuracy of the death of Jesus Christ. ‘Not for the faint of heart.’

I’m a regular writer for the Commonplace Quarterly (CPQ) and my most recent article touched on Integrity. I wrote about this topic on this blog some time ago after I was reading Ourselves by Charlotte Mason and was taken by these words that associate wholeness and finishing what you begin with Integrity:

Let us do each bit of work as perfectly as we know how, remembering that each thing we turn out is a bit of ourselves, and we must leave it whole and complete; for this is Integrity.

Reading this again as I was getting my CPQ article together, I decided I needed to work on some of my UFO’s, and one in particular was an unfinished quilt. I was surprised to find that I’d basically completed the top and just need to quilt it, so I’ve been working on that and it’s given me a good portion of time to listen to podcasts which I don’t often get to do.

So in addition to the one above I’ve listened to these on The Rest is History:

A four part series on the latter years of the Soviet Union, its fall, Putin’s early life and his rise to power. (Episodes 159 to 162)

Episode 155 focusses on Ukraine and Russia and there are other episodes that trace the history of the Vikings and how it relates to modern day Russia and Ukraine. Fascinating stuff that makes me realise how much I don’t know about history, let alone politics.

The Rest is Politics is a sister podcast to the History podcast above. The hosts are former British politicians from opposing sides. I listened to the March 2nd episode on ‘Putin in Person…’ It’s refreshing to listen to people who can disagree agreeably while giving their insider’s views on world politics.