Truth that Awakens Holy Desire

WORKSHOP

The ideal preacher should be able both to convey the truths of the Christian faith clearly and to inspire a wholehearted commitment to living out those truths, but in practice most of us are better at one part of that equation than the other. One teacher who was very good at doing both was C. S. Lewis. In his book The Abolition of Man Lewis offers a clue about how to manage this integration. Lewis says there is an integrative quality in human beings that allows the true things we believe to become meaningful in our lives. He gives this quality a few different names—sometimes it is the quality of “the chest,” mediating between the reason of the head and the appetites of the belly, and sometimes it is magnanimity, which is the quality of having a great soul. Henry Scougal, another great teacher, famously said, “The worth and excellency of a soul can be measured by the object of its love.” The great-souled quality that Lewis described depends on loving and desiring what is worthy and excellent. In this session we discuss ways to preach and teach “into the chest” in ways that awaken such love and desire.