Chuck Colson asks, “What is Christianity?”

From Tom Gilson's review of THE GOSPEL AND THE MIND, BY BRADLEY G. GREEN:

... Chuck Colson’s question to a group of theologians years ago. “What is Christianity?” he asked. Their answers varied from, “The culture from which we sprang,” to “a living relationship with God in Christ.” He disagreed with them all. Their answers weren’t so much wrong, he said, as inadequate, for in truth “Christianity is the explanation for everything.” 

[Bradley G.] Green would certainly agree that it’s the basis for knowing. And how little we know these days! He caught my attention right up front when he said, 

Having gone through school and now made the transition to teaching at a small liberal arts college, I have discovered that others have had similar experiences. They have come to the realization that they have really missed something crucial in their education. … What I am speaking of is not simply a humility that comes with age. I am describing a more troubling reality among my contemporaries marked by a genuine ignorance of the past, lack of grounding in the cultural and intellectual inheritance of the West, and perhaps most sadly, no sort of remorse or recognition that this situation might be a bad thing.

We know so little. How many times, reading C. S. Lewis, have I thought, “who is this writer he’s alluding to?” Followed by the unnerving sensation that if I were really educated I ought to know...

More from Tom Gilson's review of THE GOSPEL AND THE MIND, BY BRADLEY G. GREEN here.