Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Viewing Christianity Through New Lenses

by Robert C. Frank

Those who have had cataract surgery have witnessed one of the most dramatic miracles God carries out with the aid of science. As human beings become older, they develop cataracts in the lenses of their eyes and as a result their view of the world around them becomes grey and diffuse. With the aid of modern medical science, the lenses with cataracts can be easily replaced with artificial lenses by eye specialists. Then the person’s grey, cloudy view of the world suddenly becomes bright, sharp, colorful, and beautiful again. I know, I had it done in both eyes.

Over a long period of time our view of Christianity has gradually become grey and limited by the enormous number of traditions that have accumulated and dispersed our understanding. As a result, we can no longer see the beauty of the pure fundamentals of Christianity any more. 

When we were younger, my wife and I were invited to attend Roman Catholic Cursillo weekends. I have been a research physicist most of my adult life, so I was reluctant to go, but we both went anyway. I was surprised to find that Cursillo was a three day course in just the fundamentals of Christianity, and it was remarkable how beautiful the weekends were. We were so inspired we helped bring Via de Cristo, the Lutheran version of Cursillo, to our area. 

While the book, Christ’s Team, is not about Cursillo, it is a review of the fundamentals of Christianity and how they are aided by science in our current world. The cataract removal mentioned in the first paragraph is an example of the many ways that Christianity aided by science provides a more bright and beautiful view of the future.