“a child’s heart but a grown up’s head”

CS Lewis wrote: “Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence: on the contrary, He told us to be not only ‘as harmless as doves,’ but also ‘as wise as serpents.’ He wants a child’s heart but a grown up’s head.” (Mere Christianity 61). Some believers today, however, seem to have the impression that using human intelligence to understand what Jesus said is somehow less Christian. Yet it seems to me that nothing Jesus taught was simplistic or obvious. When we fully appreciate that Christ’s kingdom is not a physical one, is “not from here” (NRSV John 18:36), we feel free to rejoice in the progress that has lifted mankind from the cave. Let the physical world investigate the physical world. It can’t interfere or conflict with the Lord’s “living water” that is spirit and eternal life to us. (Driving into the Dawn, chapter 56. ©️ 2007)