Who was Harry Blamires? He was a hardscrabble Christian who pursued his faith to the uttermost, always willing to subject every thought to Jesus Christ as Paul admonishes us to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5. He wrote one of the seminal indictments of Christianity in 1963, The Christian Mind. He challenged the entire Christian world to follow Paul’s admonition. Harry made this startling claim.
There is no longer a Christian mind. There is still, of course, the Christian ethic; a Christian practice, and a Christian spirituality… But as a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion — its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which relates all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, the view which relates all human problems — social, political, cultural — to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith.
Harry had a profound influence on my early Christian growth. Still, sadly, his influence in the broader Christian world has diminished as we move through a period of history in which the art of thoughtful reflection has declined rapidly. Now, we feel everything. We are emotionally driven. From my way of thinking, this is part and parcel of the feminization of our culture. Take what I am about to say carefully. Consider your thoughts before reacting or feeling a response. I argue that women feel first and think second, if at all. This is why women often hold grudges, sometimes for a lifetime. Grudges are an emotionally driven activity. This long-lived form of resentment is characterized by a lack of forgiveness, often due to the overwhelming emotions it evokes. Forgiveness at its root is an act of will, a thoughtful and rational decision. See my post Vengeance of the Heart where I discuss this.
If you are seeking an antidote to what ails contemporary Christianity, you could find no better starting point than reading Harry’s book. You can start here if you’re interested in reading a concise synopsis of Harry’s life. https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2018/harry-blamires-christian-mind/
