Pragmatic Christianity

"All that is not eternal is eternally useless"
- attributed to C.S. Lewis

Having grown up in a conservative evangelical world, I am quite familiar with the idea that human souls and their eternal fate must be the first priority for any Christian. But we aren't eternal. No one is eternal but God, according to Christian orthodoxy.

But that would mean all of God's creation is entirely useless. Not just humanly created things like food and literature and technology and politics, but everything that is listed in the first few chapters of Genesis - galaxies and forests, birds, fish, mountains. Human societies in all of their complexity and groups that fight back against physical and social injustices are also useless.

The funny thing is I didn't run into this in my pastor's trite regurgitation of standard gnostic heresy last Sunday (though that was annoying). I heard it from a distinguished alumna who was speaking to us about finding "purpose" in our jobs. How can I find purpose in my life if only the "eternal" has meaning? Why was I created with eyes and ears and tongue if everything I encounter through them is "useless"? Why should "use" matter so much?

This narrow pragmatism of evangelicalism stunts any interaction with the world - art is useless, learning is useless, conversation (unless "spiritual") is useless. I know this reductionism is hardly compatible with Lewis' grand vision of eternal redemption in The Weight of Glory or The Great Divorce. But if even Lewis was frequently tempted away from such a beautifully redemptive vision to simplistic gnosticism, is it any wonder the rest of us have a hard time stretching the boundaries of our faith?