The reason jokes and irony and paradox work is because that is the way God created the world. If you live out of step with the way he created the world, it’s called sin. By doing so you mock yourself and leave yourself open to the mockery of others. That’s just the way it is. Inconsistent lives are the mark of every humanist philosopher, they don’t practice what they preach. But the Christian is free to be consistent, our obedience is in harmony with the world and it’s creator.
It’s one of the reasons why good artists, writers and storytellers must conform to the truth in order to create good art. In art the hypocrisy is blatant. Or at least it used to be. We can seer our conscience, we can train ourselves to love evil.
Don’t do that.
I suppose now I need a book list.
1. The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis
2. The Silmarillion, Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
3. The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton
4. Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton.
5. Phantastes, George MacDonald
6. The Discarded Image, C. S. Lewis
7. The Space Trilogy, C. S. Lewis
8. The Divine Comedy, Dante, Tran. John Ciardi
9. The Brothers Karamazov
10. Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius
11. Through New Eyes, James Jordan
12. The Old Testament
13. The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
14. The Path to Rome, Hilaire Belloc
15. Reflections, Edmund Burke