Encouragement from Cumberland Books

I recently discovered the Cumberland Book catalog via Herrick Kimball's always excellent The Deliberate Agrarian blog.

The catalog has books that are "carefully chosen, lovingly described." The selection is wonderful.

But even if you do not order any books the catalog is worth checking out just for the insightful reviews and articles.

By way of example, check out these insightful words about why people pursue bizarre belief systems:

Back in my college days (early 70s), I was a major fan of a surrealistic comedy group known as the Firesign Theater. They mostly made albums, and my favorite by far was a satire of conspiracy-minded types, telling the story of Dr. Harry Cox, a fellow who spent his days researching and propagating wacky theories;alien abductions, psychic phenomena, international cabals from his trailer park in the California high desert. He referred to his disciples as "seekers," and pointed out that "there's a seeker born every minute."
The name of the album was Everything You Know is Wrong. About halfway through the recording Dr. Cox finds out something new and important, and breaks in to tell his listeners,"Seekers, I was right! Everything I knew was wrong!"

That joke points up an ever-present danger that faces those of us who deliberately seek out alternatives to conventional thinking.

When we see, hear, or read something very different from what we've always taken for granted; something about worship, or the roles of men and women, or cultural trends, or allegiances to political parties, or how to raise children, or what the word "fascist" means;we suddenly realize that our wisdom is merely received wisdom, that there is no particular basis for our beliefs about the matter.


Sometime, somewhere, we were handed an explanation that sounded plausible, and we accepted it without question. There��s a lot that can be learned when you approach such matters with an open mind, recognizing that your thinking on many topics may be more the fruit of cultural propaganda or a government-designed education than of careful study. But as we see in the example of Dr. Harry Cox, credulousness can cut both ways. We are in just as much danger of embracing a different worldview not because it is true but because it is new and exciting. Our latent gnosticism latches onto oddball ideas in the hope that they may turn out to be secret knowledge, understood only by an elite few. And by signing up for their program, we get to join their club.

This is the territory of the cults. Not just Mormons and Jehovah��s witnesses but full preterists and Oneness Pentecostals base their brotherhood not on the plain teaching of Scripture but on imaginative readings of a few passages. The fact that scholarship, church tradition, informed opinion, and simple common sense are squarely opposed to them does not lead them to rethink their ideas; rather it confirms their belief that powerful and malign forces must be at work behind the scenes, blinding the average man to the truth they've stumbled upon.

It won't do to ignore the dangers that lie in wait for us. Too many times we've seen friends and colleagues begin by rethinking the party line and end up parroting an even more outlandish alternative.

To raise questions about prevailing opinion without wandering off into the fever swamps of gnosticism takes discernment and humility. Many of the books we recommend in this catalog take a skeptical look at the conventional thinking on this or that topic. We think that they present the facts accurately, that their reasoning is clear and sound, and that their conclusions are sober and solid. But we also encourage you to read these books as a Berean would, testing their claims against what you already know and what Scripture tells you, drawing your own conclusions, and drawing them cautiously.

I have seen a number of solid Christian friends pursue off-the-wall heretical beliefs. I could never understand how such intelligent, perceptive people could accept such obvious spiritual nonsense. The wise words from Cumberland Books helped me to understand.

I am thankful to them.