Discipleship in a Post-Christian Age: Reason, Imagination, and Community
By Thiago Silva
Christianity in the West is living through a decisive moment. The cultural structures that once held faith in place—social norms, educational institutions, even assumptions in law and politics—have eroded. In the past, churchgoing was common, biblical literacy widespread, and Christian moral frameworks generally assumed. Today, that world feels like a distant memory. Faith is often perceived as irrelevant, outdated, or even harmful. Younger generations, shaped by the digital revolution and global pluralism, find themselves presented with a dizzying array of competing worldviews. For many, Christianity is not rejected—it is simply ignored.
In such a world, the call to discipleship has never been more urgent—or more misunderstood. Discipleship is not an event, a class, or a program. It is not a twelve-week curriculum or a checklist of spiritual habits. Discipleship is a lifelong journey of being shaped into the image of Christ. It is the call to leave behind an old way of life and embrace a new identity in Christ, allowing every part of our being—our thoughts, desires, and relationships—to be transformed by his grace.
When Jesus invited his followers with the simple yet profound words, “Follow me,” he was not offering an optional path for the spiritually inclined. He was summoning men and women into the very heart of God’s mission, a life defined by faith, obedience, and transformation. At the core of this journey is the call to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. True discipleship does not simply equip believers with knowledge, nor does it merely demand outward conformity to Christian ethics. It seeks to engage the whole person, reshaping how we think, what we love, and how we live in community.
The challenge is clear: in an age marked by skepticism, apathy, and radical individualism, how can discipleship form whole, mature believers? The answer, I believe, lies in recovering a threefold vision of Christian formation—discipleship of the mind, discipleship of the heart (through imagination), and discipleship in community. This holistic vision is not only rooted in Scripture but illuminated by the writings of C. S. Lewis, who saw more clearly than most the cultural and spiritual crises of modernity.
Discipleship of the Mind: Cultivating Intellectual Depth
For many today, faith and reason appear to be enemies. The narrative of secular culture is that belief in God is a leap into irrationality, a surrender of critical thinking, or at best, a private preference. Scientific materialism tells us that the only truths worth believing are those proven in laboratories, while relativism insists that truth itself is fluid and subjective. The so-called New Atheists have hammered away at Christianity as intellectually obsolete.
Caught in this climate, many Christians are unprepared. They know fragments of the Bible, perhaps a few doctrines, but they cannot explain how their faith makes sense of the world. And when challenged by skepticism—whether in a university classroom, workplace conversation, or even at the dinner table—they struggle to respond.
But the Christian faith has never asked believers to abandon reason. From the wisdom tradition of Proverbs—“Get wisdom, though it cost all you have” (Prov 4:7)—to Paul’s exhortation to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5), Scripture calls us to love God with our minds. Jesus himself commanded, “Love the Lord your God…with all your mind” (Mark 12:30). A faith that does not think will soon collapse.
Church history bears witness to this truth. Augustine wrestled with philosophy before bending his knee to Christ. Aquinas crafted a grand synthesis of theology and reason. Pascal spoke of the “reasons of the heart” that reason itself must acknowledge. And in the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis offered a model of intellectual discipleship that continues to shape countless lives.
Lewis, once an atheist himself, came to faith not by suppressing reason but by following it. His apologetic writings—Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain—demonstrate that Christianity not only withstands rational scrutiny but provides the most compelling framework for truth, morality, and meaning. “I believe in Christianity,” Lewis wrote, “as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” That is discipleship of the mind: to see reality through the lens of Christ, to think God’s thoughts after him.
What would it look like for the church to recover this intellectual depth? It would mean creating communities where hard questions are welcomed rather than silenced. It would mean integrating apologetics and worldview training into discipleship, not as optional electives but as essential formation. Imagine study groups that read Mere Christianity alongside Romans, or book clubs exploring Augustine’s Confessions together. Imagine sermons that dig deep into the riches of Scripture while showing how the gospel answers the pressing questions of our age.
Discipleship of the mind is not about producing armchair philosophers. It is about equipping believers to see reality clearly, to withstand intellectual storms, and to proclaim Christ with confidence. When the mind is renewed, the whole life is strengthened.
Discipleship of the Heart: Awakening Spiritual Affections Through Imagination
If the modern world challenges the mind with skepticism, it dulls the heart with apathy. We live in an age of endless distraction. The constant hum of entertainment, technology, and consumerism numbs the soul. Our culture encourages us to fill every spare moment with noise, scrolling, or spectacle. In such an environment, the deep hunger for God is easily smothered.
Many Christians feel this too. Faith becomes a thin layer of comfort—therapeutic, sentimental, and fragile. It soothes but does not transform. It inspires briefly but does not endure.
Yet discipleship is not merely a matter of thinking rightly; it is about loving rightly. Augustine said it plainly: sin is disordered love, and salvation is the reordering of our loves toward God. The psalmist prayed, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you” (Ps 73:25). True discipleship awakens the affections, cultivating a deep desire for holiness, beauty, and the presence of God.
Jesus understood this well. He did not simply deliver lectures on doctrine. He told stories that stirred the imagination—the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the mustard seed. His parables painted pictures of the kingdom, awakening in his hearers a longing for God’s reign. He invited them to imagine a reality more beautiful and compelling than the broken world around them.
C. S. Lewis grasped this dimension of discipleship with rare genius. His apologetic essays persuaded the mind, but his fiction captivated the heart. In The Chronicles of Narnia, readers taste the goodness of Aslan and discover that obedience, courage, and sacrifice are not burdens but joys. In The Great Divorce, he shows with haunting clarity the eternal consequences of choosing self over God. Lewis knew that before people embrace Christianity as true, they must first sense that it is desirable.
This is why discipleship must include the imagination. Without it, faith becomes dry intellectualism or rigid moralism. But when the heart is captured, discipleship becomes joyful and resilient.
How can the church cultivate this? By embracing the arts, story, and beauty as essential tools for formation. Worship should not be reduced to didactic exercises but should inspire awe—through rich hymns, silence, liturgy, and visual beauty. Sermons should not only explain but also move, awakening desire for God. Churches can create spaces where literature, music, and visual art help believers see reality through the lens of faith. Reading Lewis, Tolkien, or even poetry like George Herbert together can stir affections in ways arguments cannot.
Discipleship of the heart also means forming habits of desire. Fasting reminds us that our appetites are not ultimate. Silence trains us to listen for God’s voice in a noisy world. Acts of service reorder our loves by turning us outward. Even encounters with nature can stir a longing for the Creator. As Lewis said, these longings—this Sehnsucht, this “inconsolable longing”—point us to God himself.
When the heart is awakened, discipleship is no longer a burden but a joy. A disciple who loves Christ deeply will not be easily swayed by the distractions of the world.
Discipleship in Community: Forming Relationships of Grace
Even when the mind is convinced and the heart is awakened, discipleship falters without community. Christianity was never meant to be lived in isolation. From the beginning, God formed a people for himself: Abraham’s family, Israel’s covenant, the church in Acts. Paul’s letters overflow with communal language—“one body,” “living stones,” “the household of God.”
Yet the modern West is profoundly individualistic. People approach church as consumers—attending when it feels useful, leaving when it becomes inconvenient. Faith is treated as a private journey, disconnected from others. The result is shallow discipleship, easily abandoned when life grows difficult.
Scripture paints a different picture. The early church devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They shared resources, bore one another’s burdens, and embodied the gospel in their life together. It was not programs or buildings that made the early church compelling; it was their communal life of love, forgiveness, and generosity.
Lewis himself modeled this truth. His friendships with Tolkien and the Inklings were not just literary conversations but spiritual fellowship. They sharpened one another’s minds, inspired one another’s imaginations, and encouraged one another in faith. Lewis knew that discipleship thrives in community, where “the face of Christ” is seen in another.
For us, this means recovering the communal dimension of discipleship. Churches must intentionally create spaces where believers are truly known and loved. Small groups and mentoring relationships must go beyond curriculum into real friendship—sharing meals, confessing sins, bearing burdens. Intergenerational discipleship should be embraced, with older believers mentoring younger ones, passing on wisdom and modeling faith.
Hospitality is central here. Opening our homes and lives to others, not just for entertainment but for shared life, is one of the most powerful practices of Christian formation. Around tables and in living rooms, discipleship comes alive.
Community is not neat or easy. It requires patience, forgiveness, and vulnerability. But it is in community that faith is sustained, that wounds are healed, and that disciples learn to embody the love of Christ.
A Holistic Vision of Discipleship in a Post-Christian Age
The challenges to discipleship today are daunting. Secularism dismisses faith as irrational, relativism erodes conviction, and individualism isolates believers. But the call of Jesus remains: “Follow me.”
To answer that call, the church must recover a holistic vision of discipleship—one that engages the mind with truth, awakens the heart with beauty, and sustains believers in the life of community. Reason, imagination, and community are not optional extras; they are essential dimensions of becoming like Christ.
When believers are trained to think clearly, love deeply, and live faithfully with others, they become resilient disciples—capable of bearing witness to Christ in a culture starving for meaning, beauty, and belonging.
Lewis’s words ring true: “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.” That is our task: to form whole disciples who love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and who embody the kingdom in the world.
If you want to explore these themes more fully, see my book Discipleship in a Post-Christian Age: With a Little Help from C. S. Lewis (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2025).
— Thiago Silva received his theological education at Mackenzie Presbyterian University (Brazil), Calvin Theological Seminary, and Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. Dr. Silva serves as pastor of Bethel Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and as City Director of the C. S. Lewis Institute Lake Charles. He is the author of Discipleship in a Post-Christian Age: With a Little Help from C. S. Lewis and Discipleship and Spiritual Warfare: From the Screwtape Letters to the Christian Life.
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I always look forward to receiving 'The Worldview Bulletin Newsletter.' As a former atheist my heart is encouraged to see young ministers who are carrying the torch for being 'followers' of
Christ. Today's article by Thiago Silva is excellent and I highly recommend it to every Christian.
After almost 55 years as a 'follower' I especially appreciated this insight because it is so true. We are on earth for a specific reason and as we find, adopt, and embrace that reason our lives become full of purpose and praise:
"Discipleship is a lifelong journey of being shaped into the image of Christ. It is the call to leave behind an old way of life and embrace a new identity in Christ, allowing every part of our being—our thoughts, desires, and relationships—to be transformed by his grace."