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Welcome to Further Up & Further In!

Further Up & Further In FAQ

   [clever & engaging quotes here]

[+] Who are these Pevensie folk? [+]

The journal further_up is shared by three teens (or-near-teens, Peter reminds), all of whom lie awake at night and think deep and worrying thoughts about the Christian religion. We seek to be a part of the one truth faith and also the one true church, wherever the heck it is, and have banded together (such as we are) to hack through the trail with our feeble machetes in the hope of some day arriving home and finding a church that we believe to be the closest to the apostolic faith as demonstrated by Christ's twelve apostles. Our main foci on this journey will be the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Protestant Church (treated as a whole whether the silly schizmatics like it or not!), as we ask the questions that divide them and record our answers here, as seekers, for seekers, unbiased, uninfluenced, just applying the greatest faculty known to man: wonder.

We believe in the greatest myth of all time, the Death of God. We are all committed Christians and strive to be Christians-of-the-intellectual-sort, with well-thought-out faiths that can stand the the test of time and arguments. Furthermore, we really really like C.S. Lewis. :D

For a complete list of our discussion topics, please check the memories.

   Meet the Pevensies!

Peter is indeed the oldest (although perhaps not the highest) of the Pevensie children at further_up, being the ripe old age of twenty. He has also probably been through the most denominations, including Presbyterianism, Methodism, Lutheranism, non-denominationalism, and Anglicanism, each by turn. Currently, he has two Presbyterian parents but has wandered off into complete Confusionism (not to be confused with Confucianism), where he hopes to one day settle down as either Orthodox or Catholic (or a better-informed Protestant, he supposes) without his parents killing him. He is currently at least a Sacramentalist and attending a college of one sort (the Catholic sort) white attending a church of another (the Orthodox sort) (& when he can make the hour drive). Besides seeking truth and slaying wolves, his other passions include literature and history. In reality, he does secretly like Turkish Delight. (But only the kind without chocolate.)

Susan, at 17, has been raised in a nondenominational evangelical/brethren background, but has influences in her life from the catholic, reformed, and orthodox traditions as well. She still attends a little homey non-denominational church and is quite involved, but tries to get away and go to other services when she can. She attends a large, public 2-year college in a liberal area with rather rationalistic professors which make her hate evangelicalism even more. For all that, she hasn't done enough reading and is rather undereducated, and tends to pay more attention to politics than her faith because she feels more sure of the details of it. She doubts she will end up embracing R.Catholicism, but likes aspects of it as well as the other two branches discussed here. She knows she will not become a Calvinist. She does indeed know too many boys and wears makeup daily, but this does not pertain to our discussion! She knows that she will learn muchly in badly-needed discussion with her dear friends.

Lucy, the youngest, and without buck teeth, was raised a nondenominational evangelical and has been one for all of her 17 years. What does this mean? She is not sure. It certainly includes something about the supremacy and divine inspiration of the Bible, and nothing (nada! zip!) about Church Tradition. Having spent the last two years or so reading and reading, and not hardly talking, she is VERY grateful to have landed herself here, where she can continue down the path of sheer terror and self-questioning. Thankfully she has no final destination in mind (aside from Aslan's Country, which is the hard part), so she enjoys drifting between Catholicism, Orthodoxy, familiar Protestantism, and her homely homegrown mix of the three. She reserves the right to plead undereducated about any topic, at any time.

[+] How does further_up work? [+]

Well, the three of us have been good online friends for years and years, but have a terrible time catching each other on AIM. This seems to us to be the perfect way to carry on a long serious conversation without leaving anyone out -- a thought hits you and, bam, you post it for your siblings to digest and ponder. A cord of three strands isn't easily broken (and that's Biblical). Besides, crying in a group is better than crying alone.

[+] Why the anonymity? [+]

The three of us combined have approximately 350 LiveJournal friends, which makes keeping everybody included a little dificult. It's hard to bare your soul to such varied opinions, and sometimes it's nice to have close comradeship. It's not that we don't want people to know what we're thinking (otherwise this journal would not be public) - rather, we want them to be unbiased by our personalities, our pasts, and our reputations (such as they are). If this journal can be helpful to anyone besides us, irrespective of who they are and where they've been and what they believe, it will have accomplished even more than it hoped.

[+] So is that why I can't join? [+]

In a nutshell, yeah. It had to be limited to some extent, or else there never could have been any cohesiveness of conversation. Since we're all confused, no one's trying to persuade or convert anyone, which is nice, peaceable, unified, and tucks in at the corners. You can, of course, watch this place and comment -- please feel free to do so! We'll respond in our best unbiased way and even give you virtual crumpets and tea (but not betray you to Maugrim!).

Housekeeping:
[+] Page design & icons © Miss Lucy Pevensie
[+] Introduction & FAQ © Mr. Peter Pevensie
[+] Chasing boys around wildly © Miss Susan Pevensie (and we all know what happens to her!)

       Created at 12:15 am on December 22, 2004

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