Celebrating C.S. Lewis

Theophilus7 · Jul 4, 2004

Hi,

We've been talking about loving the mind and reading good books recently. Well, C.S. Lewis is regarded as one of the greatest Christian thinkers and writers of the last century. Many of you may have read some of his writings - perhaps the Narnia Chronicles, maybe even the Cosmic Trilogy. But Lewis also wrote a great deal on theology and apologetics which (incase you haven't read beyond his fiction and need prodding!

) are also well worth studying. Actually, I've only begun to sample his works; the titles I have read (and enjoyed!) include Mere Christianity, The Four Loves, God in the Dock, The Problem of Pain, The Abolition of Man and one or two others... but there are many more out there!

If you have read any Lewis, perhaps you'd like to write a little post (one post per book) summarising the book - what it's about, and why you liked or didn't like it. Interested? Well, a few ground rules, if you don't mind:

Ground rules - - - - -

Include the name of the book in the 'Title' input box provided for new posts. This will keep things neat and tidy.
If you find someone has got there before you on some title, just tag your post onto his or hers (use the 'Quote' button under their post). If not, please make sure your post is tagged to the first post (ie. this one!)

This will keep things tidy.

Oh, and one more thing. A link to the book on Amazon might be nice. Alternatively, if you want to make sure English, German and US viewers can get a copy, you could link to it on my LogosWord Bookstore

, which makes switching between countries easier (http://www.logosword.co.uk/webstore/) .

Let's see which books you have read then. (JimB, I know you'll support me in on this one

)

T7

servant4ever · Jul 4, 2004

I have read the Screwtape Letters. It is more or less about how satan uses his angels (demons) to hurt people spiritually. I was confused for the first several chapters because the "E" on Enemy was capitalized and the "m" on master wasn't. I didn't know that the book was from the viewpoint of a demon

Is this something what you are looking for?

servant4ever

Theophilus7 · Jul 5, 2004

servant4ever said:
I have read the Screwtape Letters. It is more or less about how satan uses his angels (demons) to hurt people spiritually. I was confused for the first several chapters because the "E" on Enemy was capitalized and the "m" on master wasn't. I didn't know that the book was from the viewpoint of a demon Is this something what you are looking for?

servant4ever

Yep. Keep them coming, folks.

I'm not surprised you were confused, servant4ever, if you hadn't realised the letters were being written from a senior devil's perspective! But I wouldn't have thought the big "E" on enemy and the little "m" on master would have been the primary source of your confusion! Just read the first letter carefully and tell me, big E or little E, whether a saint would write something like that. ^_^

(Oh, and by the way, servant4ever, you forgot to write the name of the book in the 'title' box of your post :doh:

)

T7

Jim B · Jul 5, 2004

I am a HUGE C.S.L. fan and could shoot myself for discovering him so late in life. God is using his remarkable insights into truth to completely and positively influence my thinking. It is no wonder his book Mere Christianity was voted the #1 Best Christian Book of the Twentieth Century (by the readers and contributors to Christianity Today).

I would like to recommend two books.

1). A good introduction to Lewis would be A Year With C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works (Zondervan/HarperCollins), a life-altering daily devotional that is an excellent digest of his teachings.

2). A book I am currently slowly digesting: Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis by Will Vaus (InterVarsity Press).

Jim
\o/

PS: T7, I have discovered that Pentecostal/Charismatic believers, as a rule, have little (or no) knowledge of Lewis and that he is more appreciated by mainstream believers than by P/Cs.

Why do you think this is?

The first question I am asked when recommending him to P/Cs is Is he Spirit-filled? (which I have no way of knowing) or Did he believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit? (meaning, Did he speak in tongues). If they suspect the answer to these questions are no, they immediately dismiss Lewis as irrelevant.

Why is this? :scratch:

servant4ever · Jul 5, 2004

sorry! I just posted a reply from the Quick Reply Box and realized there was no title after I submitted it!

servant4ever

Theophilus7 · Jul 5, 2004

JimB said:
PS: T7, I have discovered that Pentecostal/Charismatic believers, as a rule, have little (or no) knowledge of Lewis and that he is more appreciated by mainstream believers than by P/Cs.
Why do you think this is?
The first question I am asked when recommending him to P/Cs is Is he Spirit-filled? (which I have no way of knowing) or Did he believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit? (meaning, Did he speak in tongues). If they suspect the answer to these questions are no, they immediately dismiss Lewis as irrelevant.
Why is this?

Some important questions there, JimB. If you would re-post this in your recent pro-thinking thread, I would be more than happy to discuss these troubling issues with you.

rooster · Jul 5, 2004

Some might not know this. He was a good firend of Tolkien and belonged to the same book club.
He was there when Tolkien made his first reading of "The Hobbit"

Jim B · Jul 8, 2004

Heres a thought provoking quote from Lewis The Screwtape Letters:

No man who says Im as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to a toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writing awareness of an inferiority [a person] refuses to accept.

What are your thoughts?

\o/

Suffolk Sean · Jul 8, 2004

Great book written in allegorical style very similar to Pilgrim's Progress. I have heard it is autobiographical and when compared to "Suprised by Joy" there are many similarities.

Regardless of that fact there are some amazing truths in it. Enjoy

Suffolk Sean · Jul 8, 2004

Jim B said:
No man who says Im as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to a toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writing awareness of an inferiority [a person] refuses to accept.

Great quote and I would say generally true, there are some however that like to flaunt their superiority over others, so in that case I guess they are not as good as those they claim superiority over.

Tobias · Jul 8, 2004

Suffolk Sean said:
Great book written in allegorical style very similar to Pilgrim's Progress. I have heard it is autobiographical and when compared to "Suprised by Joy" there are many similarities.

Regardless of that fact there are some amazing truths in it. Enjoy

I love C S Lewis' work and especially this book! I grew up on the Chronicles of Narnia, and enjoyed his sci-fi series as well. Mere Christianity was a toughy, but The Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters were wonderful.

I do sometimes get lost in his apologetics by not knowing the issues he was dealing with in society back when he wrote it. That is a problem with some of the allegories in the Pigrim's Regress. occasionally you run across an arguement against some secular mindset that you've never heard of in our generation.

BronxBriar · Jul 9, 2004

Suffolk Sean said:
Great book written in allegorical style very similar to Pilgrim's Progress. I have heard it is autobiographical and when compared to "Suprised by Joy" there are many similarities.

Regardless of that fact there are some amazing truths in it. Enjoy

Seeing Lewis compared to the great Bunyan makes me shudder. Sorry, not a Lewis fan at all.

Theophilus7 · Jul 10, 2004

BronxBriar said:
Seeing Lewis compared to the great Bunyan makes me shudder. Sorry, not a Lewis fan at all.

Jim B · Jul 11, 2004

Theophilus7 said:

I agree, T7.

Oh well, I guess its all a matter of personal taste. My grandfather used to drink clabber milk and think it tasted like ice cream. Go figure.

\o/

JimB · Jul 12, 2004

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

~C.S. Lewis

ElizabethanLady · Jul 20, 2004

I never heard of C.S. Lewis, until I saw "Shadowlands", the movie with Anthony Hopkins.

Suffolk Sean · Jul 20, 2004

Have you read anything by him? Incredible author ^_^

JimB · Jul 21, 2004

Defining Christian

The name Christians was first given at Antioch (Acts 11.26) to the disciples, to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. There is no question of its being restricted to those who profited by that teaching as much as they should have. There is no question of its being extended to those who in some refined, spiritual, inward fashion were far closer to the spirit of Christ than the less satisfactory of the disciples. The point is not a theological or moral one. It is only a question of using words so that we can all understand what is being said. When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say that he is not a Christian.

JimB · Jul 28, 2004

If Christianity is true why are not all Christian obviously nicer than all non-Christians? What lies behind that question is partly something very reasonable and partly something that is not reasoanlbe at all. The reasonable part is this. If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a mans outward actions if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before then I think we must suspect that his conversion was largely imaginary; and after ones original conversion, everytime one thinks one has made an advance, that is the test to apply. Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in religion mean nothing unless they make our actual behaviour better; just as in an illness feeling better is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up. In that sense the outer world is quite right to judge Christianity by its results. Christ told us to judge by results. A tree is known by its fruit; or, as we like to say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world. The war-time posters told us that Careless Talk Costs Lives. It is equally true that Careless Lives Cause Talk. Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we give them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity itself.

JimB · Aug 4, 2004

The Problem of Evil

by C. S. Lewis

Christians, then, believe that an evil power has made himself for the present the Prince of this World. And, of course, that raises problems. Is this state of affairs in accordance with God's will or not? If it is, He is a strange God, you will say: and if it is not, how can anything happen contrary to the will of a being with absolute power?

But anyone who has been in authority knows how a thing can be in accordance with your will in one way and not in another. It may be quite sensible for a mother to say to the children, "I'm not going to go and make you tidy the schoolroom every night. You've got to learn to keep it tidy on your own." Then she goes up one night and finds the Teddy bear and the ink and the French Grammar all lying in the grate. That is against her will. She would prefer the children to be tidy. But on the other hand, it is her will which has left the children free to be untidy. The same thing arises in any regiment, or trade union, or school. You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will made it possible.

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