CS Lewis Society of Frederick, Maryland

#298

2012-02-17T06:49:00.003-05:00

Max McLean as Uncle Screwtape with Toadpipe in the background.

Max McLean is still performing The Screwtape Letters - now on tour across America. Check his website for a stop near you.

#297

2012-02-13T03:18:00.029-05:00

The previous post quotes from a letter Lewis wrote to his brother where he states that his working title for The Screwtape Letters was to be As One Devil to Another. Seventy years have past since The Screwtape Letters was published and on April 1, 2012, Lewis's working title will be available when As One Devil to Another: A Fiendish Correspondence in the Tradition of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters by Richard Platt will be available for purchase.

I received an advanced copy a few weeks ago and greatly enjoyed the time spent reading the 31 letters from Uncle Slashreap to his nephew Scardagger. Walter Hooper writes in the Preface "The narrative voice of As One Devil to Another is almost indistinguishable from Lewis' own. It reads as if Lewis himself had written it. There are many passages which Lewis could not have done better." High praise from one who knows. I agree, reading As One Devil to Another one feels you are reading the lost Screwtape letters. As Hooper says the narrative voice sounds just like Lewis. Most of the letters focus on timeless themes and a few focus on current issues - one of my favorites deals with the triumph the demons take in their creation of Reality TV. Other authors have tried, and in my opinion failed, to create a "modern" Screwtape Letters (see post #128). If the goal is to create an updated version of Screwtape, then As One Devil to Another is the winner. Run, don't walk, and pre-order your copy today!

#296

2012-02-09T05:11:00.007-05:00

February 9, 1942 - The Screwtape Letters was published.

On Sunday, July 21, 1940, Lewis wrote to his brother: "Before the [church] service was over - one cd. wish these things came more seasonably - I was struck by an idea for a book wh. I think might be both useful and entertaining. It wd. be called As one Devil to Another and would consist of letters from an elderly retired devil to a young devil who has just started work on his first 'patient'. The idea wd. be to give all the psychology of temptation from the other point of view."

The letters were published in thirty-one instalments in The Guardian (an Anglican newspaper, not the current newspaper with the same name) between May and November 1941.

Check out the C.S. Lewis Minute's post for this anniversary.

#295

2012-02-04T01:02:00.001-05:00

We will be discussing Surprised by Joy at our February meeting. Need the discussion questions? Send an email to FrederickLewisSociety@yahoo.com and I will send them to you.

#294

2012-01-31T06:26:00.015-05:00

Medical advice from C.S. Lewis as found in a letter to Mary Neylan, dated January 31, 1943:

"What frightfully bad luck. And I'm the worst person in the world to write to someone who is feeling weak and listless, not because I have never been in that condition but because I don't myself dislike it nearly as much as most people. To lie in bed - to find ones eyes filling with facile tears at the least hint of pathos in ones book - to let the book drop from ones hand as one sinks deeper and deeper into reverie - to forget what you were thinking about a moment ago and not to mind - and then to be roused by the unexpected discovery that it is already tea-time - all this I do not find disagreeable! ... Jane Austen, Scott, and Trollope are my own favourites when ill...Now, go to sleep. Blessings.

Yours sincerely
C.S. Lewis

#293

2012-01-26T08:47:00.000-05:00

This date in history:

1942 - The first meeting of the Oxford University Socratic Club is held in Somerville College with Lewis's friend and doctor, R.E. Havard, presenting a paper titled: "Won't Mankind Outgrow Christianity in the Face of the Advance of Science and of Modern Ideologies?" Lewis served as president of the Socratic Club until he went to Cambridge in 1954. - All information above (and much more concerning the Socratic Club) was found in Walter Hooper's essay titled "Oxford's Bonny Fighter" in James Como's Remembering C.S. Lewis.

#292

2012-01-24T01:01:00.015-05:00

A random quote from The Screwtape Letters:

"I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked."

Read chapter 12 for the complete strategy Screwtape has for you.

#291

2012-01-20T04:53:00.003-05:00

Meeting Reminder
Monday, January 23rd - 6:15pm in the Community Room at the C. Burr Artz Library, Frederick, MD.

We will be discussing Remembering C.S. Lewis, edited by James Como.

Our February meeting will be Monday, February 27th - same time, same location. We will be discussing Surprised by Joy in February.

#290

2012-01-13T06:31:00.006-05:00

If you are my age (undisclosed) you probably played with Legos as a child and your options at the time were limited to basic everyday situations - police & fire stations, airports, gas stations, etc...these I remember having. If you were so inclined you could create a Star Wars X-Wing fighter or an Indiana Jones scene. Whereas the children of today have everything ready made for them. This Summer Lego will roll out their latest line - The Lord of the Rings!!! Check out this link for more information, including a downloadable Lego Aragorn poster.

#289

2012-01-08T07:10:00.000-05:00

Narnia around Town
If I happen across a possible portal to Narnia I try to take a picture and document. The pictures below are from The Ragged Edge Coffee House in Gettysburg. I have enjoyed coffee there often enough (They get their coffee from Dublin Roasters in Frederick!) But I have never attempted my way into Narnia there. It does seem they have some inside knowledge as they are aware of Narnian time.

#288

2012-01-03T10:06:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to J.R.R. Tolkien, born this day in 1892. Keep an eye out here for our "Summer in Middle-earth" as we plan to read and discuss ~~The Lord of the Rings~~ The Silmarillion during the Summer of 2012.

#287

2012-01-01T00:30:00.001-05:00

A New Year's Resolution:

Ever since our May 2010 meeting when we discussed "On the Reading of Old Books" - an essay found in God in the Dock and originally found as the introduction to Sister Penelope's translation of St. Anthanasius' On the Incarnation - I have attempted to begin a course of reading "The Classics" and to date I have failed. My plan was to begin with Homer and start with The Iliad. My bookmark is at the half way point and every few weeks or months I will pick it up, but no consistency on my part. My resolution is to push forward and, at the very least, be done with Homer by this time next year, after The Iliad move on to The Odyssey. From there, Virgil's Aeneid, which can be read, in part, with Lewis's translation published earlier this year as C.S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid. I have heard it said that 15 minutes a day at these works is all that is needed to get a grasp of the story and make progress without feeling overwhelmed. Let us, or at least me, go forth and make up for that which is lacking in our education before it is too late. I will post updates throughout the year.

A quote from Lewis's essay (used just a month ago, post #279, but worth it again):

"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books...The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can only be done by reading old books."

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T05:40:00.007-05:00

My "Spires of Frederick" Glitter Dome

Merry Christmas from the C.S. Lewis Society of Frederick!

#286

2011-12-14T10:55:00.002-05:00

Our January book is James Como's Remembering C.S. Lewis. We will meet Monday, January 23rd - 6:15pm at the C. Burr Artz Library in the Community Room. I have a few copies left. If you need one send me an email and I will get it into your hands ASAP.

#285

2011-12-09T10:54:00.003-05:00

The last two posts were negative in nature towards the Christmas season, specifically the commercial aspects. If you search this blog you will notice a few Lewis quotes during past Christmas seasons that express his disapproval of its consumerism. But if you are an average American you probably participate in the season by giving gifts. Published earlier this year Toward the Gleam by T.M. Doran is a gift idea for the Tolkien lover in your life. A fictional account of how Tolkien discovered and managed to keep a hold of the Red Book of Westmarch, despite mighty forces bent on obtaining it at all costs. C.S. Lewis and the Inklings and other famous individuals make appearances. There is enough action to keep the story going and many decent philosophical and religious discussions that hold one's attention without being too didactic. A review from the Inklings blog site.

#284

2011-12-05T09:00:00.003-05:00

A letter from Lewis dated December 19, 1952:

"...we - like you no doubt - are in the climax of the 'Christmas rush', a time which I always regard with horror. I hope I am not a Scrooge, but with every year that passes I find myself more and more in revolt against the commercialized racket of 'Xmas'. With us, it now begins about the third week in November..."

#283

2011-12-02T09:59:00.003-05:00

I read this quote the other day from St. Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ and in general it is worthy of much meditation and implementation, but especially in light of last week's Black Friday events, and in my opinion, America's vulgar display of greed and other materialistic ills:

Whatever I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but hereafter. For if I alone should have all the world's comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they could not long endure. Therefore, my soul, you cannot enjoy full consolation or perfect delight except in God, the Consoler of the poor and the Helper of the humble. Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise and you will have an abundance of all good things in heaven. If you desire these present things too much, you will lose those which are everlasting and heavenly. Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them.

Found In - From the Library of C.S. Lewis: Selections from Writers Who Influenced His Spiritual Journey complied by James Stuart Bell with Anthony Palmer Dawson

#282

2011-11-29T10:22:00.001-05:00

I was sitting at my computer, organizing upcoming posts while listening to the radio, when The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor aired. I was barely paying attention when he mentioned a young man becoming an atheist when he was 14 and then coming back to the Christian faith in his 30's. I listened in and discovered Garrison was talking about C.S. Lewis. It seems today is his birthday. Who knew? I always commemorate his death, which is easy to remember being the same day JFK was assassinated, but I do not believe I have ever celebrated his birthday with a post. Since NPR has commemorated the day I will follow suite.

Clive Staples Lewis (Jack) born in Belfast today in 1898.

#281

2011-11-27T00:18:00.000-05:00

Pulpit Lewis used when delivering "The Weight of Glory" on 8 June 1941.

Our next meeting will be Monday, November 28th - Meeting at the C. Burr Artz Library in the Trust Conference Room at 6:15pm. Our topic for discussion will be the sermon "The Weight of Glory".

#280

2011-11-22T01:12:00.013-05:00

Photo used by permission of D. Godliman www.dgphotos.co.uk
Also see http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/

#279

2011-11-16T06:11:00.006-05:00

I recently listened to an audio lecture series from The Teaching Company titled Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life, taught by J. Rufus Fears (I borrowed my copy from the Frederick County Public Library). A few years back we read and discussed "On the Reading of Old Books" - an essay found in God in the Dock and originally found as the introduction to Sister Penelope's translation of St. Anthanasius' On the Incarnation. Professor Fears hits on some of the points Lewis did in his essay. Get a hold of this series and take a ride through literary history in 36 lectures from Shakespeare to Solzhenitsyn, Beowulf to Bonhoeffer, and so on...

A quote from Lewis's essay:

"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books...The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can only be done by reading old books."

#278

2011-11-11T00:46:00.003-05:00

On January 11, 2011 - post #184, I began a year long track through C.S. Lewis and his broadcast talks. Posting a quote from the chapter in Mere Christianity that was broadcast over the airwaves with the BBC in four series in 1941, 1942, and 1944. I used Justin Phillips' wonderful book C.S. Lewis In a Time of War: The World War II Broadcasts That Riveted a Nation and Became the Classic Mere Christianity (to provide you with the full title) as my guide. This book was first published in the UK under the title C.S. Lewis at the BBC: Messages of Hope in the Darkness of War (see cover below). I use this post to say I am finished and to again encourage you to read Phillips' book.

#277

2011-11-08T00:42:00.011-05:00

On November 8, 1942, C.S. Lewis gave his 8th and final talk in this series. This would become in Mere Christianity Book 3/Chapter 12 'Faith'.

A Quote, a quote I have posted on this blog before (2007 - #13), but one well worth ending this year long journey through Mere Christianity with:

I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at the first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes. But this is near the stage where the road passes over the rim of our world. No one’s eyes can see very far beyond that: lots of people’s eyes can see further than mine.

#276

2011-11-04T00:20:00.041-04:00

The band Sixpence None the Richer found their name from the previous quote in Mere Christianity. See this link for, a now vintage clip (I remember the night it happened - I am getting old!), with Leigh Nash - lead singer, explaining to Dave where the band's name comes from:
Sixpence None the Richer on David Letterman

It would seem Dave knows Mere Christianity, his thought about being reminded of truth is similar to Lewis's:
"As Dr Johnson said, 'People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.' The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see..." - Book 3/Chapter 3, first paragraph

#275

2011-11-01T00:16:00.002-04:00

On November 1, 1942, Lewis gave his seventh talk for this series with the BBC. In Mere Christianity this would become Book 3/Chapter 11 'Faith':

Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already. So that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like. It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction. When a man has made these two discoveries* God can really get to work. It is after this that real life begins. The man is awake now.

* The first discovery Lewis mentions earlier in the chapter is summed up with this quote: “God has been waiting for the moment at which you discover that there is no question of earning a pass mark in this exam. Or putting Him in your debt.”

#274

2011-10-29T02:31:00.009-04:00

Magdalen College Tower - Oxford

A letter from C.S. Lewis to his friend Arthur Greeves on this date in 1930:

...Have you been having lovely autumn? We have. Woods all speckled with yellow, drifts of leaves at the roadside, and the most exquisite pale skies. The other morning on some gorse bushes I saw a wonderful display of cobwebs - like a thick bridal veil, unbroken, extending for many yards. The smells are delicious...

As found in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 1

#273

2011-10-25T03:29:00.006-04:00

On October 25, 1942, Lewis gave his sixth talk in this series with the BBC. This talk would become Chapter 8 'The Great Sin' in Book 3 of Mere Christianity.

The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But pride always means enmity – it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.

This chapter has famously influenced many high profile people, perhaps the most most famous being Charles Colson, see this link for a brief commentary with PRIDE as its focus.

#272

2011-10-21T04:44:00.001-04:00

Next Meeting: This Monday, October 24th - 6:15pm in the Community Room at the C. Burr Artz Library. Till We Have Faces will be discussed.

#271

2011-10-18T04:37:00.002-04:00

On October 18, 1942, Lewis gave his 5th talk in this series, this eventually became Chapter 7 'Forgiveness' in Book 3 of Mere Christianity. A Quote:

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. ‘That sort of talk makes them sick,’ they say. And half of you already want to ask me, ‘I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’

So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do – I can do precious little – I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.’ There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven. There are no two ways about it.

#270

2011-10-14T11:31:00.023-04:00

Till We Have Faces resources for our October meeting:

Peter Kreeft's website includes a lecture dedicated to Till We Have Faces. Free

The C.S. Lewis Collection by Mars Hill Audio includes many fine interviews, but for our immediate needs includes a very good interview with Thomas Howard on Till We Have Faces. $

Peter Schakel's book Reason and Imagination in C.S. Lewis: A Study of Till We Have Faces. A free online book.

#269

2011-10-11T01:28:00.012-04:00

On October 11, 1942, Lewis delivered his fourth talk in this series, and this became Book 3 – Christian Behaviour/Chapter 5 – Sexual Morality in Mere Christianity:

Finally, though I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the centre of Christian morality is not here. If anyone thinks that the Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.

#268

2011-10-06T02:22:00.015-04:00

Friday, October 7th Freud's Last Session will be moving to another theater in New York and continue to entertain and challenge audiences. If you have the opportunity to see this wonderful play - do!

#267

2011-10-04T02:10:00.018-04:00

October 4, 1942
Lewis gave his third talk in this series with the BBC. This would become Book 3 – Christian Behaviour, Chapter 4 – Morality and Psychoanalysis from Mere Christianity:

Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler? That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man’s choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man’s psychological makeup is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.

#266

2011-09-30T11:54:00.002-04:00

1st English Edition - similar to the copy Will Vaus shared at our retreat.

We will be discussing Till We Have Faces this Fall. Our next meeting will be held at the C. Burr Artz Library on Monday, October 24th - 6:15 - 7:45pm. If you need a copy of the discussion questions send me an email. Unfortunately all my copies of the book have been sold.

#265

2011-09-27T01:30:00.001-04:00

Arabic Mere Christianity

September 27, 1942
Lewis broadcast his second talk for his series on Christian Behaviour, in Mere Christianity this would become Book 3 – Christian Behaviour/Chapter 3 – Social Morality:

… the New Testament, without going into details, gives us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like. Perhaps it gives us more than we can take. It tells us that there are to be no passengers or parasites: if a man does not work, he ought not to eat. Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one’s work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them. And there is to be no ‘swank’ or ‘side’, no putting on airs. To that extent a Christian society would be what we now call Leftist. On the other hand, it is always insisting on obedience – obedience (and outward marks of respect) from all of us to properly appointed magistrates, from children to parents, and (I am afraid this is going to be very unpopular) from wives to husbands. Thirdly, it is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues; and the New Testament hates what it calls ‘busybodies’.

#264

2011-09-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

5th Anniversary Retreat Recap

Thanks to all who made the day enjoyable and we hope to have a similar event 5 years from now!

Will Vaus gave two lectures leading to much discussion.

Our 5th Anniversary Cake made by Piece O'Cake LCC
This was an open book we devoured!

#263

2011-09-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

The retreat will take place as planned in the planned location - Pinecliff Park. The river has held and we have not been flooded out! Hope to see everyone today.

#262

2011-09-21T13:12:00.000-04:00

One last post for our 5th Anniversary Retreat to begin Saturday (9/24) at 11am and ending by 5pm. The day will include two lectures and a book signing with Lewis author Will Vaus, a potluck lunch, anniversary cake (made by Piece O'Cake), and an Evening Prayer Service, using the same liturgy Lewis used. The retreat will take place in the Browning Building at Pinecliff Park in Frederick - 8350 Pinecliff Park Rd - off of Reichs Ford Rd. This event is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

#261

2011-09-20T03:39:00.003-04:00

On September 20, 1942, Lewis began his third broadcast series with the B.B.C. The quote below would become the opening of Book 3: Christian Behaviour/Chapter 1 from Mere Christianity:

There is a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was ‘the sort of person who is always snooping around to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it’. And I am afraid that is the sort of idea that the word Morality raises in a good many people’s minds: something that interferes, something that stops you having a good time. In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations. When you are being taught how to use any machine, the instructor keeps on saying, ‘No, don’t do it like that,’ because, of course, there are all sorts of things that look all right and seem to you the natural way of treating the machine, but do not really work.

#260

2011-09-16T04:33:00.001-04:00

On February 18, 1942 Eric Fenn, the man Lewis worked closely with at the BBC during his broadcast talks, wrote Lewis a letter thanking him for the second broadcast series, what would become book two of Mere Christianity, : “… we do owe you an immense debt for them and should like you to know that we are grateful. To show this gratitude, may I ask you whether you would consider doing a longish series of talks in the Forces Programme, say sometime in the Autumn? We have a short ten-minute talk, at present fixed at 2.50 p.m. on Sundays, designated for the troops but listened to also by a fair number of ordinary home listeners. You have been seeing something of the air force [Lewis provided talks to the RAF at air bases during the war] and will have ideas about what needs to be said. If you would like to consider this – we very much hope you will – we might meet a bit later on and talk it over. If possible we should like to give you a run of a couple of months or so – September and October or thereabouts.”

Page 153 from C.S. Lewis in a Time of War by Justin Phillips/original title C.S. Lewis at the B.B.C. - as shown above.

#259

2011-09-12T12:29:00.000-04:00

Will Vaus at a book signing with us a few years ago.

Join us Saturday, September 24th: 11am - 5pm for our 5th Anniversary Retreat. Will Vaus will be giving two lectures and signing copies of his latest book. More information can be found on this page.

#258

2011-09-06T03:59:00.045-04:00

On September 6, 1941, Lewis gave his fifth talk in his first series with the BBC. Lewis used this session to answer the questions his previous talks engendered. This became Chapter Two in Book One of Mere Christianity.

A quote from Chapter Two:

If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilised morality to savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi morality. In fact, of course, we all do believe that some moralities are better than others. We do believe that some of the people who tried to change the moral ideas of their own age were what we would call Reformers or Pioneers - people who understood morality better than their neighbours did. Very well then. The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as a real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people's ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something - some Real Morality - for them to be true about.

#257

2011-08-30T20:50:00.046-04:00

I have had this book sitting on my bookshelf since December 2008, a few months after Will Vaus made his first visit to our group on his The Professor of Narnia book tour. Earlier this summer I moved it to the "planning to read" shelf and now I return it to its resting place next to the other Will Vaus volumes. I write to recommend this wonderful story of the life of Jim Vaus, as the title suggests, a man involved in organized crime and forever changed at the famous 1949 Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade. You can purchase this book at Will's website or your favorite online bookstore or, if you have one, your favorite brick and mortar bookshop should be able to order a copy for you. Then on Saturday, September 24th you can attend our 5th Anniversary Retreat (find more information on this page) and meet the author as he will be our guest providing two lectures and signing his books, his latest being Speaking of Jack: A C.S. Lewis Discussion Guide.

#256

2011-08-27T04:49:00.011-04:00

On August 27, 1941, Lewis gave his 4th talk with the BBC and this would become chapter 5 from Book 1 of Mere Christianity.

A quote from chapter 5:
This is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger - according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way.

#255

2011-08-20T01:13:00.002-04:00

On August 20, 1941, Lewis gave his third talk 'Materialism or Religion' - what would become Chapter 4, 'What Lies Behind the Law' in Mere Christianity,
A quote from the same:

The position of the question, then, is like this. We want to know whether the universe simply happens to be what it is for no reason or whether there is a power behind it that makes it what it is. Since that power, if it exists, would be not one of the observed facts but a reality which makes them, no mere observation of the facts can find it. There is only one case in which we can know whether there is anything more, namely our own case. And in that one case we find there is. Or put it the other way round. If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe - no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house. The only way in which we could expect it to show itself would be inside ourselves as an influence or a command trying to get us to behave in a certain way. And that is just what we do find inside ourselves. Surely this ought to arouse our suspicions? In the only case where you can expect to get an answer, the answer turns out to be Yes; and in the other cases, where you do not get an answer, you see why you do not.

#254

2011-08-16T12:48:00.003-04:00

From a letter to Sister Penelope dated May 15, 1941:

Dear Sister Penelope
Thanks very much. I will certainly try to come over for a day as soon as Term and exams are over. We ought to meet about B.B.C. talks if nothing else as I'm giving four in August. Mine are praeparatio evangelica rather than evangelium, and attempt to convince people that there is a moral law, that we disobey it, and that the existence of a Lawgiver is at least very probable and also (unless you add the Christian doctrine of the Atonement) imparts despair rather than comfort.

#253

2011-08-13T05:49:00.002-04:00

On August 13, 1941 Lewis gave his second talk with the BBC, this talk would become chapter 3 in Mere Christianity.

"Consequently, this Rule of Right and Wrong, or Law of Human Nature, or whatever you call it, must somehow or other be a real thing - a thing that is really there, not made up by ourselves. And yet it is not a fact in the ordinary sense, in the same way as our actual behaviour is a fact. It begins to look as if we shall have to admit that there is more than one kind of reality; that, in this particular case, there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men's behaviour, and yet quite definitely real - a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us."

Chapter 3: The Reality of the Law/Book 1/Mere Christianity

#252

2011-08-06T05:00:00.117-04:00

The calendar and history has brought my year long Mere Christianity posts back (see post 184).

On Wednesday, August 6, 1941, C.S. Lewis was to make his first broadcast on the BBC. The schedule for the day's programming was as follows:

7am - the News, music, Lift up Your Hearts!, a five minute religious talk. The breakfast news at 8am, followed by cooking tips on The Kitchen Front. The BBC Salon Orchestra played music for 45 minutes, followed by the BBC theatre organ. At 9:50am the topical program At Home Today, followed by 10 minutes of news commentary for schools. The Daily Service - the day's second religious program was next. At 10:30am a live broadcast from an annual arts and culture festival in Wales. At 11am a talk about first aid aired on the program For The Schools. Rhythm and Romance, a music program followed. Noon brought a comedic interview and more news from the Welsh arts festival. Happy-Go-Round, more music, followed. At 1pm the lunchtime new bulletin aired. After the news the Amponians Dance Band played until 2:30pm. A program titled None But The Brave Deserves the Fair, a show about composers and music, played until 3pm. Music While You Work until 3:30pm. Next A Highland Market-Garden in Wartime - a talk show, followed by 15 minutes of recorder music. A variety show The Happidrome was next with Welsh news and features following the show. 5:20-6pm was time for the Children's Hour and a radio adaptation of Anne of Green Gables was scheduled. This was followed by Children's Hours prayers. At 6pm the evening news bulletin. 6:30pm The World Goes By - a magazine program. At 7pm, another news magazine program called Under Your Hat. 7:30pm - another news bulletin, this time in Norwegian for those in Norway who tuned in. And, finally, at 7:45pm, C.S. Lewis began his first broadcast talk with the BBC. Lewis was finished reading, what would become chapter one of Mere Christianity, in fifteen minutes.

*All information concerning the history of the broadcasts comes from Justin Phillips' book C.S. Lewis In A Time Of War: The World War II Broadcasts That Riveted a Nation and Became the Classic Mere Christianity. This book can also be found under the title C.S. Lewis at the BBC: Messages of Hope in the Darkness of War.

And a quote:

"These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in."

Mere Christianity
Book One: Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe
Chapter One: The Law of Human Nature

#251

2011-08-03T05:07:00.002-04:00

From a letter to Lewis's lifelong friend Arthur Greeves, dated August 3, 1930:
My dear Arthur,
...I have been wondering why these days of rain & wind in the summer have such a charm for me. Is it simply an offshoot of my general love of winter, and these days please me as a foretaste of winter - as if the wind shook Summer and he buttoned his coat and said 'Dear me. I'm beginning to get old.' I walked in the fields beyond Barton after tea to day and sat under a hedge - the sort of hedge that is nearly all trees. The wind tossed it and tumbled it: and from the field - which was full of stacks of corn - straws kept on blowing up to me. Endless rain clouds went overhead. Somehow I was very happy in it - snug, you know. And yet one ought to fell snugger in a warm ditch in winter. Or is it that such days fall outside ones conventional categories of the seasons, being neither typical summer days nor typical autumn days, nor typical anything, and therefore, thwarting ones derivative reactions and all that has been already stereotyped by literature and painting, they force one to wake up and see the thing as it really is? Or is it part of the same general law which makes the landscape look more exciting upside down? However a fool can ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in a life time.

#250

2011-07-31T12:06:00.000-04:00

"A most astonishing misconception has long dominated the modern mind on the subject of St. Paul. It is to this effect: that Jesus preached a kindly and simple religion (found in the gospels) and that St. Paul afterwards corrupted it into a cruel and complicated religion (found in the epistles). This is really quite untenable. All the most terrifying texts came from the mouth of our Lord: all the texts on which we can base such warrant as we have for hoping that all men will be saved come from St. Paul. If it could be proved that St. Paul altered the teaching of his Master in any way, he altered it in exactly the opposite way to that which is popularly supposed."

- C.S. Lewis

from the Introduction to Letters to Young Churches: A Translation of the New Testament Epistles by J. B. Phillips.

#249

2011-07-23T14:59:00.000-04:00

From a letter dated July 23, 1953:

Dear Mrs. Van Deusen
"...It is a great joy to be able to 'feel' God's love as a reality, and one must give thanks for it and use it. But you must be prepared for the feeling dying away again, for feelings are by nature impermanent. The great thing is to continue to believe when the feeling is absent: & these periods do quite as much for one as those when the feeling is present..."

As found in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III

#248

2011-07-21T00:23:00.000-04:00

I recently watched Dr Faustus, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, written and directed by Nevill Coghill.

Of Lewis interest:

Nevil Coghill attended Inkling meetings and "was a friend of Lewis's from undergraduate days, and like him hailed from Ireland. He was admired for his theatrical productions and for his translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales into modern English couplets. He was professor of English Literature at Oxford from 1957 to 1966." (information found on page 187 of The CS Lewis Chronicles by Colin Duriez)

Nevill Coghill

#247

2011-07-20T00:01:00.002-04:00

Our last meeting to discuss Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find will be held tonight at 6:15pm in the C. Burr Artz Trust Conference Room. We will discuss the last five stories in the book.

#246

2011-07-17T01:26:00.039-04:00

"I am not a mystic and I do not lead a holy life. Not that I can claim any interesting or pleasurable sins (my sense of the devil is strong) but I know all about the garden variety, pride, gluttony, envy and sloth, and what is more to the point, my virtues are as timid as my vices. I think sin occasionally brings one closer to God, but not habitual sin and not this petty kind that blocks every small good. A working knowledge of the devil can be very well had from resisting him."

- from a letter dated August 2, 1955 as found in The Habit of Being

#245

2011-07-14T00:11:00.001-04:00

“The thing to do then is to stand still and wait until it pleases him to turn. When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a galaxy of gazing, haloed suns. This is the moment when most people are silent.”

From “The King of the Birds” as found in Mystery and Manners

#244

2011-07-13T00:10:00.001-04:00

We will be meeting tonight - C. Burr Artz Library at 6:15pm, in the Community Room. We hope to discuss the first five stories from A Good Man is Hard to Find. If you missed last week's introductory meeting still feel free to attend. A discussion guide can be sent via email and books will still be available if you need one.

FrederickLewisSociety@yahoo.com

#243

2011-07-10T09:49:00.007-04:00

“…I’ll send you instead a genuine work of the Lord, a feather from the tail of one of my peacocks. The peacock is a great comic bird with five different screaming squawks. The eyes in the tail stand for the eyes of the Church. I have a flock of about thirty so I am surrounded.” – from The Habit of Being

#242

2011-07-07T07:46:00.000-04:00

Flannery gave an interview for a show called Galley-Proof on NBC in NYC and she wrote the following in a letter prior to the interview:

“Everybody who has read Wise Blood thinks I’m a hillbilly nihilist, whereas I would like to create the impression over the television that I’m a hillbilly Thomist…”

- from a letter dated 5/18/55 as found in The Habit of Being

#241

2011-07-06T04:00:00.004-04:00

Books will available at the meeting.

Flannery O'Connor Summer Read Meeting Tonight at the C. Burr Artz Library - 6:15pm in the Community Room. A brief discussion on Flannery's life and writings followed by the viewing of the story "The Displaced Person" - a PBS presentation filmed at Flannery's Georgia farm - Andalusia.

#240

2011-07-03T08:20:00.002-04:00

"I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil."

As found in the essay "On Her Own Work" found in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

#239

2011-07-01T08:22:00.002-04:00

“It is [grace], however, simply a concern with the human reaction to that which, instant by instant, gives life to the soul. It is a concern with a realization that breeds charity and with the charity that breeds action. Often the nature of grace can be made plain only be describing its absence.”

From the essay “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South” as found in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

#238

2011-06-28T07:25:00.002-04:00

“When I read Flannery O’Connor, I do not think of Hemingway, or Katherine Anne Porter, or Sartre, but rather of someone like Sophocles. What more can you say of a writer? I write her name with honor, for all the truth and all the craft with which she shows man’s fall and his dishonor.”

- Thomas Merton

#237

2011-06-25T10:19:00.005-04:00

"Your sale to the Post ought to impress your mother greatly. It sure has impressed my mother who brought the post card home. The other day she asked me why I didn't try to write something that people liked instead of the kind of thing I do write. Do you think, she said, that you are really using the talent God gave you when you don't write something that a lot, a LOT, of people like? This always leaves me shaking and speechless, raises my blood pressure 140 degrees, etc. All I can ever say is, if you have to ask, you'll never know."

A letter to Cecil Dawkins, April 3, 1959, as found in The Habit of Being

#236

2011-06-22T05:12:00.002-04:00

“I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in its relation to that.”

From the essay “The Fiction Writer & His Country” as found in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

#235

2011-06-18T19:40:00.000-04:00

“The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock – to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.”

From the essay “The Fiction Writer & His Country” as found in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

#234

2011-06-14T11:51:00.000-04:00

“Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man, and in the South the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological. That is a large statement, and it is dangerous to make it, for almost anything you say about Southern belief can be denied in the next breath with equal propriety. But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn’t convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.”

From the essay “The Grotesque in Southern Fiction” as found in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

#233

2011-06-11T11:48:00.001-04:00

“There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted or lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration.”

From the essay “The Grotesque in Southern Fiction” as found in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

#232

2011-06-08T11:00:00.003-04:00

“All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless, brutal, etc.”

From a letter to Betty Hester dated April 4, 1958, as found in The Habit of Being

#231

2011-06-06T07:30:00.003-04:00

I have stayed away from the books in this series - Modern Spiritual Masters Series from Orbis Books. I suppose my avoidance was fueled by pride. The self-congratulatory pride that says, "I've read all the works being torn apart and re-presented in more manageable, bite sized portions, in this volume and why shouldn't everyone else." A few months ago I found a nearly brand new copy at a used bookstore and went ahead and purchased it. A few days ago I actually opened the cover and started to read. I am finding a great little book on Flannery O'Connor, from the insightful introduction by Richard Giannone to all of the themes and quotes the editors selected. Also a treat is the complete text of the short story "Revelation" - one of my favorite Flannery stories. If you do not know much about Flannery and would like to know more, but have not the time for a full length biography (such as Brad Gooch's) then pick this slim volume up and enjoy!

#230

2011-06-04T14:37:00.000-04:00

“…my “message” (if you want to call it that) is a highly moral one. Now whether it’s “moralistic” or not I don’t know. In any case, I believe that the writer’s moral sense must coincide with his dramatic sense and this means that moral judgment has to be implicit in the act of vision. Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas. I find that this in no way limits my freedom as a writer and that it increases rather than decreases my vision. It is popular to believe that in order to see clearly one must believe nothing. This may work well enough if you are observing cells under a microscope. It will not work if you are writing fiction. For the fiction writer, to believe nothing is to see nothing. I don’t write to bring anybody a message, as you know yourself that this is not the purpose of the novelist; but the message I find in the life I see is a moral message.”
A letter to Shirley Abbott, 17 March 1956 from The Habit of Being

#229

2011-06-02T18:41:00.000-04:00

"The book of C.S. Lewis on prayer is a good one but I don’t like to pray any better for reading it. I also just read one of his called Miracles, which is very fine. Deceptively simple. You really need to read every sentence twice. Go among the Biblical scholars, says he, as a sheep among wolves."

- from a letter to Janet McKane, April 6, 1964, as found in The Habit of Being

#228

2011-05-30T17:19:00.000-04:00

I will now attempt to link Lewis and Flannery O'Connor as to justify why a CS Lewis Society will be reading Flannery O'Connor - more information concerning dates and location for the discussion of A Good Man is Hard to Find can be found on the right side of this blog.

"I am very happy to have both these books you sent me and your letter. I had not read either book, strange to say, but I had tried to get hold of the C.S. Lewis one without success. We have no bookstore here. I order books from Brentano’s and they come, if at all, in six months. Anyway you couldn’t have sent me two books that I would have appreciated more."

- from a letter to Janet McKane, February 25, 1963
as found in The Habit of Being

#227

2011-05-27T22:07:00.000-04:00

A reflection on Luke 18:18-30 – The story of the Rich Young Ruler as found in The C.S. Lewis Bible, page 1173.

"I’m a panic-y person about money myself (which is a shameful confession and a thing dead against our Lord’s words) and poverty frightens me more than anything else except large spiders and the tops of cliffs: one is sometimes even tempted to say that if God wanted us to live like lilies of the field He might have given us an organism more like theirs! But of course He is right. And when you meet anyone who does live like the lilies, one sees that He is."

- from a letter to Mary Willis Shelburne, August 10, 1953

#226

2011-05-22T10:45:00.003-04:00

Meeting Monday night to finish The Four Loves

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

#225

2011-05-20T06:18:00.003-04:00

"The doctrine of the Second Coming has failed, so far as we are concerned, if it does not make us realize that at every moment of every year in our lives Donne's question "What if this present were the world's last night?" is equally relevant."

Found in the essay "The World's Last Night" from the collection of essays The World's Last Night and Other Essays

#224

2011-05-18T15:06:00.001-04:00

Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must by ready at all moments. Our Lord repeated this practical conclusion again and again..Watch, watch, is the burden of his advice. I shall come like a thief...If the householder had known at what time the burglar would arrive, he would have been ready for him...Therefore you must be ready at all times...The Return is wholly unpredictable...One's ears should be closed against any future William Miller in advance. The folly of listening to him at all is almost equal to the folly of believing him. He couldn't know what he pretends, or thinks, he knows.

Found in the essay "The World's Last Night" from the collection of essays The World's Last Night and Other Essays

#223

2011-05-16T23:31:00.000-04:00

"The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph...That it will come when it ought, we may be sure; but we waste our time in guessing when that will be."

Found in the essay "The World's Last Night" from the collection of essays The World's Last Night and Other Essays

#222

2011-05-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

According to Harold Camping and Family Radio the world will come to an end in one week. I hope to post a few Lewis quotes concerning the Second Coming over the next week. Lewis's entire essay "The World's Last Night" is worth posting in its entirity. Being that that can not be done I will post some highlights and we shall all see what next week brings.

"We must never speak to simple, excitable people about "the Day" without emphasizing again and again the utter impossibility of prediction. We must try to show them that that impossibility is an essential part of the doctrine. If you do not believe our Lord's words, why do you believe in his return at all? And if you do believe them must you not put away from you, utterly and forever, any hope of dating that return? His teaching on the subject quite clearly consisted in three propositions (1) That he will certainly return. (2) That we cannot possibly find out when. (3) And that therefore we must always be ready for him."

Found in the essay "The World's Last Night" from the collection of essays The World's Last Night and Other Essays

#221

2011-05-10T20:14:00.000-04:00

Today, in Ocean City, MD - I have only dabbled and splashed in this sea. Chilly H2O.

This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth...

from the sermon "A Slip of the Tongue" as found in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses

#220

2011-05-04T16:28:00.000-04:00

Need a Vacation?

A few Lewis related vacations this summer:

Spend a week living in the Kilns, Lewis's Oxford home through the C.S. Lewis Foundation's Seminar-in-Residence.

Spend two weeks in England, one in Oxford and one in Cambridge through the C.S. Lewis Foundation's Summer Institute at Oxbridge.

Spend one to two weeks at the new C.S. Lewis College in Northfield, Mass., with the C.S. Lewis Foundation's Vacation with a Purpose.

Closer to home, consider the C.S. Lewis Institutes's Summer Retreat in PA.

#219

2011-04-29T14:06:00.000-04:00

The Apologist’s Evening Prayer

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and needle’s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.

by C.S. Lewis - can be found in Poems, edited by Walter Hooper

See Malcolm Guite's thoughts on this poem Here.

#218

2011-04-26T14:32:00.000-04:00

A letter from Lewis on this date in history:

Magdalene College,

Cambridge

26 April 63

Dear Daniel,

I am delighted to hear that you like the Narnian books, and it was nice of you to write and tell me. It sounds as if you had all of them except the very first one (The Magician's Nephew). I shall not write any more of them: seven are enough. I am amused you should think 'my hand must be good at making things'. In reality I'm the clumsiest and most ham-handed person in the world! I can't make anything - words are the only tools I am any good at.

Good wishes.
Yours
C.S. Lewis

#217

2011-04-24T11:31:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter!

Meeting tomorrow to discuss Eros. See meeting information to the right.

#216

2011-04-19T01:26:00.000-04:00

A great Spring Read for fans of Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and Arthurian Mysteries, check out the website for: Looking for the King and the YouTube video below.

#215

2011-04-14T12:17:00.002-04:00

Beer Fast for Lent?! Maybe you have heard the story. If not, check it out here. Or visit the beer drinkers own blog.

I have posted this because I found it interesting, but also because we all know Lewis loved his beer too. And this brings to mind a letter J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher on March 1, 1944. Tolkien wrote "Lewis is as energetic and jolly as ever, but getting too much publicity for his or any of our tastes. 'Peterborough', usually fairly reasonable, did him the doubtful honour of a peculiarly misrepresentative and asinine paragraph in the Daily Telegraph of Tuesday last. It began 'Ascetic Mr Lewis' - !!! I ask you! He put away three pints in a very short session we had this morning, and said he was 'going short for Lent'. I suppose all the stuff you see in print is about as accurate about Tom, Dick, or Harry. It is a pity newspapers can't leave people alone, and don't make some effort to understand what they say (if it is worth it): at any rate they might have some standards that would prevent them saying things about people which are quite untrue, even if not actually (as often) painful, angering, or indeed injurious...."
Found in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter

#214

2011-04-11T02:00:00.052-04:00

April 11, 1954 - The most boring day ever! So says the expert - listen to the story at NPR's website.

Lewis's view of history leaves no room for a boring day, in Mere Christianity he paints this picture: "Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."

Found in Book 2/Chapter 2, last paragraph

There is no such thing as a boring day because everyday is a day for us to make the most important choice offered to us. Lewis ends the quote below with his most evangelistic appeal which elevates each ordinary day for someone, and I am sure it was for someone on April 11, 1954, to the most important day of his or her life.

"Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else – something it never entered your head to conceive – comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."

From Mere Christianity, Book 2/Chapter 5 - the last paragraph

#213

2011-04-07T11:44:00.000-04:00

A Lenten thought from Lewis:

"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake."

From Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Chapter 14

#212

2011-04-04T07:19:00.004-04:00

April 4, 1944 – Lewis gave his seventh talk in this series; this would become chapter eleven from book four of Mere Christianity, this was the last of Lewis's Broadcast Talks with the BBC.

“The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

#211

2011-03-31T02:01:00.002-04:00

I had to post this!

#210

2011-03-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

March 28, 1944 – Lewis gave his sixth talk in this series; this would become chapter eight from book four of Mere Christianity:

“…the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.”

#209

2011-03-27T13:00:00.002-04:00

Next Meeting: Monday, March 28th at the C. Burr Artz Library in the Community Room - 6:15pm. We will be discussing the Friendship chapter in The Four Loves.

#208

2011-03-25T14:33:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday Flannery O'Connor

Born today in 1925

Last Summer we attempted to have a Summer Book Study of Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. We shall try again. Dates have yet to be set, so stay tuned. See post #133, 134, & 135 for pictures from my Flannery Trip.

#207

2011-03-23T18:22:00.001-04:00

Freud's Last Session has been extended to July 3rd. I had my session with Freud last night (see picture of pin below). I highly recommend you book your session now.

The "I Had a Session with Freud" pin is given to all at the door.

#206

2011-03-21T05:53:00.002-04:00

March 21, 1944 – Lewis gave his fifth talk in this series; this would become chapter seven from book four of Mere Christianity

"Men are mirrors, or ‘carriers’ of Christ to other men…But do not forget this. At first it is natural for a baby to take its mother’s milk without knowing its mother. It is equally natural for us to see the man who helps us without seeing Christ behind him. But we must not remain babies. We must go on to recognise the real Giver. It is madness not to. Because, if we do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is going to let us down. The best of them will make mistakes; all of them will die. We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us, we must honour them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand: but do not try building a house on it."

Also see post #114 for another great quote from this chapter.

#205

2011-03-18T13:08:00.000-04:00

One more bookstore post:

For us fortunate Frederick, MD residents we have Wonder Book and Video. I could write at length about this place, as it is my favorite, and I can be found there at least once a month. If I lived in Frederick I would probably be there every week. I will, however, not write at length, and only say that you must dedicate time at this place, get the feel of it, and if you do you will be rewarded with great finds. In over 20 years of shopping here I have at least one bookcase full of great finds, and if I am being truthful, probably another bookcase full of books I should have left behind. Visit, often!

The Golden Mile store in Frederick

If you order a book online, from the warehouse, this van may deliver your book to the store for pick-up!

The Lewis Section - found in the back of the store in the Religion Section

#204

2011-03-14T07:19:00.003-04:00

March 14, 1944 – Lewis gave his fourth talk in the series; this would become chapter five from book four of Mere Christianity:

“And the present state of things is this. The two kinds of life are now not only different (they would always have been that) but actually opposed. The natural life in each of us is something self-centered, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of other lives, to exploit the whole universe. And especially it wants to be left to itself: to keep well away from anything better or stronger or higher than it, anything that might make it feel small. It is afraid of the light and air of the spiritual world, just as people who have been brought up to be dirty are afraid of a bath. And in a sense it is quite right. It knows that if the spiritual life gets hold of it, all its self-centeredness and self-will are going to be killed and it is ready to fight tooth and nail to avoid it.”

The second paragraph from Chapter Five “The Obstinate Toy Soldiers”

#203

2011-03-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

Adding to the posts concerning bookstores in the area, and beyond - see #151, 152, 153, & 200. Another recent trip found me at Daedalus Books. The picture is from their Columbia, MD location - a big warehouse. While I did not walk away empty handed, I did not find any Lewis in the warehouse (I understand their stock changes regularly). A few months back I also visited their Baltimore store, in Belvedere Square. I walked away with a few Lewis products and a boxed set of The Lord of the Rings I could not pass on (Now what to do with too many LOR sets? Is this even a real problem?). Any book lover will have fun at either location.

#202 - Ash Wednesday

2011-03-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

This Lenten reflection can be purchased Here

“Fasting is a different experience from missing your dinner by accident or through poverty. Fasting asserts the will against the appetite – the reward being self-mastery and the danger pride: involuntary hunger subjects appetite and will together to the Divine will, furnishing an occasion for submission and exposing us to the danger of rebellion. But the redemptive effect of suffering lies chiefly in its tendency to reduce the rebel will. Ascetic practices, which in themselves strengthen the will, are only useful in so far as they enable the will to put its own house (the passions) in order, as a preparation for offering the whole man to God.”

Found in the 3rd paragraph, chapter 7 of The Problem of Pain

#201

2011-03-07T02:06:00.001-05:00

On March 7, 1944, Lewis gave his third talk in his fourth series with the BBC, this would become Chapter 4 of Book 4 in Mere Christianity:

“And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing – not even a person – but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person…What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God.”

From chapter 4, “Good Infection”, middle of the chapter

#200

2011-03-03T13:06:00.000-05:00

I spent the other day in DC and found Lewis, front and center, in the Basilica bookstore: