Entries that relate to C.S. Lewis and his work.
This is a scene-by-scene/each-year-a-chapter biography by a Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Macmillan editor. I wasn’t really ready for another Lewis biography, having just finished The Narnian (in February 2012, discussed elsewhere on this site), so I just read the introductory material and chapter 1 (“1925”) and then all that piqued my interest from the index entries.
This is an excellent, sympathetic biography by, I am sure, a Christian (Jacobs is an English professor and director of the Faith and Learning Program at Wheaton College in Illinois). Lewis notes that some disputes about doctrine are not resolvable and/or don’t matter for us (214-15), a point I make elsewhere on this site. The … [Read more…]
First of all, note that these are letters not to Joy Davidson, but to another American lady. She’s a Southerner, older and frequently ill, which prompts Lewis to say that, though he has been critical of Britain’s welfare state, he likes the fact that everyone there has free healthcare — though he recognizes it means … [Read more…]
As the title indicates, the book is divided between the author’s personal memories of Lewis (his teacher) and his own reflections on Lewis’s writing (more his fiction and academic writing than his apologetics). He is a Lewis fan, but the trouble with the “reflections” (the “memories” are fine) is that they assume a just-read familiarity … [Read more…]
Just a couple of notes: (1) The first part of his “Psalms’ (115-17) — on what we have in common with (and how we differ from) the Greeks and Romans versus the Hebrews — is great. (2) It’s thought-provoking that he thinks Jesus got some genes from Mary (121).
I’ve noted elsewhere on this site (see especially “Why I Am a Christian (and You Should Be, Too), in 600 Words”) my take on Pascal’s Wager as pressing Christians to cultivate the faith they choose to declare. That is, one doesn’t just say, okay, I believe, and then forget about it; one must act accordingly … [Read more…]
I like the categorization of prayer into A-C-T-S: that is, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Every night, I run through that list and try to recall events of the day that fit into each box. I’ll admit, though, that the first category is the trickiest, especially since it’s very easy to say you adore God … [Read more…]
I wonder if a lot of theology shouldn’t be more tentative, given for example the ambiguity of some Scripture to us and the unknowability to us of much of God’s handiwork. Thus, for all we Protestants know Mary could be the “Queen of Heaven,” but no Catholic can know that for sure. And, with many … [Read more…]
Interesting for intersection of classical thought and Christianity (although not overtly Christian, but monotheistic). Would love for Sarah Ruden to write about it! Book V, section II: The more depraved you are the less free will you have; the closer to God you are, the more free will you have. Long discussion in book V … [Read more…]
I know — very presumptuous, and of course we know that His ways are not our ways. Still, thinking along these lines can be useful: It can show, for example, that some features of the universe and Christian belief are not as counterintuitive (to what we would expect of a God-created Christian universe) as they … [Read more…]