Source 1

Books review

Learning Journal 1

Profound.

C.S. Lewis' Advice on Writing

I've been working on a final paper, and part of that process has included browsing through some of Lewis' letters.  Here is one I found addressed to "a schoolgirl in America" on December 14th, 1959.

1. Turn off the Radio [or for us, Facebook, TV, Twitter, Pandora, Cell Phones.  Wow it certainly got more complicated, didn't it?]
2. Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines
3. Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye.  You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken.  If it does not sound nice, try again.
4. Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else.  (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you will never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write about...)
5. Take great pains to be clear.  Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn't, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding.  In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he wants to know- the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn't the same in his.
6. When you give up a bit of work don't (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away.  Put it in a drawer.  It may come in useful later.  Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier.
7. Don't use a typewriter.  The nose will destroy your sense of rhythm, which still needs years of training. [I wonder what Lewis would say about computers.]
8. Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of very word you use

Just thought I would share!

Thinking about Paper Topics

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even 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. To love is to be vulnerable."
— C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves) 

 

This quote, coming from The Four Loves, has been one of my favorites for years.  Having now read The Four Loves, I am grateful for the context that gives.  

I have a lot of thoughts when it comes to this topic of suffering and love.  This last summer I spent three months living with a Tibetan Buddhist family in Dharamsala, India.  While I was there I had a lot of opportunities to study Buddhism and Eastern religious philosophy.  Buddha taught that all life leads to suffering so long as you are attached to anything-whether that be your own individual identity, possessions, or personal relationships you feel attachment towards beyond just a general sense of the word "love."  This was the most difficult aspect of the religion for me to swallow.  To me, it feels like a way to cheat the importance of experiencing life.  The joy along with the often inevitable pain.

In this sense, I agree with Lewis.  I believe that to love and be hurt by that love is much better than to not love at all.  As I first started thinking about different paper ideas, the topic of Christian marriage tended to pop up, but this aspect of it seems to be a little more engaging.  Even though it is the end of the semester, and I am busy working on finals and my thesis, I want to make this paper a good representation of all that I learned throughout the semester. 

 

 

The Shadowlands by William Nicholson

Shadowlands by William Nicholson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Reading this play was a much different experience than the rest of the works we have read thus far. It is the only book on our list that is not actually written by C.S. Lewis, and in that sense it was kind of refreshing to have an outsider's opinion and interpretation of Lewis' life.

The first question that I asked myself while reading this drama was how accurate it really is. In our class discussion we addressed this concern. It is, overall, a fictional work, but there are some factual elements in it. For example: we learned that the poem Joy reads to Lewis, as well as Lewis' justification for marrying Joy (her first marriage did not count since her husband was already married a first time), were accurate. However, some of the details on time were not accurate. Joy was living in London before she came to Oxford, and their meeting was not exactly how it appeared in this drama. Also, C.S. Lewis was not a kind of withdrawn, somber sort of man. Rather, he was outspoken and extroverted. Him and his wife would often go to the pub and do karaoke. He loved her because she was able to dish it right back at him.


Overall, I was really grateful for the experience to read The Shadowlands. I appreciated the insights in class that helped me place it in proper perspective, but all in all I think Nicholson did an excellent job capturing C.S. Lewis.

After reading this play, I am really looking forward to reading the movie adaptation.  This is a remarkable and unique love story!


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A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A Grief Observed is one of my favorite works by C.S. Lewis. I feel like Lewis’ honesty is what makes it so meaningful. Death and coping with grief is no easy challenge in this life, yet, it is a part of it. Watching my best friend lose her younger brother last December, being with her at the hospital, I remember feeling so completely helpless to ease her pain. I could just be there—be there and let her know that I was there for her. I ended up buying her this book before I had even read it because I thought it would be spiritually uplifting. I didn’t realize until reading it for the first time this week that it is a lot more than that.

What I find most refreshing about this grief observed is that it does not pretend that religion is a magical pill that will alleviate all of our pain in this life. Lewis highlights this well when he says “talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolation of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand” (25). The Atonement of Jesus Christ is a miraculous healer, but it does not work overnight. I like to think that time and Jesus heal all, but that does not necessarily mean we have perfect enough perspective to not be devastated by death. It should help, but it will not make it easy.

And yet, I think that is okay, especially within my own religious tradition as a Latter-day Saint. As Lewis says later in this book, perhaps this is a part of life and learning to become better, though doubts might creep in. But if we look to the Bible we see that Jesus wept for Lazarus even though He knew He could raise him from the dead. In the Pearl of Great Price we see God crying over the wickedness of his creations. Even watching President Hinckley and how he dealt with his own wife’s death was heart wrenching because his sense of deep loss was so apparent.

It is okay to weep. It is okay to mourn for what was and seems lost. It is okay to question at times. It is okay to doubt sometimes as well. The important part is that we work through those doubts and try to remain close to God throughout the process, even if it might feel like the last thing we want to do at the moment.


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The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This is my favorite book from The Chronicals of Narnia series.  And let's just begin by saying that the movie does not even come close to the book on this one.  Read the book!

Like most of C.S. Lewis' books, this one is packed with symbolism.  I had a hard time at first picking out some of those themes, but our class discussion really helped me out.

Here are Some Interesting Symbols:

Ramandu's table- like the sacrament.  It can never be exhausted.

Albatross- an image of Christ, comes from a space of light after Lucy prays for help.

The cup, swords, etc are like the Holy Grail.  They are numinous. 

The Place Where Dreams Come True- teaching us that we don't necessarily know what we want, suggesting that we pay attention to God's will

Goldwater- Greed, it brings down great people like Caspian and Edmund

Octesian's ring- Godly sorry and true remorse.

The 3 Sleeping Lords Using the Stone Knife- Could suggest that you cannot use holy things as a weapon against people.  The stone knife killed Aslan, the same way the cross killed Christ.  It could be suggesting that we should not fight over the cross, referring to conflict among Christian denominations.

The End- light, Heaven, goodness.  Drinking the water was like the good infection referenced in Mere Christianity.  Lewis argued that the point of Christianity was that it was supposed to change us.  It could also be about transfiguration.

A Whiff of Aslan's country- "it could break your heart," according to Lucy, but it was not sad. This is the joy that Lewis references in Surprised by Joy

The Dawn Treader- could be a reference to the course of a Christian life and the difficulties along the way

Predominant Themes in this Book:

Ability to Change- Eustace best represents this.  At the beginning he is a total brat and comes out as a hero and believer in Aslan by the end.  He shows the process of repentance and the necessary change of heart.

Vanity- Lucy, feeling like she was not being as pretty as Susan, gets into trouble and has to be reminded by Aslan that these things don’t matter.  Her Individual worth is not contingent upon looks.  Aslan reminds her of this and tells her to stop doubting it. 

The Nature of Death- by the end of the story, Reepicheep decides to travel into Aslan’s country.  It is death, but the way it is represented here it an adventure filled, exciting moment.   I’ve noticed Lewis portray death in this optimistic way in many of this other words as well—such as The Screwtape Letters.   

Danger of Greed- The pool that turns everything to gold best represents this.  Eustace is sucked into it, along with Caspian and other characters in the story, making it so Aslan is not able to access them.  It is corruptive, and the deathly nature of the pool suggests that it is dangerous. 

What it Means to Grow up- Lucy and Edmund were told that they could no longer go back to Narnia since they were getting too old.  Yet, Aslan reassured them that they would know him by name in their other world.  Knowing Aslan better in Narnia meant knowing him better in their normal lives.  Aslan is telling them that it is time to put these lessons and apply them to their adult experiences. 

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

I am so excited that we are moving into the Chronicles of Narnia.  I never had the experience reading them as a kid, and so in many ways I agree even more so with C.S. Lewis when he says that good children's books should be enjoyable for an adult audience.

We started our class discussion on The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Like Perelandra, this is a "supposal," not an allegory.  C.S. Lewis is not trying to say that this is the nature of how things are, but "suppose" God was acting in the form of a lion in an imaginary land, etc.  That is an important distinction to make.

This supposal was dedicated to Lucy Barfield, his goddaughter.  We talked briefly about the changes Lewis made through different publications and the orders, etc., but I'd like to take some time to talk about the symbols I find most pertinent to the story:

Peter- the head of the church after Christ leaves.  This one was pointed out in our class discussion.
Aslan- the Christ figure in the story
The White Witch- adversary, evil
Professor Kirke- I think that this name is not chosen by chance.  There was a Professor Kirk in Lewis' life who helped him become a Christian by teaching him to question things.  He is known in Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy, as "The Great Knock."
Lucy- represents the threefold argument from Mere Christianity.  She is not a liar or crazy, so she must be telling the truth.
Statues- They come to life after the resurrection.  It could also be like the Tin Soldiers in Mere Christianity.
Witch's Castle- Like the realm of the dead/spirit prison.  Aslan leaps over the wall, showing that the gates of hell do not prevail against him
Turkish Delight- a spoiled good thing, as he discussed in The Screwtape Letters
 The Stone Table-like the Law of Moses
Father Christmas- Brings hope and cheer, talking about Aslan coming.  Could be compared to John the Baptist.
Gifts- spiritual gifts.  The cordial, for an Anglican, might be the sacraments
Edmund- could represent Adam, all of us, pride, insecurity, or perhaps Judas
Deep Magic vs Deeper Magic- Deep magic is the lower law while Deeper is the higher law, the kind that the White Witch does not understand.  Kind of like the new law after Christ came.

And then the obvious:  Death and resurrection through Aslan's sacrifice. 

Perelandra Symbolism

Reading Lewis' fiction for an older audience was a really interesting experience.  Perelandra is something of a sci-fi, the second book in a trilogy.  It is a re-telling of the fall of man, similar to Dante's journey.  While it was difficult to get into at first (mostly to orient myself with this new style), I really liked it.  Until I enrolled in this C.S. Lewis class I had no idea that he published adult fiction, yet, Perelandra has many of the same things that I've seen in his other works, like The Chronicals of Narnia.

There are countless symbols that Lewis uses in Perelandra, but I thought I would note a few of my own thoughts and some that we mentioned in our class discussion:

Ransom- A Christ figure, his name being significant of that.  He is someone we can relate to as well, helping us see what we need to do to be Christ-like in our own ways.  In class we also learned that Ransom was based on J.R.R. Tolkien.

Perelandra- Or Venus, is basically the Garden of Eden in an unfallen world.

Maledil- God in this story.  At times he lets the characters grow and develop on their own by staying behind the scenes.

Then Green Lady- An Eve figure, has never heard of evil, and is the victim of potential temptation

"The Bent One"- Satan, the fallen angel who has influence over Weston.

Weston- Not Satan, but a form of evil who falls under Satan's influence.  In a way he is like the snake who tempts Eve in Eden.  He is not like the Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, and is generally kind of stupid until he enters into debate.  He never appears to sleep, much like sin.  Weston is overcome by pride in the end.

Fixed Land- represents temptation, the forbidden fruit.  It is more about obedience than anything, and the geography is significant.  The waves surrounding it represent God's own plan and intentions.

Cave- While there can be many things to draw from the cave, to me it seemed like the fact that this was a struggle away from the surface showed this ongoing fight between good and evil, that is always there, but not always visible on the surface.  The good won in the end though.  The entire scene is a descent and assent, symbolizing the resurrection and baptism. 

Red Lilies- Easter lilies near the tomb/spaceship, representing the resurrection.  The flowers are red because of the atonement and sacrifice that Ransom performed.

The Mountain- As in the case in many instances in scripture, the mountain here represents a temple, or a sacred space.

Eldila- Literally are angels, while other characters in the story are just representations.

The Sea Voyage- baptism, and renewal.

Ransom's Wounds- Ransom has a wound that will not heal while he is on Perelandra, representing the wounds of Christ that help Him and us to always remember that sacrifice.  It is a scriptural reference in Geneses as well, that Ransom's heal is bruised and the serpents head is crushed.  Lewis definitely used this intentionally.

There are many more symbols, but these were the ones I found that were the most powerful.  I look forward to another class discussion to make sense of a few more.  There are so many! I feel like the symbolism in Perelandra is more "in your face" than any of the Narnia books.

Midterm Time

This week was our midterm examination in my C.S. Lewis class.  It was  nice to review some of the books that I read at the beginning of the semester and link them all to each other, and so for that I was grateful for the opportunity, though testing always freaks me out.  The test consisted of free response answers to a few different prompt options, but there was one question that we all had to respond to.  I thought it would be the question at the bottom of the extensive study guide:

"the single insight of Lewis that has had the greatest impact on you; how Lewis' presentation was effective in reaching you; the results (present and potential) of this insight."

But it wasn't.  Still, I think it would be beneficial for me to write here what that response was for me:

It is hard to pick just one teaching of Lewis that has impacted me the most, but I would have to say a lucky bet would be that it would come out of Mere Christianity.  It actually leaked into a few other works as well.  What struck me the most from Lewis this semester was that those times when I don't feel like I quite fit in this world are feelings that are not only normal, but natural, because we are not meant for this world.  Lewis says that we are never given desires that were never meant to satisfy, and if they are not satisfied in this life, then they are in the next.  God would not instill in us that kind of momentum for no reason.

A main quote that supports this idea is found in Mere Christianity in the section called "Hope."  Lewis says that "most people...know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be hand in this world.  There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise...some subjects that excite us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy" (135).  Many people, and myself included, have spent their lives doing some of the things he suggests, "trotting from woman to woman, continent to continent, from hobby to hobby, always thinking that the latest is 'the Real Thing' at last," but find it did not quite quench that fire, leaving us "always disappointed" (136).

How many times have I looked at world travel and relationships as the answer to this inner longing I feel, finding that I am disappointed?  I have lost count.  I have always likened my life to the poem "The Name" by Don Marquis.  He describes this feeling well- "my heart has followed all of my days something I cannot name." I have always felt this inner void, this craving for something more, something bigger than me and life and words, wondering if there was just something wrong with me.

Lewis goes on to say that if we find in ourselves"a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation" is that we were "made for another world" (136-137).  This is the best answer I have ever had on the subject.  I feel like "following something that has no name" has been a lifelong question for me, and even a sense of frustration, but here Lewis has offered me an answer.

(Photo credit goes to Gurumustuk Singh)

Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading so many books by C.S. Lewis, it was really nice to hear in his own words what life experiences he had that made him that unique individual. I am not the biggest fan of autobiographies in general, so I appreciated the companion biographical story told in The Essential C.S. Lewis, but I think Lewis does a pretty good job at honestly representing himself, particularly his childhood and educational career.

Things I did not know before (including bits from class discussion):

Lewis went by the nickname Jack. His mother died of cancer when he was a kid; he had little to no relationship with his father, and was an atheist the majority of his young life. It was “The Great Knock,” a mentor and teacher, who taught him to really question things, and though an atheist himself, it was these principles that taught Lewis to rethink atheism, which lead to his conversion to theism, and later Christianity.

Another insight from this that I appreciated was that Lewis did not trust emotions from a very early age. He seemed to be afraid of raw emotion, and I think that explains why he takes such a logical, rational approach to many of his arguments. Lewis also had a wild imagination. I loved reading about his childhood and the description of his house full of books. Without TV and video games, he was left to entertain himself with his own thoughts and rich imagination. I really like that, and that is something I hope to cultivate in my own children someday.

Something else I did not know: Lewis was also wounded in WWI and told his friend, Patty, that if he died he would take care of his mother. Apparently when Lewis moved in with her that lead to a rather interesting relationship—though Surprised by Joy does not mention that. Lewis does claim that he had a past before converting though, and that would only make sense.

I like this idea of joy that Lewis describes and the complexity of it. At first Lewis thought that was what he would have to give up when he became a Christian, only to discover that this was the opposite case. Joy tried to find him his whole life, but it came when he did not expect it. Joy comes in moments—in a sense of something beyond ourselves, something heavenly. Lewis also describes joy as an unsatisfied desire and kind of painful. The want of it is kind of like Heaven, in his opinion. We try to find joy fulfilled by false substitutes and through desire, but real joy is greater than pleasure or happiness. It also makes it the most valuable.

The book ended a bit abruptly to my liking. It seemed to focus mostly on his conversion to theism and not necessarily Christianity, and then it cut off from there. Again, one of the aspects I dislike about autobiography (and how blasted modest they try to be when I would rather just hear about their great accomplishments as unique individuals). I’m grateful for outside texts to give me more context for his life from a more objective point of view, and to hear more about the other aspects apart from his conversion (though that was, of course, important).

Until reading more on his life in The Essential C.S. Lewis, I also had no idea that his wife’s name was Joy. I think that is kind of ironic given the impetus of Joy that Lewis tries to answer in this autobiography.


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Miracles by C.S. Lewis

Miracles by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I hate to say that this was not my favorite C.S. Lewis book so far. Without a class discussion, I’m not sure I could have waded through half of the arguments Lewis brings up. It was intended for those who are skeptical of miracles, and that subject was definitely one that I have wondered about.

I am a Latter-day Saint, and I believe in miracles. But I have always been under the impression that God would use natural laws to govern those miracles, and they are miraculous because we do not understand them. In that sense, I never thought that God could break laws that he was bound to (but then again, he is God), but that leads me to one of Lewis’ main points:

He begins with the argument against the naturalist. He believes that in order to really be Christian we have to be supernaturalists, believing that there is more to nature, or our current reality—that there is a God in charge of it all.

Lewis argues that miracles do not discredit the law of nature because nature still works after the miracle occurs. We assume laws are all known, but there could be something higher that interferes. Just because there is interference though does not mean that the laws are not true. It just adds data, as Lewis said. The Virgin Mary was a good example he gives. The miracle was Mary getting pregnant, but after that nature took over. Her body acted just how it would have otherwise, and she gave birth in the way of nature. God and nature work together.

Along with that point, Lewis makes another stab at those who believe that modern day thinkers are somehow smarter than people from “the olden days.” Miracles are just as believable today as they were a thousand years ago, the difference is most people simply disregard them. Joseph might not have had a professorship at Oxford, but he knew that in order to have a kid you had to have intercourse beforehand. The miracle was no more believable then than it is today, so what is different?

Now there are certainly some differences of opinion between LDS doctrine and Lewis, but I thought his general argument for why miracles are more than magical, absurdities was beneficial. He argues that miracles are not just fathomable, but they are essential. I love how he can logically argue for the supernatural. It is not a supplement to faith, but it does make a nice companion.


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Mere Christianity Continued

My favorite section in this book is “Christian Marriage.” It goes hand in hand with his argument for morality (which is really solid and refreshing in our world today), and says that the reason why this is so important to observe is that “those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which are intended to go along with it and make up the total union” (105). This reminds me of Jeffry R. Holland’s talk “Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments.” It is not that God is just having a great time making rules for us and spoiling our fun, he is trying to show us that we are soiling something sacred that is meant only for the kind of commitment you have in marriage.

I have a lot more thoughts on “Christian Marriage,” but the most powerful part of it was establishing the difference between being in love and the kind of love that follows as a result of it. We have plenty of media propaganda telling us what love is—most of it the glorification of fornication, etc. but this seems to be a bit closer to the line. “Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing” (108). Really though, if we stayed “in love” for too long we would never get anything done. “Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go.” Lewis continues to say that “ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love is this second sense—love as distinct from ‘being in love’—is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God” (109). I have a good friend who once asked me what was more important to me, love or loyalty. When I responded two years ago I said love. My answer is much different now. Marriage is not just about being in love. It is about commitment—something I think society has seriously underplayed when the lovey-dovey wanes.

Moving on, I liked what Lewis said about Pride being the greatest sin, and how it comes “direct from Hell” since it is purely spiritual (125). “As long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (124).

In the section “Hope” I also found a few passages that really spoke to me. I’ve often related to the poem “The Name” by Don Marquis, particularly the line that says, “My heart has followed all my days something I cannot name.” This section seems to address that impetus. Lewis says that people know that they “want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise…some subjects that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy” (135). Many people grow disappointed that they cannot satisfy that something in this life while others deal with it better. I think the take home message Lewis gives us is that “if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world” (137).

Faith and works has been a common argument amongst Christian denominations. I think Lewis says it quite clearly when he says that asking which is more important is “like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary” (148).

There are many, many more lessons to take from this book, but I am going to end by summing up my thoughts on the section “Let’s Pretend.” Lewis says that when we are “not feeling particularly friendly” but realize that we should, the best thing to be done is just do it. Pretend for a little while, and sure enough, you might end up being a little friendly in the end. Such is the way we should try to be more Christian. Fake it until we make it. We won’t get to perfection in this life, but God does expect us to become perfect. It is easy, but it is also difficult. In a way we are like the house that George MacDonald mentions, thinking we are undergoing remodeling when really “He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of…a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself” (205).

As a final thought, Lewis’ last line. “Look at 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” (227).


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Mere Christianity

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mere Christianity is one of my favorite books of all time. I was excited to have the opportunity to revisit it for this C.S. Lewis class. This review is going to go through a bunch of my favorite quotes and feelings, but to start off let me just say that it is so nice to have someone present a logical argument for Christianity. Nothing frustrates me more than this “modern” notion that having a belief in God means that you are an archaic-thinking, ridiculous moron. It seems so condescending too. Are we really that much brighter than all of civilization up to this point? Do we honestly think that no one gave a good look at religion back in the day and had to come to terms with it? Lewis helps bridge this gap. Not only is it the right thing to do, being a Christian is the sensible thing as well.

One of the initial arguments in this book after establishing that there is a Moral Law is that accepting Christ as a merely a moral teacher is seriously problematic. To accept Him as a moral teacher but not His claims does not even make sense. “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…Let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher” (52). Would you honestly want to follow someone’s advice (knowing that there has been plenty of good advice offered throughout the centuries) who was a lunatic and thought he was God? I wouldn’t. Either he is God or he is not. We don’t get half.

And to the perfectionist side of me? A Christian needs to realize that God doesn’t love us when we are good, “but that God will make us good because He loves us” (63). No matter who we are, God has an innate love for all of His children. Obviously works are still important, but he does not love us any more or less if we miss a few points on a midterm or think a selfish thought once in awhile.

Along with my initial thought, Christianity is supportive of using logic and reasoning. Faith and logic can coexist, and it should! We should be thinking about these things and studying our own religions. I like what he says about how we should have a “child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head” (77). Humility, submission, and obedience are all the positive characteristics we associate with children, but Lewis is right, acting like a two-year-old and not exercising the minds God blessed us with is not going to get us there. Lewis went so far as to say that “anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened” (78). I have seen this in my own life as I have studied. Obtaining more education, doing more traveling, and learning more about other religions has only strengthened my faith. That was mentioned earlier as well—“if you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions contain at least some hint of the truth” (35). This has certainly been my experience, even Eastern religions that seem to be so opposite at times to my own religious paradigm (Latter-day Saint).

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Great Divorce is an episodic book by C.S. Lewis that sets out to teach us that, in the words of George MacDonald as an epitaph for this work, “there is no heaven with a little of hill in it—no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather.”

In class we talked a lot about the title and the significance of that. Lewis is clear in this book, as in his others, that pacifism and relativity is not acceptable. To enter Heaven, the only reality, we have to put everything that makes us hellish out of our hearts. The interesting thing that stood out to me, mainly because of the parallel I feel it has to my own faith as a member of the LDS church, is that while Lewis says that he did not mean this to be “a speculation at what may actually await us” (x) in the afterlife, there is something about eternal and gradual progression that he puts a lot of focus on.

I think that gives hope to imperfect people like me, who probably have plenty of hell that they have not divorced in their hearts, to feel like they can still make the choice to become perfected. You have to start somewhere. “It’s only the little germ of a desire [or mustard seed] for God that we need to start to process” (98). I think that was one of my favorite messages from this book—at the end of the day, it is a choice. A lot of the characters we meet in this story were at the point of choosing heaven, but there was always something left in their hearts that they were just not willing to give up, “choices that had really been made long ago” (144). However, once someone decided to give the place a try and put off their natural selves, they gradually get “solider—grow acclimatized” (53). I like how Lewis wrote it. “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end,” Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened” (75). As a Latter-day Saint, this almost feels like reading scripture.

I think that the form of this book lends itself to lots of symbolism, but the main thing we discussed in class was that of substance—comparing the ghosts to hell and then to even that tiny apple from Heaven, which was “made of some different substance, so much solider” (21). At one point a voice shouts at the ghost trying to take this apple back on the bus to “put it down” since “there is not room for it and hell” and he should instead “learn to eat such apples” (49). Heaven is described as being the only place where reality actually exists. Hell was basically the size of a crack in the ground compared to the reality of Heaven (137-138). “Hell is a state of mind…but Heaven is not…Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly” (70).

Something else I learned in class that I did not know from simply reading was that our guide, George MacDonald (in many ways a parallel to Dante’s Inferno Heaven guide, Beatrice), was a real character in Lewis’ life who he claimed “baptized” his imagination as a teenager even though he was not yet committed to Christianity. Brother Young, my professor, suggested that MacDonald’s teachings might be even more similar to LDS doctrine than Lewis’. This is definitely something I would be interested in learning more about.

And then our protagonist wakes up. Was it really all a dream? I like that instead of just waking up that he wakes up to “the clock is striking…and the siren howling” to warn of the England bombings. It does not matter what is going on in life, hard or lukewarm, we need to remember that we need to make the choice to divorce hell from us at all possible costs.


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The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think my feelings on The Screwtape Letters can be summed up in the one word my professor used to describe it.

“Gotcha.”

This work was an absolute delight to read. As we discussed it in class it became apparent that at almost any point along the way someone was having an “ah ha” moment. It is such a complex look at human nature when you have to translate everything (and not some things) into the opposite, making it kind of a difficult read. However, I think this was the perspective Lewis had to take if he wanted to point out our flaws without coming across self righteous and preachy. Instead it is a sneakier approach that helps us laugh through it as we find our own secret, less-than perfect selves painted on the pages. Without this satiric approach it would have been much harder to bring down our natural defenses.

At the same time though, I am not so surprised when C.S. Lewis later said that he could not have extended this book, as requested, because it put him in a “spiritual cramp.” Fun as this book is, the author did not enjoy writing it. I think that is an interesting undertone to help us recognize some of the serious lessons that come out of a pretty hysterical read.

I think one of my biggest “gotcha” passage was in letter IV when Screwtape is instructing his devil in training nephew, Wormwood, about how he can manipulate prayer to their advantage. Screwtape says that Coleridge is pegged for having this particular kind of prayer they are looking for—the kind where you pray “without moving lips and bended knees” with a “sense of supplication” because it has a striking “resemblance to the prayer of silence as practiced by those who are very far advanced in the Enemy’s service.” I have been all to prone to these kinds of prayers. I don’t know why I am always surprised that I fall asleep half way through them or start thinking about what I ate for breakfast or who knows what by the end, but I could see why this would be the sort of prayer a devil would encourage.

Another “ah ha” moment for me came from letter XV when it talks about the importance of living in the present since it is the point “at which time touches eternity.” A devil would say it is important to get us away from the importance of the present and to get them to live in the past, but the past is “of limited value” since it has “a determinate nature and…resembles eternity.” Instead, Screwtape argues that it is “far better” to make us live in the future, which “inflames hope and fear,” remains unknown, seems unreal sometimes, and can seem “the thing least like eternity.” Screwtape does not want his nephew (or us) to be confused by this though. “The Enemy” (or God) would like us to think of the future,” just so much as it is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity,” etc.

Of course, this book is flooded with memorable quotes, but here are just a few of my favorites:
“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon the universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys” (Letter IIX).

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one” (Letter IX).

“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (Letter XII).

“Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us…Nothing is naturally on our side” (Letter XXII).

And because it is always fun to still have some unsorted through thoughts, a question I would like to raise: Why does Lewis seem to paint falling in love as an ambiguous source for good or evil in Letter XVIII?

Maybe I will find out as I learn more about his life experiences and thoughts in his other works, hopefully becoming a better “hairless biped” along the way.


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You Have to Start Somewhere

So it starts—but that is only half of the story.  

The truth is that my interest in C.S. Lewis began a little over year ago—an interest that kindled to flame, and at some point I decided I needed to take a class on the man to discover more.  

That is why I am here.

I cannot think of anyone in my life that really ever directed me to Lewis or recommended his books, but somewhere along the line I knew I always wanted to read him.  Finally at the age of 20 I started and finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia and a favorite, Mere Christianity, and what can I say?  I am hooked.  Now, there are many different kinds of books.  Some that make you laugh at life for the entertainment value, some that make you want to shoot your brain out (cough—Hemingway anyone?), and then there are those that get you to ask those important life questions—books that inspire and leave you slightly changed having read it.  C.S. Lewis seems to write the latter kind.

It is early in the semester to say, but I am very excited for this course.  We have already read the essay, “The Trouble with ‘X’” in class.   As with my other experiences with Lewis, after finishing this essay I felt like I wanted to be better, realizing that I too am an “X” personality (those difficult people in our lives) and should recognize that and love other ‘X’s” more in the end.   This is just a brief introduction to a class that will have me read over 12 works, so I anticipate lots of growth!

Now there are four expected outcome I hope to achieve by the end as outlined by my Professor, Brother Young:

1. Know a lot about CS Lewis, his writings, and his ideas

2. Become more capable in understanding general written works and expressing my understanding in speech in writing 

3.  Become more capable in the research process

4.  Last, but not least, get a sense of the ethical and spiritual implications of Lewis' work and ideas and hopefully become more Christlike in my response to real people, situations, and events--all the while strengthening my faith in the restored Gospel.

In addition to these course objectives I want to use this blog to track my personal, spiritual, and academic journey as I discover more about Lewis and the person I want to become.  I feel that blogging is an important medium for this type of activity because it is something I can easily access and allows me to share my learning experiences with others who might also be interested in what I am learning.  I have had a lot of experience with academic blogging, but the nature of this one is likely going to be more personal.  This could be a challenge, I’ll admit, but I still firmly believe that I should publish this for public readership.   I think it will also allow me to be more open to discussion about my own faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  

(Photo credit goes to NNDB)