Reflections on God … Man … Life
C. S. Lewis had a way of taking a concept and giving it new life, sometimes simply by illustration, other times by making sure we have the correct definition of that concept. Take humility, for instance. To the world at large, the word conjures up an image of weakness or some kind of constant self-belittling. Yet humility is actually a source of spiritual strength; neither does it mean one has no value. That’s never true in God’s eyes. Here’s how… Read more »
Mankind doesn’t mind having a god of some kind, as long as that god can be made into the image that mankind prefers. Men, in general, will accept a certain type of god that meets their requirements, which normally means that he/she/it doesn’t require too much of them. Yet God—the real God—is not a product of man’s fevered imagination. “It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone,” C. S. Lewis wrote in his book Miracles…. Read more »
There are some days that I’m nearly overwhelmed by the sinfulness of man. The more one appreciates the holiness of God and the absolute “rightness” of His laws, the more our deviations from His ways appear ludicrous and—well—downright stupid. C. S. Lewis dissected this abominable foolishness of sin in chapter five of his The Problem of Pain. From the first moment a creature becomes aware of God as God and of itself as self, the terrible alternative of choosing God… Read more »
C. S. Lewis’s winding path from atheism to Christian faith is a fascinating journey. We can take that journey with him in Surprised by Joy, his step-by-step account of how God led this proud young intellectual to the point of surrender—to becoming, in his own words, “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” Lewis, the avidly voracious reader, found, at a certain point in his life, all of his books beginning to turn against him. They kept leading… Read more »
How does one decide which C. S. Lewis essay one likes best? Just when you have read one and concluded nothing could be better, another one invades your mind and spirit, and you’re now convinced this has to be the crowning jewel. As an academic, I am drawn to the essays in which Lewis takes aim at those of us in academia. He’s particularly pointed in those because he’s also taking aim at himself. One of the greatest temptations for… Read more »
Lewis’s exuberance in the faith shines through in many of his writings, whether they be apologetic or fiction. One of his later books, Reflections on the Psalms, contains nuggets like these: The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance. There . . . I find an experience fully God-centered, asking of God no gift more urgently than His presence, the gift of Himself, joyous to the highest… Read more »
After C. S. Lewis wrote his enormously popular Screwtape Letters, he often said he never wanted to go back to that style of writing, putting himself into the mindset of hell to explain heavenly things. But in 1959, sixteen years after Screwtape appeared in print in the US, he consented to pen an addendum of sorts to his famous book. “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” was an article Lewis wrote for an American publication, the Saturday Evening Post. It took the… Read more »