The Dawn Treader

The Great Divorce

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.

~ The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis

I grabbed The Great Divorce to read on my business trip.  This is a great little book.  Lewis captures the essence of things so well.  The view of heaven as more real than now ... the view of hell as filled with narcissistic blame shifters ... the idea of the grumbler ultimately disintegrating into nothing but a grumble ... the idea of time working backwards once we are in the afterlife ... that a common reaction to the afterlife will be one of surprise.

Pick up the classic again, and read it again.

Jollyblogger Posts on C.S. Lewis

The Jollyblogger has an outstanding post on reading C.S. Lewis.   Read it all.

David writes,

"What I find in Lewis is a confident faith which is not threatened by other religions or anti-religion. This is a refreshing alternative to fear-driven faith. "

That, in a nutshell, is the major contribution C.S. Lewis made to my life.  He taught me that Christianity has nothing to fear from atheism.  Though I never lost faith in Christ, my faith was a fear-driven faith in a number of ways.  One of my fears was that Carl Sagan was right and that nihilism was ultimately true.  ( note: Sagan was not a nihilist, but I would argue his worldview logically leads to nihilism ).  I feared to look for the truth because of where it might lead.  In Lewis, I found someone who had lived, read, and felt the full force of atheistic arguments and found them unthreatening.  He did not dismiss the arguments of atheism like I think some Christians are prone to do today (e.g. fideists).  Lewis took the arguments seriously and showed why they don't work.

Pastor Wayne, in his evaluation of Lewis, also makes a compelling point about friendship and plausibility structures.  Plausibility structures are those group (or community) beliefs that define the realm of what is possibly true.  Wayne writes,

Lewis was a committed atheist, but chinks in the armor came when several friends and others he respected either embraced the Christian faith or leaned in it's direction.  These things perplexed Lewis, but it also seems that these friends and respected colleagues paved the way for him to (re)consider the Christian faith.

After interviewing a number of people for membership in our church this past Sunday, I was struck again by the role that friends play in shaping our ultimate beliefs.  The obvious challenge before us as Christians is to not isolate ourselves from the world.  We must be intentional about befriending those outside the church.  Neglecting this hurts the church, and it also hurts our own growth and sanctification.  That's right, I think my unchurched friends help me be a more compassionate Christian and less insular person.  How many unchurched friends do you have?  If the answer is none, how are you going to change that?

Narnian Apologetics

So they went and knocked at the study door, and the Professor said, "Come in," and got up and found chairs for them and said he was quite at their disposal.  There he sat listening to them with the tips of his fingers pressed together and never interrupting, till they had finished their whole story.  After that he said nothing for quite a long time.  Then he cleared his throat and said the last thing either of them expected.

The Brilliance Of Lewis

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe opens in theaters today.  God arranged for an ice storm to strike Roanoke forcing all schools to close for the day.  This ought to ensure packed crowds of kids at the 10 am, 1 pm, 2 pm showings at the Carmike 10.

The release of this movie, which is based on the C.S. Lewis classic tale, has generated a lot of yammering in the media and blogosphere.  My bloggy friend Kevin, who leans left, forwarded me a link to an article in Salon about the movie.  The subtitle to the article reads, "The religious right is hyping "The Chronicles of Narnia." But just how Christian is C.S. Lewis' masterpiece?"

Touch Down On Malacandra

Suddenly the lights of the Universe seemed to be turned down.  As if some demon had rubbed the heaven's face with a dirty sponge, the splendour in which they had lived for long blenched to a pallid, cheerless and pitiable grey.  What had been a chariot gliding in the fields of heaven became a dark steel box dimly lighted by the slit of a window, and falling.  They were falling out of the heaven, into a world.

Out of the Silent Planet, p.39

We touched down on Malacandra last night.  We are eagerly hoping to learn why Ransom, our friendly neighborhood philologist, has been kidnapped by the scheming Devine and enigmatic Weston.

My boys, who are 7 and 9, are enjoying our bedtime reading of Out of The Silent Planet.  Lewis' ability to paint with words is on full display in this book.  I am already starting to hear the desperate pleas of little boys with droopy eyes, "C'mon Dad, keep reading ... pleeeease."

Why We Should Sing Along With The Psalmists About God's Law

More on the moral beauty of God's Law .

C.S. Lewis makes an interesting observation.

"On three occasions, the poet (my note: in Psalms 119) asserts that the Law is true or the truth.  ... A modern logician would say that the Law is a command and that to call a command "true" makes no sense; the 'door is shut' may be true or false, but 'shut the door' can't.  But I think we all see pretty well what the Psalmists mean.  They mean that in the Law, you find the real or correct or stable, well-grounded, directions for living."

Out of the Silent Planet

I will be reading Out of The Silent Planet, the first of C.S. Lewis space trilogy, to my boys for their night time story.

I have never read any of the space trilogy, but I am aware of the basic story line.

Have any of you read it?  What did you think?

The 10 Commandments Are Sweeter Than Honey

Time for my next installment in the C.S. Lewis reflections on the Psalms series.  Other posts in the series are here and here and here.

How do you feel about God's law?  Is it a positive thing?  Or does it conjure up feelings of a heavy weight around your neck?

Here is how David felt about God's law.  Bottom line: it was more precious than gold.  It brought him pure joy.

Lewis, at first, found pure joy as a response to "statutes" to be utterly "bewildering" and "mysterious".

May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow, In Jesus Name, Amen

Continuing on from C.S. Lewis On The Psalms: Judgement

Centurions instructor and pastor T.M. Moore encouraged us to pray through the Psalms.  I have found his advice very helpful and edifying.  It has enriched my prayer life.

Praying through Psalm 109 can present a challenge, however.

    6 Appoint an evil man to oppose him;
       let an accuser stand at his right hand.

    7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
       and may his prayers condemn him.

    8 May his days be few;
       may another take his place of leadership.

    9 May his children be fatherless
       and his wife a widow.

    10 May his children be wandering beggars;
       may they be driven from their ruined homes.

    11 May a creditor seize all he has;
       may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

    12 May no one extend kindness to him
       or take pity on his fatherless children.

Yikes!  That is a little ... uh ... harsh.  Hmmm.  What do we do with the Psalms of cursings?

C.S. Lewis On The Psalms: Judgement

Ever had a reading partner?  The two of you read something together and then compare thoughts.  That is basically what C.S. "Jack" Lewis and I are doing with the Psalms.  Lewis died when I was nine days old.  But he captured his thoughts about the book of Psalms in a little book called "Reflections On The Psalms".  It is a neat little book.  It reads like a blog.  Lewis' writing style is his classic first-person-like-he-speaking-directly-to-you.

What I like about Lewis' reflections on the Psalms is that they are quite unique.  Lewis is open and honest about both how wonderful, inspiring, strange and disturbing the Psalms are ... all at the same time.

Now,  about all those Psalms dealing with judgement ...  The Pslam writers rejoice that God will judge the earth.  Isn't this a case of "be careful what you wish for?"