The C.S Lewis Thread

Red Sky at Morning

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C.S Lewis lived through an age of change, war, atheism and many of the other upheavals of the 20th Century. He had a thirst for truth and real experience that led him from contented atheism to a vibrant journey of faith.

I have got so much insight over the years from his quotes and observations and it just occurred to me that I might not be the only one...

So - if you enjoy Lewis, share a quote or two and see if we have read the same books!
 
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I’ve only read the Narnia series, as recommended by my wonderful Mother :)

I don’t accept a lot or perhaps anything theologically speaking from the man, but I loved those books!

The reasons you like Mr.Lewis so much, are the same reasons Leo Tolstoy means so much to me, albeit they came to vastly different conclusions.
 

Red Sky at Morning

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I’ve only read the Narnia series, as recommended by my wonderful Mother :)

I don’t accept a lot or perhaps anything theologically speaking from the man, but I loved those books!

The reasons you like Mr.Lewis so much, are the same reasons Leo Tolstoy means so much to me, albeit they came to vastly different conclusions.
As a thinking Colonel, you might like his allegorical personal journey, as set out in "The Pilgrims Regress". Still one of my favourites. It is obviously a much more adult work than his children's fantasy, but if you like good writing, you might enjoy it.

*And it's much shorter than "War and Peace"
 
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priemier

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His ScrewTape letters really helped me in my faith.

“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.”

“Humans are amphibians...half spirit and half animal...as spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time, means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation--the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. ”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
 
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His ScrewTape letters really helped me in my faith.

“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.”

“Humans are amphibians...half spirit and half animal...as spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time, means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation--the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.”

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. ”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters is pretty good as well and I also recommend The Great Divorce.
 
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I have friends who do not “get”
The Great Divorce. I could read it 50 times and get something new every time. Such a great book!! I always thought maybe I was weird to love that book as much as I do. :D
The great divorce is Very vivid with creative imagination and layered with its theological points. Most of my friends get it and can bring out at least one point that they highlight and get. Biggest point that stands out to me is when the people from the purgatory town enter paradise and the grass is painful to step on. Some of them turn back and go back onto the bus that took them there. For me that is like how some people react to the gospel.
 

Red Sky at Morning

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I found a great YouTube channel called C.S. Lewis doodle, where some of his ideas are built up and illustrated -

As "religion and science" seems to be a popular topic here right now, I thought this one was on point.

 

yiksmes

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I’ve only read the Narnia series, as recommended by my wonderful Mother :)

I don’t accept a lot or perhaps anything theologically speaking from the man, but I loved those books!

The reasons you like Mr.Lewis so much, are the same reasons Leo Tolstoy means so much to me, albeit they came to vastly different conclusions.
Love this quote of Leo:
 

Red Sky at Morning

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"...Why you fool, it's the educated reader who CAN be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they're all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in Mayfair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the high-brow weeklies, don't need reconditioning. They're all right already. They'll believe anything."​
C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (The Space Trilogy, #3)
 
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Red Sky at Morning

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And my favourite piece of writing from C.S. Lewis:-

"And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."​

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)
 

priemier

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I read the Great Divorce and it promoted a concept of purgatory? Anyways, I was listening to the testimony of a former witch and was surprised to hear that JK Tolkien and CS Lewis was required reading for their occult education. And even looking back on Mere Christianity, there are slight discrepancies with the bible.

This comes as a surprise to me but we should all be vigilant and keep praying for discernment. Yeah his writings sow tares among the good grain...
 

Red Sky at Morning

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I read the Great Divorce and it promoted a concept of purgatory? Anyways, I was listening to the testimony of a former witch and was surprised to hear that JK Tolkien and CS Lewis was required reading for their occult education. And even looking back on Mere Christianity, there are slight discrepancies with the bible.

This comes as a surprise to me but we should all be vigilant and keep praying for discernment. Yeah his writings sow tares among the good grain...
Your response raises some complex issues...

C.S. Lewis was indeed friends with Tolkein as well as G.K. Chesterton. Both were Catholics but we're also genuine Christians. The literary device of purgatory in the Great Divorce was inspired by George McDonald, but, rather like his Space Trilogy with its alien life-forms or Narnia with its mythical creatures drawn from possibly pagan folklore, these are literary devices that form a mere backcloth to the story.

As a lover of allegory, the skill is to create a story that lies alongside reality to set the scene for the main question of the text. If you find it hard not to take allegory literally, C.S. Lewis is not an author who will bless you.

As to it being required occult reading, I presume the Bible is also on the reading list...
 
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