A Mind That Grasped Both Heaven and Hell

NY Times ^ | 11/22/03 | JOSEPH LOCONTE

[Walkin Man]

I've read the same CS Lewis as you it seems. Screwtape, Out of the Silent Planet, Mere Christianity.

Did you read Chronicles of Nardia and God in the Dock?

[VOA]

There's a book I read many years ago called "Between Heaven and Hell.

thanks for the good recommendation; reviews at amazon.com are glowing...

Maybe you've seen this one before. I haven't read it yet, but have heard that it's
a good read, as well the basis of a course the author teaches at Harvard.

The Question of God:
C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life
by Armand M. Nicholi Jr.

[Davea]

Although it may seem morbid but one of the best books I ever read was "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis. Brutally honest. It strips away the "pop" version of Christianity and goes to the core.

[Darksheare]

Still have my Chronicles of Narnia series.
Evebn after having to reclaim them and hide them since some helpful person lost one or two of the series on me.

God in the Dock I don't have.
That one has proved elusive for the time being.
Probably because I'm not looking in the right places.

[MissAmericanPie]

"Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst," he wrote in "Reflections on the Psalms"


And they receive the worst punishment at the White Throne judgement.

[Tribune7]

thanks for the ping. bump

[Walkin Man]

[Wonder Warthog]

"But Lewis, like his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, knew the trouble lay deeper, and marshaled his literary imagination to explore it."

Hmmmm---the author fails to credit (or doesn't know) that it was Tolkien who was responsible for Lewis's conversion to Christianity--although JRRT was somewhat saddened that Lewis chose the Anglican Church instead of adopting Tolkien's Catholicism.

[Darksheare]

It's interesting that the one sister in the Narnia series, think it's Susan, forgets everything they did and rejects the truth.
The last book mentions that, in "The Last Battle".

[Sam's Army]

Bump

[Walkin Man]

Maybe Susan is a Judas-type character?

[Darksheare]

Hmm..
Or the person who hears the truth and follows it for a bit, then turns around because it's no longer 'fun'?
Hmm..

[lavrenti]

I read the Narnia Chronicles to my then six-year-old to help her get over 9|11 (we were there as live witnesses). Opened the doors of her imagination and now she's a big-time reader, and brilliantly creative.

I always thought Eustace and Jill was a barely masked love story. Perhaps a little reflective of Lewis' life and marriage.

His notes on grief is passionate.

[Lady Eileen]

bump...thanks for the post.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Those interested in the definitive biography of Lewis, I suggest William Griffin's Clive Staples Lewis: A Dramatic Life.

Because Lewis died on the day JFK was assassinated, it has always seemed likely to me that this was Satan's way of obscuring the passing of this great Christian.

[Walkin Man]

I read the Narnia Chronicles to my then six-year-old to help her get over 9|11 (we were there as live witnesses). Opened the doors of her imagination and now she's a big-time reader, and brilliantly creative.

That was a terrible thing to witness on TV, much less being there, God bless you both.

I'm glad to hear another little one has been blessed by the writings of CS Lewis, I share her love of reading too.

His good deeds continue even now, eh?

[SedVictaCatoni]

Trivia:

- "Narnia" was the name of a Roman colony in central Italy. One surviving book of Livy's History of Rome contains an amusing (to us) passage describing that "in this year the Senate sent a thousand colonists to Narnia".

- "Aslan" is Turkish for "lion".

[Valin]

I can't count the number of times I've given them as presents. I recently got a copy of the Narnia Chronicles by the BBC. Leant them to a young woman I work with (she has two pre-schoolers) two months later I got itr back and she went out and got a copy for her kids, they couldn't get enough of it.
In this series they actually (prepare yourself) follow the story! Talk about your radical concept.

[Valin]

"Narnia" was the name of a Roman colony in central Italy

OH OH! I may have just learned something. I'm scared!

[viaveritasvita]

Had these in my archives. Hope you enjoy them.... To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the...coffin of your selfishness...The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers...of love is hell. ~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. ~ C. S. Lewis

One reason why many people find [the false idea of the "force" or "life-force"] so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in [a god] and none of the less pleasant consequences. When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do not want to believe that the whole universe is a mere [chance evolution] of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great...force rolling on throughout the centuries and carrying you on its crest. If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the life-force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. The life-force is a sort of tame god. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of its costs. Is the life-force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen? ~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Christianity, if false, is of no importance and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important. ~ C.S. Lewis

There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. ~ C.S. Lewis

The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself, and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. ~ C. S. Lewis

There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." ~ C. S. Lewis

[I felt] the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In...1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, "compel them to come in"...plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation. ~ C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

Here the whole world (stars, water, air, And field, and forest, as they were Reflected in a single mind) Like cast off clothes was left behind In ashes yet with hope that she, Re-born from holy poverty, In lenten lands, hereafter may Resume them on her Easter Day.

~ C. S. Lewis (Inscription on his wife's, Joy Davidman's, memorial)

The further...in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside. ~ C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle

[Believers] can't say "I'll be happy when God calls me [home]" without being afraid we'll be thought morbid. If we really believe what we say we believe – if we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a "wandering to find home" why should we not look forward to the arrival? There are [only] three things we can do about death: Desire it, fear it, or ignore it. The third alternative, which is the one the modern world calls "healthy" is surely the most uneasy and precarious of all. ~ C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

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