Posted on 11/22/2013 6:48:42 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
November 22, 1963, the date of President Kennedys assassination, was also the day C.S. Lewis died. Seven years earlier he had thus described death: The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning. The metaphor inherent in these words is striking. It comes from the world of students and pupils, but only a teacher would employ it as a metaphor for death. The words (from The Last Battle) bring down the curtain or perhaps better, close the wardrobe door on Lewis Chronicles of Narnia. But they also open a window into who C.S. Lewis really was.
(Excerpt) Read more at ligonier.org ...
His essay on “Bulverism” does in a few short pages what it took Bloom an entire book to communicate with “Closing of the American Mind.”
Bump for later
The Narnia series was written for children, and there's nothing better than reading them aloud. I read all seven, seven times over to my sons as they were growing up. They feed the imagination of moral right and heroism.
The Tolkien trilogy was written for adults. Quite hard to read aloud: the sentences and paragraphs are a lot more complex, and the pace isn't brisk enough or the language bright enough to carry children along. These are adult epics, steeped in an overall tragic sense, blood-bought by a very hidden Christ.
Completely agree. I can’t think of a more important voice for Christians in these times.
That's certainly a fair point, but even when I read them as a child I recall thinking, "Yes, Aslan is Christ, I get it."
It seems a bit clumsy and heavy-handed.
It does great as a read-aloud, though. I read it while my boys were jumping on the bed, running on a self-contructed obstacle circuit around and around the living room (yes, we were homeschoolers) or tumbling on a mat. It's what I hope stays in their mind (or way down in the under-mind) for a lifetime.
Was aware that the Narnia books were alegroical, but had NO idea there was this much wisdom in the man.
Will be acquiring more...
“...But you learn...”
“Mere Christianity” is a classic.
Lewis would disagree. :) He had a rather long conversation about the differences between allegory and applicability :)
Also “the screwtape letters”...somewhere on the internet is a rendition of John Cleese reading them, he does a MARVELOUS job....really brings the book “home”, as he does it so splendidly in character.
If you can read the book while listening to Cleese read it, you will benefit tremendously.
“Who Was C.S. Lewis?”
Never heard of him and really don’t care!
Really?
He was one of the most important Christian writers of the 20th Century. Heck, I've read almost a dozen of his books...and I'm an atheist!
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