If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
- Mere Christianity (Chap. 10, Para. 5, Page 120)
"Then those people are right when they say that Heaven and Hell are only states of mind?"
"Hush," said he sternly. "Do not blaspheme. Hell is a state of mind - ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind - is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is Reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakable remains."
- The Great Divorce (Chap. 9, Pages 68-69)
Showing posts with label CS Lewis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CS Lewis. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Bulverism...
The modern method of argument is to assume without discussion that your opponent is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became so silly. In the course of the last 80 years, I have found this vice so common that I have had to invent a name for it. I call it Bulverism.... Bulver assures us..."that refutation is no necessary part of argument. Assume that your opponent is wrong, and then explain his error, and the world will be at your feet. Attempt to prove that he is wrong, and then explain his error, and the world will be at your feet. Attempt to prove that he is wrong or (worse still) try to find out whether he is wrong or right, and the national dynamism of our age will thrust you to the wall."
...Bulverism is a truly democratic game in the sense that all can play it all day long, and that it gives no unfair privilege to the small and offensive who reason.
- Adapted from C.S. Lewis (only modernised)
...Bulverism is a truly democratic game in the sense that all can play it all day long, and that it gives no unfair privilege to the small and offensive who reason.
- Adapted from C.S. Lewis (only modernised)
Monday, June 30, 2008
Holiday at Sea with St. Francis of Assisi
Preach The Gospel at all times, use words when necessary.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Son of a wealthy cloth merchant, and described as a "lover of pleasure" and a "brawler" in his youth, Giovanni Francesco Bernardone's (aka St Francis) life took a significant turn in 1204, when he became seriously ill. This began something of a spiritual crisis, and by reading the above, one can see easily what it produced in St. Francis' life. By allowing God to break his world down, and his response to that breaking. Are we willing to let God really break our world down, strip us of what we foolishly believe to be "ours"? In the words of C.S. Lewis, "we are like children who would rather go on making mud pies in the slums because they can’t understand what it means to have a holiday at sea". Sometimes we childishly hold onto our sin and pride, instead of letting God take our world apart, so that we can live The Gospel without so many words.
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Quote courtesy of Jesus, in Matthew 5:16 NASV)
- St. Francis of Assisi
Son of a wealthy cloth merchant, and described as a "lover of pleasure" and a "brawler" in his youth, Giovanni Francesco Bernardone's (aka St Francis) life took a significant turn in 1204, when he became seriously ill. This began something of a spiritual crisis, and by reading the above, one can see easily what it produced in St. Francis' life. By allowing God to break his world down, and his response to that breaking. Are we willing to let God really break our world down, strip us of what we foolishly believe to be "ours"? In the words of C.S. Lewis, "we are like children who would rather go on making mud pies in the slums because they can’t understand what it means to have a holiday at sea". Sometimes we childishly hold onto our sin and pride, instead of letting God take our world apart, so that we can live The Gospel without so many words.
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Quote courtesy of Jesus, in Matthew 5:16 NASV)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Unspoken Sermons
If there be a God, and I am his creature, there may be, there should be, there must be some open communication between He and I. If anyone allow a God, but one scarce good enough to care about his creatures, I will yield him that it were foolish to pray to such a God; but the notion that, with all the good impulses in us, we are the offspring of a cold-hearted devil, is so horrible in its inconsistency, that I would ask that man what hideous and cold-hearted disrregard to the truth makes him capable of the supposition! To such a one God's terrors, or, if not His terrors, then God's sorrows yet will speak; the divine something in him will love, and the love be left moaning.
If i find my position, my consciousness, that of one from home nay, that of one from some sort of prison; if I find that I can neither rule the world in which I live nor my own thoughts or desires; that I cannot quiet my own passions, order my likings, determine my ends, will my growth, forget when I would, or recall what I forget; that I cannot love where I would, or hate where I would; that I am no king over myself; that I cannot supply my own needs, do not even always know which of my seeming needs are to be supplied, and which treated as impostersl if, in a word, my own being is everyway too much for mel if I can neither understand it, be satisfied with it, nor better it --- may it not well give me a pause --- the pause that ends in prayer?
When my own scale seems too large for my management; when I reflect that I cannot account for my existence, have had no poorest hand in it, neither, should I like it, can do anything towards causing it to cease; when I think that I can do nothing to make up to those I love, any more than to those I hate, for evils I have done them and sorrows I have caused them; that in my worst moments I disbelieve in my best, in my best loathe my worst; that there is in me no wholeness, no unity; that life is not a good to me, for I scorn myself --- when I think all or any such things, can it be strange if I think also that surely there ought to be somewhere a being to account for me, one to account for himself, and make the round of my existence just; one whose very being accounts and is necessary to account for mine; whose presence in my being is imperative, not merely to supplement it, but to make myself my existence a good?
If i find my position, my consciousness, that of one from home nay, that of one from some sort of prison; if I find that I can neither rule the world in which I live nor my own thoughts or desires; that I cannot quiet my own passions, order my likings, determine my ends, will my growth, forget when I would, or recall what I forget; that I cannot love where I would, or hate where I would; that I am no king over myself; that I cannot supply my own needs, do not even always know which of my seeming needs are to be supplied, and which treated as impostersl if, in a word, my own being is everyway too much for mel if I can neither understand it, be satisfied with it, nor better it --- may it not well give me a pause --- the pause that ends in prayer?
When my own scale seems too large for my management; when I reflect that I cannot account for my existence, have had no poorest hand in it, neither, should I like it, can do anything towards causing it to cease; when I think that I can do nothing to make up to those I love, any more than to those I hate, for evils I have done them and sorrows I have caused them; that in my worst moments I disbelieve in my best, in my best loathe my worst; that there is in me no wholeness, no unity; that life is not a good to me, for I scorn myself --- when I think all or any such things, can it be strange if I think also that surely there ought to be somewhere a being to account for me, one to account for himself, and make the round of my existence just; one whose very being accounts and is necessary to account for mine; whose presence in my being is imperative, not merely to supplement it, but to make myself my existence a good?
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