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November 28, 2004
"It has every available quality except that of being useful."
Below is the first quote I marked in C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity." It looses some because it's out of context -- part of a discussion of how C.S. Lewis uses the word "Christian." The bolding is mine, italics his...
Far deeper objections may be felt--and have been expressed--against my use of the word Christian to mean one who accepts the common doctrines of Christianity. People ask: 'Who are you, to lay down who is, and who is not a Christian?' or 'May not many a man who cannot believe these doctrines be far more truly a Christian, far closer to the spirit of Christ, than some who do?' Now this objection is in one sense very right, very charitable, very spiritual, very sensitive. It has every available quality except that of being useful. We simply cannot, without disaster, use language as these objectors want us to use it.
He then explains by example, showing how the word "gentleman" entirely lost it's old meaning as people changed it from being "...something recognisable; one who had a coat of arms and some landed property." He continues:
A gentleman, once it has been spiritualised and refined out of its old coarse, objective sense, means hardly more than a man whom the speaker likes. As a result, gentleman is now a useless word.
I will admit I had no idea that the word "gentleman" had such a different previous meaning...
Posted by alan at November 28, 2004 10:52 PM
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