June 21, 2005

Hating and loving goodness

Since I haven't had something else intelligent (or otherwise) to say recently, here is the next quote I marked in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (in the last paragraph of chapter 5):

They offer an explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it.

("They" being Christians.)

When I read that book, I found that statement ironically true, although out of context it may not make sense. Earlier in the same paragraph he makes a different point:

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know that have done anything to repent of and who do not feel tha then need an forgiveness.

Could that be summarized as saying, "Christianity only makes sense in context"?

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June 14, 2005

Making exuses

C.S. Lewis notes another argument for the Law of Nature (as he calls it):

That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm...If we do not believe in decent behaviour, why should we be so anxious to make exuses for not having behaved decently?...For you notice that it is only for our bad behaviour that we find all these explanations. It is only for our bad temper we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

(You can read it fully in the second-to-last paragraph in the first chapter of Mere Christianity.)

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November 30, 2004

A hall with many doorways...

The second thought I marked in C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" was at the end of a discussion of a metaphor (which compared choosing a denomination to being in a hallway with many doors). Once again taking it out of context doesn't do it justice, but I believe it's most important points will still come through clear...

When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

Amen.

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November 29, 2004

What would C.S. Lewis say about same-sex marriage?

In no way to I want to imply that C.S. Lewis would support (or oppose) same-sex marriage, but I thought this quote from "Mere Christianity" was very interesting:

Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question--how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mohammedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognise the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the state with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not.

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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...

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November 23, 2004

The Law of Nature

An interesting quote from C.S. Lewis at the end of the first chapter of "Mere Christianity":

These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.

That small quote doesn't do the whole chapter justice...

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