Posts Tagged ‘C.S. Lewis’
My Favorite Books from 2016
Stories awaken. They draw me into another world. They help me see reality through another’s eyes. As C. S. Lewis aptly put it, “in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see.”[1] So, stories rattle me out of my slumber. They also teach me. I learn about space and time, hope and aspiration, human longing and evil, goodness and beauty, truth and hope. I learn—especially when reading philosophy or theology—how to think better as I pull the curtain back and peer into the depth of God or the world he has made. I am challenged to live a heroic life and to push away the temptation toward sloth. All of this, and more, from reading!
Should We Love God and Nothing Else?
Some Christians think we should love God and God alone. The idea is this. God is supreme. God is the ultimate object of all human longing. He is the only Being in all of reality that won’t let us down. We should therefore love God and shun all else. This line of thinking is deeply mistaken. It is also unbiblical. Nor can it be done; we cannot love God alone.
C. S. Lewis on the Practical Value of Friendship
A mark of the digital age is a dearth of genuine friendship. Relationships today are largely mediated through pixels and measured by the length of a Snapchap streak or the number of Facebook “likes” received. The plague of superficiality spreads as we forget how to look others in the eye, carry on a conversation, and simply be together. The end result is an epidemic of loneliness.
The Singularity Movement, Screwtape, and the Hope of Immortality
The February 2011 cover of Time Magazine pictures a human head connected to a metal cable. “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal*,” reads the caption. The asterisk directs the reader’s eye to this caption: “*If you believe humans and machines will become one. Welcome to the Singularity Movement.” The hope for immortality is nothing new. The belief however that science will usher in such a reality is unique to the modern age. It is the myth of progress run amok. The idea that there is no upper bound to human achievement smacks of human pride and arrogance. [1]
Two Purposes for the Miraculous
Modern man is quick to deny the miraculous. “Miracles are impossible”—says the Bultmannian—since Nature is the whole story. “Miracles are improbable”—says the Humean—since laws of nature are exceptionless and miracles are violations of these exceptionless laws. “Miracles are not necessary”—says the scientists—since science is quickly closing all gaps in knowledge, gaps that pre-moderns used to plug by invoking God.
Was Jesus just a Great Moral Teacher?
The question of Jesus’ identity has perplexed and fascinated us since he arrived on the scene 2,000 years ago. In our own day we seem to have a Jesus for everyone: Super-hero Jesus, Common Guy Jesus, Homosexual Jesus, Traditional Marriage Jesus, Democrat Jesus, Republican Jesus, Mormon Jesus, Oriental Jesus, and so on. Pick a cause or an agenda, and there is a Jesus waiting in the wings, ready to offer his support.[1] Why does everyone want a piece of Jesus, yet so often, not the whole? That is, why are we so ready to ascribe to Jesus the status of a great moral teacher, a teacher who we can use for our own personal or political agenda, yet we hesitate to call him Lord?
The Argument from Reason to God
Naturalism is the view that there are no supernatural beings. The natural world is causally closed: there is nothing outside the box, nothing transcendent, nothing that impinges on the world from beyond. Thus, the basic level of analysis is physics: all reality, at rock bottom is captured by tiny bits of matter (quarks? strings?) that are properly understood by the discipline of physics. On this picture, a deep puzzle—conflict even—arises: how is it that our world is intelligible, if man is just a product of chance and necessity? Whence reason?
Five Things I’ve learned from C. S. Lewis
I’ve recently finished reading George Sayer’s wonderful biography on C. S. Lewis entitled Jack. I’ve always been drawn to Lewis’ writings. His fictional stories awaken my reason and imagination, urging me “further up and further in” to the mysteries and wonder of God and this God-bathed world. His nonfiction helps me see more clearly the beauty of Christ and the folly of materialism, idolatry, and false loves.
C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, and Solid People
This past weekend, my wife and I went to the theatrical performance of C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce in Dallas. It was wonderful, and if the play is coming to your city, I highly recommend you see it. As my wife described it, seeing the book acted out on stage helps one to feel what Lewis was communicating with words. In this post I want to highlight some of my favorite Lewisian insights from the book (and play).
Feed, Fatten, Fornicate
We are a culture that likes to keep our heads down. Focus on “the stream of experience”—the feast of video, food, sex, gaming, money, mindless entertainment . . .whatever . . . that is continuously carted before our noses, lest we take a breath and look up.
Fueled by the conviction that stories sustain us because we were made to be nourished on the good, the true, and the beautiful, I determined to read one fiction book a month for this past year. And I read some very good stories! In addition to fiction, I have benefitted greatly this year from some solid works in philosophy, theology, biography, and spiritual formation. Without further ado, here are my favorite books read in 2023. As is custom, in my book log, I record the book title, author, and date completed, along with a one sentence description. This has been my practice since 2009. My book log now includes 635 entries. This year I read 43 books.
I love to read. Of course, being a professor helps. I get to read as part of my job. That’s good. But I also love to read for the sheer pleasure of it. When it comes to fiction, I love entering into secondary worlds and journeying along with the characters of the story. Often non-fiction reads like a good story too: life is life, story is story, and often the two kiss (a loose paraphrase of one of my favorite nonfiction stories of the year, All that is Sad is Untrue). (more…)
I love to read. It’s partly why I’m an academic today. What could be better than reading, writing, teaching, and learning every day? Reading books awakens me: to truth, goodness, and beauty. I try, each year, to read broadly. This year, I managed to read 47 books. I’ve been recording every book read in a book log for over 10 years now. Whenever I finish a book, I list the date finished, the title, author, and a one sentence summary of the book. As has become my custom, I offer to you my favorite reads of the past year in philosophy, apologetics and theology, fiction, and non-fiction. (more…)