All Things Lewis
Lewis wrote this:
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle's eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
(HT: KI)
... Just for fun, I've glanced around at the blogs today for thoughts on Prince Caspian, the latest in the Narnia box office series. I went to see it as soon as I could, which was Monday night, and loved it; yes, there was terrific poetic license, and it's too violent for most children, but Lewis' stories can catch that sense of longing for a distant homeland like none other, and that is always a gift. Lewis is perhaps one of the past century's most effective popular apologists, and I don't think that these movies fail him. Taylor has some thoughts on point, and Queen Susan made us proud as ever.
What interests me today is the surprising way that some of the very very camp in contemporary evangelicalism try to take a shot at every Lewis- incursion in our culture, simply because of the mythic elements that Lewis engaged; and the very very camp is not joking. There are some stern, flat objections to any reference to "pagan" myths in Christian literature: "there is nothing even remotely Christian about favorably including such (mythic figures) in a book or series of books which hopes to present an analogy for Christianity."
I have difficulty taking such objections very seriously, and they are symptomatic of much broader issues, but I'm interested to see what sorts of replies we might pull out of the hat to this sort of thing (without referring to any praises for Lewis at Touchstone; that's cheating). Any ideas? Is it right for Christian authors to refer to classical myth?
There is a relevant clip from one of Lewis' own lectures at UTube, which you can listen to here.
(HT. JH)
....
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle's eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
(HT: KI)
... Just for fun, I've glanced around at the blogs today for thoughts on Prince Caspian, the latest in the Narnia box office series. I went to see it as soon as I could, which was Monday night, and loved it; yes, there was terrific poetic license, and it's too violent for most children, but Lewis' stories can catch that sense of longing for a distant homeland like none other, and that is always a gift. Lewis is perhaps one of the past century's most effective popular apologists, and I don't think that these movies fail him. Taylor has some thoughts on point, and Queen Susan made us proud as ever.
What interests me today is the surprising way that some of the very very camp in contemporary evangelicalism try to take a shot at every Lewis- incursion in our culture, simply because of the mythic elements that Lewis engaged; and the very very camp is not joking. There are some stern, flat objections to any reference to "pagan" myths in Christian literature: "there is nothing even remotely Christian about favorably including such (mythic figures) in a book or series of books which hopes to present an analogy for Christianity."
I have difficulty taking such objections very seriously, and they are symptomatic of much broader issues, but I'm interested to see what sorts of replies we might pull out of the hat to this sort of thing (without referring to any praises for Lewis at Touchstone; that's cheating). Any ideas? Is it right for Christian authors to refer to classical myth?
There is a relevant clip from one of Lewis' own lectures at UTube, which you can listen to here.
(HT. JH)
....
posted by MM at 11:02 AM
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