Tag: C.S Lewis

April 3, 2026 – Surprised By Joy, Chapters 6-10

April 3, 2026 /

I certainly can appreciate that C.S. Lewis is a famous and respected mind in the field of Christian thought. I also admire his desire to take on the philosophical debate about the existence of God. Talk about using your power for greater purposes. But, I have to say, the more I read this book the more that I am ready to move on. If I was not doing this series, I probably would quit the book. That is not somethings I never say.

I went to grade school in the 1980s. When we had some sort of media day, we looked forward to it with great zeal. Remember screens only came into the classroom a couple times a year. I remember that in fourth grade we were watching a rented VHS video. It was something about a boy and a seal. We got about ten minutes into the movie and the kid cussed a couple of times. I think he said something like ‘shit’. The teacher immediately turned the movie off and media day was over.

It made no difference how disappointed we were, movie time was over. The teacher deemed the whole thing unworthy because of a couple of bad words. I am not going to say that I would have made a different decision if I was the teacher. But, I am here to say that I had heard swear words before. It was the loss of what could have been that was more significant.

There is some bad stuff in this book. I am not necessarily ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater, C.S. Lewis that is. However, I what I am learning is that I am getting to the point that I don’t really care. I find myself drifting off while reading because I am not following all of the technical details. Before I started reading this book, I was expecting that there was going to be some kind of epiphany or Devine moment that we could all benefit from.

I applaud Lewis for being candid. I can understand that any victim of sexual assault would turn away from God. School sounds a lot like what I imagine prison to be like. A rigid hierarchy of status and expectations followed by a lifestyle of debauchery. Things are starting to change and we have to take Lewis at face value but it seems like getting lost in fictional la la land is not something I would prescribe to fix his situation.

Part of my attitude relates to my complete and utter inability to relate to the situation. Early on in the book, there was references to literature that either I read or at least was aware of. As the book goes on, those touch points become more frequent and more obscure. Lewis switches context between fantasy and reality using characters and plot lines that make it very difficult to follow.

On top of fading in and out of reality, there is this school hierarchy affectionately called ‘fagging’. I am aware that there are alternate definitions of the word fag but I can certainly see where today’s most common connotation has it’s origin. It is absolute adherence to to the made (typically older) boy having other’s as subservient, regardless of the ask or outcome. Today we would most likely equate fagging to slavery.

The concept is also distinctly un-American. In a culture where we all believe that the opportunity to pull up our own bootstraps is valued, having servants or slaves or at least not having our own autonomy is not relatable. I realize that this is a simplification of the situation, I also understand that this is an argument to be against the idea that God is Good. For that reason, I can see why Lewis continues in the path that he has been travelling.

Things have to change or at least I am hoping so. That is about the only hope left I have in this book. We can start to see that Lewis platonic relationship with the neighbor Arthur is leading in a more positive direction with an emphasis on more and more esoteric book titles. I say that because I have heard of a lot of them but I have no idea what the plot line is about so more fantasy time.

End Your Programming Routine: I would have to say that in the book to date, it is a wonder that Lewis came back to Christianity at all. Today, we are ultra sensitive to mental health as well as equality. I suspect that in those days, if you weren’t born into privilege then your social position was pretty static. In some ways, accepting that position is far healthier than wishing you were somewhere else and everything being someone else’s fault. We will have to stay tuned to next week for that big event.

January 9, 2026 – Mere Christianity, Book Four: Chapters 7-11

January 9, 2026 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

This section concludes “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. Next week I will do a complete review of the book per my usual methodologies. I also want to introduce that the next book is going to be “Then Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle if you want to get a jump start on reading that book. I am doing my best to keep up considering all of my free time is directed toward packing and moving.

In case you weren’t reading along, below is a one bullet summary of each chapter.

  • The Lords Prayer is to be spoken by the son of god.
  • Following Christian rules is not good enough because we will never be able to execute perfectly. Only once we accept that will Christianity work and we will be on our way to perfection.
  • People would prefer to be good enough rather than perfect. Perfect is only achieved through strict adherence to Christianity, see above.
  • If Christians are supposed to be nice than why aren’t all equally perceived as that? Think of where they would be without Christianity. All traits are gifts regardless of believer status or not.
  • Evolution can only take us so far and it is God’s plan to evolve us into better humans

The thing that I found interesting in this week’s reading was Lewis’ argument using evolution. In fact, I find Christianity’s general stance on evolution just plain wrong. It seems like it has been positioned so that you can only be on one side or the other. While I absolutely do not believe that humanity came from an amoeba or something, I see no reason why all life has not adapted to the environment. We even apply the same principles to livestock, pets and food with selective breeding. We even see the results in our lifetime.

The fact that Lewis acknowledges evolution at all seems novel. Not only that, by his writing he has accepted evolution as scientifically viable and uses it in a debate about Christianity is certainly unique. The idea that if we pick a point in time and think about evolution was an astute point. His point was that if we were guessing what evolution would lead to in dinosaur times is bigger, stronger and better dinosaurs. Nobody saw that the brain would be the better weapon then claws and spikes.

Lewis is a proponent of humanity evolving more toward godliness. I think my view is a little myopic but it seems like it is a hard stretch to say the Hitler is an evolution of Ceaser. I am more than sure that Ceaser was racist as he was brutal, making him and Hitler pretty much on par, just with different body counts and abilities to execute their vision at scale. The difference I see is that Ceaser was a product of his culture which was universally racist and brutal where as Hitler rose to that position.

I think that if we buy the evolution argument, it didn’t start at the birth of Christ. It should have started with creation. As a matter of fact, we started with near perfect beings that were of God. All the Moses, Solomon, David or pick your old testament hero had some character faults as we all do. But my point is that we should be much closer to the evolvement into Godly beings and I just don’t see it.

Another point that I mostly agree with was Lewis’ evolution of species argument. I think where this works is the time frame of the human life. He states that no matter low long we wait, a field of grass will not evolve into a field of wheat. The only way to get wheat is to plow up the field to start over. The point being is that we need to make drastic changes when we want drastic results.

My problem with that argument is the actual comparison. I think a more effective argument would have been you can’t get wheat from an apple orchard. Because both grass and wheat are grasses and I suspect that they diverged from one another at some long, distant point. But, the message is still clear and said by Einstein in a little more effective way. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”

End Your Programming Routine: Many of those other points I didn’t talk about today are standard Christian doctrine. Maybe if you are Atheist or Agnostic then discussing those items might do more than the impact on me. However, subverting a dyed in the wool non-Christian argument to support your argument is brilliant. Finding common ground is a surefire way to persuade someone to your argument.