S1E23 – MC B3C10 – “Hope”

Last week we looked at “charity”, and today we look at another of the theological virtues, hope. Out of this entire book, this is probably David’s favourite chapter…

Episode 23: Mere Christianity: “Hope” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

• Matt and David chatted about how great it would be to hang out with C.S. Lewis in Heaven.
• They discussed preliminary plants for a potential podcast field trip to Oxford, England, in order to share a pint in the actually “Eagle and Child”.
• David shamelessly promoted his talk What does it mean to be a restless pilgrim? where he quoted from this chapter of Mere Christianity extensively.

Quote-of-the-Day

• The quote today comes from C. S. Lewis’ novel, “Till We Have Faces”.

The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing to reach the mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from, my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing, the longing for home? For indeed, it now feels not like going, but like going back.

C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

Toast

• Today, Matt and David were drinking another donation from Rachel and Meagan, Big Wave Golden Ale.

Discussion

01. “Wishful Thinking?”

• What do we make of the virtue of Hope? Contrary to modern opinion, it is more than mere “wishful thinking”. Rather, Hope is a virtue, like prudence, and fortitude.

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• Some people believe that Hope means the ability to abdicate responsibility. People often accuse Christians of not caring for the world because they believe in an eternal, glorious afterlife. But Jack says that this isn’t so…

It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• Matt referred to this classic piece of St. Paul:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Philippians 1:21-26

• David mentioned that he has recorded a video Series on the Epistle to the Philippians.

02. “Lack of Desire”

• As Christians, we should desperately desire Heaven. So, why is it so difficult?
• Matt recounted his reaction to flight turbulence.
• Lewis asks why this is the case. His first thought is that we have been conditioned for this world.

One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• The second reason he gives is that we don’t recognise the desire when it is presented to us.

When the real want for Heaven is present in us, we do not recognise it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• David describes the chapter on Charity in “The Four Loves”. Lewis describes how what we find beautiful in this world is a faint reflection of what is to come.
• Jack gives examples of the promises the world offers.

The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

03. “The Three Ways”

• According to Lewis, there are three different ways to go about attempting to achieve a desire for Heaven. Two are wrong, and one is right.

1. The Fool’s Way

• People who take this route blame the things themselves; if the things were better, then we’d be happy! But common sense tells us that this isn’t true.

Most of the bored, discontented, rich people int he world are of this type. They spend their whole lives trotting from woman to woman (through the divorce courts), from continent to continent, from hobby to hobby, always thinking that the latest is ‘the Real Thing’ at last, and always disappointed.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

2. The Way of the Disillusioned ‘Sensible Man’

• Otherwise known as stoicism. Everything is a mirage, and they give up on hope altogether. His assumptions have to become realistic.

He soon decides that the whole things was moonshine … And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses the part of himself which used, as he would say, ‘to cry for the moon’.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• This state is slightly better than the last…

This is, of course, a much better way than the first, and makes a man much happier, and less of a nuisance to society. It tends to make him a prig (he is apt to be rather superior towards what he calls ‘adolescents’), but, on the whole, he rubs along fairly comfortably.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• This option would be best if man did not have an immortal soul. But since we do, it is stifling.

But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? … In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed ‘common sense’ we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

3. The Christian Way

• The right way, the best way. Things of this world are signs pointing us towards Heaven. Matt quoted the entire section in full, where Lewis gives the ‘Argument from Desire’.

The Christian says, ‘Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a things as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.’

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

04. “Shepherding Others”

• How should we regard these earthly pleasures? Lewis describes it as a balancing act.

‘I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.’

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• The last point that he makes is especially critical. This is known as “vocation”. We are called to guide others toward God through what we do and how we behave.

05. “Biblical Symbolism”

• Jack spends the remainder of the chapter responding to critics who ridicule the concept of Heaven.

There is no need to e worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want ‘to spend eternity playing harps’. The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them … People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• Lewis also tries to explain the symbolism in scripture.

All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible. Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not al) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity. Crowns are mentioned to suggest the fact that those who are united with God in eternity share His splendour and power and joy. Gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Hope

• The best commentary on the Book of Revelation is “Coming Soon” by Dr. Michael Barber.

06. “Made for Him”

• Matt asked David to discuss his own journey with faith regarding the “Argument from Desire”. David talked about the Three Transcendentals, and how we can never seem to have too much of them, because we were made for infinite Truth, Goodness, and Beauty; put more succinctly, God.
• They also talked about the probability of future rejection of the faith and embrace of atheism (a highly unlikely event: sorry atheists!).

Wrap-Up

• The outline for today’s chapter is available here.
• The mailbag episode is coming soon! Thank you for all your amazing emails.

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