This past October, while visiting his family in England, David was invited to address the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society. This is a re-recording of his speech. Season 6 will begin next week…
S5½E3: “The Pilgrim’s Retrospective” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
“If [this] is well written and to the point, I am pleased; if it is poorly written and uninteresting, I have still done my best… With this I conclude.”
2 Maccabees 15:38-39
Discussion
1. “Journey with Jack”
“What? You too? I thought I was the only one”
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
2. “Lesson #1”
The lesson is “If you want to understand Lewis better, read him slowly…”
3. “Lesson #2”
The lesson is “Everybody loves Lewis”
Hostility [for my writing] has come more from borderline people… men not exactly obedient to any communion. This I find curiously consoling. It is at her centre, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests that at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Preface)
4. “Lesson #3”
The lesson is “Reading Lewis is an invitation to reading more widely and deeply”
5. “Lesson #4”
The lesson is “If you want understand the man, get to know his mates”
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). [Friendship] has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
6. “Lesson #5”
The lesson is “Lewis is more than just his ‘Signature Classics'”
7. “Lesson #6”
The lesson is “It’s more fun in a Fellowship”
But two, far from being the necessary number for Friendship, is not even the best… we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
8. “Lesson #7”
The lesson is “Embrace the iterative process”
“…if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly”
G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World
9. “Conclusion”
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”
Frederick Beuchner, Wishful Thinking
Great talk David! It’s been a joy to listen to you (and the inklings) these last few years. Merci beaucoup! And remember, the myrhh we get together, the happier we’ll be! Cheers, Mo
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