Andrew and Matt continue their discussion of “A Severe Mercy”. In the previous episode, they spoke about the “Pagan love” between Van and Davy, and in this episode they examine how “Divine Love” enters into their relationship.
S5E49: “A Severe Mercy Month” (Part II) (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
…this is a time of taking in – taking in friendships, conversation, gaiety, wisdom, knowledge, beauty, holiness, and later, well, there’ll be a time of giving out…
Sheldon VanAuken, A Severe Mercy
Chit-Chat
Looking forward to Narnia Month and the reading of The Horse and His Boy.
Beverage and Toast
No drink or toast today!
Discussion
1. ” The story so far…”
We pick up with Davy having had an encounter with the conviction of sin and them leaving to Oxford, still very much in love and the Shining Barrier strong as ever.
2. “Oxford Christian friends”
Intellectual, deeply committed to Christ and challenged their stereotype of Christians. They began reading Christian books. They read Lewis’ Screwtape, Miracles, and the Space Trilogy, but also other books by Chesterton, Sayers, Augustine, Graham Green, Charles Williams, and T.S. Elliot.
3. “What should we believe?”
They needed to believe that:
…the same God who made the world had lived in the world and had been killed by the world; and that the proof of this was His resurrection from the dead.
A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
4. “All or nothing”
They had an extreme all-or-nothing approach:
It is impossible to be ‘incidentally a Christian. The face of Christianity must be overwhelmingly first or nothing. This suggests a reason for the dislike of Christians by nominal or non-Christians.
A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
…Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important…
C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (“Christian Apologetics”)
How do you judge if you are giving all you can give (but it’s not really all) but all you can?
Christ says “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 8)
5. “Humility is tough”
Your point that Hitler and Stalin (and I) would be horrified at discovering a Master from whom nothing could be withheld is very strong. Indeed, there is nothing in Christianity which is so repugnant to me as humility – the bent knee. If I knew beyond hope or despair that Christianity were true, my fight for ever after would have to be against the pride of the spine may break out but it never bends.
A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (“The Weight of Glory”)
It is like a small child going to its father and saying, “Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.” Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book III, Chapter 11)
6. “Converting”
Davy Conversion’s – emotional needs more important, sin and pain, part was experiencing brokenness.
Van’s Conversion – When he realized there was a leap of faith forward, but a larger gap backwards.
7. “Reconciling the Barrier and Christianity”
How do we reconcile their “Shining Barrier” and Christianity?
“Aye, but ye misunderstand me. The question is whether she is a grumbler, or only a grumble. If there is a real woman-even the least trace of one-still there inside the grumbling, it can be brought to life again. If there’s one wee spark under all those ashes, we’ll blow it till the whole pile is red and clear. But if there’s nothing but ashes we’ll not go on blowing them in our own eyes forever. They must be swept up.”
C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 9)
Everything prior to this pointed to this. “Island in the West” in Pilgrim’s Regress; that something we long for, whether it be an island in the west or the other side of a mountain or perhaps a schooner yacht, long for it in the belief that it will mean joy, which never fully does because what we are really long for is God.
A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
8. “St. Udio’s”
Their studio fostered a vibrant community which they called St. Udio’s.
Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but “A’s part in C”, while C loses not only A but “A’s part in B”. In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Chapter 4)
9. “Incarnation”
If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe— no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book I, Chapter 3)
There was, I explained, no possibility of being in a personal relation with Him [God]. For I thought He projected us as a dramatist projects his characters, and I could no more “meet” Him, than Hamlet could meet Shakespeare…
C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy (Chapter 14)
… if Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare’s doing [Footnote: Shakespeare could, in principle, make himself appear as Author within the play, and write a dialogue between Hamlet and himself. The “Shakespeare” within the play would of course be at once Shakespeare and one of Shakespeare’s creatures. It would bear some analogy to Incarnation.]. Hamlet could initiate nothing.
