This month we began a new series on “The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis”. In this episode, we give an introduction to this correspondence and next week we’ll dive into the letters themselves.
S7E17: “Praeclarissime ut Frater” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-Week
Most distinguished brother,
The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us always. He who is now about to write to you is a humble priest of Verona. The inspiration of writing to you came to me while I was reading your excellent book. My purpose is to open my mind to you regarding a problem of the greatest importance.
St. Giovanni Calabria, Latin Letters
Chit-Chat
- David has That Hideous Strength this week!
- Andrew recommends reading Descent into Hell by Charles Williams prior to reading it.
- David is hoping to get Paul Fiddes on next season to talk about his book, Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis: Friends in Co-inherence.
Toast
- David: Corona
- Andrew: Ménage à Trois Bourbon Barrel Cabernet Sauvignon and The Macallen 12 Sherry Oak Cask
- Matt: The Macallen 18 Sherry Oak Cast
- Matt toasted… Mary Margaret Beecher (soon to be Mary Margaret Bush!). This episode was recorded in advance, but Matt was planning to propose later that week, on February 23rd which is the feast day of St. Polycarp.
Discussion
01. “The Correspondent”
He is described in the Preface of the book as:
“Friend of the poor and tireless for unity”
Martin Moynihan, The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis (Preface)
- For a more detailed explanation of the canonization process in the Catholic Church, please see this page of the USCCB website.
- Don Giovanni was prompted to write to Lewis after reading the Italian translation The Screwtape Letters (“Le Letterre di Berlicche”). He wrote to Lewis in Latin because he wasn’t sure Lewis knew Italian, but was confident that he knew Latin.
02. “The Context”
- Lewis exchanges letters with Don Giovanni between September 1947 and December 1954. After Don Giovanni’s death, he continues the correspondence with Don Luigi Pedrollo until April of 1961, after which Lewis himself dies.
- The books Lewis was writing during this period:
03. “The Schism”
- One of the chief subjects of discussion between Lewis and Giovanni was the subject of Christian unity. To indicate the state of schism at the time:
As we enter the post war world, without any doubt the greatest enemy of freedom and liberty that the world has to face today is the Roman Catholic system. Yes, we have Communism in Russia and all that is involved there, but if one had to choose between the two…one would be much better off in a communistic society than in a Roman Catholic Fascist set-up.
Carl McIntyre, 1945
The differences between Protestants and Roman Catholicism is so profound that it seems almost impossible to recognize them as two forms of one Christianity.
Mark Knoll Francis
04. “The Translator”
05. “The Introduction”
- C. S. Lewis’s Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile edited by A.T. Reyes
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 a something, or a Someone, who against all divergencies of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.
C.S. Lewis, Preface to Mere Christianity
…Investigative researchers [who] “dig out all our affairs and sully them with the poison of ‘publicity.’” …
Martin Moynihan, The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis (Introduction)
Was I thinking of doing just what Lewis deplored? But the Lewis letters are already open to view. Moreover, intimate though they were in tone, they themselves did not contain any confidences which charity would wish to keep covered. On the contrary they were to me, and might be to others a source of renewed inspiration.
Wrap-Up
More Information
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