I’ve started 2010 with a renewed determination to read everything C.S. Lewis ever wrote. Even his long out-of-print Oxford Guide to English Literature in the Sixteenth Century that I bought online a few years ago (when I first realized the depth of genius in Lewis’ brain) sits on my shelf. Last year’s reading of Planet Narnia solidified his genius to me, so this year I pulled down all the books I’ve started in the past few years and made a to-be-read pile.
Oftentimes I get stuck trying to come up with a philosophy of living, especially because I hang out with so many people with differing belief systems. While away on vacation last year as I read yet another not for me philosophy of living book recommended by a fellow writer who has pantheistic leanings, I realized I didn’t have to figure it out again. C.S. Lewis already figured it out for us years ago. His philosophy of living spoken so eloquently on the radio and in numerous concert halls speeches comforted the worrying citizens of Britain during their darkest days and after. His writings have comforted us all time and time again.
Why reinvent the wheel? I’ve stood in Lewis’ study and gaped unabashedly at his towering floor to ceiling bookshelves. They are crammed full and even those they display at The Kilns are just a small portion of the total number of books Lewis read in his lifetime. He was the most well-read thinker in our modern world, following Augustine or Constantine or John Donne. That’s The Kilns pictured below.
I will enjoy this year of rest from having to figure out a philosophy of living (that’s the first step to be real, I’ve discovered). As my Mom told me yesterday after reading a biography of Lewis: “He did the ordinary and let God do the amazing.”
I’m going to follow Lewis’ example for 2010. You’ll see the results, I hope. It is just too much pressure to be a faux celebrity (like Spencer Pratt or Heidi Montag) in our modern-day culture. Lewis didn’t put up with it. He much preferred hiking England with his beer maps and brother Warnie.
2010. The year of Lewis and me.
Ps — if you are on a Kindle, go here and look to the right side of the screen. I just scored 30 Kindle books for 0.00 (yes, that means zero) (all of Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes, the original text of Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, and numerous other classics, a Maureen Johnson YA, a few workout books, two devotionals, and a few Christian novels by some friends of mine).
{ 10 comments }
I’m part way through Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer. Lewis was already, by far, my favorite author/thinker, but this is putting him over the top. I have a huge book list lined up for 2010, but I am thinking about making 2011 my C.S. Lewis year.
That’s the one Mom and Michelle read. I’m determined to read his writing, but Sayer’s bio is on my list for sometime.
Seriously, why rejigger everything? Just let Lewis seep into your subconscious; I don’t think I can go wrong.
Plus, it will help me so much deciphering the pantheism, naturalistism, etc. philosophies that pervade my writing studies.
You can borrow all my copies for 2011. My C.S. Lewis shelf is sagging something fierce.
Yes! Lewis is good for the heart and good for the brain. Sayers is, too. I’m currently re-reading her book, “The Mind of the Maker,” which is a study of the creative process in God and man. It’s so good.
Meg,
I have a pile of Sayers. Hm, perhaps 2011?
Lewis read everything she wrote. I think they were friends, weren’t they?
Yes, I believe they were friends. This is a quote I found on Amazon recently: C.S. Lewis said that he liked her “for the extraordinary zest and edge of her conversation–as I like a high wind.” Doesn’t that paint a picture?
I love her Lord Peter stories, especially “Busman’s Honeymoon.” I’m delighted by the fact that a brilliant mind like hers also produced novels that are just plain fun to read. Lewis did that too, of course, and so did Chesterton, another novelist-theologian. Does our generation have anybody who can compare with any of them?
Nope. I like N.T. Wright, and would love to have him write a novel or two. Donald Miller should write some fiction. Susan Wise Bauer has some out of print fiction that is quite compelling, but she’s a historian, not a theologian.
It would be great to see patriarchal survivors rise up with fiction and memoirs that really inspire a grace-filled life. I’m still waiting. (Hint: Meg, keep writing!)
Of course I’ll keep writing. That’s what writers do!
I can’t be called a patriarchal survivor, but I have been watching several versions of patriarchy for a long time. That’s one of the things I’ve been writing about.
I’m always encouraged when I find people who have walked away from patriarchy but haven’t walked away from the Lord. It’s tragic when people blame the abuses on Christianity and throw the whole thing out. But I’m getting off topic now. Sorry. Back to Lewis!
Meg,
I’ve been told it would be easier for me to write a memoir if I did just walk away from my faith in Jesus. Or if my family were still in patriarchy. They weren’t given to me as judgments but as observations.
However, I’m so glad both of those are not true! It may be the harder way, but it’s the true way. I am so glad to have my Abba Father to help me when I have written something and I don’t even understand what it says (and Lewis is a big help articulating what I’m trying to say).
Nope, you can’t walk away from Jesus. Like Peter said, “To whom would we go? You have the words of life.”
Books! I’ve read a slew of them too, but listen to the hesychastic calling of the Spirit to stillness, and you will find times when God is calling away from the business of reading into the stillnes of His Silence, where our perfection is worked out (St. Ignatius the God-bearer, first century Bishop of Antioch ” Those who know the words of Jesus must go on to know his Stillness so as to be perfect.”)
Comments on this entry are closed.