Integrative Essay

Catherine Kramer

C.S. Lewis: Integrating Reason, Imagination and Faith

Ribeiro

January 25, 2011

Word Count: 1,659

Integrative Essay

                Longing and desire is a part of every human’s experience. Examples of desire are everywhere, easily spotted in today’s music, literature, television, movies, and other media outlets. But these expressions of desire are nothing new to culture. For centuries people have been conveying their deep-seated longings. In both the past and the present, many of these desires have to do with love and romance. For example, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers had such strong desires to be with one another that when Juliet died, Romeo killed himself in hopes that they would be reunited in the afterlife. Additionally, for centuries poets have used their way with words to show love. But, as demonstrated by the physicality of many poems, a good portion of these people were motivated by lust, not love. Just as common in today’s society, they confused selfish sexual desire, Venus, with compassionate Eros. Modern day examples of this sexual desire can be found in current music videos and the pornography industry. Obviously, many common longings exist in this world, including the longing to be loved, accepted, and needed. But ultimately all of these longings point to the deepest desire and longing of all: the desire for God. Both C.S. Lewis and Cornelius Plantinga Jr. give their views on longing, desire, and the hope that comes from knowing our ultimate satisfaction awaits us in Heaven.

                First, C.S. Lewis spends much of his “The Weight of Glory” sermon on the topics of longing, desire, and hope. In fact, Plantinga pulls several quotes and ideas from this sermon in for his first chapter of Engaging God’s World. One of the first things Lewis points out is that “we are far too easily pleased.”¹ At first, it seems as though this cannot be true. When one looks at all the unsatisfied people in this world, and our own discontentment with our current state of affairs, it certainly feels like no one will ever be satisfied. But Lewis insists:

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.²

Thus, it is made clear that the things on Earth that we use to satisfy ourselves temporarily show that our longings are weak. In light of the promises of God for His people, Christians have so much more to look forward to, so much more to expect than the empty happiness of this world. As a result, there can be hope, because God’s people are not made for this world, and such as those desires will only be finally satisfied when reunion with God is found in Heaven. Lewis describes these deep desires as “the inconsolable secret…the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience.”³ He expounds on the idea of the inconsolable secret in terms of how this world cannot satisfy our desires: “The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.”⁴ He additionally describes how there remains things in this life that offer hints of the splendor to come, that suggest the nature of our true longings: “These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but….they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”⁵ He also says that “at present we are on the outside of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure.”⁶ Using these word pictures as a guide, one can see that any fleeting satisfaction is only a slight glimpse of the everlasting joy to be found with God in Heaven. As Lewis puts it, “God will be our ultimate bliss,” but since “God is more than a Person,” humans should not “imagine the joy of His presence too exclusively in terms of our present poor experience of personal love,” because in this fallen state one simply cannot fathom the magnificence of Heaven and love of God. Thankfully, even though it is impossible to understand what Heaven will be like, it is very possible to have hope in the promise of it. Lewis puts it beautifully when he says: “The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”⁷

                Plantinga also has many interesting things to say on the topic of desire and longing, and our subsequent hope in the life eternal. Like Lewis, he uses beautiful and useful imagery to help explain his points:

What Augustine knew is that human beings want God….God has made us for himself.  Our sense of God runs in us like a stream, even though we divert it toward other objects.  We human beings want God even when we think that what we really want is a green valley, or a good time from our past, or a loved one.  Of course we do want these things and persons, but we also want what lies behind them.⁸

With this he begins to develop the idea of humans and their misdirected longings. Although we all want God, we are prone to misinterpret our own desires and thus try to fulfill them in an incorrect way. This is illustrated in the aforementioned examples of lust and longing present throughout the ages in poems, plays, art, and music. But Plantinga takes longing a step further and gives ample reason for Christians to view longing as a key part of hope. He incorporates Lewis B. Smedes’s idea that “genuine hope always combines imagination, faith, and desire.” The final component, desire,  is important in hope, because when “he desires the good state of affairs he imagines and believes in…his desire may rise to the level of passion.”⁹ This passion, shown in individuals such as Martin Luther King Junior, combines using the righteousness of God and the hope that people have in God and his promised deliverance from this world of sin, which will signal the end of evils such as racism, lust, and theft. This promise is of a time when all will be united, regardless of class, color, or characteristics. This idea appeals to many people because this is what all desires point to: Heaven, where we can achieve unity with both God and others. Moreover, we Christians hope for shalom. In the strictest sense, shalom translates as “peace,” but in reality it means much more than our simple definition of peace implies. Shalom, as beautifully described by Plantinga, is “universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, all under the arch of God’s love.”¹⁰ Shalom is what God will restore the world to when He brings His kingdom to Earth after Jesus comes again, as it says in Revelation 21:

Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.’ They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.¹¹

This is what we as Christians hope for: peace and fulfillment between the Lord and His creation. This is also what we long for, because all our desires, in the end, lead to God and the everlasting comfort only He provide. This idea is crucial to the Christian faith, and as a result, both C.S. Lewis and Cornelius Plantinga Jr. spend a significant amount of time focusing on it in these writings. They provide copious insightful quotes to help explain the concepts of desire and longing, and how those are involved in the hope we have concerning our future in Heaven. Through rich imagery, both authors explicate the frustrating feelings of unsatisfied longings, the reason behind them, and the final solution for contentment. After realizing first, that we look all around for fulfillment only to come up empty-handed every time; second, that we cannot find satisfaction here because we are not made for this world; and third, that hope abounds because we know that once we are reunited with God in shalom, all our longings and desires will subside, as we have everything we could ever want in our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

References

1.       Lewis, C.S. "The Weight of Glory." Oxford. Nov. 1941. Lecture, 1.

2.       Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” 1.

3.       Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” 3.

4.       Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” 7.

5.       Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” 3.

6.       Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” 8.

7.       Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” 7.

8.       Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God's World. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. 6-7.

9.       Plantinga, Engaging God’s World, 8.

10.   Plantinga, Engaging God’s World, 15.

11.   NIV Study Bible, Revelation 21:1-4.

Human Pain

In this chapter of Lewis's book "The Problem of Pain," he talks about the what, how, and why of pain. He defines pain and also gives its operations. As I have to expect, Lewis takes a topic that all of us are familiar with and brings new light and a fresh perspective to it. In this case, he makes pain feel different, though still very hard to deal with (he describes it as "anxiety that gnaws like fire and loneliness that spreads out like a desert, and the heartbreaking routine of monotonous misery, or again of dull aches that blacken our whole landscape or sudden nauseating pains that knock a man's heart out at one blow"), it is somehow more understandable. He explains that "Christianity teaches us that the terrible task has already in some sense been accomplished for us--that a man's hand is holding ours as we attempt to trace the difficult letters and that our script need only be a 'copy,' not an original." In typical Lewis fashion, his enlightenment brings hope.
One part that really stuck out to me in this chapter:

"I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless fashion...when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down....I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times....For a day or two [I] become a consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back."

This scenario plays out in my life time and time again. I often ignore God when things are going well in my life, and I do not even realize how distant from Him I have become until something goes wrong and I find myself on my knees, praying to God with the frequency and intensity that I should possess every day. This was a great reminder to me to always rely on God instead of only when I need something.

Engaging God's World, Chapter 5: Vocation in the Kingdom of God

In this chapter, Plantinga makes very interesting points about what vocation means to us as Christians. He notes that it is not what we do, but how well we do it, and if we do it for God's glory. I found a lot of this chapter quite inspiring, because it is good to remember that no matter what you do, you can honor God through it. I really liked when he talked about being a prime citizen of God's kingdom. He says:
 "A prime citizen passionately yearns for the kingdom. A prime citizen has been redeemed far down in her spirit, way downtown in her heart, so that she deeply loves God and the things of God. She relishes in God's Word. She rejoices in God her Savior....In her best moods she longs not just for happiness, but for joy; not just for joy, but for God; not just for God, but also for the kingdom of God. Because of her enthusiasm for the kingdom, she doesn't merely endorse justice in the world; she hungers and works for it."
This is a picture of what I should be, what I strive to be in my life as a follower of God. I like looking at my spiritual and life goals in this way. It is a good challenge to try to live my life by focusing my kingdom on God's kingdom. I had never before thought of myself as having a kingdom of my own, one that must work with other kingdoms and under the domain of God's kingdom. As Plantinga says, “none of us reigns in isolation. Much of the time we only have our say in community with others….Success also depends on meshing our kingdom with the kingdoms of others—learning to share living space, for example, or to take part in good teamwork. Successful living depends especially on fitting our small kingdom inside God’s big kingdom, always recalling where we got our dominion in the first place.” This idea of each of us having our own kingdoms makes me feel a new sense of responsibility, because my decisions affect more than just myself. It is also a reminder to serve God through the way I live my life.

Man or Rabbit?

"'Can't you lead a good life without believing in Christianity?'" That is the question that Lewis tackles in this chapter. Throughout this excerpt, he gives several great responses to this question. One is "If Christianity should happen to be true, then it is quite impossible that those who know this truth and those who don't should be equally well equipped for leading a good life. Knowledge of the facts must make a difference to one's actions." He then goes on to explain how if a man was starving, you might give him a big meal that could kill him. Even though you were only trying to help, but because you did not know the facts, you ended up doing harm instead of good. Without the facts, we are "in the dark," and our endeavors are bound to end poorly.
Lewis also says "He is deliberately trying not to know whether Christianity is true or false, because he foresees endless trouble if it should turn out to be true....You may not be certain yet whether you ought to be a Chrsitian; but you do know you ought to be a Man, not an ostrich, hiding its head in the sand." I like how Lewis directly confronts those people who are aware of Christianity, think it may be true, but are too lazy and complacent to find out. Instead, they try to avoid the issue, "to evade of the Son of God," hoping that being a 'good' person will be enough to get them into Heaven if such a place exists. Lewis basically calls them cowards, because men at least take the time to learn and discern whether or not something is true instead of avoiding issue entirely.
Finally, I think my favorite part is when Lewis says: "The people who keep on asking if they can't lead a decent life without Christ, don't know what life is about; if they did they would know that 'a decent life' is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for....in setting up 'a good life' as our final goal, we have missed the very point of our existence." That just really resonates with me. It is just hammers home why being a good person is not enough. Being a good person is not the point. It is not what we were made for.

The Inner Ring

I love how poignant and relevant everything in this is. When I first hear the word "clique," I am prone to think of high school and Mean Girls and constant fight to have the right clothes, hair, friends, and hobbies in order to "fit in." But the fact is that group exclusitivity certainly does not stay in adolescense. In fact, "The Inner Ring" serves as a warning about the future for college students about the circles that form in the real world, found in the workplace and beyond. No matter what your age, there is always an Inner Ring at play. It is in our nature to always be trying to get into the next ring, because when we are in a certain ring, we realize it is not as glamorous as it appeared from the outside. As Lewis says, "The circle cannot have from within the charm it had from the outside. By the very act of admitting you, it has lost its magic....You merely wanted to be 'in.' And that is a pleasure that cannot last. As soon as your new associates have been staled to you by custom, you will look for another Ring. The rainbow's end will still be ahead of you." I think it is easy to lose sight of this when we are fighting for acceptance into a certain Ring. We forget that if we are trying to make these friends simply for the status that they can bring, we will eventually be discontent and want to join a new group. But if we instead have "four or five people who like one another, meeting to do things that they like," then we have actual friendship, which "Aristotle placed...among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ring can ever have it."
I think if we take the time to realize this, we can hopefully become aware of the futility of trying to enter the Inner Ring. As Lewis puts it, "You are trying to peel an onion: if you succeed there will be nothing left." In light of this, we can instead try to pursue relationships with people with whom we actually have things in common with, and be the best workers we can be in our jobs regardless of the invisible hierarchies that form around us.

The Four Loves: Eros

I found this reading very interesting. I like how Lewis points out the differences between Venus and Eros. While Venus is the sexual element, while Eros means "being in love," which can exist without sexual activity and which includes more than that. Venus also can occur when Eros is not present. Lewis shows how "sexual desire, without Eros, wants it, the thing in itself; Eros wants the Beloved." On a similar note, he points out that "without Eros sexual desire, like every other desire, is a fact about ourselves. Within Eros it is rather about the Beloved." I think it is interesting how this kind of love can make us forget about ourselves in favor of someone else, the one you love. It is important that we be able to focus on someone else, and to show love for them by putting that person before yourself.
But we must be careful about our love, which at times can consume our lives. As Lewis put it in the recording today, "love only ceases to be a demon when it ceases to be a god." We must not put our love for another person first in our lives: that place is reserved for God. We must be on watch so we do not fall victim to the overreaching that can accompany falling in love. Lewis talks about this also when he says, "When natural things look most divine, the demoniac is just round the corner." Therefore we must make sure we remember to put God first, both in the relationship itself and in all areas of our lives.
I found his thoughts on men "wanting a woman" to be very striking. His bluntness comes through when he says "one does not keep the carton after one has smoked the cigarettes," in reference to a man who wants a woman only for the pleasure she can give, and not who she is. Directly following this passage, though, Lewis says: "Now Eros makes a man really want, not a woman, but one particular woman." I think this is a very appealing idea to women, because as we read in "We Have No 'Right to Happiness,'" they tend to favor monotomy. Thus, the thought that in Eros a man can solely desire the woman he has is quite encouraging in our view of men in love, as opposed to men in lust, who are more likely to treat a woman like a cigarette carton, whether he realizes it or not. In this way, I think that parts of Eros can help redeem parts of Venus.

Learning In War-Time

In my humble opinion, this is Lewis at his best. So much of my copy is highlighted because nearly every sentence is note-worthy. Some of my favorites, including both those we did and did not discuss in class, are:
"There is no essential quarrel between the spiritual life and the human activities as such. Thus the omnipresence of obedience to God in a Christian's life is, in a way, analogous to the omnipresence of God in space. God does not fill space as  a body fills it, in the sense that parts of Him are in different parts of space, excluding other objects from them. Yet He is everywhere--totally present at every point in space--according to good theologians." I like the idea that we can participate in human activities that are not strictly "religious" and still be obedient and still glorify God through these activities. I also just like his description of God in space, and how His omnipresence is all-inclusive, just as our obedience to Him need not exclude certain activities simply for not being "religious" or "spiritual."
"An appetite for these things exists in the human mind, and God makes no appetite in vain. We can therefore pursue knowledge as such, and beauty, as such, in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others do so." I just love the idea of God giving us the appetite for learning, and therefore we can spend this time as students glorifying God through our work here and we can also help others through it.
"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.'" I think this is such an encouragement for college. Everyone asks us about our futures and expect us to have it all figured out. But as many of us have found, deciding on a career path at 18 is not the easiest thing in the world. It is nice to have these words to remind us that what really matters is if we are living our lives for God in the here and now. It is important that we get our futures over to God and focus on the things we can do to live for Him this very day.

Engaging God's World, Chapter 4: "Redemption"

I think this was my favorite Plantinga chapter so far. I enjoyed how he talked about the covenant God made with His people in the Old Testament and then proceeded to give several examples of their failure to keep the covenant, while God remained faithful through everything. Here we find a lovely example of Plantinga's poetic language: "Through all these narratives, rich in their detail and intrigue, we hear, as if in the beating of a bass drum, the sound of God's steady commitment to keep covenant with people who break covenant." I really appreciate the image supplied here, showing a God on whom we can always depend and who provides a rhythm for our lives.
He also talks about the Ten Commandments, and how though we sometimes think them to be burdensome with all their rules and regulations, they are actually freeing. He also points out that the Ten Commandments are "a set of requirements that people have to fulfill not in order to get rescued by God from slavery, but because they have been rescued." I think that is a key point we often and are prone to forget. We get so bogged down in legalism that we do not embrace the freedom that comes when we follow God's law. In other words, " What God carved in stone at Sinai was a recipe for real freedom....Sin traps people and makes them wilt; godly obedience liberates people and helps them flourish....They say, 'Do this and you will thrive.' Or else they say, 'Don't do this: it'll kill you.' God's commandments are all pro-life." I think that is an excellent way of looking at the Ten Commandments. We need to realize the positive impacts of keeping God's laws.
I also really enjoyed the Martin Luther quote: "Good works are not the curse, but the fruit of righteousness. When we have become righteous, then we are able and willing to do good. The tree makes the apple; the apple does not make the tree." Again, another helpful word picture. This serves as a reminder that faith without good works is dead, but also that our good works do not make our faith, but instead comes at the result of a true, self-sacrificing faith.

Engaging God's World, Chapter 3: "The Fall"

In this chapter, Plantinga discusses the second movement in the CFR: the Fall. This chapter focused on evil and sin in our world. I think the distinction that Plantinga makes between evil and sin is very interesting. He says that "We might define evil as any spoiling of shalom, any deviation from the way of God wants things to be. Thinking along these lines, we can see that sin is a subset of evil: it's any evil for which somebody is to blame, whether as an individual or as a member of a group. All sin is evil, but not all evil is sin." I have always thought of evil and sin as synonyms. But this description sheds new light on things, not it helps make sense of things, such as his example of a two-year-old who kills someone is evil, but not the two-year-old's sin. This helps me understand between the two, with sin being a part of evil but all of it.
In addition to this differentiation, Plantinga gives several interesting comments about sin. For example, he says: "To sin is to overstep a line or else to fail to reach it; that is, sin is either transgression or shortcoming. These and other images tell us that, in a biblical view of the world, sin is a familiar, even predictable, part of life, but it is not normal. And the fact that 'everybody does it' doesn't make it normal." I just think this is a new angle from which to see sin. I never before thought of each of sins (at least the ones I am aware of) as one of two things: going too far or not going far enough. Also, it is interesting to note that although sin is expected and common, it is not normal. In sin's case, normalcy is not defined by its frequency or popularity. I think these insights help to round out the idea of sin, which is a topic we typically only talk about when we say things like "we're all sinners" or "we live in a sinful world." I thought it was useful to look at it more indepthly and from different perspectives.

The Posion of Subjectivism

In this reading from C.S. Lewis, he again discusses the existence of a moral law. He argues that there is in fact a moral standard in place that does not differ from person to person, and cannot be changed or altered. As he puts it: "This whole attempt to jettison traditional values as something subjective and to substitute a new scheme of values for them is wrong. It is like trying to lift yourself by your own coat collar....The human mind has no more power of inventing a new value than of planting a new sun in the sky or a new primary colour in the spectrum." Lewis presents several ways of looking at his points, and also refutes a few objections to his ideas that he has encountered. People claim that "to tie ourselves to an immutable moral code is to cut off all progress and acquiesce in stagnation." But Lewis first argues that the use of the word "stagnant" is too emotive. I personally liked this clever statement: "To infer thence that whatever stands long must be unwholesome is to be the victim of metaphor. Space does not stink because it has preserved its three dimensions from the beginning. The square on the hypotenuse has not gone moldy by continuing to equal the sum of the squares on the other two sides." He goes on to say that we should replace "stagnant" with "permanent." With this idea, the following of a moral code is the only way to decide whether our ideas of good are better or worse because we have a standard against which to judge them.
In the concluding portions of the this essay, it discusses some rather thought-provoking topics. We did not discuss these in class, deciding instead to look over them again over the weekend, and after doing so, I think I understand more so what he is saying. Before, I was confused about his statement that "God neither obeys nor creates the moral law." I struggled with the idea that God did not create the moral law.  But then I reread the part where he says "God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God." To me this meant that God did not create goodness but He is goodness and therefore goodness has no beginning or end, just as God has no beginning or end. That's how I read it, anyway. Anyone feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree, or point out anything I might have missed on this topic that might be helpful.

Mere Christianity

In this first section of Mere Christianity, Lewis begins by explaining his methods in complying this collection of thoughts as well as telling why he has chosen not to include several topics and issues. In the first chapter, he discusses the Law of Human Nature. Here he proves how all humans are governed by a common sense of morality, in spite of different cultures and customs. As he notes, "Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five."
In Chapter 2, points out some objections that people might have to his points. He has some insight into these types of objections, because he himself wrestled with these things on his path to conversion. He explains several ways to look at to refute the objections being made. After laying a "firm foundation," he moves on in Chapter 3 to the Reality of the Law. Here he talks about how men have the moral law, but do not follow it. Though they ought to be unselfish and fair, they often do not behave in this way. The end of this selection is Chapter 4, which focuses on what lies behind the Law. Here, Lewis shows how given our Moral Law that exists outside of ourselves must come from somewhere else, thus there must be a outside force or being. At this point, he does not even jump to there being a god, instead taking small logical steps in that direction.
One thing I found very interesting in this section was this quote from Chapter 1, when Lewis exlpains how we constantly fail to act in the way we expect others to act. Instead, we make excuses for ourselves as to why we should be the exception in this case. But he ends this section by saying: "For you notice that it is only for our bad behaviour that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves. I just thought this was a fascinating aspect of humans I have never thought about. Whenever we screw up, we can always pacify ourselves with one or more of these lame excuses, we can find find something outside ourselves to blame. But when we do do what we are supposed to, we are pleased to take ownership of that. Do we ever stop to consider that we act better towards others because someone first was kind to us? Do we ever remember we are in good spirits partially because someone took the effort to help us out? I think that once again Lewis has challenged us to think outside ourselves and focus on others instead, both in terms of the impacts we can have on them and the ways they can positively influence us.

The Screwtape Letters

In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis writes from the perspective of a senior devil Screwtape, who sends letters to his nephew Wormwood, instructing him in the ways of temptation and evil. In Letter XII, he talks about how good it is that the patient has become lukewarm in his faith. He is pleased that he is still going to church, still thinking he is a Christian, because as long as the patient remains unaware of his spilling away from God he will not realize that something is wrong and that he needs to repent and change his lifestyle. Screwtape describes this as a "dim uneasiness." It is crucial that Wormwood nurtures this feeling so that the patient will not become too aware and "spoil the whole game." This dim uneasiness is also an advantage for the devil because "it increases the patient's reluctance to think about the Enemy." Screwtape then tells Wormwood that the hard work is almost over, because as he becomes comfortable in this state, he will no longer need to be tempted by pleasures. Instead, he will be looking for excuses not to spend time with God or try developing a better relationship with Him: "You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday's paper will do." The patient will then slip into a state of nothingness. He concludes his letter with these troubling but true words: "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
I think that it is very important that we as Christians take the time to consider what we look like to the devil. And though Lewis can only use his imagination in writing these letters, to me a lot of it makes sense and it seems like a probable strategy for the devil. It is kind of scary to realize that even when we do not do wrong, we are still sinning because we are not doing right, by being stagnant and lukewarm in our faith. Though it is slightly terrifying, it is also important that we realize that it is the acculmulation of small sins that often leads down the road of destruction.

Engaging God's World, Chapter 2: "Creation"

In Chapter 2, Plantinga introduces us to the first leg of the CFR model of reformed doctrine: creation. In this chapter, he provides us with many interesting points about creation, including how it shows us as images of God and the implications of creation. I personally enjoyed this reading, because often I tend to focus more on the fall and redemption end of things instead of the creation. I sometimes have the attitude of "creation is not as important because it is in the past. The arguments even between Christians over the topic are not worth our time, because I long as believe created everything and as long as I remember that He is my creator, that is all that matters." But this section really reminded me of how wrong that thinking is. Creation is still revelant and crucial in our understanding of God and our relationship with Him.
First, creation shows us the ways in which we are made in the image of God. One way is through our responsible dominion over the earth. This dominion is not in the sense of conquering, but instead "in the sense of stewardship....dominion is never 'lording over'; it's more like'lording under' by way of support." Additionally, we are to "live in loving communion with each other." God demonstrates this Himself through the dynamics of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Finally, we image God because we share in suffering and death as Jesus did. And just like Jesus, we will one day be raised to new life.
Second, Plantinga provides eight implications of creation. These implications that include original goodness that deserves to be redeemed, that God created out of "goodness, power, and love," that God affirms the goodness of work and marriage, and that we need to maintain balance between our “individual and corporate identities,” just to name a few. I think these implications will serve as a good reminder that creation is still important today even though it happened a long time ago and that they ultimately serve as a testimony to the greatness of our God, who is both our Creator and Sustainer.

The Weight of Glory

Professor Ribeiro mentioned in class that this was considered by many to be Lewis's best sermon. I certainly do not know enough to make this claim, but I can say that this is my favorite Lewis piece that we have read thus far. In this sermon, Lewis comments on longings and desires, the reward and glory of Heaven, the inconceivability of Heaven, and our attitude towards others in seeing them as eternal beings. This nine page entry features many highlight-worthy quotes. I think we were all struck first by the idea that "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak." But Lewis points out that we are satisfied with temporary earthly pleasures when God offers eternal joy. Next, Lewis describes what it is like for a boy who is learning Greek, and relates that experience to Christians in pursuit of Heaven. At first we obey and learn because we must, but as we learn and grow in our faith, we obey because we want to. Lewis's next point concerns the inner voice that affects us all. I think his description of this voice, this deep inner longing, our "inconsolable secret," is beautifully written and spot-on in its emotion and breadth. He moves on, discussing such things as the need to grapple with the puzzling parts of Christianity and the truth that “God is more than a Person,” and thus we cannot limit Him to our small understanding of joy and love. He then addresses what glory in Heaven we will be met with. He explains that our glory will be our ability to please God, like a child’s joy at being praised. He also says that our glory will be luminous, and “God will one say give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendor of the sun.” He additionally explains that “Nature is only the image, a symbol” and that true beauty and splendor is beyond what we can comprehend. One of Lewis’s final points is the one that resonated most with me and it concerns considering our neighbors as immortal beings. Instead of seeing everyone in human terms, we are instead to see them as potential “immortal horrors or eternal splendors.” I think it is very intriguing to think of other people in these terms and to apply this sermon to our lives in the here and now. I think it will change my attitude towards those who may not always get along with, because they are so much more than the earthly configuration I see before me.

Our English Syllabus

 In "Our English Syllabus," C.S. Lewis gives his opinion on learning and what that really means. He says that "learning, considered in itself, has, on my view, no connexion at all with education." The first time I read this, I did not really understand by what he meant exactly by education and learning. In a traditional sense, "getting an education" and "learning" can be seen as synonyms. Typically both are associated with a school setting, such as in "Our English Syllabus" as Lewis is addressing the English Society at Oxford University. But Lewis explains how education deals with developing skills and fundamentals while on the other hand learning is an attitude, the active pursuit of knowledge, used in life to invest deeply in something. Lewis suggests that one find their passion and chase after it wholeheartedly. He thinks it is better to understand one area thoroughly than to spread your learning thinly over many different areas. He says that there is simply too much to learn everything well, so it is better to learn thing well instead of trying in vain to cover everything. He uses the example of not being able to learn the geography of the whole world, so instead focusing on Great Britain. Another approach would be to learn the highlights of the world wherever they may be found. On these two methods, he says: "The first would give him a real though limited knowledge of nature--would teach him how one country smelled, looked, lived, and died. But the second might make him a mere globe trotter." He ends the essay by saying that people must pursue their knowledge instead of allowing institutions to limit or control their learning.
When I first read this, I did not really understand fully what he meant by these terms, as a result I did not agree with it much. After our discussion today it makes more sense but I am not sure still if I agree fully with Lewis on this topic. I definitely feel like I have to read it a few more times before I can figure it out. At first I seemed to me that he was saying that we college students should only focus on one area. That idea does not really match up well with the liberal arts model we have here at Calvin, where we have a considerable amount of core that needs to be completed for graduation. But I believe that our core classes is an important part of our life at Calvin, and it can be considered part of our education still, while our learning begins in a way with our studies within our major. I think it is important that we do have a strong core because that foundation can elevate our learning and complement our passions. In class we talked about how right now is a type of “middle stage” between our education and our learning, which I believe is a good way to look at it. I would like to hear other people’s opinions on what they think about this topic, in terms of education and learning at Calvin.

Engaging God's World, Chapter 1

In this chapter, Plantinga introduces the book with the topic of longing and hope. It discusses how we each have longings and desires: to be accepted, to be loved, to revisit the past, and more. But "the truth is nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us. Much can make us content for a time, but nothing can fill us to the brim." Also, when boiled down, all our desires point to God. Thus, we will only be satisfied or "filled to the brim" when we are united with God in Heaven. Also, this subject of longing relates to hope. Plantinga tells us that "longing is an ingredient of hope."  These go hand in hand because we hope for the things we long for. One of things we as Christians hope for is shalom. Shalom translates as "peace," but it extends beyond our basic understanding of the word. It is like a world where everything is the way God intended it to be, full of love and harmony. We long for this kind of world, and therefore our Christian hope lies in Jesus, through whom God will reconcile the world to Himself.
I think it is especially interesting to note how many of his ideas include C.S. Lewis as a reference. I consider myself fortunate to be in a class where the required material matches up so well with the topic of the class. I also enjoyed reading this chapter because of its numerous striking quotes. One of my favorites was "Faith without works is dead (James 2:17), and the same goes for hope. Without costly action, hope can soften into sentimentality. With costly action, hope may harden into reality." This is a really fascinating idea that I have never encountered before. I think it is a helpful reminder that in order to really make a change you need to do more than dream. It is important to try to turn your hope into something real and tangible. And if we can make our hope into something more, we can work towards and catch glimpses of the shalom God calls us to.  

We Have No 'Right To Happiness'

This writing focused on society’s tendency to allow sexual indiscretion to be acceptable because, as Clare says, everyone has a “right to happiness.” But Lewis points out the ways in which this “right to happiness” idea is flawed. He says that the only situation in which we permit people to completely follow their instincts is in the sexual realm. He additionally points out that by allowing this in our society, we are setting ourselves up for two things: the harming of women and the decline of our society. In his words, “The fatal principle, once allowed in that department, must sooner or later seep through our whole lives,” and if we continue this way, “our civilization will have died at heart.”  I think Lewis has once again introduced compelling truths about a topic I have not thought much about, but which deverses our attention as Christians. We need to be aware of these issues and fight against them. Every essay we have read so far has opened my eyes about these new things in a way I can understand.

On a different note:

“When everything is said and done, what do we have but God?”


This line is taken from a song my mother wrote called "I Need Such Faith," which she based off of Habakkuk 3:17-18. I was reminded of it because of the closing comments of our discussion on Friday. I think we should pursue joy that comes from the Lord instead of "happiness," which the temporary product of earthly satisfactions. In regards to the verse, we think we can find earthly happiness from a budding fig tree, a grape-filled vine, fruitful fields, and plentiful livestock. In other words, we believe material wealth and success will lead us to happiness. But I think Habakkuk's point is that we do not need this happiness because it cannot compare to being "joyful in God my Savior."  When we realize the insignificance of these things in the overall plan of God for our individual lives and for the universe, I think this question sums up an appropriate conclusion: When everything is said and done, what do we have but God? The answer is nothing. Not only do we have nothing, but we ARE nothing without God. I think this relates to what we talked about on Friday in terms of "We Have No 'Right to Happiness,'" because we do not have any right to happiness because of our total depravity, our inherent status as sinners. For the same reason, we do not deserve God's perfect love. But by God's grace, we receive this love, and as a result we can experience joy on earth, hints of His glorious Kingdom.

Bulverism

In C.S. Lewis's "Bulverism," he approaches a topic that we all can relate to. As mentioned in class, we use it with both our friends and our foes. Bulverism is used in argument when you "assume your opponent is wrong, and then explain his error." In doing this, though, you are not looking to prove why your opponent is wrong; instead it is just assumed, a presupposed fact. There is something inherent about your opponent that makes them wrong, as shown when Lewis uses the example of  a young Ezekiel Bulver, who overhears his mother say to his father, "'Oh, you say that because you are a man,'" when in reality their argument has nothing to do with gender. Much of the problem of Bulverism arises from the fact that it involves looking at the person as opposed to the argument they are making. As a result, Bulverism is prevalent in politics, where people attack their opponents in order to win arguments and thus elections. Also, many controversial issues where both sides show intense passion, as in the debate over evolutionists and creationists, feature almost constant instances of Bulverism.
I think the fact that Lewis chooses to both address and identify this issue is very fascinating and relevant. Though written in 1941, the ideas in this piece are still found in our lives today. And while all of us have experienced Bulverism before, both as victim and culprit, we never previously had such a concise term by which to define it until Bulverism. It is also one of those things that is we do not think about conciously very often, but when it is brought to our attention (as in this piece), we realize it's negative effects on our lives and relationships. Because of this realization, we can now combat the problem due to our heightened awareness. I think the ways to combat that we discussed in class, such as having humility and accepting that we are all flawed and finite beings, can help eliminate Bulverism from our lives.
I think it is important when dealing with this issue to look at the argument itself as opposed to the person giving it. While it may be helpful to know the different characteristics of the person that may influence their argument, I think it often causes more trouble through possible Bulverism. I also think it is important to look at the other extreme, where one automatically assumes the argument of another is valid because of admiration for said person. Some of us in class expressed that we may be prone to run into this problem with C.S. Lewis himself. Given such a prolific writer, it is easy to assume his ideas are superior and always right. But it is important that we also think for ourselves and establish our own beliefs.

Meditation in a Toolshed

Three Distinct Thoughts About the Reading:

When reading Lewis's examples of the differences between looking at and looking along, such as with the view of the lovers as opposed to the view of scientists, I was reminded of the differences between connotation and denotation. Connotation is the associated meaning of a word, while denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word. Thus, connotation is like looking along, as it deals with experience, and denotation is similar to looking at, as it deals directly with the word without considering associations or experience. And as with looking at and looking along, both are necessary, and one should not be rated as consistently superior to the other. If you only consider what a word means to you, it often leads to miscommunication with others. Likewise, connotation can aid in writing skillfully and speaking eloquently, and therefore one should not be limited to dictionary defintions. As Lewis said, "One must look both along and at everything." A balance of the two can lead to truth and clarity.

I think Lewis's ideas about contemporary thought were very applicable in our world today. He said "It is perfectly easy to go on all your life giving explanations of religion, love, morality, honour, and the like, without having been inside any of them." I think this statement is very true of the current society. With the technological advances of recent years, people have a seemingly endless amount of information at their fingertips. The problem with this is that most of this so-called "knowledge" hardly straches the surface of any meaningful topic, and as a result, people believe they understand something fully, when in reality they are only speaking from a limited outside view. It is important to be aware of this, so that we can instead actively pursue deep understanding, both through looking at and looking along.

One of the things that struck me in this piece was how Lewis took the seemingly insignificant event of noticing a beam of light in a toolshed and related it to a much larger topic. I think it highlights his ability to relate everyday life with the big picture. It is easy to spend all day without ever noticing the surroundings. It is even easier to not notice the possible implications of the small details of the environment and how those details relate to other aspects of life. His decision to use common images of the light beam and the trees help give his message relatability. For me, the mental pictures of the light beam in the dark shed and the contrasting images of the trees and the sun help understanding the somewhat abstract concepts discussed in the reading.