C.S. Lewis

I have been meaning to do a post on C.S. Lewis after an incredible symposium from a traveling scholar. His name is Christopher Mitchell and is from Wheaton College. He's amazing-too bad I ruined the tone of the presentation.

Mitchell did a great job of explaining how Lewis was born into a loving family, which was destroyed by his mother's death and his own trip to what can only be the stereotypical scary boarding school. He didn't enjoy it.

So, he got mad at God. Lewis was mad that God didn't exist. He was mad that God might exist. He was mad that if God did exist then it was unfair that Lewis got the life he had, and that he wasn't asked whether he wanted it or not. Thus, Lewis became an atheist.

Lucky for Lewis he was an oxford prodigy who did very well in his studies of the classics. Throw in World War II for life experience, and Lewis began to rethink religion. Eventually some of his most athiest friends became Christian, and so too did Lewis.

What I found interesting was that Lewis recognized that his education was based in the intellectual ideas of naturalism (you know....Darwin). Well, what Lewis claims is that there is such thing as an arch of humanity, or myths across cultures that reflect the most deep human truths. This he calls imagination. The unexplainable. And that is where one finds religion.

After doing a lot of research on myths, Lewis delineated on the true myth which is frequently alluded to in all cultures and that is Christ's atonement (this was verified by the history channel's show yesterday which talked about how almost every religion has a redemption story and a good vs evil theme). Though, he makes note that conversion is more personal and the moment of conversation is almost impossible to express in words.

Lewis is brilliant.

And he claims that those who aren't Christian are such because of two reasons.

1. Chronology of snobbery (the idea of disregarding the information of past generations)

2. Lacks a satisfactory theory of knowledge (something Lewis deeply related to)

Ok, so how I changed the tone.

After this amazing lecture on Lewis someone brought up how Lewis--the creator of The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe hated children!-can you believe that? Anyway, I referred to a documentary called Shadowlands about how he really didn't like women much either. Keep in mind this is front of many many people.

Now, the presenter stops, says twice that it was a really good question, and quickly disregards talking about Lewis' relationship with women. At that point he was done taking questions....oops. (FYI it was 45 mins after the presentation was supposed to be finished).

My friend just said "way to go Sarah."

Anyway, I heart the presenter and C.S. Lewis (though I wish he liked women and children a little bit more.)

Mitchell also said that Lewis, as an atheist during conversion, said that the literature that spoke the most to him were works by authors who had religion in their lives. It was as if they had tapped into a deeper meaning, and after this realization, look at the works Lewis produced: The Great Divorce, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters.

Lewis said this about it "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."Great literature reflects Christ.

A quote to leave you with "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. "

PS: Happy Sunday-and I am way excited for the new Narnia movie.