Lewis' Lists

Last week I finished my class on the theology of C.S. Lewis at Reformed Theological Seminary. Although at times I felt overwhelmed by all of the required reading, overall, I felt like I've learned a lot about Lewis' views.

In spending the past several months reading his work, it was interesting for me to see that not just themes carried from one of Lewis' books to another, but (as one could imagine) some of his writing patterns did as well. One technique that I found interesting was C.S. Lewis' use of lists in a long sentence to emphasize the point he was making.

(I'm sure there's a Ph.D. dissertation in this for some enterprising young scholar who's willing to analyze Lewis' sentences that contain, say, three or more commas). Here are a few of the lists that I observed:

In "Mere Christianity" Lewis makes the point that all civilizations have a moral code or law:

"If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and our own."

In discussing his concept of "men without chests", (that is, a lack of a moral compass pointing to transcendent virtues) in the book "The Abolition of Man" Lewis declares:

"You can hardly open a periodical without coming across a statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive' or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or creativity."

In his preface to the "Screwtape Letters" Lewis gives us this list when he notes that evil is something that is not done exclusively by the poor in some Dickensian back alley, but rather it is also,

"conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices; by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice."

In explaining how to tempt a Christian in "The Screwtape Letters", the veteran demon Uncle Srewtape tells his nephew to focus his "patient's" thoughts on worldly things, thus seeing faith as simply a means to a worldly end:

"Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours -- and the more "religious" (on those terms), the more securely he is ours."

In "The Great Divorce", a fictional tale describing a trip from Hell to Heaven, Lewis' narrator describes walking through a large dingy city that turns out to be Hell:

"However far I went I found only dingy lodging houses, small tobacconists, hoardings from which posters hung in rags, windowless warehouses, goods stations without trains, and bookshops of the sort that sell The Works of Aristotle."

In his book called "Miracles", Lewis describes how prophets and saints have had a sense of the greatness of God:

"Because, just touching the fringes of His being, they have seen that He is plentitude of life and energy and joy, therefore (and for no other reason) they have to pronounce that He transcends the limitations which we call personality, passion, change, materiality and the like."

In "The Problem of Pain" Lewis describes how easy it is to deceive ourselves in denying our sinful actions and thoughts:

"I do not think it is our fault that we cannot tell the real truth about ourselves; the persistent, life-long, inner murmur of spite, jealousy, prurience, greed and self-complacence, simply will not go into words."

In "A Grief Observed" (Lewis' poignant account of his thoughts and feelings after the death of his wife), he writes,

"We have seen the faces of those we know best so variously, from so many angles, in so many lights, with so many expressions -- waking, sleeping, laughing, crying, eating, talking, thinking -- that all the impressions crowd into our memory together and cancel out into a mere blur."

In "Reflections on Psalms", Lewis reflects on how enjoyment naturally overflows into praise:

"The world rings with praise -- lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game -- praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars."

Lastly, in his book called "The Four Loves" Lewis gives my favorite list as he explains how God's divine love can help us love others:

"Divine Gift-love in the man enables him to love what is not naturally lovable: lepers, criminals, enemies, morons, the sulky, the superior and the sneering."

There are more lists from the writings of C.S. Lewis, but these are a few that I found particularly interesting. Lewis, we see from these examples, was not content with simply making a generalization about his thoughts, but instead desired his readers to ponder the exact, precise, specific, explicit and unambiguous details.

Grace and Peace,
-D.

Why Worship

If you gathered five Christians together and asked them, “Why do we worship?” it’s likely you’d get ten or more different responses. They might say,

• “Because we are commanded to.”
• “Because I’m thankful for all that God has provided."
• “To receive what God has for me.”
• Or, "To remember what Christ did for me.”

One of my favorite parts of C.S. Lewis’ book “Reflections on the Psalms” are his reflections on the worship and praise of God.

The words “Praise the Lord” can be found throughout the Psalms, and Lewis devotes an entire chapter on the topic in his book. (The chapter is called, “A Word About Praising”).

Lewis notes first his initial confusion when reading about the perpetual praise that the Lord asked for. “Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy.”

Lewis explains that “God does not only demand praise as the supremely beautiful and all-satisfying Object...he commands it as lawgiver.”

So, in a nutshell, Lewis is saying that God wants us to praise Him.

Before getting into the heart of the question of “why should we praise God”, Lewis first refutes the idea that God needs our worship:

“The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard of him, is implicitly answered by the words, 'If I be hungry, I will not tell thee' (Psalm 50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books.”

Lewis reminds us that God does not need our worship. Yet it is something that He requires/desires us to do.

Lewis also refutes the idea of bargaining with God, for example, people saying, “Do this and I will praise you”. He calls that notion infantile, but says, “I have often, on my knees in prayer, been shocked to find what sort of thoughts I have.”

As Lewis reflected on this topic of praise, an interesting insight came to him: that people praise all the time. Our praise may not be focused on our Creator, but praising, according to Lewis is something that all humans do. He writes this about his epiphany on the topic:

“I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…the world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars.”

So, praise is something that humans seem “wired” to do. He continues:

“I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?”

After reading the “isn’t she lovely” line I’ll do my best to refrain from any Stevie Wonder jokes...but Lewis explains here that the things that we are drawn to praise are things that we want others to join in praising too. Lewis explained that the writers of the Psalms, “in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.”

Like the angels, Lewis notes, Christians will praise God for all eternity. To imagine this, he explains that,

“we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God – drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which…flows out of us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression”

I had to read that passage again:

• drunk with delight (in the Lord)
• drowned in delight (of the Lord)
• dissolved by delight (in the Lord)

Lewis explains, “In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

Enjoying God. In part, that is what praising God is about. When we praise and worship we offer ourselves to the Lord and at the same time get to know Him more too. As Lewis explained, “it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates his presence to men.”

The Business of Temptation

I just finished reading C.S. Lewis' novel called, "The Screwtape Letters" for my class at Reformed Theological Seminary. The book is a wonderful study on the subject of temptation written from the perspective of a senior demon (named Screwtape) to his nephew named Wormwood.

The letters in the book are funny...with hilarious names for the demons (including Screwtape, Wormwood, Glubose, Slubgob, Triptweeze, Toadpipe and Slumtrimpet) as well as an account of Screwtape getting so angry that he turns into a centipede.

The letters are also written from the perspective of the demons, thus God is called "the Enemy" and Satan is referred to as "Our Father Below".

Among the interesting things in the novel is Lewis' use of the word "business" to explain the work of the demons. Screwtape tells his nephew:

• "So do not allow temporary excitement to distract you from the real business of undermining faith and preventing the formation of virtues" (Letter 5)
  
  
• "(God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them." (Letter 6)
  
  
• "Our business is to get them away from the Eternal and Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human...to live in the Past...or (to) live in the Future." (Letter 16)

The "business" then of demons, according to Screwtape, is to undermine the faith of Christians, prevent the formation of virtues and to keep people thinking things that are not of God.

Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" serve as a helpful reminder that we, as Christians, will face temptation. The professor of the seminary course, in fact, recommends that all Christians read the novel annually, as he does, to acknowledge the reality of temptation. For me, Lewis' novel is a humbling reminder of our weakness as humans and our utter dependence upon God to deliver us from evil.

Surpised by....

On Monday night my younger boys and I went to see the Cincinnati Reds play the Pittsburgh Pirates; two teams that are tied for last place in the National League Central division. The Reds trailed for most of the game and at the bottom of the ninth inning the Reds trailed by one run, causing some in the crowd of 20,000 to leave the stadium. The first batter up for the Reds in the ninth inning was the catcher, David Ross, who hit a double. Next up for the Reds was Ken Griffey, Jr. or simply "Junior" as he's referred to by Cincinnati fans.

I've enjoyed following Griffey Jr.'s career over the years. Growing up in Ohio, I was a fan first of his father who played for the "Big Red Machine". The first time I saw "Junior" play was in 1990, his second year in the Major Leagues, when I had gone to Seattle to visit my grandparents. That game was terrific, as the Mariners faced Nolan Ryan, a veteran pitcher with the Texas Rangers. When the Rangers were batting, Ken Griffey Sr. played left field for the Mariners, with his son in center.

For Monday night's game, as an older Ken Griffey, Jr. came to the plate, the crowd rose to their feet and began cheering and clapping. Soon the pitcher was in his wind-up, and then seconds after the pitch was released, Griffey Jr. hit the ball deep over the center field wall to win the game for the Reds. It was his 603rd home run.

The crowd, the boys, and I were ecstatic. It was so fun to watch.

On the drive home, the boys talked all about the "walk-off home run" while I thought about C.S. Lewis and his many references to joy. It was a concept that Lewis had first encountered in his youth, then in later life, saw the Christian implications.

Lewis used the German word "Sehnsucht" to describe the intense feeling of joy that people can experience. In "The Screwtape Letters", he has a senior demon named Screwtape explain this about joy to his nephew (who was assigned to tempt a Christian):

"Fun is closely related to Joy--a sort of emotional froth arising from the play instinct. It is very little use to us (demons). It can sometimes be used, of course, to divert humans from something else which (God) would like them to be feeling or doing; but in itself it has wholly undesirable tendencies; it promotes charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils."

As Lewis noted in other writing, finding joy can sometimes be surprising...like I found at the bottom of the ninth inning of a baseball game.

Reflections on Psalm 19

After my previous post, I received several emails about people's interests in C.S. Lewis' views on the Psalms, so I'll continue with a few more posts on the topic.

I found it interesting to read this week in "Reflections on Psalms" that C.S. Lewis' favorite was Psalm 19, a pslam with fourteen verses and attributed to King David. Lewis says, "I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world."

The first six verses of Psalm 19 are a description of nature, and how the heavens "declare the glory of the Lord".

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.

On these first five verses, Lewis notes that the writer, first "thinks of the sky; how day after day, the pageantry we see there shows us the splendour of its Creator. Then he thinks of the sun, the bridal joyousness of its rising, the unimaginable speed of its daily voyage from east to west. Finally of its heat.." He adds that "nothing is hidden from its heat" is the key phrase in the psalm, as the writer "has felt the sun, perhaps in the desert, searching him out in every nook of shade where he attempted to hide from it, so he feels the Law searching out all the hiding-places of his soul."

The next several verses (verse 7-12) describe the law of the Lord:

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. 11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

For me, it was interesting to see a pattern or "formula" in these verses:

"the ____ of the Lord is ____, _____, ____"

For the first part of the formula, the writer used the following words:

• the Law of the Lord
• the statutes of the Lord
• the precepts of the Lord
• the commands of the Lord
• the fear of the Lord
• the ordinances of the Lord

Next, the writer used this amazing set of words to describe the Law: perfect, reviving the soul, trustworthy, making wise the simple, right, giving joy to the heart, radiant, giving light to the eyes, pure, enduing forever, sure, altogether righteous, more precious than g0ld, sweeter than honey.



On these verses, Lewis explains that "the Law gives light, it is clean and everlasting, it is 'sweet'. No one can improve on this and nothing more fully admit us to the old Jewish feeling about the Law; luminous, severe, disinfectant, exultant."

Next (in verses 12 and 13) are two verses about forgiveness:

12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

The last verse (verse 14), I noticed, is a verse that traditionally many pastors have said just before delivering a sermon:

14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

...a good prayer for us to pray as we read and reflect on Psalm 19 too.

An Appetite for God

I've shared with some of you that I've started taking some classes from Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. The class I'm currently in is studying the writings of C.S. Lewis, and I've recently been reading his "Reflections on the Psalms", a book that I've found to be rich with insights on worship, justice, mercy and many other topics.

On worship, Lewis described the writers of the Psalms this way:

“They express a longing for Him (the Lord), for His mere presence…they long to live all their days in the Temple so that they may see ‘the fair beauty of the Lord’ (Psalm 27:4). Their longing to go up to Jerusalem and ‘appear before the presence of God’ is like a physical thirst (Ps. 42). From Jerusalem His presence flashes out ‘in perfect beauty’ (Ps. 50:2). Lacking that encounter with Him, their souls are parched like a waterless countryside (Ps. 63:2). They crave to be ‘satisfied by the pleasures’ of His house (Ps. 65:4). Only there can they be at ease, like a bird in the nest (Ps. 84:3). One day of those ‘pleasures’ is like a lifetime spent elsewhere (Ps. 10). "

What an extraordinary description of a heart for worship, or having "an appetite for God", as Lewis describes it.

I've recently begun hosting a monthly worship gathering that incorporates modern worship music with some traditional elements from the Church of England. I'm hopeful that as we gather, we will grow in our heart for God like that of the writers of Psalms.