Me 'n' Clive

I'm going through a bit of a fixation. It happens quite often that when I discover a fresh idea (or a new restaurant, a strange word, an original film, etc.) I find it terribly intriguing and cannot leave it alone until I've had my fill of it. I am positive it becomes annoying to those who see me every day, but some things are just so lovely that it's impossible for me to resist their charm. Well, world, meet my newest fascination:

Professor Clive Staples (Jack) Lewis
Born: 29th of November 1898
Died: 22nd of November 1963

Yes, my dears, this is C.S. Lewis. Novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, Christian apologist, and genius extraordinaire. (I added that last bit, though many would concur.) He was born in Belfast, Ireland into a good, Christian home but fell into Atheism at the age of fifteen. At 33 he became, once again, a Christian and affiliated himself with the Church of England. His conversion is quite a story, but I'll use his words when he said that he came into Christianity "kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape." (From his book "Surprised by Joy".)

It seems to me that prodigals' conversions tend to be the most lasting, and this is most certainly true for Mr. Lewis. You've all heard of "The Chronicles of Narnia." I grew up on these stories, most especially "The Magician's Nephew" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", however I never knew how intrinsically connected they were to the teachings of Christ until more recently.

"Mere Christianity" is one of those books that I simply cannot get enough of. I honestly cannot understand how one mind of such previous disbelief could wrap itself around ideas so enormous and translate those ideas into language. Or perhaps it is the fact that he simplifies things in such a way as to completely undress human nature that is so incredible. I took a highlighter to my copy of this book, and after a few chapters decided it would be more sensible to highlight the parts that were not of any use to me. I saved a lot of ink. I did not have to highlight a single word after that. C.S. Lewis uses logic and common sense to explain how Christianity is the only plausible explanation for life or matter of any kind. Just brilliant.

Listen to this:

"... the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

"We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading though our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through. He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder--in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."

Wow. Deep, huh?

Currently, I am reading "The Screwtape Letters" which is just as mind boggling as everything else C.S.L. has written. How clever to take the position of devils in order to make known our human faults and weaknesses.

Well, I won't bore you too much more with details of his life, but one other fact that I thought was awfully wonderful is that one of the people who majorly contributed to C.S. Lewis' conversion was none other than J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of "The Lord of the Rings." The two of them were collegues at Oxford College in the English faculty, and became close friends.

How cool is that??

Well, I suppose I'll end by endorsing his writings. Read them. (But only if you have loads of time to spend pouring over each sentence.) This is not light reading, in the usual sense of the phrase, however I do consider it LIGHT reading as it enlightened me more than most books do.

Oh, Clive. What a guy.