(no subject)
In The Narnian, Alan Jacobs writes that what most bothers C. S. Lewis's detractors "is his insistence that people are immortal" (307). This does seem to be Lewis's defining feature and the source of his significance in my life. The belief that there is something--Someone--infinitely more substantial than this world means that whatever He tells me to do I do because of who He is, not because of who other people are. If He says to forgive someone who hurts me, I do because He says to, not because the other person deserves it. If He says to lay down my will to someone else's, than I do it because of who He is, not because the other person is better than I am. Who I am is wrapped up in who He is. Of course that doesn't make sense to those who don't know Him. It's crazy!
Of course this is all in the Bible, but Lewis brings it to life in ways that I understand. His writings exemplify the purpose that Sir Philip Sidney attributes to poetry: "Now doth the peerless poet perform both, for whatsoever the philosopher saith should be done, he giveth a perfect picture of it in someone by whom he presupposeth it was done, so as he coupleth the general notion with the particular example."
Of course this is all in the Bible, but Lewis brings it to life in ways that I understand. His writings exemplify the purpose that Sir Philip Sidney attributes to poetry: "Now doth the peerless poet perform both, for whatsoever the philosopher saith should be done, he giveth a perfect picture of it in someone by whom he presupposeth it was done, so as he coupleth the general notion with the particular example."