... C.S. Lewis, that is. I always try to take on some sort of theme for my summer reading. This year I'm attempting to read through The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. That's 7 books {Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles and A Grief Observed}, 746 pages... which does not sound like very much, but Mr. Lewis is intense. It seems like I have to stop to catch my breath after each paragraph... his writing style is so beautiful, but incredibly deep and thought provoking. That being said, it's probably going to take me all summer to finish those 746 pages. For the bookworm in me, that makes me sound like a bit of a wimp, but I'm seeking to understand and enjoy each page. So even if it's a bit of a crawl, I'm going to do it!
And I'm going to share some of my favorite quotes with you throughout the course of the summer. Here are some favorites from the past week (Mere Christianity... pages 5 -89):
"Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better."
"We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man... There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake."
"It is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not."
"Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect... Reality, in face, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up."
"God created things which had free will... If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only that that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having."
"Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other... God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
"The Central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start."
"The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man."
"[God] wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but he also wants every bit of intelligence we have..."
"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare... I may repeat 'Do as you would be done by' till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him..."
"We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man... There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake."
"It is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not."
"Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect... Reality, in face, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up."
"God created things which had free will... If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only that that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having."
"Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other... God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
"The Central Christian belief is that Christ's death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start."
"The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man."
"[God] wants a child's heart, but a grown-up's head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but he also wants every bit of intelligence we have..."
"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare... I may repeat 'Do as you would be done by' till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him..."
More to come next week...
{xo. jarah}
{xo. jarah}
1 comment:
I sure do love me so lewis!
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