My point may be clear to some if it is put in a different form. Nature is a word of varying meanings, which can best be understood if we consider its various opposites. The Natural is the opposite of the Artificial, the . . . Continue reading →
Author: C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) was born in Belfast, educated prep schools in England, Belfast, and earned his undergraduate degree at Oxford. He was a military veteran of World War I and, in 1925, appointed tutor in Magdalen College, Oxford. He was converted to Christianity in 1931 and became a prominent literary critic, scholar of Norse mythology, Medieval and Sixteenth-Century English, and a leading apologist for Christianity. His academic work is still appreciated by scholars and his popular fiction (e.g., The Chronicles of Narnia are beloved by millions.
C. S. Lewis: Man’s Power Over Nature (Part 3)
Yet the conditioners will act. When I said just now that all motives fail them, I should have said all motives, except one. All motives that claim any validity other than that of their felt emotional weight at a given moment, have . . . Continue reading →
C. S. Lewis: Man’s Power Over Nature (Part 2)
. . . The latter point is not always sufficiently emphasized, because those who write on social matters have not yet learned to imitate the physicists by always including Time among the dimensions. In order to understand fully what man’s power over . . . Continue reading →
C. S. Lewis: Man’s Power Over Nature (Part 1)
In what sense is Man the possessor of increasing power over Nature? Let us consider three typical examples: the aeroplane, the wireless, and the contraceptive. In a civilized community, in peacetime, anyone who can pay for them may use these things. But . . . Continue reading →
Saturday Psalm Series: Parallelism and Poetic Imagination in the Psalms: C. S. Lewis Reflections on the Psalms
The Psalms were written by many poets and at many different dates. Some, I believe, are allowed to go back to the reign of David; I think certain scholars allow that Psalm 18 (of which a slightly different version occurs in 1 . . . Continue reading →
Strong Meat From The Stacks: Lewis On Egalitarian Education
Democratic education, says Aristotle, ought to mean, not the education which democrats like, but the education which will preserve democracy. Until we have realized that the two things do not necessarily go together we cannot think clearly about education. For example, an . . . Continue reading →
Lewis: When Being “Humanitarian” Is Inhuman
…My subject is not Capital Punishment in particular but that theory of punishment in general which the controversy showed to be almost universal among my fellow-countrymen. It may be called the Humanitarian theory. Those who hold it think that it is mild . . . Continue reading →
Lewis On Egalitarian Education: Will It Breed A Nation Which Should Survive?
Democratic education, says Aristotle, ought to mean, not the education which democrats like, but the education which will preserve democracy. Until we have realized that the two things do not necessarily go together we cannot think clearly about education. For example, an . . . Continue reading →
Lewis: Living In A Society Of Possible Gods
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, and to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you . . . Continue reading →
C. S. Lewis On Theology And Devotion
For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when . . . Continue reading →