Through the Lens with C.S. Lewis

The Problem of Pain 219 September 2012

Journal Prompt14 September 2012

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  (406)

The Fall of ManA Little Light Reading

To obey is the proper office of a rational soul.Montaigne II, XII

Man is now a horror to God and to himself and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not because God made him so, but because he has made himself so by the abuse of his free will. (397)

How did this happen?

CAN God prevent evil?Does He?Should He?

What would have happened if God had prevented the first sin? (398)

“We now know…that so far from having fallen out of a primeval state of virtue and happiness, men have slowly risen from brutality and savagery.” (398)

How does this section of the chapter (pp 398-399) compare to what Lewis wrote about on Malacandra?

Only one thing is universal to all mankind.Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

p.399

The Essence of Pride

Since I am I, I must make an act of self-surrender, however small or however easy, in living to God rather than to myself….It (the human

mind) had turned from God and become its own idol….

(401-402)

The thesis of this chapter is simply that man, as a species, spoiled himself, and that good, to us in our present state, must therefore mean primarily remedial or corrective good. (404)

The world is a dance in which

good, descending from God, is

disturbed by evil arising from the

creatures, and the resulting conflict

is resolved by God’s own

assumption of the suffering nature

which evil produces.

(403)

Human PainSuffering, Anguish, Tribulation, Adversity

It is men, not God… (405)

How do we recover self-surrender in our current culture?

The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. (406)

How do we turn our thoughts toward God when things are going well?

“We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.” (408)

Remember the “intolerable compliment”?p. 385 if you need to look it up

The Intolerable Compliment

He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there’s ‘nothing better’ now to be had.

(408)

This is love: not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10

Testing, Trials, and Obedience

…whatever God knew, Abraham at any rate did not know that his obedience could endure such a command until the event taught him: and the obedience which he did not know that he would choose, he cannot said to have chosen.

(410)

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

James 1:2-4

Everyone dies. Only some find hope.

If I was dead, I wouldn’t know I was dead. That’s the only thing I have against death. I want to enjoy my death.

SAMUEL BECKETT, Eleutheria

I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.

WOODY ALLEN

I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.

JIMI HENDRIX

It’s better to burn out than fade away.KURT COBAIN

After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die.

E.B. WHITECharlotte’s Web

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

HELEN KELLERHis soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say "I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come." Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places

MARCUS ZUSAK, The Book Thief

Can you not see death as the friend and deliverer? It means stripping off that body which is tormenting you. What are you afraid of? Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret?

C.S. LEWIS A Grief Observed

Your Presentations from Chapter 7

“Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.” 

Dean Koontz The Darkest Evening of the Year

Pain hurts. That is what the word means. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine of being made ‘perfect through suffering’ is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design….tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.

(412)

homework

Read chapters 8-10 plus Appendix (416-433)

Write a short essay detailing how Lewis’s perspective challenges or confirms your conceptions of heaven and hell.

Create an image that captures your idea of heaven or hell

Prepare a 4-6 slide show presentation that includes your artwork AND the substance of your essay.