FACT OF THE DAY:
Later known as “The Invasion,” Lewis’s second talk from his second BBC radio series was given today (1/18) in 1942.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd.”
What Christians Believe
(Second Talk from BBC Broadcast on 1/18/1942)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
What was the title of the final sermon Lewis preached this month?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
FACT OF THE DAY:
Lewis’s “The Efficacy of Prayer” essay appeared in the January issue of The Atlantic Monthly in 1959.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Simply to say prayers is not to pray; otherwise a team of properly trained parrots would serve as well.”
The Efficacy of Prayer
(Published in the January, 1959 issue of The Atlantic Monthly)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
What other fictional book by Lewis was published the same year as the final Narnia book “The Last Battle?”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Many casual readers of C.S. Lewis believe that he disliked women and some of them even think that he “encouraged misogyny and the oppression of women.” That last view was something that Dr. Crystal Hurd ran into when she was defending her doctoral dissertation. This encounter is part of what lead her to write a series of articles about Lewis and women. She began this project in May, 2013 and at the time of this posting is nearly finished.
FACT OF THE DAY:
“The Romantics” is a poem that was found in The New English Weekly today (1/16) in 1947, but is now know as “The Prudent Jailer.”
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.”
The Inner Ring
(Published in Screwtape Proposes a Toast on 1/4/1965)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
What is the name of Aslan’s father?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
FACT OF THE DAY:
“Pan’s Purge,” a poem by Lewis was published today (1/15) in 1947 in Punch; it’s now printed in Poems.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself.”
The Great Divorce
(Published on 1/14/1946)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Finish the quote and name the source (three words):
“In any wholesome group of people which holds together for a good purpose, the exclusions are in a sense accidental…But your genuine Inner Ring _____ _____ _____ .”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
What do you do when you strongly believe in prayer but you are all too aware that it’s still somewhat of a mystery to you? Write about it to a friend that doesn’t exist, of course!
Less than a year before he died, C.S. Lewis wrote Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. It was published just a few months after he died. While Lewis had written many letters to others during his life that touched on the subject of prayer, he never really felt he understood it enough to claim to be an authority.
FACT OF THE DAY:
The Great Divorce (complete book) was published on this day (1/14) in 1946. The installments were called “Who Goes Home? Or The Grand Divorce.”
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.'”
The Great Divorce
(Published on 1/14/1946)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Sometime this month Lewis did what for the first time that related to him changing jobs?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
FACT OF THE DAY:
On this date (1/13) in 1919 Lewis returned to Oxford after being demobilized the previous month (WWI, of course).
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“He who converts his neighbour has performed the most practical Christian political act of all.”
Meditation on the Third Commandment
(Published in The Guardian on 1/10/1941)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
In what Narnia book was this said and who said it? “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
FACT OF THE DAY:
The tenth installment of The Great Divorce was published today (1/12) in 1945; it covered all of chapter eight.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Could you, only for a moment, fix your mind on something not yourself?”
Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce X
(Published in The Guardian on 1/12/1945)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Finish the quote and name the source (five words):
“He may say on his arrival down here, ‘I now see that I _____ _____ _____ ____ ____ in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked.'”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Highlights for the second third of January (11th – 21st) include: The start of his second series of BBC broadcasts, the publication of a fictional serial as a book and the death of a person Lewis lived with for the longest period of his life.
Lewis began the second series of talks on the BBC at the start of this period. “What Christians Believes” was the overall theme of the messages. The initial broadcast was on the 11th in 1942 and before it became better known as content from Mere Christianity it was included in the first published collection of talks, Broadcast Talks (AKA The Case for Christianity in the US). While not originally having a title, this chapter was later called “The Rival Conceptions of God”
