“Meditation on the Third Commandment” was the sixth essay chat produced when I started them in 2012. I’m repeating it now because many of you weren’t aware of my shows back then. My special guest for this chat was Allyson Wieland. Allyson is the creator of behind CSL Book Club, an online resource for discussion questions for a number of books by C.S. Lewis. This essay is found in God in the Dock.
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(Click “Read More” to Listen to this Interview)
Month: March 2014
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 8th
FACT OF THE DAY:
During this month in 1948 Lewis began writing his autobiography Surprised by Joy, but it wasn’t published until 1955.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons.”
Good Infection
(Initially a BBC broadcast from 3/7/44)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
What book by Lewis that had been a series of broadcasts was published sometime this month?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
How Hooper Got Started (CSLM-43)
There’s no denying that Walter Hooper has made the greatest contribution to the study of C.S. Lewis, but do you know how he got started?
If you had to name only one person closely associated with C.S. Lewis’ work it has to be Walter Hooper. Just about every book published after Lewis’ death that is a collection of his writings has been edited by Hooper. Interestingly, Hooper, who was born in the U.S., only began corresponding with Lewis less than ten years before he died and met him only during the summer of 1963 before his death.
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 7th
FACT OF THE DAY:
Good Infection, the third of the 4th BBC radio series was given today (3/7) in 1944. It became the fourth chapter in Mere Christianity.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“It is quite right to go away from (the words of the Bible) for a moment in order to make some special point clear. But you must always go back.”
Good Infection
(Initially a BBC broadcast from 3/7/44)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Where is John, the main character in The Pilgrim’s Regress born?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
NarniaFans.com
Several fans sites for The Chronicles of Narnia started showing up prior to the released of the movie version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe back in 2005. One that has remained active over the years is NarniaFans.com. While still its own site, it is also one of the featured partner sites of the Middle Earth Network (disclaimer: EssentialCSLewis.com is also a featured partner and I have written articles on NarniaFans). As you might guess, NarniaFans does focus a great deal on the movies that have been released of the Chronicles so far. However, there is also a variety of general Lewis information along with some related fantasy news from time to time.
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 6th
FACT OF THE DAY:
“Christianity and Culture” appeared in the March 1940 issue of Theology, but someone replied to it that lead Lewis to comment further.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Once we have accepted an omniscient & providential God, the distinction we used to draw between the significant and the fortuitous must either break down or be restated in some v. much subtler form.”
Letter to Sheldon Vanauken 3/6/1955
(Published in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
How many books are there in The Chronicle of Narnia series?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 5th
FACT OF THE DAY:
Today (3/5) in 1908, when Lewis was just 9, he recorded in his diary that he had read Paradise Lost.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“A man is never so proud as when striking an attitude of humility.”
Christianity and Culture
(Published in March 1940 in Theology)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Finish the quote and name the source (5 words):
“It is no use to ask God with facetious earnestness for A when our whole mind is in reality filled with B. We must lay before Him what is in us not _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ .”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 4th
FACT OF THE DAY:
A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis became available for the first time today (3/4) in 1968.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“I believe no angel ever appears in Scripture without exciting terror: they always have to begin by saying “Fear not.”
Letter to Mary Willis Shelburne 3/4/1953
(Published in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Name the author who Lewis claims baptized his imagination in his teens.
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 3rd
FACT OF THE DAY:
Lewis read his paper “The Personal Heresy in Poetics” to a group known as the Martlets on this day (3/3) in 1930.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Every natural love will rise again and live forever in this country: but none will rise again until it has been buried.”
Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce XVII
(Published in The Guardian on 3/2/1945)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Who did Lewis read two chapters of what Narnia book before it was published this month in what year?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 2nd
FACT OF THE DAY:
“Memory of Sir Walter Scott” was a talk Lewis gave on this date (3/2) in 1956.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“What we practise, not (save at rare intervals) what we preach, is usually our great contribution to the conversion of others.”
Letter to Mrs. Johnson 3/2/1955
(Published in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Finish the quote and name the source (4 words):
“Until you conquer the fear of being ___ ___, ___ ____ you will remain.” (submitted by Winifred Sherman)
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)