Month: May 2014

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 23rd

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The fourth Screwtape letter was published today (5/23) in 1941 in The Guardian. It deal with “the painful subject of prayer.”

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

(Screwtape Boasts:) “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out. ”

The Screwtape Letters IV
(Published in The Guardian on 5/23/1941)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

After Lewis’s death an early fictional work was published; what was it?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECT: May 22th – 31st

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the final third of May (22nd – 31st) include: A prize-winning essay, his first Christian book that was his only true allegory and a Pentecost sermon.

Lewis’s first book after becoming a Christian was very different in several ways than his two previous works. Those initial titles were poetry, while The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism, publishedon the 25th in 1933 was his debut prose effort. Additionally, the story was pure allegory. Interestingly, it was such a difficult read that Lewis himself even admitted it and ten years after its release he wrote a preface to explain his approach to the story.

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 22nd

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

Dangerous Oversight is a poem by Lewis published in Punch on 5/21/1947 and revised and re-titled Young King Cole in Poems.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Only the courteous can love, but it is love that makes them courteous.”

The Allegory of Love
(Publish 5/21/1936)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Where is Bism in the land of Narnia?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 21st

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The Allegory of Love was published today (5/21) in 1936. It was Lewis’s first academic title.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“The function of allegory is not to hide but to reveal, and it is properly used only for that which cannot be said, or so well said, in literal speech.”

The Allegory of Love
(Publish 5/21/1936)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Complete the quote and name the source (3 words):
“A man is _____ _____ _____ as when striking an attitude of humility!”
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 20th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

Lewis spoke on “Religion without Dogma?” today (5/20) in 1946 before the Oxford Socratic Club. An updated version is in God in the Dock.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“[The] scientific method merely shows…that if miracles did occur, science, as science, could not prove, or disprove, their occurrence.”

Religion without Dogma?
(Talk given on 5/20/1946)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

What sermon did Lewis preach sometime this month?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

08r Essay – Fern-seed and Elephants, pt. 1 (with Reggie Gates)

William OFlaherty All About Jack

The following is the eighth essay chat produced by William O’Flaherty. It is the first of a two-part discussion of “Fern-seed and Elephants,” a shorter work by Lewis that is best found in Christian Reflections. My guest is Lewis enthusiast Reggie Gates. Reggie runs another podcast website called “All About C.S. Lewis.” In this program three of the four major points by Lewis are explored.
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(Click “Read More” to Listen to this Interview)

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 19th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

What the Bird Said Early in the Year is a revised poem first published today (5/19) in 1938 as Chanson D’Aventure in The Oxford Magazine.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“A new Nature is being not merely made but made out of an old one. We live amid all the anomalies, inconveniences, hopes, and excitements of a house that is being rebuilt.”

Miracles: A Preliminary Study
(Published on 5/12/1947)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Who does Lucy first meet when she visits Narnia?

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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 18th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

Lewis’s mother, Florence Augusta Hamilton, was born today (5/18) in 1862. She went by “Flora.”

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“A country clergyman wrote to the editor (of The Guardian), withdrawing his subscription on the ground that ‘much of the advice given in these letters seemed to him not only erroneous but positively diabolical.'”

Preface to the Second Edition of The Screwtape Letters
(Written on 5/18/1960)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Complete the quote and name the source (4 words):
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to _____ _____ _____ _____.”

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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

C.S. Lewis Said What? YES, He Really Did!

William OFlaherty Special Feature

I’ve been working on a short talk for the 2014 Taylor Colloquium (9th Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends) about quotes falsely attributed to Lewis. Along the way I’ve come across some lesser known quotations that some might have a difficult time believing he DID say. While a collection of quotes of this nature could contain a variety of categories, I’ve chosen to share sayings that are generally humorous (however, some may be more ironic, than funny).

“A good toe-nail is not an unsuccessful attempt at a brain: and if it were conscious it wd. delight in being simply a good toe-nail.”

(Letter to Hugh Kilmer from April 5, 1961 in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3)

“If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you.”

(Essay – What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ? in God in the Dock)

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 17th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The Planets, a poem by Lewis was first published this month in 1935 in Lysistrata, II.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Everywhere, except in theology, there has been a vigorous growth of scepticism about scepticism itself. ”

Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism
(Talk given on 5/11/1959)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

What book that became the only book that Lewis revised was published this month?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)