“Myth Became Fact” was the seven essay chat I produced back in 2012. Although not directly related to Easter, it does touch on some aspects of it. I had the pleasure of catching up with Dr. Michael Ward, author of The Narnia Code and other books for this discussion. Note that we had some recording problems and the audio quality unfortunately didn’t come out as well as hoped. The essay is best found in God in the Dock.
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(Click “Read More” to Listen to this Interview)
FACT OF THE DAY:
Christian Apologetics was a talk Lewis gave sometime around Easter 1945 to an Anglican church group; now found in God in the Dock.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Those who read poetry to improve their minds will never improve their minds by reading poetry.”
Lilies That Fester
(Published April, 1955 in Twentieth Century)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Which Narnia book is the following passage from and who said it:
“And this is the marvel of marvels, that [Aslan] called me Beloved, me who am but as a dog.”
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Highlights for the first third of April (1st – 10th) include: Final broadcast from his last BBC series; preaching the same sermon for second time and the death of his grandfather.
The concluding BBC broadcast in the fourth and final series for Lewis stands out as the most noteworthy for this period. On the 4th in 1944 “The New Men” talk was heard from a recording made the previous month. It is the only surviving recording from the Beyond Personality series. When the book version came out it contained four additional chapters not heard on the radio (which are also found in Mere Christianity). When expanding the material for print Lewis actually modified the content of this talk and so what was actually heard that night is somewhat different than what is in the book. For the sake of simplicity I will
Highlights for the final third of March (22nd – 31st) include: Publication of The Four Loves, his first essay collection and republication of a landmark professional work.
During the last decade of Lewis’s life his Christian-themed titles had less to do with defending the faith and more with sharing his understanding of a variety of aspects of it. The Four Loves, released on the 28th in 1960 is one of those works where he shares his wisdom on a topic related to the faith he had gained a greater understanding of over his life. Many individuals are not aware of the fact that two years prior to the book release Lewis had given ten radio talks on this theme.
“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)
FACT OF THE DAY:
Today (2/21) in 1945 “”Who Was Right—Dream Lecturer or Real Lecturer?” was published in The Coventry Evening Telegraph.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Is it not equally reasonable to look outside Nature for the real Originator of the natural order?”
Who Was Right—Dream Lecturer or Real Lecturer?
(First published in 1945, it was reprinted as Two Lectures in God in the Dock)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
What book did Tolkien try to help Lewis get publish sometime this month in what year?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Highlights for the final third of February (19th – 29th) include: The beginning of his fourth and final BBC series of talks, a landmark lecture series that would become one of his most insightful works aimed at a mainstream audience, and a new edition of The Screwtape Letters containing a second preface.
The fourth and final BBC radio series kicked off on the 22nd in 1944. The series itself was first called “Beyond Personality” and the first talk was entitled “Making and Begetting.” However, on the 24th the text was reprinted in The Listener and it was called “The Map and the Ocean.” This was the first time Lewis’s broadcasts were made available before being collected in a book.
The two different titles for the fourth series debut provides some hints at what was presented by Lewis. He noted the words “begetting” or “begotten” are not used today, but its
Highlights for the second third of February (10th – 18th) include: The concluding talk from the “What Christians Believe” BBC series, an explanation of the word “membership” in a talk to a group and the publication of a selection of Christian-themed essays.
In 1945 on the 10th Lewis gave a talk, simply called “Membership,” to the Society of St. Alban and St. Sergius in Oxford. It was also published later in the year and is now best found in The Weight of Glory. Lewis explained in his presentation that the word “membership” in the New Testament differs from the way it is used today. Instead of speaking of it in the sense of a group containing like items, the Christian meaning is close to “what we should call organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another.” He also pointed out that believers are
Highlights for the first third of February (1st – 9th) include: Two more BBC talks from the second series, “What Christians Believe,” an often misunderstood debate and the first book that made Lewis famous.
An idea that started in 1940 led to international fame for Lewis. This is before he gained fame for being the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and even before he was loved as a defender of the Christian faith. A small book containing thirty-one letters set things in motion that made Lewis gain international fame. Although The Screwtape Letters had been released weekly in 1941, it was not until a year later, on the 9th of this month that all of them could be found in one place. The first edition of 2,000 copies sold out even before the date of publication! In fact it was reprinted eight times before the end of 1942. Despite being so popular, it is well known that Lewis actually didn’t enjoy writing it.
Highlights for the final third of December (21st – 31st) include: An essay about happiness, a special preview of a forthcoming book and two more installments of the eventual The Great Divorce.
Lewis had articles published in a large variety of places during his life. The final shorter work he wrote came out in The Saturday Evening Post less than a month after his death. “We Have No ‘Right to Happiness’” first appeared in their combined December 21-28, 1963 edition. The only other essay he wrote for them was the encore Screwtape piece mentioned last time. This article specifically attacks sexual happiness and was written at the invitation of the editor, Thomas Congdon. It begins with Lewis describing a comment by someone he calls “Clare” that defended the actions of others by stating “they have a right to happiness.”
