Tag: Oxford

RETROSPECT: June 1st – 11th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

The following is part of a series reflecting on the life of C.S. Lewis. This is accomplished by summarizing various events or happenings during his lifetime for the noted period and may include significant events related to him after his death.

Highlights for the first third of June (1st – 11th) include: two standout letters to children about Narnia, the acceptance of a new position late in his professional career and his most famous sermon.

Before the magic of Narnia started in 1950 C.S. Lewis had a magical year in 1941. In April he gave his first RAF talk, in May his first letter by Screwtape was published, in August he gave his first radio talk on the BBC and was asked to do a second series in September, then in December he gave a special series of lectures that became A Preface to Paradise Lost. But it is during the first part of June, 1941 that some would say was the best thing

RETROSPECT: May 11th – 21st

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the second of May (11th – 21st) include: Initial publication of Miracles, the landmark first meeting with a famous friend and securing his longest employment.

“Miracles” is among the many misused words in our vocabulary today. This was true even back in 1947 when Miracles: A Preliminary Study was released on the 12th by C.S. Lewis. Of course, Lewis was addressing more of an unbelief in the miraculous. In fact, as the inside dusk jacket of the first edition notes, the subtitle isn’t about Lewis giving his tentative thoughts on the subject, but rather the book is designed to be “a study preliminary to any historical inquiry into the actual occurrence of miracles.” That is, before any examination of specific miracles one has to believe that the miraculous can genuinely occur. Nearly thirteen years later (as mentioned in the previous column) a new edition was released containing a revised third chapter.

Daily Lewis – Fact / Quote / Quiz: May 5th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

One this date (5/5) in 1924 Lewis accepted a temporary position to teach philosophy at Oxford (his former tutor was taking a one-year leave).

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Screwtape’s observation of humans: “Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes.”

The Screwtape Letters I
(Published in The Guardian on 5/2/1941)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Who did the illustrations for The Chronicles of Narnia series?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Fact / Quote / Quiz: April 21st

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

“Interim Report” published in The Cambridge Review on this date (4/21) in 1956 presented Lewis’s comparison of Oxford and Cambridge.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician. Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.”

Religion and Rocketry
(Published as “Will We Lose God in Outer Space” in the April, 1958 issue of Christian Herald)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Who is asleep in The Silver Chair but wakes up in The Last Battle?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Fact / Quote / Quiz: January 28th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The Abolition of Man (released 1/6/1944) is the book Lewis did that he claimed addressed “a ‘serious’ point” that is presented in That Hideous Strength.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“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 what ought to be in us.”

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
(Published on 1/27/1964)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Lewis did something new related to his professional duties at Oxford on what date in what year this month?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Fact / Quote / Quiz: January 13th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

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)

RETRO: September 22nd – 30th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect

Highlights for September 22nd – 30th include: Debut story of a Sci-Fi trilogy, a landmark book published anonymously and the death of Lewis’s father to cancer.

It’s no secret that Lewis is known for being a versatile writer. One of his earliest efforts that spotlighted this fact is what happened 75 years ago on September 23rd. In 1938 Lewis released the first of what is referred to its fans as the Ransom trilogy. That’s because Dr. Elwin Ransom is a

Retro: August 1st – 11th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect

Highlights for August 1-11 include: Lewis’s first time ever on the radio, earning of a second First at Oxford and two more letters from Screwtape.

In one sense not a lot of events occurred in Lewis’s life over the years during the first week and a half in August; but then the most significant from this period is likely among the highest points in his entire life. It was on the 6th in 1941 that he stood before a microphone to