Tag: The Great Divorce

RETROSPECT: March 12th – 21st

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the second third of March (12th – 21st) include: First ever published book, final Narnia book and a second marriage to Joy Davidman!

Spirits in BondageTwo books by Lewis were released for the first time during this period. His debut as an author came on the 20th in 1919 with Spirits in Bondage. This was a very small volume of poems published while he was only 20 years old, but many were written when he was just sixteen or seventeen. When initially released it was under the pseudonym of Clive Hamilton. They were composed in a period of Lewis’s life when his primary goal was to be known as a poet. It is also a time when he wasn’t a Christian.

Fact / Quote / Quiz: March 9th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

18th installment of the eventual book The Great Divorce was published in The Guardian today (3/9) in 1945. It was the first half of Ch. 12.

– – –

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“It is no use to say `Lord, Lord’, if we do not do what Christ tells us.”

Mr C. S. Lewis on Christianity
(published in The Listener 3/9/44)

– – –

QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Finish the quote and name the source (5 words):
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us: we are _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ will turn out to be.”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECT: March 1st – 11th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the first third of March (1st – 11th) include: First book collecting quotations and shorter passages, how Charles Williams became a friend and a former student previews The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Less than five years after C.S. Lewis died a collection containing brief excerpts from a wide range of his writings came out on the 4th of March in 1968. A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis would be the first of many books featuring quotations or shorter selections. This debut work was edited by Clyde S. Kilby, the person who began what we know today as The Marion E. Wade Center. The book is arranged into ten major sections and nearly all of those divisions are further divided into sub-themes.

RETROSPECT: February 19th – 29th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

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

RETROSPECT: February 10th – 18th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

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

RETROSPECT: February 1st – 9th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

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.

RETROSPECT: January 22nd – 31st

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the final third of January (22nd – 31st) include: The publication of one of the last books Lewis wrote, the first meeting of a special Oxford club and the last sermon Lewis ever preached.

Lewis was working on several books before he died in 1963. The first one published posthumously was Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. It came out on the 27th in 1964. While Lewis is known for writing in a variety of styles, this book is somewhat unique in that though they are present as letters to someone, they were really letters to an imaginary person. Today we have a large collection of actual letters Lewis wrote, so those new to his writings should be careful to note this fact. This leads to the obvious question as to why he would deal with such a serious subject to a fictional person.

Fact / Quote / Quiz: January 15th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

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.

– – –

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself.”

The Great Divorce
(Published on 1/14/1946)

– – –

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)

Fact / Quote / Quiz: January 14th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

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.”

– – –

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)

– – –

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 / Quote / Quiz: January 12th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The tenth installment of The Great Divorce was published today (1/12) in 1945; it covered all of chapter eight.

– – –

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)

– – –

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)