Tag: The Great Divorce

RETROSPECT: January 11th – 21st

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the second third of January (11th – 21st) include: The start of his second series of BBC broadcasts, the publication of a fictional serial as a book and the death of a person Lewis lived with for the longest period of his life.

Lewis began the second series of talks on the BBC at the start of this period. “What Christians Believes” was the overall theme of the messages. The initial broadcast was on the 11th in 1942 and before it became better known as content from Mere Christianity it was included in the first published collection of talks, Broadcast Talks (AKA The Case for Christianity in the US). While not originally having a title, this chapter was later called “The Rival Conceptions of God”

Fact / Quote / Quiz: January 5th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

On this day (1/5) in 1945 the ninth installment of (the eventual) The Great Divorce (chapter seven) was published in The Guardian.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“In praying for people one dislikes I find it helpful to remember that one is joining in His prayer for them.”

Letter to Mary Van Deusen
(from Collected Letters, Volume 3 on 1/5/1951)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Finish the quote and name the source (four words):
“Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man ____ ____ ____ _____ .”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

Fact / Quote / Quiz: January 3rd

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

The essay “Religion and Science” was published in The Coventry Evening Telegraph on this day (1/3) in 1945.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“If there were anything outside Nature, and if it interfered – then the events which the scientist expected wouldn’t follow. That would be what we call a miracle.”

Religion and Science
(Published in The Coventry Evening Telegraph on 1/3/1945)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Although fourteen chapters are in The Great Divorce, it was first published in how many weekly installments?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECT: January 1st – 10th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect, Special Feature

Highlights for the first third of January (1st – 10th) include: Two books published for the first time (one posthumously), two paperback debuts, and initial US versions of two of his books.

If you’ve been reading this series for any three month span, you likely noticed he wrote a good variety of books (some being published after his death). Sometimes I’ve noted when Lewis’s books were released in the US for the first time or when debuting in paperback editions. During this short period a total of six books became available in one of these forms or another.

It was on the 6th in 1944 that The Abolition of Man was released. This is the only book of totally new material during this third segment of January.

Fact / Quote / Quiz: December 22nd

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

“Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce VII” was published today (12/22) in 1944 in The Guardian.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.”

Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce VII
(Published in The Guardian on 12/22/1944)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

Finish the quote and name the source (two words):
“Badness is only ____ _____ .”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECTIVE: December 11th – 20th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect

Highlights for the second third of December (11th – 20th) include: A follow-up piece to The Screwtape Letters, a warning about seeking to be a part of “the inner ring” and the printed version of Lewis’s final radio broadcast.

Lewis received many requests to write more material found in The Screwtape Letters but he always refused. It was almost twenty years between the time he wrote his first letter to Wormwood and something new from Screwtape would appear. However, on the 19th in 1959 readers of The Saturday Evening Post discovered the senior demon had more to say. “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” has the esteemed devil giving a speech “at the annual dinner of the Tempters’ Training College for young Devils.” After commenting on the poor quality of

Fact / Quote / Quiz: December 8th

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

“Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce V” was published today (12/8) in 1944 in The Guardian. This eventual became part of The Great Divorce.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“I do not look at myself. I have given up myself.”

Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce V
(Published in The Guardian on 12/8/1944)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

(Name the source of this Lewis quote):
“The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECTIVE: December 1st – 10th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect

Highlights for the first third of December (1st – 10th) include: The first book in the US collecting Lewis quotes, a collection of essays related to his profession and a book edited by Lewis focused on Charles Williams.

A Mind AwakeIn today’s world it’s not difficult to find a quote attributed to C.S. Lewis. Searching online provides a wide variety of quotations, but not all are actually things Lewis said (which will be the topic of an article I’ll be publishing in 2014). In the “old days” you had to rely on a much more reliable resource known as a book. The first of these actually came out in early 1968 in the UK, but the US version wasn’t published until this month on the 3rd in 1969. A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis is actually more than a collection of quotes, as some of the selections are lengthier. Also unlike the more recent The Quotable Lewis, which is arranged in alphabetical order, A Mind Awake is divided into ten major topics that has three to five subtopics each.

Fact / Quote / Quiz: December 1st

William OFlaherty Daily Lewis

FACT OF THE DAY:

“Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce IV” was published today (12/1) in 1944 in The Guardian. It’s chapter 4 of The Great Divorce.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“It was the light, the grass, the trees that were different; made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country that men were ghosts by comparison.”

Who Goes Home? or The Grand Divorce IV
(Published in The Guardian on 12/1/1944)

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QUIZ OF THE DAY:

(Name the source of this Lewis quote):
“You can’t, in most things, get what you want if you want it too desperately; anyway, you can’t get the best out of it.”
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)

RETROSPECTIVE: November 21st – 30th

William OFlaherty Jack in Retrospect

Interestingly it was on Lewis’s fifty-sixth birthday (in 1954) that he gave what hard-core enthusiasts of his works often consider one of his best talks to a non-religious audience. “De Descriptione Temporum” are not words you hear every day, but they were fitting as a title for his inaugural lecture as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at Cambridge University. The translation for this Latin title is “a description of the times.” The Internet Archive has a copy of the complete text. Later it was recorded (4/1/1955) as a radio broadcast for the BBC where the title was “The Great Divide” and aired on April 6, 1955. You can get a copy of this recording, along with other audio featuring his voice from Episcopal Marketplace.

As you might imagine, there are differences between the radio version and the actual address. If you have both you will want to listen to it and follow along the printed version to see Lewis’s ability to adapt a text to different audiences.