Through the Lens with C.S. Lewis

10 October 2012“If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to

end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much

are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are

still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.” 

C.S. Lewis

Chapter 12

Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without

sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,… (150)

Chapter 13

Why do real pleasures confound Satan?

…you allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it…you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there—a walk through country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words, you allowed him two real positive Pleasures. (152)

Chapter 14How can Satan use

our virtues(particularly humility)

against us?

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.  For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;  if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;  if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,

do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.(Romans 8:3-8)

Chapter 15

The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. (155)

How does Satan use time against us?

Chapter 16

Surely you know that if a man

can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is

to send him all over the

neighborhood looking for the

church that ‘suits’ him until he

becomes a taster or connoisseur of

churches.(157)

Why is it important to commit to a specific community of believers?

Which is right?TRADITIONAL CONTEMPORARY

Which is right?TRADITIONAL CONTEMPORARY

Are you “violently attached” to some preference in the

Church?

The real fun is working up hatred between those who say ‘mass’ and those who say ‘holy

communion’ when neither party could possibly state the difference…and all the purely

indifferent things—candles and clothes and what not—are an admirable ground for our activities.

(158)

Chapter 17:Gluttony Delicacy?

Excess?Paleo?

Vegan?Low

Carb?Low Fat?

Sugar free?

Organic?

Natural?

Chapter 18

…’being in love’ is the only respectable ground for marriage; that marriage can, and ought to ,

render this excitement permanent; and that a marriage which does no do so is no longer

binding. This idea is our parody….(161)

Love, Romance, and Marriage (chapters 18-19)

They regard the intention of loyalty to a partnership for mutual help, for the preservation of chastity, and for the transmission of life, as something lower than a storm of

emotion. (162)

…feed him on minor poets and fifth-rate novelists of the old school until you have made him believe that ‘Love’ is both irresistible and somehow intrinsically meritorious…an incomparable recipe for prolonged, ‘noble’, romantic, tragic adulteries, ending if all goes well, in murders and

suicides. (164)

Chapter 20

How has Satan used appearance in your life to distract you?

“As a result we are more and more directing the desires of men to something which does not exist—making the role of the eye in sexuality more and more important and at the same time making its demands more and more impossible!” (166)

HomeworkRead chapters 22-31 (pp 169-188)

Write a short analysis of the final chaptersCreate an image of anything related to any

part of the book.Prepare a presentation that includes an

admonition or challenge to your classmates about avoiding the Wormwoods whispering in their ears. (These presentations should

be longer than previous ones…)