Growing With My Garden

  In recounting his own spiritual odyssey, Lewis tells how he was strongly driven by a sensation of desire which, in his autobiography, he terms joy and sometimes uses the German term Sehnsucht.  It is a yearning for something more, something which occasional experiences arouse, but which no experience in this world fully satisfies.  It is a yearning which can only be satisfied by a union with God.  One of the primary effects of reading LWW is to arouse and nourish  in the reader that longing.  As you read, note in how many ways images have this effect.  Lewis presents Narnia (which suggests the realm of the imagination, or something more?) to be a very attractive and inviting realm, but also one fraught with great peril. It is a place of moral values shaped by Christian truths which require careful attention.  The amiable faun right away identifies Lucy as a daughter of Eve and, of course, this suggests her fallen condition. He kindly invites...

  There is a fascinating paradox involved when one considers the nature of the Narnia Chronicles.  As one reads, one can see a great many Christian truths and attitudes shadowed forth in the imagery.  But, in his essay “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said,” Lewis sternly denies that he began with a listing of Christian truths, asked himself how he could communicate them to children, and proceeded to shape the Narnia stories accordingly.  Rather, he began with some images that compellingly presented themselves to his imagination and proceeded to let them shape their own stories in the realm of Faerie.  And he insists that he was not writing exclusively for children, but for adults as well; good fairy tales appeal to all ages.   But, as I say, a fascinating paradox is involved.  While Lewis insists he was not writing to communicate Christian truths, the Narnia stories are powerfully shaped by a Christian view of reality and co...

Aug 29: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Chapters 1 - 6 Sept 5: 7 - 12 12:13 - end 19: The Last Battle: Chapters 1 - 5 26: 6 - 10 October 3: 11- end I intend to make a post by August 29.  

   Paul Faber: Surgeon.  Chapters 48 - End. Our reading for his week begins with meticulous descriptions of the spiritual states of several of the characters, showing them at various stages according to their separate personalities and experiences.  Drake is shown sharing the intense inner doubts and struggles of his soul with Drew, struggles which show him growing in his spiritual life.  MacDonald affirms such struggles for the sincere Christian are inevitable.  Addressing God, MacDonald explains: If Thou wast One whom created mind could embrace, Thou wouldst be too small for those whom Thou hast made in Thine own image, the infinite creatures that seek their God, a Being to love and know infinitely.  For the created to know perfectly would be to be damned forever in the nutshell of the infinite. Thus, as a properly growing Christian, Drake quietly passes into eternity.   Faber, on the other hand, is just beginning his spiritual awaken...