I can't believe it's been a month since my last entry! But now I'm back and hope to be more faithful; I'm pretty much caught up with grading, so I should be OK until I get my next set of exams!
I finished reading Fern-seed and will just comment on it briefly; I promised a student I'd give it to her this evening.
The book contains these lectures/papers:
1. Membership
2. Learning in War-time
3. On Forgiveness
4. Historicism
5. The World's Last Night
6. Religion and Rocketry
7. The Efficacy of Prayer
8. Fern-seed and Elephants
For our class, which read CSL's cosmic trilogy, I thought "Membership" and "Religion and Rocketry" would perhaps be most helpful. In "R&R" I found two things interesting. First, we get a glimpse of Lewis's imagination and his delight in thinking about faith in light of fantasy. He speculates that since the Incarnation took place on Earth, "It may be that Redemption, starting with us, is to work from us and through us" (91). This idea had been developed and articulated more fully in Perelandra. Having talked a bit about contact between humans and unknown races on other worlds, he says, "It sets one dreaming--to interchange thoughts with beings whose thinking had an organic background wholly different from ours, . . . to be unenviously humbled by intellects possibly superior to our own . . . , to descend lovingly ourselves if we met innocent and childlike creatures . . . , to exchange with the inhabitants of other worlds that especially keen and rich affection which exists between unlikes; it is a glorious dream. But," he says, "make no mistake. It is a dream. We are fallen" (91). This paper was published in 1958, about 15 years after the publication of That Hideous Strength; it seems Lewis' interest and delight in imaginary worlds and creatures had not abated.
Two other chapters I found especially interesting: "On Forgiveness" and "The Efficacy of Prayer." "On Forgiveness" was written in 1947; its main focus is in line with Charles Williams' The Forgiveness of Sins, which was published in 1942. It seems highly likely that the two friends, and perhaps others of the Inklings, had spent some time discussing the topic. Both reference the Lord's Prayer and conclude that if we don't forgive others, God will not forgive us. Lewis points out the difference between confessing our sins--to God and to others--and excusing our (or others) sins. "Real forgiveness," he says, "means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it" (42). Both Lewis and Williams are very practical in their approach; Lewis admits that forgiving others, especially "to keep on forgiving," is very hard. He says the only way to accomplish this is "by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.'"(43).
This is the kind of meaty advice that I so much appreciate from these authors. This is something I have to work at; it's been especially convicting reading these works during Lent--along with all the Lenten readings on Reconciliation. "The Efficacy of Prayer" has also been encouraging (?) during Lent. I'll give you a couple longish quotes--and not say much about it:
"Prayer is either a sheer illusion or a personal contact between embryonic, incomplete persons (ourselves) and the utterly concrete Person. Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In it God shows himself to us." (101)
Prayer is, for Lewis, God's allowing us to participate in His work:
"It seems to involve at every moment almost a sort of divine abdication. We are not mere recipients or spectators. We are either privileged to share in the game or compelled to collaborate in the work, 'to wield our little tridents'. Is this amazing process simply Creation going on before our eyes? This is how (no light matter) God makes something--indeed, makes gods--out of nothing." (102)
Lastly Lewis encourages us against the frustrations of seemingly unanswered prayers.
This little essay has been a real encouragement for me to continue in prayer and to pray very deliberately; yet I find it a bit discouraging to realize how little strength I have to persevere in real prayer. Still God is Good and Merciful, and, as Lewis notes, He knows our frailty.
