Thank you, sir. This was a delightful read. It's odd how sometimes I can enjoy someone else's dissertation on Lewis more than I enjoy reading Lewis himself. Probably has something to do with the time of day and amount of coffee I've had.
In response to your invitation for future materials that might help us through the root of problems today, I would go to the medieval resource of "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis. It's just amazing to me how a monk living in a monastery in the 1420s could write something that is so relevant to life in our culture today.
FWIW: The best translation I have found is the one by William C. Creasy.
With Orwell and Lewis, neither was unaware of his own cultural assumptions. Lewis doubled down on his reactionism. (It's all in Plato! God is essentially the Emperor Overseas!)
Orwell had represented the Emperor in Burma, had worked in the kitchens of Paris, had been wounded in the trenches of Spain.
And yet for all their clarity, Orwell still misunderstood what Lewis was actually doing, and Lewis admitted he was formed by the very world he was sometimes opposing. I think we all struggle here to one degree or another—it’s just the fruit of our particularity. It’s impossible to transcend our backgrounds as much as we might be able to see beyond them. I’d say Lewis did this better than Orwell, and they both probably do it better than most of us, but it’s a real limitation for all of us.
The first book that comes to mind is The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Yes! And along those same lines, Seneca.
Thank you, sir. This was a delightful read. It's odd how sometimes I can enjoy someone else's dissertation on Lewis more than I enjoy reading Lewis himself. Probably has something to do with the time of day and amount of coffee I've had.
In response to your invitation for future materials that might help us through the root of problems today, I would go to the medieval resource of "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis. It's just amazing to me how a monk living in a monastery in the 1420s could write something that is so relevant to life in our culture today.
FWIW: The best translation I have found is the one by William C. Creasy.
Great suggestion. I’ve never read it! One of the many gaps in my formation.
With Orwell and Lewis, neither was unaware of his own cultural assumptions. Lewis doubled down on his reactionism. (It's all in Plato! God is essentially the Emperor Overseas!)
Orwell had represented the Emperor in Burma, had worked in the kitchens of Paris, had been wounded in the trenches of Spain.
And yet for all their clarity, Orwell still misunderstood what Lewis was actually doing, and Lewis admitted he was formed by the very world he was sometimes opposing. I think we all struggle here to one degree or another—it’s just the fruit of our particularity. It’s impossible to transcend our backgrounds as much as we might be able to see beyond them. I’d say Lewis did this better than Orwell, and they both probably do it better than most of us, but it’s a real limitation for all of us.