Monday, April 09, 2007

Mere Christianity...

The one good thing about my fake Intro to Adult Education class, (which is really a way of asking while simultaneously substantially charging me for this elaborate means of introspection... "You may be an adult, make a living, have a career and parent little future adults, but do you really know what you're talking about and are you worthy of getting a degree?") is that I am forced to read a little Christian philosophy. Which I always pretend I would love to read, but if I did really want to read it I would have done so... So, for my research paper which is due Thursday, I'm reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

What a genius.

Today's gem: (on the topic of pride vs. 'proud of')
"To love and admire anything outside of yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God."

"...if you really get into any kind of touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble - delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life."

On the topic of faith:
"Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes... Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole things looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable... unless you teach your moods 'where they get off,'you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For sure one of my favorite books EVER! He blows my mind, and his sense of humor in it all is priceless.