In a previous article, Lewis’s Accusation, I quoted C.S. Lewis from The Abolition of Man: While we speak from within the Tao we can speak of Man having power over himself in a sense truly analogous to an individual’s self-control. But the moment we step outside and regard the Tao as a mere subjective product, […]
“Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me.” These words are perhaps so familiar to us that we might miss the offense it bears against the meaning of Easter. (A meaning we should still contemplate in the Paschal season.) For Emily Dickinson death actually turns out to be quite the gentlemen,
Every parent I know is intimately familiar with the barrage of questions we receive from our children. This past summer our family spent a week at a beautiful lake in the mountains of North Carolina. My wife, a high school literature teacher, and I, a religious studies teacher, planned to use our peaceful vacation as
Questions: The Key to the Country from Whence the Shadows Fall Read More »
In his work Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis reminds us that we are untrue beings veiled even from our own sight by all manner of things. The reason Orual is incapable of hearing from the gods is because she is not speaking truthfully; the reason she cannot see the gods is because she
In the past few months, I have seen young friends, after anticipating their high school graduations for four years, resign themselves to virtually “walking” on Zoom. I have seen engaged couples, dreaming of their weddings for several decades, reluctantly decide to live-stream their services from an almost-empty church. I have seen a lawyer, having reached
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. – C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
Gardens in the Desert: Classical Educators in Local Community Read More »
These days most education is moving online amidst the frenzy of doomsday alarmism and a dogged trust in fiscal stimulus bills and N95 masks; unusual practical concerns—will Safeway have beans and toilet paper today?—beset many households; the specter of economic recession haunts our minds, employment, and portfolios. These days it’s hard to maintain focus on
This article is part two in a series of reflections on what The Confessions of Saint Augustine has to say to modern educators. In a culture obsessed with efficiency, performance, and competition, we often overlook one of life’s simple pleasures–a pleasure that children experience readily until grown-ups teach it out of them. Lewis explains this
Pondering and Doxology: St. Augustine’s Pedagogical Pattern Read More »
In That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis tells the story of Mark Studdock, a servile man who ironically comes to realize his true freedom in the limitation of a jail cell. However unpleasant it may be, we have it on good authority that “being at close quarters with death” can actually be good medicine for the
Why Leisure Can Save You from Hell (Or, Don’t Go to Lunch Just Yet) Read More »
Advent is a time of awe, awaiting the celebration of Christ’s birth. Madeleine L’Engle, famous for her book A Wrinkle in Time, wrote in her poem “The Birth of Wonder”: But now is the hour When I remember An infant’s power On a cold December. What is this infant’s wondrous power? Nothing less than to
