August 24: Mere Christianity: Book IV, Chapters 4-7
On Sunday, Aug. 24, 4:00-5:30 p.m., we'll continue our discussion of Mere Christianity with Book IV, "Beyond Personality: or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity," Chapters 4-7. All are welcome whether or not you've been part of the conversation up to this point. Here is a selected passage from each chapter:
BOOK IV: Ch 4: Good Infection: paragraph 8:
Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die.
BOOK IV: Ch 5 : The Obstinate Toy Soldiers: paragraph 3:
Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it.
BOOK IV: Ch 6: Two Notes: paragraph 3:
I feel a strong desire to tell you—and I expect you have a strong desire to tell me—which of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs—pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.
BOOK IV: Ch 7: Let's Pretend: paragraph 2:
Its very first words are Our Father. Do you now see what those words mean? They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself in the place of a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending. Because, of course, the moment you realise what the words mean, you realise that you are not a son of God. You are not being like The Son of God, whose will and interests are at one with those of the Father: you are a bundle of self-centered fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death. So that, in a way, this dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek. But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it.
Houston Christian University will host C. S. Lewis: Reason and Imagination on Oct. 9-10, 2025. Michael Ward will speak on "Aslan at 75: Reflections on C. S. Lewis's Christological Imagination" (Thursday, Oct. 9, 7-9 PM). Don King will speak on "C. S. Lewis's Nature Poetry: Yearning for Eden" (Friday, Oct. 10, 1:45-2:30 PM). Lou Markos will talk at the banquet (Friday, Oct. 10, 5:00-7:15 PM). Michael Ward will close the conference with his keynote talk, "What has Anscombe to do with Narnia? From Miracles to Chronicles" (Friday, Oct. 10, 7:30-8:45 PM). You might want to register simply to be able to purchase the T-shirt, which shows Reepicheep pointing his sword to the message RESTORE THE PUBLICATION ORDER.
Lanier Theological Library in northwest Houston features a C. S. Lewis collection. So if you go to Houston for the HCU event described above, you might consider including a trip northward to visit Lanier. Call ahead to confirm that you would be able to get in. Lanier has a YouTube channel.
Don King spoke at the Montreat Inklings Weekend on "The Door as Christian Metaphor in the Chronicles of Narnia." His talk is available on William O'Flaherty's YouTube site Knowing and Understanding C. S. Lewis. Don King is one of the speakers at the HBU Lewis conference in October (see above).
C. S. Lewis: Speaking of Man, Speaking of God will be in Rome, April 27-28, 2026. Speakers include Michael Ward and Jason Lepojärvi.
"Why Till We Have Faces is C. S. Lewis's Greatest Work (And Why It Confuses So Many)" is a 13-minute talk by Crystal Hurd on her YouTube channel, That Lewis Lady.
Central Texas C. S. Lewis is a reading group that meets in Austin, Texas.
For meeting details, please send a request through our Contact Form. Thank you.