Wednesday, April 26, 2006

"Simplify, Simplify"

One of the few observations with which I can agree with Henry David Thoreau is, "Simplify, simplify."

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "It is terrible to find how little progress one's philosophy and charity have made when they are brought to the test of domestic life."

I was originally drawn to Lewis because of his deep appreciation for the simple, the ordinary, the everyday. Contrary to popular opinion, Lewis’ foremost contribution in his Christian books is not "rational" proofs for the existence of God, miracles, devils, or the resurrection. It is his imaginative vision of what genuine Christianity looks and feels like in action.

As Austin Farrer accurately notes, “[Lewis’] real power was not proof; it was depiction. There lived in his writings a Christian universe that could be both thought and felt, in which he was at home and in which he made his reader feel at home.” Gilbert Meilaender's, "The Everyday C.S. Lewis" captures this uniquely Lewisian perspective. We need to hear this again and again.

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