C.S. Lewis
I'm reading the magazine Christian History and Biography at the moment (while listening to Moonlight Sonata on the stereo). This month almost the entire volume is on C.S. Lewis, the second time recently they've done this. He was a brilliant professor of Middle Ages era literature at Oxford while an athiest. When he converted he went full force and defended Christianity brilliantly. His writings were absorbed with the subject also from then on. He believed you had to reach people intellectually through the heart.
This was at a time when science was at the forefront in Western universities creating a great deal of skepticism among the elite. Lewis lectured on the brilliance of Christianity openly even in class. His fellows and many students almost hated him for such. It just wasn't done.
Gives one hope for days like the present also. Renewal, it's all about renewal.
One thing that really struck me about him was his view on scientists. From some relationships I've had with some professors, and then reading what some others from that arena have said also that reinforced my own views, I loved reading how Professor Lewis also felt.
He thought them out of it, in so many words. It wasn't a jealous chip on your shoulder from an uneducated either. He could tackle the best of them so well he was almost hated, especially the way he defended Christianity. They felt he should know better. He did.
According to him, if you ask a scientist what a star is the scientist would tell you it is a gaseous mass of hydrogen and helium. Lewis would reply, no, that's not what a star is at all. That's what a star is made of. A star is a brilliant heavenly body that emits life and warmth to it's surroundings. He felt scientists dogmatic. I was the first I heard use that adjective about them. It's nice to know I'm not original at all.
The universe, according to Lewis, is not made up of purely material things. Where did our thoughts come from? Our imagination? From our souls. From God.
I've come to my own conclusion, now being readily reinforced, that the more truly educated you become, in the full sense, the more you understand, there is God. And God is.
This was at a time when science was at the forefront in Western universities creating a great deal of skepticism among the elite. Lewis lectured on the brilliance of Christianity openly even in class. His fellows and many students almost hated him for such. It just wasn't done.
Gives one hope for days like the present also. Renewal, it's all about renewal.
One thing that really struck me about him was his view on scientists. From some relationships I've had with some professors, and then reading what some others from that arena have said also that reinforced my own views, I loved reading how Professor Lewis also felt.
He thought them out of it, in so many words. It wasn't a jealous chip on your shoulder from an uneducated either. He could tackle the best of them so well he was almost hated, especially the way he defended Christianity. They felt he should know better. He did.
According to him, if you ask a scientist what a star is the scientist would tell you it is a gaseous mass of hydrogen and helium. Lewis would reply, no, that's not what a star is at all. That's what a star is made of. A star is a brilliant heavenly body that emits life and warmth to it's surroundings. He felt scientists dogmatic. I was the first I heard use that adjective about them. It's nice to know I'm not original at all.
The universe, according to Lewis, is not made up of purely material things. Where did our thoughts come from? Our imagination? From our souls. From God.
I've come to my own conclusion, now being readily reinforced, that the more truly educated you become, in the full sense, the more you understand, there is God. And God is.
posted by CottonSr @ 7:45 PM
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