Monday, February 21, 2005
CS Lewis - HOPE - Mere Christianity, Book 3, chap 10
What is HOPE?
And what is HOPE not?
HOPE is NOT -
Escapism
Wishful thinking
Fatalism about this world?
___________________________
Why would hope to reach the "next world" help us "hope" to change this one?
Do you think it's true that the motivation of Christians to social action comes from such HOPE?
__________________________________
How do we want heaven?
Why do we want heaven?
Do we not recognize our heart's desire for something beyond this world?
_________________________
Earthly longings & Heavenly longings -
What do want from this world? What do we do and feel when we don't get it? What do we do and feel when we do get what we want?
Nothing ever satisfies - why is that?
1) The fool's way -
go for more, up the stakes, increase the thrill, find someone new.
What is real and what is the ideal we search for?
2) The way of the disillusioned and sensible! -
settle down and settle for less. Look down on the youthful and idealists. But what if there is more? Especially if there is a "beyond"?
Are you a thrill seeker? Or are you settling for less than life has to offer?
3) The Christian way.
The desire for more of life - we call hope - is that unquenchable desire for that indefinable "something" state of being - that can't be satisfied - because it is meant for fulfillment "beyond"
If desire is for something beyond our experience, are we meant for another world?
This is a small chapter on hope, but a recurring theme of Lewis' biographical writings and his fiction touches on understanding such "longings".
A lion King Aslan in his Narnia series was more than a way to entertain children with good stories, it was his creation of a fantasy world to express his longing in an imaginative way of Christ's redeeming power establishing His kingdom.
"May 29th, 1954 - Dear 5th graders
... I did not say to myself - let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia. I said - let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God as He became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen... The only way for us to get to Aslan's country is through death, as far as I know: perhaps some very good people get just a tiny glimpse before then"
May 6, 1955 - "Laurence can't really love Aslan more than Jesus ... for the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said...Of course there is one thing Aslan has that Jesus has not - I mean, the body of a lion... God knows all about the way a little boy's imagination works (He made it after all) and knows... the idea of talking and friendly animals is very attractive... so I don't think He minds if Laurence likes the Lion body... as he grows older, that feeling.. will die away.
April 23, 1956 " Dear Laurence... I have ... married and my wife is very, very ill. I am sure Aslan knows best and whether He leaves her with me or takes her to His own country, He will do what is right...
December 23, 1957 "Dear Laurence ...Last year I married... a woman who seemed to be dying, so you can imagine it was a sad wedding. But Aslan has done great things for us."
__________________________________________(CS Lewis, Letters to Children)
Love for the undiscovered country of "beyond".
Things of this world are shadows, echoes of what's to come.
And things of heaven can't be known by things of earth.
The imagery including that of scripture (harps, gold) is attempt to express the inexpressible
How do we compare earthly blessings to what is beyond?
Do you think it is right that the Bible's vision of heaven is only symbolic of what is to come?
And what is HOPE not?
HOPE is NOT -
Escapism
Wishful thinking
Fatalism about this world?
___________________________
Why would hope to reach the "next world" help us "hope" to change this one?
Do you think it's true that the motivation of Christians to social action comes from such HOPE?
__________________________________
How do we want heaven?
Why do we want heaven?
Do we not recognize our heart's desire for something beyond this world?
_________________________
Earthly longings & Heavenly longings -
What do want from this world? What do we do and feel when we don't get it? What do we do and feel when we do get what we want?
Nothing ever satisfies - why is that?
1) The fool's way -
go for more, up the stakes, increase the thrill, find someone new.
What is real and what is the ideal we search for?
2) The way of the disillusioned and sensible! -
settle down and settle for less. Look down on the youthful and idealists. But what if there is more? Especially if there is a "beyond"?
Are you a thrill seeker? Or are you settling for less than life has to offer?
3) The Christian way.
The desire for more of life - we call hope - is that unquenchable desire for that indefinable "something" state of being - that can't be satisfied - because it is meant for fulfillment "beyond"
If desire is for something beyond our experience, are we meant for another world?
This is a small chapter on hope, but a recurring theme of Lewis' biographical writings and his fiction touches on understanding such "longings".
A lion King Aslan in his Narnia series was more than a way to entertain children with good stories, it was his creation of a fantasy world to express his longing in an imaginative way of Christ's redeeming power establishing His kingdom.
"May 29th, 1954 - Dear 5th graders
... I did not say to myself - let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia. I said - let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God as He became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen... The only way for us to get to Aslan's country is through death, as far as I know: perhaps some very good people get just a tiny glimpse before then"
May 6, 1955 - "Laurence can't really love Aslan more than Jesus ... for the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said...Of course there is one thing Aslan has that Jesus has not - I mean, the body of a lion... God knows all about the way a little boy's imagination works (He made it after all) and knows... the idea of talking and friendly animals is very attractive... so I don't think He minds if Laurence likes the Lion body... as he grows older, that feeling.. will die away.
April 23, 1956 " Dear Laurence... I have ... married and my wife is very, very ill. I am sure Aslan knows best and whether He leaves her with me or takes her to His own country, He will do what is right...
December 23, 1957 "Dear Laurence ...Last year I married... a woman who seemed to be dying, so you can imagine it was a sad wedding. But Aslan has done great things for us."
__________________________________________(CS Lewis, Letters to Children)
Love for the undiscovered country of "beyond".
Things of this world are shadows, echoes of what's to come.
And things of heaven can't be known by things of earth.
The imagery including that of scripture (harps, gold) is attempt to express the inexpressible
How do we compare earthly blessings to what is beyond?
Do you think it is right that the Bible's vision of heaven is only symbolic of what is to come?
