Welcome to the conversation!!!...First up is a rather ambitious book for discussion...For the next 5 months, we will be reading and discussing C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. It may go without saying that there will not be an exhaustive analysis of the entire book. The intention is primarily to provide a springboard for spiritual challenge and growth in community. To do this, my hope is to provide a safe and supportive environment for participants to share perspectives, to ask questions and to get to know and support one another in the process!
The "syllabus" will be dictated by the in-person meetings on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month (7-8pm) in Common Ground at Fairhaven Church. Please make every effort to attend so that we can get to know one other and benefit from each other's perspective. If unable to attend, however, participants will have the ability to share remotely by accessing this blog. Anyone can post questions, thoughts or quotes to which I strongly welcome your COMMENTS to enrich the conversation. Check it every few days or so to keep in touch with between meeting comments.
For the first two meetings, we will be reading and discussing "Book One": "Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe". This section can actually be the most challenging to many people. It is particularly applicable to those who are questioning or for those who have had exposure to philosophy. It is also very helpful for us to read this section as we consider our friends and loved ones who may be skeptical in matters of faith.
A few quotes for you to consider concerning the Law of Human Nature...
This is the quality peculiar to man, wherein he differs from other animals, that he alone is endowed with perception to distinguish right from wrong, justice from injustice." Aristotle
Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong, even if everyone is for it. William Penn
Quote #1 These, then, are the two points I wanted to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and universe we live in.
C. S. Lewis
COMMENTS?
Quote #2 For the trouble is that one part of you is on His side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at the bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behaviour, then He cannot be good. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. This is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort; He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. C. S. Lewis
Reactions? Comments? Thoughts?
What strikes me about quote #1 is how the converse is so much more prevalent. People seem to deny their own responsibility to this standard of behavior, but scream for "justice" when they have been denied it by others. This in itself also suggests the innate knowledge of right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteI hope I can learn from Mr. Lewis how to reason with skeptics in a clear and logical manner, without my emotions detracting from my convictions. What a worksmith he was! This will not be an easy read!
I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about the innate sense of right and wrong. And you are right on about this section being helpful when talking with folks who are skeptical. I think it helps to try to read this first part from a (skeptical) loved one's perspective. We could ask ourselves...how would So-and-so respond to this? Concerning the book not being an "easy read"...I really do think Book One, chapters 1-5, is the most challenging section...
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Brenda! Yay! It works:-)