Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

by C. S. Lewis, Patricia S. Klein (Editor)

Overview

Beloved author C. S. Lewis is our trusted guide in this intimate day-by-day companion offering his distinctive and celebrated wisdom. Amidst the bustle of our daily experience, A Year with C. S. Lewis provides the necessary respite and inspiration to meet the many challenges we face in our lives. Ruminating on such themes as the nature of love, the existence of miracles, overcoming a devastating loss, and discovering a profound faith, Lewis offers unflinchingly honest insight for each day of the year.

These daily meditations have been culled from Lewis's celebrated Signature Classics: Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and A Grief Observed, as well as from the distinguished works The Weight of Glory and The Abolition of Man.

Throughout this elegant daybook the reader will find poignant biographical com-mentary about C. S. Lewis's life that offers a remarkable portrait of Lewis in the context of his work. As each day unfolds, we embark on a path of discovery with a friend by your side. A Year with C. S. Lewis is the perfect com-panion for everyone who cherishes Lewis's timeless words.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060566166
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/21/2003
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	60,229
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.37(h) x 1.29(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Clive Staples Lewis was born in 1898. Known as "Jack" by his friends, Lewis and his good friend J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, were part of a writer's club, The Inklings, who would meet at the local pub to discuss story ideas. Lewis's fascination with fairytales, myths, and ancient legends coupled with inspiration drawn from his childhood led him to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the best-loved books of all time. Six further books in the immensely popular Chronicles of Narnia followed, and the final title, The Last Battle, received the Carnegie Award, one of the highest marks of excellence in children's literature.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.

Date of Birth:

November 29, 1898

Date of Death:

November 22, 1963

Place of Birth:

Belfast, Nothern Ireland

Place of Death:

Headington, England

Education:

Oxford University 1917-1923; Elected fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1925

Website:

http://www.cslewisclassics.com

Read an Excerpt

Year with C. S. Lewis, A
Daily Readings from His Classic Works

1 January

Supposing We Really Found Him?

It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. 'Look out!' we cry, 'it's alive'. And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back -- I would have done so myself if I could -- and proceed no further with Christianity. An 'impersonal God' -- well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads -- better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap -- best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband -- that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion ('Man's search for God!') suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?

-- from Miracles

January 1911 Lewis (age twelve) enrolls at Cherbourg Preparatory School in Malvern.

---

2 January

Imagine a Mystical Limpet

Why are many people prepared in advance to maintain that, whatever else God may be, He is not the concrete, living, willing, and acting God of Christian theology? I think the reason is as follows. Let us suppose a mystical limpet, a sage among limpets, who (rapt in vision) catches a glimpse of what Man is like. In reporting it to his disciples, who have some vision themselves (though less than he) he will have to use many negatives. He will have to tell them that Man has no shell, is not attached to a rock, is not surrounded by water. And his disciples, having a little vision of their own to help them, do get some idea of Man. But then there come erudite limpets, limpets who write histories of philosophy and give lectures on comparative religion, and who have never had any vision of their own. What they get out of the prophetic limpet's words is simply and solely the negatives. From these, uncorrected by any positive insight, they build up a picture of Man as a sort of amorphous jelly (he has no shell) existing nowhere in particular (he is not attached to a rock) and never taking nourishment (there is no water to drift it towards him). And having a traditional reverence for Man they conclude that to be a famished jelly in a dimensionless void is the supreme mode of existence, and reject as crude, materialistic superstition any doctrine which would attribute to Man a definite shape, a structure, and organs.

-- from Miracles

January 1914 Lewis and childhood Belfast friend Arthur Greeves begin what would be a lifelong correspondence.

---

3 January

Not Naked but Reclothed

Our own situation is much like that of the erudite limpets. Great prophets and saints have an intuition of God which is positive and concrete in the highest degree. Because, just touching the fringes of His being, they have seen that He is plenitude of life and energy and joy, therefore (and for no other reason) they have to pronounce that He transcends those limitations which we call personality, passion, change, materiality, and the like. The positive quality in Him which repels these limitations is their only ground for all the negatives. But when we come limping after and try to construct an intellectual or 'enlightened' religion, we take over these negatives (infinite, immaterial, impassible, immutable, etc.) and use them unchecked by any positive intuition. At each step we have to strip off from our idea of God some human attribute. But the only real reason for stripping off the human attribute is to make room for putting in some positive divine attribute. In St Paul's language, the purpose of all this unclothing is not that our idea of God should reach nakedness but that it should be reclothed. But unhappily we have no means of doing the reclothing. When we have removed from our idea of God some puny human characteristic, we (as merely erudite or intelligent enquirers) have no resources from which to supply that blindingly real and concrete attribute of Deity which ought to replace it. Thus at each step in the process of refinement our idea of God contains less, and the fatal pictures come in (an endless, silent sea, an empty sky beyond all stars, a dome of white radiance) and we reach at last mere zero and worship a nonentity.

-- from Miracles

1892 J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis's longtime friend, colleague, and fellow Inkling (a group of friends who meet regularly from about 1930 to 1963 to share writings, good conversation, and the odd pint), is born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Year with C. S. Lewis, A
Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © by C. Lewis. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

	January	3
	February	37
	March	69
	April	103
	May	135
	June	169
	July	201
	August	235
	September	269
	October	301
	November	335
	December	367
	Sources by Book	398
	Sources by Day	399
	Sources by Selection Title	406

Editorial Reviews

One of the greatest 20th-century writers, C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) has written everything from literary criticism to Christian apologetics to children's and fantasy literary works. During his lifetime, he not only wrote over 30 books but also held prestigious positions at both Oxford and Cambridge. Edited by Klein (Worship Without Words), this compendium of daily readings is a sampler of Lewis's major works and includes selections from such classics as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Weight of Glory, and The Abolition of Man. The book also provides biographical information that neatly corresponds with the daily selections. Lewis's writing takes on a life of its own, as the more it is read, the more insight the reader gains into a mind unhampered by either style or doctrine. In his uniquely dynamic way, Lewis experiments with looking at the universe, people, and God from a variety of angles. There is a sense that, though Lewis is presenting his true inner self, he is in no way attempting to force these truisms onto others but is merely looking for others to walk the road with, in sweet converse, both listening and sharing the deep secrets of souls. Highly recommended for larger public libraries.-Kim Harris, Rochester P.L., NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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