Looking at Christ

There's a crucial theme in the New Testament that I don’t think I’ve properly recognised before: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me (John 8:42) If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23 cf. 14:15) Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15 cf. v16, v17) …what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9) If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. (1 Cor. 16:22) Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. (Eph. 6:23) Though you have not seen him, you love him (1 Peter 1:8) I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first (Rev. 2:4) Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow co...

  C S Lewis, Perelandra . The Bodley Head: London, 1943.  [Available as a free ebook for those in countries where it is out of copyright and in the public domain (e.g. Canada and the UK).]  Published in the midst of the Second World War, the second of the trilogy, this one has a slow start and, thinking about it, a pretty slow middle and end but it gets increasingly gripping as it plays out the temptation of an Eve figure in a pre-fall world. Just as Lewis brilliantly gets into the mind of a demon in the Srewtape Letters , here he gets into the minds both of a pre-fall person and an instrument of Satan. We see this interaction of a beautiful innocence which cannot imagine why anyone would not trust the Creator and a creature of undiluted evil. As the interaction goes on for page after page of Job-like dialogues it becomes excruciating. You want to cry out "Don't listen to him!" This book brought home to me the beauty of innocence and the defiling, disgusting, devious hor...

C S Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet . The Bodley Head: London, 1938.  [Available as a free ebook for those in countries where it is out of copyright and in the public domain (e.g. Canada and the UK).]  Lewis' space trilogy is weird and no mistake. I've never read anything like it. A bizarre collision of different genres. It's not perfect but Lewis is great at making us look at familiar things in unfamiliar (and often much more biblical) ways. There are incredibly perceptive insights into human nature, psychological experience and cultural trends. There is a powerful biblical vision of reality in its most cosmic wide lens. The  imaginative spaces  it opens up are remarkable and sometimes breathtaking.  So here are 8 quotes from book 1 (there are going to be a lot more for the next two books because this trilogy builds and gets better and better and increasingly explicitly theological): " he knew nothing yet well enough to see it: you cannot see things till you k...