C.S Lewis

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ItsJames00
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Re: C.S Lewis

Post by ItsJames00 »

C.S.Lewis is a good author. I loves his Novels
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Zupanatural
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Post by Zupanatural »

He went to my old school, Campbell College in Belfast :)
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Angela Stripes
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Post by Angela Stripes »

I enjoy his eloquence, both in is fictional works and nonfiction. Metaphors that string out through Mere Christianity are powerful as well as accurate. Truly gifted author.
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Human314
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Post by Human314 »

Whilst I used to be a fan of the Narnia books when I realized how they attempted to indoctrinate young children into Christianity I was shocked. I feel that children should be able to make up their own minds about their religious beliefs. I also didn't like how Susan was no longer friend of Narnia just because she had become interested in lipstick, nylons, and parties.
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Post by uyky »

I just realized that I only read his books about Narnia. Anything else from him wasn't available in my childhood library. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend :mrgreen:
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Libs_Books
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Post by Libs_Books »

I'm interested in Human314's comments about propaganda (and an earlier post, using the term indoctrination). First of all, if we're talking about the Narnia novels ... well, they are fiction, so I'm not sure that a charge of propaganda would stick, but I do know what you mean; they certainly had a profound influence on me, though ultimately perhaps not entirely the influence Lewis intended. I also think that he may not have set out to write propaganda, as such - at the time people were debating about the theological issues raised by the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, and I think that Lewis was challenged by, and played with, that idea, both in his adult SF novels (not as good IMHO) and in the Narnia books.

Many of the non-fiction books are theology, really - and my feelings about them are mixed: I love The Problem of Pain but hate Screwtape. Similarly, the adult sci-fi books contain many pretty ugly ideas, but also some interesting and worthwhile ones.

Lewis was very much a man of his time, and some of his ideas and opinions reflect an era when racism and misogyny were rife; often - but not always - he manages to rise above that, and produce something really worthwhile. He's giving his honest opinion - and, yes, he was a Christian, but he would also expect that most of the children reading him would have been raised as Christians, so he wouldn't need to indoctrinate them, but he probably wanted to get them to reflect upon their beliefs in a way not always encouraged by the often simplistic stuff dished out in schools at the time.
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KasieMiehlke
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Post by KasieMiehlke »

Dezire06 wrote: 13 Apr 2014, 14:09 I have loved the Narnia Series for ever, I have read them 6-7 times
Me too. I actually got my nephew hooked on reading by having him read this series. I got him his own set so he didn't have to borrow mine all the time.
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Kathryn Price
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Post by Kathryn Price »

Human314 wrote: 31 Jan 2018, 19:34 Whilst I used to be a fan of the Narnia books when I realized how they attempted to indoctrinate young children into Christianity I was shocked. I feel that children should be able to make up their own minds about their religious beliefs. I also didn't like how Susan was no longer friend of Narnia just because she had become interested in lipstick, nylons, and parties.
I am a big fan of the Narnia books especially because of the Christian allegory. I don't think Lewis intended to "indoctrinate" young children into Christianity. He was just surrounded by Christianity and became a Christian either right before or during writing the series, so it was on his mind a lot and came out through his writing. I personally am a Christian, and finding all the allegory in the series is quite enjoyable for me and in my opinion improves the series, like a game of "Find the Bible Easter Egg". Additionally, during the time period he lived in, most people in England identified as some form of Christian, so it was perfectly natural to reference the Bible - in fact I would be surprised if you found many books from that time period that didn't reference God in some way.

As a last note I would like to point out that Susan did not lose her 'friend of Narnia' status because of her interest in lipstick, nylons, and parties. The point of that statement is that she let her interest in those things overcome her love of Narnia, letting it become an idol, and then justified it by pretending that Narnia was only a children's fantasy. This parallels Christians who lose their way because they start idolizing the world instead of Christ. And it never says that Susan could never become a friend of Narnia again - I believe the implication is that if she realized her wandering and came back to Aslan, he would accept her again with open paws, just like he did with Edmund when he betrayed his siblings. I think that's very important to the story as well as in Christianity.

I hope you are able to set aside your dislike and appreciate the series at least for the wonderful stories they are- C.S. Lewis is my favorite author. The Last Battle is my personal favorite, but the entire series is great.
“If you believe only in facts and forget stories, your brain will live, but your heart will die” ― Cassandra Clare, Lord of Shadows
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ElizabethR
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Post by ElizabethR »

Has anybody here read Till We Have Faces? I love both Lewis' more popular fiction and his work in Christian apologetics, but this book is splendid. I dare say I enjoy it even more than Narnia. It's the retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid from the point of view of one of Psyche's sisters. It's such a fascinating book, in that even if you are familiar with the myth, you still don't really know where the plot of the book is going. That's the genius with Lewis, I believe--he takes stories you already know (Psyche and the Gospel, for example), and makes them into works of art that you could almost believe isn't based on an outside source.
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Cate Mbevi
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Post by Cate Mbevi »

C.S Lewis is amazing. His way of writing is not with anyone else these days.
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gkgurley
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Post by gkgurley »

I love The Chronicles of Narnia. In elementary school, we read them in the order he wrote them in, so while reading The Magician's Nephew (his last written but first in the series), all of us were crying in the classroom during the creation and origin stories. Narnia is so captivating, and Aslan is so beautiful, whether you believe in monotheism or not. His Christian allegories are pretty heavy-handed, but he does a great job at telling human stories over Christian stories. He's brilliant.
Lil Reads
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Post by Lil Reads »

One of the local theaters did a play of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I was really young around my birthday so my mom took me. I was entranced and afterwards my mom bought me the full set and I read all of them in less than a month.

I didn't catch onto the symbolism until Voyager of the Dawn Treader especially since Lewis himself described the religious ideas as "Christian Supposal" e.g."Suppose this world had similar religious history", sort of subtle symbolism.

I really need to read some of his other works.
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Julie Green
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Post by Julie Green »

The Chronicles of Narnia were among my all time favourite childhood books! I so wanted to be Lucy.....
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TaaraLynn
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Post by TaaraLynn »

I'm still asking myself why have I never read anything by him, but I have his quotes on my fridge? I need to hop to it.
"Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset." - Ponyboy Curtis, The Outsiders
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Jennifer Fernandez
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Post by Jennifer Fernandez »

I love The Chronicles of Narnia. Even though it's a series for children, I enjoyed it.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. - H.P. Lovecraft :techie-studyinggray:
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