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Pickwick12
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Name: Amy
Country: United States
State: Florida
Metro: Fort Myers
Gender: Female


Interests: baseball, literature, British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, writing, punk music, law, politics
Expertise: writing, talking, editing
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research


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Member Since: 11/29/2004

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Lewis and Chesterton

Lessl (2004) discussed the rhetorical aspects of the work of C.S. Lewis, particularly emphasizing Lewis’s twin emphases, reason and imagination (p. 128). The remainder of this post will briefly compare and contrast aspects of the communication of C.S. Lewis with the communication of his predecessor and contemporary G.K. Chesterton.

According to Lessl, Lewis viewed myths as a necessary counterpart to logical teaching. To Lewis, stories provided experiences that proofs could not give (pp. 122-123). The truth of this assumption can be seen in the response to Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, The Great Divorce, Perelandra, and The Screwtape Letters, to name a few of his best-known works of fiction. Not only are these works enjoyed as stories, but individuals often report enrichment to their spiritual lives and understanding as a result of encountering them.

 Chesterton’s works illustrate that his beliefs were similar to Lewis’s. Along with his weighty and intricate apologetic and theological works such as Orthodoxy and Heretics, Chesterton also wrote numerous works of unusually whimsical fiction, such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Ball and the Cross, and The Man Who Was Thursday. Like Lewis, he invited readers to experience his Christian beliefs through stories as well as through logical proofs.

 Despite this overarching similarity, Lewis’s and Chesterton’s uses of stories differed strikingly. Lessl used Till We Have Faces to illustrate the masterful way in which Lewis wove his philosophical perspectives into his works of fiction (pp. 132-135). For Lewis, stories were a teaching platform meant to end in a particular location. At the end of The Last Battle, the Pevensie children unequivocally find themselves in the Christian heaven. Metaphorically speaking, readers of Lewis’s works always find themselves in heaven at the end of one of his works. Though Lewis once told a child admirer that a story should be admired for itself and not picked apart too deeply for its purpose (Lewis, 1995, pp. 35-36), it is clear that his stories were intended to convey the reader to a specific philosophical place.

Chesterton’s works were also peppered with philosophical perspectives, but his conclusions were not necessarily as neatly tied up as Lewis’s. For instance, The Man Who Was Thursday ends quite ambiguously, with the character who represents God listening to various philosophical objections and then offering himself instead of a logical solution. Chesterton seemed to be acknowledging to his readers that weighty objections to faith exist; however, he also presented the madness of Satan in contrast to the sovereignty of God (Chesterton, 2001, pp. 178-181) and invited readers to make their own judgments. Chesterton’s goal seemed to be to lead the reader to a point of decision-making, while in Lewis’s stories, the decision is already made, and what follows is for Lewis to unfold to the reader how that decision is justified.

Both authors obviously valued stories and reasoned logic as apologetic tools. For Lewis, though, the argument was clear and the conclusion inevitable. For Chesterton, the clarity of the argument hurled the reader toward a decision, though he did not necessarily explain what that decision should be. Perhaps it could be argued that Lewis’s method was the forerunner of the styles of modern Christian authors like Frank Peretti and William P. Young, whose fictional allegories presuppose a faith conclusion, while Chesterton’s method was the forerunner of classic Christian authors like Flannery O’Connor and Graham Greene, who made cases for faith but did not necessarily presuppose conclusions.

                                                                             References

Chesterton, G.K. (2001). The man who was Thursday. New York, NY: Random House.

Lessl, T. (2004). The legacy of C.S. Lewis and the prospect of religious rhetoric. Journal of Communication and Religion, 27, 117-137.

Lewis, C. S. (1995). Letters to Children. New York, NY: Touchstone.


Friday, November 13, 2009

Food? Meh

I am not skinny, and I don't have an eating disorder.

Nevertheless, I don't like food.

Don't get me wrong, there are individual foods and types of food I can like sometimes, but even so, quite often the thought of eating anything is repulsive. Sometimes my problem is that I don't eat enough to keep my metabolism going.

They say that if you are truly hungry, you will be willing to eat anything. This is not true of me. Very often, I would rather deal with hunger pangs than put anything in my mouth. Now, I am in no way trivializing the real starvation problems in the world. Yes, I get enough and more than enough. It's just that I can't seem to get excited about it.

I am one of those people who would be delighted if they came out with a pill you could take daily to get your full nutrition. I would want to eat food sometimes, maybe every couple or three days, but that way I wouldn't have to eat on the days when food seems disgusting.

When I find a food that really excites me, it's a big deal. I recently discovered sushi, and everyone laughs at me because I eat it so often. But really, imagine to yourself that you can't stand most foods and suddenly find one you love. It's a big deal!

Overall, though, it's not the taste I can't stand. It's the texture, the act of putting something in your mouth, swallowing, eating. Again, I do not have an eating disorder. I eat. But...yuck.

I've never been big on food since I was little, but Crohn's Disease also does something there. In fact, it can cause anorexia; it makes patients want to avoid food because of the horrible associations with what happens when they eat. Thankfully, I do not have anorexia; I just go through regular periods of time when I dislike the idea of food.

I believe food is a gift from God, and I want to learn to appreciate it more.

What's your food orientation?



Thursday, November 12, 2009

Prayers Needed!

I haven't been blogging much lately. It's been on purpose because I've been going through so much emotionally and spiritually that I had no idea how to say anything that would make sense or be helpful in any way.

I believe that what is going on in me now is that Satan is losing so much ground that he's fighting harder than he ever has as he sees his strongholds being ripped out of his grasp by my Savior.

I had another punch today. It's almost like being hit in the face. I am not sure what to do or how to deal with it. Once again, it relates to school. I need God's wisdom because the next few days could see me changing my schedule by withdrawing from a course for the first time ever. I am desperate to get out from under the control of a professor who seems so horrendous to deal with that I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. I had him last session, and I was devastated to find that I was going to have him again this time.

I need to know if God wants to bring me out or bring me through.

I realize that all of these things that keep happening are results of Satan's anger at my spiritual progress as well as opportunities to trust Christ in me to a greater degree than ever before.

Please pray for me.

Thanks so much

Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.


Sunday, November 01, 2009

Positive

2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Christ is our YES, the ever-present affirmation that God will do what He has promised.

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

Are you 1,000 generations from the first person in your family who loved God? No? Well, you're nowhere NEAR exhausting God's faithfulness and love.

Psalm 130:4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

Why do we fear (revere) God? Because His mercy is incomprehensibly wonderful.

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

What does God want most from you? LOVE. How do you love Him? Let Him love you and see what happens!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

God loves and creates beauty.

Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

God desires to give you rest TODAY!

Matthew 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus isn't going anywhere!


What verses encourage you?





Thursday, October 29, 2009

Unmoved

I'm sick, the kind that puts you in bed or sitting near it. According to the scale, I lost 7 or 8 pounds in between last Wednesday and yesterday. Crohn's Disease is not fun.

BUT

But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24



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