Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Great Divorce
I was thinking that reading "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis would be a great way to finish out Shane's series on the Resurrection. I bought a copy today, and would love for anyone who's interested to please join me. You can post any comments, questions, discussion topics, etc. for the rest of us who are reading it on the comments section of this post. I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks!
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9 comments:
From the preface, I really liked the line: "I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on he right road."
What are your thoughts on this:
Chapter 5~
"Do you really think there are no sins of intellect?"
Also in Chapter 5~
"Our opinions were not honestly come by. We simply found ourselves in contact with a certain current of ideas and plunged into it because it seemed modern and successful."
*This section was personal for me because the more I learn at DP, the more I see that some of the "opinions/thoughts/beliefs/practices" I had(have) were(are) not really ones that I examined and consciously made, but were told they were the "truth" or "the right thing to do" by family, friends, acquaintances, etc.
What do you think about the definition of SHAME in Chapter 8, pg. 61? I thought it was very pictorial.
I liked the last paragraph on pg. 83. I was just talking to the Grissom's about their awesome photography abilities and how it was a blessing to me.
Just finished chap. 5. I find it interesting that when Lewis talks about the ghosts, he refers to them as it rather than him or her. They've allowed themselves to become less than human.
I don't like the spirit's assessment of heaven as "no sphere of usefulness: you are not needed there at all. No scope for your talents: only forgiveness for having perverted them. No atmosphere of inquiry, for I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God."
I don't think we'll be handed all knowledge. I don't think we'll experience frustration over it the way we do now, but I don't think we'll lose our curiosity. Also, I don't think our usefulness or talents are needed even now, but the beauty of God's plan is that He uses us to further His Kingdom anyway. It just approaches a little too closely the idea of floating around on clouds with little harps. Your thoughts?
I like the fact that Lewis's "ghosts" not only failed to choose heaven over hell after seeing both options, but one even guessed that what he had been experiencing was heaven. Even though there is constant bickering, a grey dirty atmosphere, no community, the worst aspects of humanity's sinfulness gathered in one place...
It makes me think of the analogy that "God is a gentleman and won't force us into a relationship with him." There are plenty of us who long for our own way so strongly that even in the very grip of hell, we wouldn't reach for him.
I LOVE Chap. 9. It's definitely been my fav so far. He talks at one point of "when you've grown into a Person". It fits so well with what Shane has talked about numerous times of becoming Fully Human -- grasping the Humanity we for which we were created rather than the less than humanness to which the Fall has reduced us.
I love some of the insights of George MacDonald's character, and I especially liked this section: "There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself...as if the good Lord had nothing to do but EXIST! There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ."
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