Even after I had been taught by him for three years, it never entered my mind that he could one day become an author whose books would sell at the rate of about two million copies a year. A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. His black hair had retreated from his forehead, which made him especially imposing. Lewis did hit at least one jarring bump in his intellectual road: a 1948 debate with British philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe. In 1924 he became a philosophy tutor at University College, and the following year he was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, where he tutored in English language and literature. At age 35, thorough research lead me to conclude that … These men became close friends of Lewis. Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. Barfield had converted from atheism to theism, then finally to Christianity, and he frequently badgered Lewis about his materialism. I read this book after I broke free from the high-control fundamentalist Christian group I was raised in. JESUS SAID, “I AM THE TRUTH.” C. S. Lewis: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. Sermon Illustrations. No pupil of his will ever forget the way he quoted the poetry he enjoyed. As J. R. R. Tolkien advised Sayer, “You'll never get to the bottom of him.” But understanding or even fully agreeing with Lewis have never been prerequisites to enjoying and admiring him. Books were not the only means Lewis found for sharing his message. So did Nevill Coghill, a brilliant fellow student and lifelong friend who, to Lewis’s amazement, was “a Christian and a thoroughgoing supernaturalist.”. “There were books in the study, books in the dining room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds,” Lewis remembered, and none were off limits to him. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." I doubt whether the full measure of him has been taken by anyone.”. This little volume opened a 30-year stream of books on Christian apologetics and discipleship that became a lifelong avocation. Of course, it will be so only so long as we keep the impulse pure and disinterested.”. As C.S. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”—C.S. From inconsistencies, absurdities, errors, contradictions and adult make-believe this books shows how the bible is false and thus that Christianity … - CS Lewis I did not know that he was the best lecturer in the department, nor had I read the only book that he had published under his own name (hardly anyone had). Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. After a bad fall in her house, Joy was diagnosed with bone cancer. Few copies were sold until it was reissued under the author’s true name after his death. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. - C.S. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important. One volume, Phantastes, powerfully challenged his atheism. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” I searched earnestly for a … Though history has all but forgotten them, it was Christian preachers and teachers who really tamed the West. Soon thereafter her alcoholic husband abandoned her for another woman, and she moved to London with her two adolescent boys, David and Douglas. Though the author hated radio, he recognized the opportunity to reach a wider audience. In 1941, the director of religious broadcasting at the BBC (who had found personal comfort through reading The Problem of Pain) asked if Lewis would be willing to speak on the radio. “Never have I loved her more than since she was struck down,” Lewis wrote to a friend. Lewis was born into a bookish family of Protestants in Belfast, Ireland. Jack’s door, like all the doors in New Buildings, was thick, but, through it, one could easily hear the strong, booming voice say, “Come in.” The room was adequately, but rather shabbily, furnished. In 1919 Lewis published his first book, a cycle of lyrics titled Spirits in Bondage, which he wrote under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton. ... Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. He spent more time in books and an imaginary world of “dressed animals” and “knights in armor.”. On one side of the lovely eighteenth-century fireplace in which a coal fire would be burning during cold weather, there was a sofa upon which he sat; on the other side, there was an armchair for the student. Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. One correspondent in particular would play a major role in Lewis’s life. Your donations support the continuation of this ministry, Containing today’s events, devotional, quote and stories, © Copyright 2021. Within two years of his conversion, Lewis published The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism (1933). Not everyone approved of his new interest in apologetics. As the writer and scholar C. S. Lewis put it, "Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. Until now. The outcome was seven sets of talks, broadcast between 1941 and 1944, with titles like “Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe?” and “What Christians Believe.”, The weekly broadcasts were very popular—just what weary, discouraged Brits were looking for in the gloom of World War II. “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. As he wrote to one friend soon after their marriage, “It’s funny having at 59 the sort of happiness most men have in their twenties ... 'Thou hast kept the good wine till now.’ “ A writer in her own right, her influence on what Jack considered his best book, Till We Have Faces (1956), was so profound that he told one close friend she was actually its co-author. Christian History Institute. In 1929 these roads met, and Lewis surrendered, admitting “God was God, and knelt and prayed.” Within two years the reluctant convert also moved from theism to Christianity and joined the Church of England. the only thing it cannot be is moderately important. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Lewis and His Times, [Christian History originally published this article in Christian History Issue #65 in 2000]. He admired their brilliance and their logic. Kindness in giving creates love. Lewis entered Oxford in 1917 as a student and never really left. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. The author quotes CS Lewis at the start of the book, who said, "Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, is of infinite importance. The best way he knew to grapple with his feelings of grief, anger, and doubt was to write a book. BrainyQuote has been providing inspirational quotes since 2001 to our worldwide community. Anscombe read a paper before the Oxford Socratic Club (a forum Lewis led for many years) in which she attacked Lewis’s recently published Miracles and his whole argument against naturalism. … 'He’s really worth listening to.’ And those soldiers did listen attentively for the entire fifteen minutes.”. At a quarter to eight, the bartender turned the radio up for Lewis. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.” Whether in the realm of reason or imagination, in personal or public life, Lewis maintained, “I believe in Christianity … Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. Afterward, he would make wide-ranging criticisms, some of them semantic or philological, for he always hated the inexact use of words. 'You listen to this bloke,’ he shouted. His second volume of poetry, Dymer, was also published pseudonymously. A few months after the civil wedding ceremony, something happened that did rouse Lewis’s emotions. "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. “I never saw anything so beautiful.” Despite an interruption to fight in World War I (in which he was wounded by a bursting shell), he always maintained his home and friends in Oxford. Sayer recounts, “I remember being at a pub filled with soldiers on one Wednesday evening. Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance… Lewis once wrote, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.” — “God In The Dock” 23. The tutorial always began the same way: The pupil would read the essay that he had been told to write the week before. The new Christian devoted his talent and energy to writing prose that reflected his recently found faith. -- C.S. Regardless of their reception close to home, Lewis’s 25 Christian books, including The Screwtape Letters (1942), Mere Christianity (1952), the Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56), The Great Divorce (1946), and the Abolition of Man (1943), which Encyclopedia Britannica included in its collection of Great Books of the World, have sold millions of copies. Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C. S. Lewis then declared, “One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. 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