C.S.Lewis' words on Christianity

[aslansothername]

Ok, so I found these two video clips, and they are recordings of C.S. Lewis speaking on the radio. He is talking about; prayer, Christianity, and some other things that I thought we would all enjoy. A special thanks to our great administrator fantasia_kitty for helping me with the videos!!!! Enjoy!

[jesusiskingofkings]

These are awesome. I like the whole thing about the Eternal Power of God.

I agree with Lewis. We as humans are bound to time and to moments passing from one to the others. God however is Eternal Infinite and He is not bound by time. God created time.

I also like his teaching on how before we are saved, we are not "real persons" but when we surrender to Christ its then we become a "real person"

"It’s only when you allow yourself to be drawn into His light that you become a real person."C.S.Lewis.

Wow these Audio recordings are awesome!

Well that’s great

To Narnia and the North!!!!!!!

[DestrierDragon]

when the vaacuum isn't going on in the background i'll watch the clips, (thanks for posting them!) but i just wanted to post my favorite C.S. lewis quotes on Christianity,
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”
And my all-time favorite...
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
--C.S. Lewis

[Wolf'sbane]

Lewis sounds so much more posh than I would have imagined him -
"the i-duhhh". He does have a wonderful speaking voice though. Love his observations on the futility of human effort without the transforming power of God. He always breaks through the dry dust of "doing good" into a celebration of joy of God working through us.

[Sven]

If anyone is interested, there are a few more audio recordings of Lewis, located here.

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”

That one isn't from Lewis, though you find it incorrectly attributed to him in a lot of places on the 'net. It's actually by Walter Miller.

"I'm sorry, Father, I feel that the laws of society are what makes something a crime or not. I'm aware that you don't agree. And there can be bad laws, ill-conceived, true. But in this case, I think we have a good law. If I thought I had such a thing as a soul, and that there might be an angry God in Heaven, I might agree with you."

Abbot Zerchi smiled thinly. "You don't have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily."

The visitor laughed politely. "A semantic confusion."

"True. But which of us is confused? Are you sure?"

A Canticle for Leibowitz

[Liberty Hoffman]

wow, that's brilliant! I love hearing him say tall that himself! it's great and really gives more depth to his stories!

[Dr Elwin Ransom]

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”

That one isn't from Lewis, though you find it incorrectly attributed to him in a lot of places on the 'net. It's actually by Walter Miller.

I'm very glad you pointed that out, Sven! Secretly, I have long wished C.S. Lewis hadn't said that. Now it turns out that he didn't.

Why? It's not a Biblical statement. At best it's naively downplaying the role of the Resurrection: Jesus rose from the dead in a real body, and will someday give His people new and glorifies physical bodies too. Christians' bodies are not temporary. They will only be temporarily lost when they die.

And at worst, it's Gnostic-style heresy, to claim human souls are more important then God's physical creation, and that Resurrection is not true.

I think many people who repeat the quote, whether or not they attribute it to Lewis, think it sounds Biblical to value souls above bodies. But in that case they end up trying to be more "spiritual" than God Himself.

[Pattertwigs Pal]

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”

That one isn't from Lewis, though you find it incorrectly attributed to him in a lot of places on the 'net. It's actually by Walter Miller.

I'm very glad you pointed that out, Sven! Secretly, I have long wished C.S. Lewis hadn't said that. Now it turns out that he didn't.

I'm glad it was pointed out too. When I read that quote (after reading Randy Alcorn's Heaven), I found it odd that Lewis would say something like that because his beliefs seem to agree with Alcorn's but this one didn't. Alcorn often quoted Lewis in his book.

[queenKT_the_gentle]

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to listen to my biggest hero.

[Valiant]

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”

I'm also glad it was made known Lewis did not state this, because when I read it, I realized it was theologically incorrect and I was scratching my head wondering why Lewis would have said this.
Though it sounds pleasing to the ear (the quote), I think most Christians (I'm Catholic, so I don't know about all Christians) believe the soul and body to be both important and holy. I would say we neither have a body nor a soul- we are a body and a soul.

Thanks for posting the video, and the other quotes as well. I liked the one refering to the sun a lot!

[Cymru]

I would assume that the body referred to in that quote is the temporal one anyway. When we are asked what the profit would be of gaining the whole world and losing one's soul we are being asked to contemplate which we value more, which indicates that there is (if temporary) a difference in value. To "gain the whole world" suggests a present physical satisfaction, not, of course, the literal deposit of planet earth in one's bank account.

Here, the soul is the most valuable - while, the present body is expendable, because if the soul is preserved it will, like Christ's, rise again. If the body is saved and the soul lost, no such resurrection is possible.

I think the distinction between having a soul and being one is relevant, (though how so is not immediately clear to my human mind) and though Lewis didn't say that exact quote, he said plenty to indicate that he subscribed to the idea that the soul is unique from the (temporal) body and even the psyche. Til We Have Faces is really an exploration of this Platonic idea.

I don't necessarily see eye to eye with him on that, but I view it as less dangerous than perhaps others would. At best, we are attempting to understand something we cannot fully understand in discussing that dichotomy/tri(?)chotomy. It's akin to trying to taste chocolate with our elbows.

I can't listen to these until I get home, but I'm excited to know they are here and can't wait to give them a listen!

[Narnia #1 Fan]

Hello, NarniaWebbers,
I have read "Mere Christianity" and thought it was very good and have read parts of it for a second time to digest more of it. I was told a story once where a man who was very knowledgeable read it eight times!

I think that we are very fortunate that some of the original radio broadcasts of C. S. Lewis are still around and it is an honor to be able to hear them. They were very good as I expected.

I thought it really neat to be able to hear C.S. Lewis' voice and how he expressed different things in the recording.

I really liked the talk on prayer and his other discussions. It it very interesting.

[joy93]

WOW!!!!!!!!!! I have read Mere Chrisrianty but to here his own words was truely a treasure!!!!! C.S.Lewis is the greatest author in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one can ever match what he said and wrote!! C.S.Lewis is my passion!!

[Cymru]

Oh my heavens!!! That is NOT what I imagined at ALL!!

Amazing to finally hear him. So this is the voice Treebeard was based on!