Exploring the 1948 article by C. S. Lewis, "The Trouble with 'X'" where he tells explores the all too relatable problem of what to do when we encounter people whose "fatal flaw" shipwreck all our best plans. The first thing to do, is realize that we now know a little of how God feels, for God sees all his plans spoiled too, by all these same people with their fatal flaws. Only, he sees even more fatal flaws than we could ever see. How frustrating it is that God, in his wisdom, has "made it a rul...
Mar 08, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Exploring the second part of C. S. Lewis' 1946 sermon, "Miserable Offenders," where he defends the language of the Anglican prayer book, referring to ourselves as "miserable offenders," because those fatal flaws we see so clearly other people are present also in us. Lewis gives us some great pastoral wisdom for dealing with getting these logs out of our own eyes. Lent is precisely the time for such a task. You can read "Miserable Offenders" here. To read next the essays for the weeks ahead you c...
Mar 01, 2023•31 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1946 sermon, "Miserable Offenders," where he defends the language of the Anglican prayer book, referring to ourselves as "miserable offenders," asking for God to give us "contrite hearts," and confessing that the burden of our sins is "intolerable." Lewis is adamant that this has nothing to do with how we feel, but is a statement of fact and one we, as Christians, must come to grips with if we are to be honest and to be saints. His message is challenging but leads us strai...
Feb 22, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1948 article "Some Thoughts" where he explores the Christian paradox — that Christianity is both a world-affirming and world-denying religion. In this episode, we focus on the world-denying aspects of the faith. We see that because Christianity has both sides of the paradox, things like fasting or celibacy should be practiced differently in Christianity than in every other religion and ideology. NOTE: Our first part of this essay is found a few episodes earlier S2E12 Chris...
Feb 15, 2023•38 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Exploring C. S. Lewis' essay "The Psalms" which was a precursor to his 1958 book Reflections on the Psalms . In the second part of the essay, Lewis explains how Christians need a paradigm shift to see the Psalms of judgment differently. They are more like scripts that help us approach God as the woman in the parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke 18) who knows she is in the right, if only she could get her case heard. Sean and Jordan wrestle with how uncomfortable it makes us as Christians to come to...
Feb 08, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Exploring C. S. Lewis' essay "The Psalms" which was a precursor to his 1958 book Reflections on the Psalms . In the first part of the essay, Lewis defends why modern Christians ought to pray the Psalms even though they are old and alien to us. While they are at times cruel and vindictive, and at others, appear self-righteous, they are what they claim to be — God's revelation. He guesses that they are useful to us as a way of dealing with our emotions, and provide self-reflection. Ultimately, bec...
Feb 01, 2023•38 min•Season 2Ep. 13
This week during Ordinary Time, we are privileged to hear a conversation with one of C. S. Lewis' Neighbours from the 1940's and 50's — Terry Legg, who grew up in Oxford, just around the corner from Lewis as a young man. In this episode, Terry retells some of Lewis' biography, focusing on his affections, friends, and his love, Joy. Alister McGrath's "C. S. Lewis Podcast" link to the first biography episode. " Undeceptions Podcast" C.S. Lewis Biography episode link. Find more Lesser-Known Lewis —...
Jan 25, 2023•32 min
This week during Ordinary Time, we are privileged to hear a conversation with one of C. S. Lewis' Neighbours from the 1940's and 50's — Terry Legg, who grew up in Oxford, just around the corner from Lewis as a young man. In this episode, Terry reflects on what the neighbourhood was like that he shared with C. S., and the trouble he would get in as a young boy on the Lewis property. Terry's unique connection to Lewis transports us back to the special place that birthed Narnia, but it also reminds...
Jan 18, 2023•36 min
This week's episode is a sermon Jordan preached at his home church on Jan 6, 2023 for their Epiphany Service. The sermon is on Isaiah 60:1–9, which begins "Arise, Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Finding much overlap between this passage and C. S. Lewis' sermon "The Weight of Glory" (which we just covered in Advent! ), we thought we would include it in our feed this season. We hope it blesses you as we head into Ordinary Time. If you would prefer, yo...
Jan 11, 2023•28 min
Exploring C. S. Lewis' 1948 article "Some Thoughts" where he explores the Christian paradox — that we sometimes affirm this present world and sometimes deny it as we look forward to a better, resurrected world. In this episode, we focus on the half of the paradox that is grounded in the Good News of Jesus' incarnation (that God became man). Here we let Lewis be our guide to see why Christmas is such good news for this present world and how we can celebrate it well! (We’ll save the other half of ...
Jan 04, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Exploring a few short scraps written by C. S. Lewis in 1945, in a piece now appropriately titled “Scraps," while reflecting on their connection to Christmas and the good news of the Incarnation. In "Scraps," Lewis shares four different, interesting, short, and to-the-point thoughts that illustrate some of the reasons we celebrate that God has become Man in the birth of Jesus; that God affirms the goodness of both the physical and spiritual realms and longs to reunite them; that he affirms the go...
Dec 28, 2022•47 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Reflecting on the final part of C. S. Lewis' most famous sermon "The Weight of Glory," from 1941. Sean and Jordan, together with their first guest and long-time friend Rev. Dr. Dean Pinter, reflect on the ways Lewis' legendary sermon helps us learn to "wait for the weight of glory" during the season of Advent. In this episode, we consider why it is good news that we are burdened with God's glory, and draw from Lewis' life-changing practical ethic of loving your neighbour as the "holiest object" ...
Dec 21, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Reflecting on the third part of C. S. Lewis' most famous sermon "The Weight of Glory," from 1941. Sean and Jordan, together with their first guest and long-time friend Dr. Dean Pinter, reflect on the ways Lewis' legendary sermon helps us learn to "wait for the weight of glory" during the season of Advent. In this episode, we look at the section where Lewis explores the variety of images scripture uses of Heaven, and why we need variety in the images that draw us on and keep us desiring for that ...
Dec 14, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Reflecting on the second part of C. S. Lewis' most famous sermon "The Weight of Glory," from 1941. Here Lewis reminds us that our desires for this world are not enough, as they were meant as pointers beyond this world to another world. Sean and Jordan, together with their first guest and long-time friend Dr. Dean Pinter, reflect on the ways Lewis' legendary sermon helps us learn to "wait for the weight of glory" during the season of Advent. To purchase Dean Pinter's books, look for " Acts" in Zo...
Dec 06, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Reflecting on the first part of C. S. Lewis' most famous sermon "The Weight of Glory," from 1941. Here Lewis makes the famous quote that, "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." Sean and Jordan...
Nov 30, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Exploring the second part of C. S. Lewis' 1953 speech “Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer" where Lewis wrestles through the two seemingly incompatible ways Jesus teaches us to pray. First, submitting our requests to God's possible refusal (e.g. “thy will be done”). Second, with the certain faith we shall get the specific thing we ask. Sean and Jordan push back and forth on this one, as Lewis does in the essay. But, also like Lewis, we find no clear answer to the problem. Still, afte...
Nov 09, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Exploring the first part of C. S. Lewis' 1953 speech “Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer" where Lewis wrestles through the two seemingly incompatible ways Jesus teaches us to pray. First, submitting our requests to God's possible refusal (e.g. “thy will be done”). Second, with the certain faith we shall get the specific thing we ask. Sean and Jordan push back and forth on this one, as Lewis does in the essay. But, also like Lewis, we find no clear answer to the problem. Still, after...
Nov 02, 2022•35 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Exploring the second part of C.S. Lewis' 1959 article "The Efficacy of Prayer" where Lewis questions if there is a way we can find out if prayer really works. Like the last essay, this leads Lewis to exploring what prayer is and is not. It is first a request to a person. But prayer is more than a form of communication, it is a form of connection, a mode of relating to a person. Not surprisingly it is only through connecting with God that we can find any answer to the initial question because "Wh...
Oct 26, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Exploring the first part of C.S. Lewis' 1959 article "The Efficacy of Prayer" where Lewis questions if there is a way we can find out if prayer really works. Like the last essay, this leads Lewis to exploring what prayer is and is not. It is first a request to a person. But prayer is more than a form of communication, it is a form of connection, a mode of relating to a person. Not surprisingly it is only through connecting with God that we can find any answer to the initial question because "Wha...
Oct 19, 2022•34 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Exploring the second part of C.S. Lewis' 1945 article "Work and Prayer" where he asks the question "If God is all-wise… doesn’t he know what is best? And if he is all-good, won’t He do it whether you pray or not?" This question leads Lewis to consider whether petitionary prayer - asking God for things - is a lower form of prayer, and form some conclusions about what prayer is and what it isn't. Here Lewis introduces us to the awe-inspiring concept that God (as Blaise Pascal puts it) gives to us ...
Oct 12, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Exploring the first part of C.S. Lewis' 1945 article "Work and Prayer" where he asks the question "If God is all-wise… doesn’t he know what is best? And if he is all-good, won’t He do it whether you pray or not?" This question leads Lewis to consider whether petitionary prayer - asking God for things - is a lower form of prayer, and form some conclusions about what prayer is and what it isn't. Here Lewis introduces us to the awe-inspiring concept that God (as Blaise Pascal puts it) gives to us "...
Oct 05, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 1
All of Season 1 we have been drawing connections from what C.S. Lewis wrote about the crises in his world to the crises in ours. In this episode, we take a moment to recap and reflect, but then to make a more important connection between what Lewis wrote in these essays to what is written in scripture. Of course, we find Lewis to be a biblically faithful writer, but now we ask, specifically, which scriptures would fit well with the topics, themes, and truths Lewis taught us in Season 1. Find mor...
Sep 28, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Exploring a published letter that Lewis wrote in 1939, titled "Conditions for a Just War," where he challenges the usefulness of the well-known "conditions" that theologians often use to evaluate whether a war is just or not. Lewis points out that the conditions were originally meant to be employed by princes who were the only people who had the right or responsibility of choosing to go to war. Therefore, for Lewis, the average citizen in a democracy does not bear the moral responsibility of wha...
Sep 14, 2022•50 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Exploring C.S. Lewis’s 1963 article “The Seeing Eye” where Lewis challenges those who would use scientific discoveries (specifically, with space travel in mind) to try and disprove aspects of the Christian faith. Lewis explains that you will always find God in creation if you are open to it — "much depends on the seeing eye." It is one of the most personally challenging essays so far, instructing us on how to find God and revealing the ways we may be avoiding him. It also causes us to reflect on...
Aug 31, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Exploring C.S. Lewis’s 1958 article “Religion and Rocketry” where Lewis considers the threat of Aliens! That is, if they turn out to be real, does that challenge our Christian faith? This thought experiment deepens our appreciation of Christ’s incarnation and redemption, of how great God's love is for us, and teaches us how to contextualize the gospel and be more humble when we share the good news. Also, we finally get into Narnia! If you want to read or listen to C.S. Lewis' "Religion and Rocke...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Exploring three of C.S. Lewis’s articles from 1944: “Blimpophobia,” “A Dream,” and “Private Bates.” In all of these Lewis voices his concerns over political leaders extending their emergency powers too far for too long at the end of WW2. Lewis explains why this may backfire and lead to worse circumstances the next time a world crisis happens and gives some warnings about what happens when the general public becomes disillusioned with potential propaganda from government and media. Sound familiar...
Aug 03, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Exploring C.S. Lewis’s 1940 article “The Necessity of Chivalry” where Lewis defines and illustrates what the ideal for masculinity should be — a man who is not just a warrior, neither just a tame, civilized, and refined man, but a man who is "both to the nth". Lewis explains how when men are only allowed to be one or the other, it is a danger to all of society. It seems what Lewis writes in this essay 82-year-old essay is extremely relevant to what some, like Jordan Peterson, consider extremely ...
Jul 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Exploring C.S. Lewis’s 1941 article “Meditation on the Third Commandment” warning Christians of the dangers of labeling any political party as a “Christian” party. This article led us to reflect on the risks and rewards of how Christians can mix their faith and politics. It's rewarding when our faith shapes our politics, but the risk comes when it happens the other way around. We also found some possible applications to the post-Covid world about whether news channels can be Christian, and how w...
Jul 06, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Exploring C.S. Lewis’s 1940 article “Two Ways with the Self,” and his 1943 article “Equality”. We start out reflecting on how Lewis’ essay on “Equality” helps fill out his surprising statements about equality in the “Membership” episode. We find that the concerns he has about equality as an ultimate virtue are actually directly applicable not only to today’s world but to our personal lives. This leads us to consider his challenges in “Two Ways with the Self” about how to love and hate yourself p...
Jun 22, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Exploring C.S. Lewis’s 1948 article, “On Living in an Atomic Age,” where Lewis challenges those who believe the natural realm is all there is to reality. If so, then nothing, not your joys, not your desires, says Lewis — not even the human race! — has any meaning or purpose. We reflect on how Lewis demonstrates the absurdity of this by using our anxiety over threats like nuclear war (or a pandemic?) to suggest that there must be more to reality than the natural world. We learn how Christians oug...
Jun 08, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 4
