14 Comments
Feb 9Liked by Barry Friedman

I don't understand Lewis's point. Why should the human called Jesus be reviled as a lunatic for merely repeating widely-accepted moral platitudes? Lewis got pretty worked up about this.

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Agreed. I think he was coming to a point -- and Hitchens posited this, too -- where Lewis was on the precipice of knowing the whole concept of Jesus and heaven and God and original sin was impossible for a thinking, rational human being to accept, but ultimately decided he kind of liked the story anyway.

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Feb 9Liked by Barry Friedman

"That is the one thing we must not say."

We can say all the other things, though? All the other things? I hardly know where to start. Maybe... "Jeepers! What a cartload o' crap!"

That's one thing I can say, right?

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Yeah, that's a good place. I'd start there.

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founding
Feb 9Liked by Barry Friedman

Balderdash, Lewis! Can you hear me? I expect not.

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You tell him, June

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Thank you. I needed this for my collection, which includes The Brothers Grimm on Odin's omnipotence and Hans Christian Andersen on clockwork Calvinism and how to use your own predestination as an affirmative defense at the Last Judgment. Good stuff.

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Hmm, how do I sum up my opinion of this passage .... Got it: Bullshit.

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Yeah, it's a dodge for sure, but I do think if he had stopped somewhere in the middle it wouldn't have been so infuriating.

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Evangelists: Known for stopping in the middle. Sure they are.

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founding

Absolutism. There are those who happily jump on that rock and claim the high ground. Stridently with torches or eloquently as with this gentleman.

TL;DR, I seem to lack this particular DNA.

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This week's series is my first exposure to Lewis's writings. And it shall be my last. I have a limited mental budget for codswallop.

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Don't blame you, but I thought it was worth sharing him.

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"What the hell, Stapes? What the hell have you been smoking? What are you hiding in that big cabinet there?"

-- "Narnia business!"

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