Some Lewis on my Birthday

The weekend before last I went up to Wisconsin to visit my beloved fiance Ashley and her family. While I was there I also preached at Friendship Baptist Church in Mondovi, where her family attends (the notes to my sermon on idolatry will be coming soon in segments). On Saturday, however, we celebrated each others' birthdays. I took her shopping to get some great finds at savers as well as a few pairs of jeans that she wanted. She took me out to Fazoli's, which is like a fastfood Italian restaurant; I'd never been there before, and it was really good.

She also got me two books off of my list of "Want to Read"s from Facebook's WeRead application. The first one is C. S. Lewis' Spirits in Bondage, a cycle of lyrics that he published when he was only twenty! Wikipedia gives a good introduction to it. Having read this cycle I feel as if I've been in the mind of a genius. He's so steeped in the classics, and I can see him struggling with the issues that his later conversion will ultimately resolve.

She also gave me Wayne Martindale's Beyond the Shadowlands: C. S. Lewis on Heaven and Hell, whom I studied under at Wheaton College. I took both his class on C. S. Lewis and his class on the Romantic Period, which might be said to have strongly influenced Lewis. Since this book was optional reading material during the class, and I knew I was swamped I opted not to buy it, but retained a great desire to read it. I've just begun reading it, and can already tell that its not only a great book, but it's also something I needed to hear now. Thanks Ashley!

Just yesterday I attended the ordination exam of Mark Brucato, and right behind me sat Dr. Martindale. We had a good conversation about Lewis, esp Spirits in Bondage. Near the beginning of our conversation he articulated exactly what I had been thinking about how so many of the themes in Spirits in Bondage resonate in more developed ways in his later works. I remarked on how Lewis' hard thinking as an agnostic in his earlier years, even railing against God, perhaps served to make him the great Christian apologist that he was. He had been through the train of thought of one who does not know God, so he was particularly clued in to how to answer an agnostic's objections. I almost wonder if he could have been so effective if he had been brought to faith earlier in his life... God's providence was surely at work.