Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #CSLewis
Most recents (24)
there's a truth about American right-wing society, hardline Christian society (for these two things are almost the same) that has yet to sink into mainstream public acceptance. it's *necessary*, however—it's vital to human survival—that this truth be fully understood.
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it's simply this: they are always at war.
always.
@MattWalshBlog, racist, staunch defender of Christian pedophilia, abusive parent, fascist Catholic fanatic, is able to drag himself out of bed every day to do more evil in the world because he thinks he's a soldier.
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always.
@MattWalshBlog, racist, staunch defender of Christian pedophilia, abusive parent, fascist Catholic fanatic, is able to drag himself out of bed every day to do more evil in the world because he thinks he's a soldier.
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@DouthatNYT, flatulent Catholic hypocrite, imagines himself to be a soldier. @PastorMark, sex pest and extremist Christian grifter, thinks he's a mighty paladin for Christ. so does @DavidAFrench, who went as far as joining a genocide to get some Christian soldier vibes.
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this is a moment that, if I remember rightly, Mr. @dick_nixon disputed in his post-presidential career. it was publicized in "The Final Days" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and thus it's in Oliver Stone's film: Kissinger kneeling next to a praying, sobbing Nixon.
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let us take the scene at face value for now. even if Richard M. Nixon never did this, it's certain that countless human beings have done almost exactly this: facing ruin, they beg God for forgiveness...in such words that reveal they don't think they did anything wrong.
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Nixon is feeling humiliated, forced to his knees, and yet he's still clutching to his pride—he still feels like he's the wronged one here. his own abuses of power aren't real to Nixon; that was "just politics" and he doesn't seem to understand why he's even in trouble.
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I owe @KaylinEvergreen and Dionysos, one of my absolute _favorite_ Hellenic deities, a bit of attention. so here it is!
Dionysos, or "Bacchus" as he's been called in Greece and Rome, is an unusual addition to the Hellenic pantheon—a late addition, thought to be imported.
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Dionysos, or "Bacchus" as he's been called in Greece and Rome, is an unusual addition to the Hellenic pantheon—a late addition, thought to be imported.
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his own mythology seems to reflect the likelihood that the worship of Dionysos came in from the East: the general story is that he was born in Thrace, had a long period of wandering abroad, then returned to Greece—triumphantly drunk off his arse.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus
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for Dionysos was a god of drunken revels and *ecstasy*.
that's how I first learned about him from Euripedes's stark play "The Bacchae", which describes how the king of Thebes, Pentheus, falls foul of Dionysos by attempting to forbid his worship.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bacch…
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that's how I first learned about him from Euripedes's stark play "The Bacchae", which describes how the king of Thebes, Pentheus, falls foul of Dionysos by attempting to forbid his worship.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bacch…
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there's a *lie* that #CSLewis told about himself in public, frequently. there were a lot of lies that he told about himself in public—not _malicious_ lies, but still lies.
this is something that Western society has trouble with: grasping that lies need not be malicious.
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this is something that Western society has trouble with: grasping that lies need not be malicious.
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if you say something factually incorrect, you're a *liar*, even if you believe the lies to be truths. @MattWalshBlog or @realchrisrufo BELIEVE their propaganda lies about trans people, and they double and treble and quadruple down on believing them, when challenged, but...
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...that's exactly why they're fanatics, and why their lies ought not to be taken at face value: @MattWalshBlog &c. aren't able to withstand criticism of their propaganda. if they're called out for telling lies, they tell more of them, and more loudly. this is *fanaticism*.
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we feel like maybe we should finally read up on #CSLewis's correspondence; there's a volume, edited by Warnie Lewis and Walter Hooper (whom we do not trust) and who knows what might have been left out, but at least it's a start.
we have...well, inklings.
~Chara
we have...well, inklings.
~Chara
that's not an allusion to Prof. Williams (who has...been in correspondence with us) but rather our fears that Lewis might have catalyzed the growth of the American racist right-wing, the "evangelical" movement that formed as a reaction to Black civil rights struggles.
~Chara
~Chara
it's not well enough appreciated, the degree to which modern American #Christianity in its hyperpolitical extremist form—@PastorMark Christianity, @RepMTG and @RickSantorum and @GOP fascıst Christianity—is specifically a racist reaction to strife for Black civil rights.
~Chara
~Chara
let's talk about the "ideology" thing a bit more. the right-wing Christian crowd (@SarahPalinUSA, @AnnCoulter, @JoelOsteen, @DouthatNYT, whoever—they're all basically the same except in trifling details) has been *really* keen on pretending not to be ideological.
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I suspect it's for the simple reason that earlier waves of right-wing Christian ideologues (people like @Franklin_Graham's dad Billy or @JerryFalwellJr's dad Jerry Sr.) got *upset* from being called ideologues—so they decided to paste "ideology" on everyone else's head.
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the @MattWalshBlog / @realchrisrufo crowd have done the same with *lots* of words that they don't want to stick to them. "racist", "bigot", "fascist", even "right wing" and "conservative"—any time anyone tries to describe or summarize their behavior, they say it's wrong.
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argh! I forgot the most important bit! because it's about Baldr and Hoðr and Loki—and a very *particular* version of their story, the one that most people know, which comes from Snorri Sturluson and the "Prose Edda" and which then got picked up by English poets.
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#CSLewis cites Matthew Arnold's "Balder Dead", a retelling of the story of Baldr's death from the "Prose Edda", as one of his early influences in his semi-autobiographical work "Surprised by Joy".
now I speculate: Jack Lewis probably had Baldr in mind when he converted.
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now I speculate: Jack Lewis probably had Baldr in mind when he converted.
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for it's been *noted* that the narrative about Baldr's death from Sturluson's "Prose Edda" is *almost* like the Christian narrative. Baldr is impossibly beautiful and impossibly pure, with amazing powers, then treachery lays him low—but he'll be coming back after Ragnarok!
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we still love @JRRTolkien, which is why we detest Peter Jackson so very much—we think he turned one our favorite childhood works of art into coarse crass (and racist) action trash, and for some reason hardly anyone's noticed. I suppose it's a sign we're in the Bad Place™.
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it's one of the ill-kept secrets of the modern-day fascıst movement, by the way, that they *adore* the Peter Jackson #LOTR films—people like @MattWalshBlog and @Timcast and @benshapiro have probably watched those trashy movies a thousand times. they're big hits, after all.
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and if someone like @benshapiro adores your movie, then you've done something dreadfully wrong—and I earnestly hope that Peter Jackson's treatment of #Tolkien one day gets a very thorough critical laceration. Jackson's a hacky director, and he made polished hackwork.
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there's a #CSLewis quote that I believe comes from many sources—it's a thought he's expressed in multiple places. it goes something like this: "if what you want from a religion is maximal happiness, then the religion of the self is the happiest of all." not a direct quote.
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I wouldn't be surprised if every right-wing Christian I've ever pestered on Twitter—@MattWalshBlog, @RepMTG, @DouthatNYT, @DavidAFrench, every single one I've ever irked—could correct me on the *exact* #CSLewis quote and where it's from. the cult of Jack Lewis is *lively*.
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I suggest that #CSLewis's quote applies best to #Christians. extremist Christianity, "conservative" Christianity, @GOP Christianity, fascıst Christianity, @MattWalshBlog / @DavidAFrench Christianity, is effectively a mere religion of the self—decorated with "Jesus".
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the modern "#conservative" movement, the right wing of American politics, is fundamentally about the primacy of emotions over reason.
of course that's not something that right-wing politicians and pundits will ever admit openly. @MattWalshBlog pretends to be "rational".
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of course that's not something that right-wing politicians and pundits will ever admit openly. @MattWalshBlog pretends to be "rational".
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Western society exalts itself as the sole embodiment of reason and logic and science on Earth; even mere #Christian bigots like @dalepartridge or @jordanbpeterson have taught themselves to pretend that their bigotries—and indeed their religious assertions—are "logical".
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this is an easy trick for human beings to manage.
any human being can be taught to stick, without ever yielding, to an assertion—however absurd the assertion is. "@jordanbpeterson is logical and rational" is an absurd assertion but Mr. Peterson and his fans stick by it.
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any human being can be taught to stick, without ever yielding, to an assertion—however absurd the assertion is. "@jordanbpeterson is logical and rational" is an absurd assertion but Mr. Peterson and his fans stick by it.
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our partner and best friend @KaylinEvergreen, to whom we feel we owe so much—we've benefited from the keenness of her mind; she "keeps it real" for us, and we *need* such tethering—doesn't like someone we talk frequently about, and that's the Christian celebrity, #CSLewis.
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unfortunately, the Pnictogen Wing feels that it's got plenty of unfinished business with C. S. Lewis—"Jack" Lewis, to friends—because Lewis played a pivotal role in our lives. we rebounded from the disastrous 1992-4 mistake that was attending @Caltech towards #CSLewis.
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we had caught a lucky break: our very first taste of C. S. Lewis wasn't something obvious. it wasn't the #Narnia books, which we didn't read until our mid-20s. it wasn't "The Screwtape Letters" or "Miracles" or any other of the famed Christian apologetic writings of Lewis.
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I've written a lot of *incendiary* stuff in the direction of @Tesla but I do genuinely feel sorry for all the programmers and engineers (and mail-room people and janitors and everyone else) who must surely be taking ALL the heat for failing to produce miracles on demand.
~Chara
~Chara
that's #technology under #capitalism: elitist dorks like @elonmusk or @pmarca or @fchollet make gigantic promises about things they don't grasp. if they understood things better, they'd have to scale down their promises to match the limitations of physical reality.
~Chara
~Chara
and then a lot of underlings at @Tesla (or @Twitter or @SpaceX or @boringcompany or @neuralink or wherever) have to scurry around and try to make the miracles happen. they're *terrified* of failure because @elonmusk's a wreck of a person, with no impulse control.
~Chara
~Chara
the intellectual damage done by #CSLewis and the cult of #Christian #apologetics that he unwittingly founded is becoming clearer to me. the situation is a bad one.
it's easy to explain: a large fraction of Western intellectuals have, without admitting it, rejected #doubt.
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it's easy to explain: a large fraction of Western intellectuals have, without admitting it, rejected #doubt.
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Jack Lewis taught a whole lot of clever, sophistical #Christians how to talk as if they were absolutely certain of themselves even though they were on uncertain ground—which is roughly how Lewis carried himself in the intellectual arena. the bad habits spread from there.
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but I contend the problem is endemic to #Christianity. this isn't just Jack Lewis's problem, or Mr. @dalepartridge's problem; this is a fundamental *fault* in Christianity.
Christianity is intellectually incoherent because it has refused to deal with its own doubts.
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Christianity is intellectually incoherent because it has refused to deal with its own doubts.
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what is a #matrix, anyway?
there's lots of answers to this question, especially in these dismal days of runaway #capitalism, which uses *everything* for #marketing and #branding, even things like elementary particles and prepositions.
it's a movie franchise, for one.
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there's lots of answers to this question, especially in these dismal days of runaway #capitalism, which uses *everything* for #marketing and #branding, even things like elementary particles and prepositions.
it's a movie franchise, for one.
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there's some chat protocol called "Matrix" that we know basically nothing about. "Matrix" is a character in the movie "Commando". Martin Gardner (peace be upon him), who once wrote a popular mathematics column for @sciam, created a fictional "Dr. Matrix", a numerologist.
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the matrix is a fundamental mathematical construct, a two-dimensional array of mathematical entities of the same type. one can form matrices of bits, integers, real numbers, complex numbers, functions, many other things. matrices have many uses in mathematics and physics.
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there's probably a good reason for this: the reactionary American #conservative movement and its political instruments (mainly @GOP politicians) knows that #Christianity is coming under increasing fire from all the peoples that Christianity has harmed in its bloody career.
~Mona
~Mona
@TuckerCarlson is *emotionally* correct about one thing: #Christianity is under attack. I should know, because I'm assisting in the war against this dangerous cult, whose death throes threaten to drag all humanity down it.
but #conservative diatribe is "doublethinkful".
~Mona
but #conservative diatribe is "doublethinkful".
~Mona
that is to say, every word spoken by a right-wing celebrity like @TuckerCarlson has *multiple meanings*: his words do not mean what they seem on the surface.
nothing he says is plain truth; peddlers of #conservative panegyric have lost the ability to speak plain truth.
~Mona
nothing he says is plain truth; peddlers of #conservative panegyric have lost the ability to speak plain truth.
~Mona
we have never had the stomach to watch @KirkCameron's repulsive "Saving Christmas"—even in capsule review form, the movie (and Cameron's extreme smarminess) are difficult to take.
it's clearly an interesting document though—a snapshot of #Christianity in profound decay.
~Mona
it's clearly an interesting document though—a snapshot of #Christianity in profound decay.
~Mona
St. Nicholas is reduced to a thuggish brute, dealing with the famous "Arian heresy" by clubbing Arius over the head; @KirkCameron is the *fascɪst* sort of #Christian, the sort whose weak faith needs support from violent enforcement.
what is the "Arian heresy", by the way?
~Mona
what is the "Arian heresy", by the way?
~Mona
it's a fascinating interpretation of the Incarnation, a reasonable one in fact—Arius (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius) posited that the Son of God, like all other human beings, was *bound to Time*. he was conceived at a certain moment (so said Arius) and did not exist before then.
~Mona
~Mona
I can name quite a few; but #GopinathMohanty, whom my parents and I have translated, is just as great, and, in many senses, greater. We need to be cautious before passing carte blanche judgement against #Indianwriters. I've read &/or taught all the novelists below save Lovecraft.
#CSLewis and #JRRTolkien taught my father at Christ Church, Oxford. Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne certainly don't bat in the same league as Chekov. And to put Jonathan Swift in here? How's that? #GopinathMohanty is in the league of #Tolstoy, #Dostoevsky, #Dickens & #Hardy.
As well, I've pretty much read the bulk of the writings of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens and Hardy. And, to this list of #greats, I could add two or three dozen European novelists, but let me add #GeorgeEliot: #GopinathMohanty is as brilliant & as trenchantly incisive as her.
Siga o fio
Nos últimos dias, nem mesmo C.S. Lewis escapou das fake news. Em algumas redes sociais, viralizou um vídeo com o título "Pandemia do Medo" que supostamente contém um texto retirado do livro "Cartas de um diabo a seu aprendiz", um dos maiores clássicos do autor.
Esclarecendo, esse texto não foi extraído ou possui qualquer ligação com a referida obra. Trata-se apenas de um mal entendido e não retrata o posicionamento do autor, já falecido.
#ThomasNelsonBrasil
#CSLewis
#CartasDeUmDiaboAoSeuAprendiz
#Covid
#Pandemia
#FiqueEmCasaLeiaMais
#ThomasNelsonBrasil
#CSLewis
#CartasDeUmDiaboAoSeuAprendiz
#Covid
#Pandemia
#FiqueEmCasaLeiaMais
“Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part... then merely part of the ‘Cause,’ valued chiefly bc of the arguments it can produce...” #CSLewis
This quote is the demon Screwtape instructing his apprentice Wormwood on how to convince a man to vaunt political inclinations above God & make them his idol. Moral societal matters are important—but only insomuch as they make man moral. Heed what (and who) you worship.
“We may give our human loves the unconditional allegiance we owe only to God. Then they become gods: then they become demons. Then they will destroy us, & also themselves. Natural loves allowed to become gods do not remain loves... but become complicated forms of hatred.” CSL
“[Satan’s] cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do [God’s] will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” #CSLewis
Miraculous turning points are often preceded by a moment of perceived bitter forsaking. Joseph Smith was “seized upon” before the First Vision. Moses was confronted by satan before God opened his great vision. Lehi wandered in a dreary waste alone before he saw the tree of life.
Christ himself felt his Father withdraw from him at the moment when he most needed to feel Him near. This was not the absence of God’s love, but its keenest presence—that the Father would allow Himself to suffer so His child could grow, transform, & overcome all evil.
Why you look in the mirror while crying & start crying harder. Ouch, I’m so sad that I’m sad. ☹️ I like to think that the “shadow of sorrow” is the Lord’s presence—mourning with you, knowing your pain, helping you grieve through it. A nice thought.
“A Grief Observed” is an underrated work of genius. If you want full introspection on the process of deep grieving (whether bc you identify with it or would like to understand others’ pain) read this personal account of how #CSLewis traveled the grief path after his wife died.
First paragraph: “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.” #CSLewis #AGriefObserved
“Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God. *Therefore,* if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.” -D&C 9
Interesting connection (qualifier?) in this context. Do God’s work & doors will open to you.
Interesting connection (qualifier?) in this context. Do God’s work & doors will open to you.
There have been times when I felt I had knocked & knocked & knocked, but the door wouldn’t open. Did I stop & ask myself, “Am I doing the Lord’s work? Am I seeking his will? Am I knocking at the wrong door? Am I open to other ideas or determined to push on this door only?”
Sometimes you *are* doing the Lord’s will & work. Sometimes you *are* at the right door. As #CSLewis said, “God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do enter your room, you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good...”
“I hope no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of existing communions. It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted.” #Lewis
“But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever it may be) is, I think, preferable.” #Lewis
“Some ppl may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless he sees it is good for him to wait.” #Lewis
Loving your neighbor *as yourself* may seem daunting, but it’s a love learned by degrees. Treat him as you wld treat yourself & you’ll begin to see him as you see yourself. Interestingly, the love you give reciprocates: forgive him his faults & you’ll begin to forgive yourself.
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” #CSLewis Begin to obey. The affection will follow.
The longer, more consciously & anxiously you obey this law of love, the more natural & perfect the love becomes until it encompasses humanity, & the closer you become—in likeness & proximity—to Christ. But you don’t have to feel it to begin. “Faith precedes the miracle.” #Kimball
