Today is the 113th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Jack!
A Word of Grace – November 28, 2011
Dear Friends:
Reading through Ecclesiastes is like rummaging through the attic of an old home. You never know what treasures might be there. There is a lot of stuff worth pondering in chapter 7 alone like this observation of Solomon –
In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing. Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself? Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both (Ecc 7:15-18).
“Only the good die young” is a saying taken from these musings of Solomon and repeated over the centuries like it is a gospel truth, but it is not.
It is pretty shocking when a teetotaling, non-smoking, exercising vegan dies of lung cancer at age 30 and a hard-drinking, three-pack a day, couch potato lives to be 100. What about the “nose-to-the-grindstone” straight “A” student who is killed coming home from church by a drunk driver while a lazy, dissolute lout comes through trouble time and again like a cat with nine lives?
Life does take its twists and turns. It isn’t fair and we demand to know, “Why?”
In the silence that follows, we turn to ourselves for the answer.
We work hard to establish our lives beyond the reach of trouble like the ancients who attempted to build a tower to heaven to control their destiny (Gen 11:1-9). We acquire knowledge and try to figure out all the angles to preserve ourselves with wisdom and virtue. Read more
Today Is the 48th Anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s Death
C.S. Lewis died on November 22, 1963, just seven days shy of his 65th birthday on November 29th.
Today is the 48th anniversary of his death, the same day that President John F. Kennedy and writer Aldous Huxley died.
In “Living the Legacy” of C.S. Lewis, we at the Foundation don’t seek to idolize the man or merely to memorialize him, but rather we see Lewis as a model of someone who lived as a Christian in higher education and who used his imagination and intellect in the service of Christ. Among many other qualities, he was ever-seeking, charitable, humble, and joyous.
Three areas Lewis often wrote and spoke about that particularly resonate with our mission are “Mere Christianity,” scholarship, and creativity. Who else has been able to so successfully write and lecture about topics as seemingly divergent as as science fiction, children’s fantasy fiction, scholarly nonfiction, and Christian nonfiction? If often amazes people that the writer of the Narnia series is the same person as the author of Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, and the scholar who wrote Preface to Paradise Lost and The Discarded Image.
Whether it’s C.S. Lewis College, our Summer Institute at Oxbridge, the programs of The Study Centre at The Kilns (Lewis’s beloved home), or our conferences/retreats, we at the C.S. Lewis Foundation seek to infuse faith, creativity, and scholarship into all of our programs. We invite you to explore the ways you can do the same in your own life.
A Word of Grace – November 21, 2011
Dear Friends:
But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture”I believed, and so I spoke”we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Cor 4:13-15).
“All politics are local,” it is said. “All faith is personal,” I say in the spirit of the Apostle Paul.
Faith is not vicarious; that is to say, no one can stand in for us and believe and speak on our behalf when it comes to knowing that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and will do the same for we who are dead in our sins. As the old song says, “Not my mother, not my father, but it’s me, O Lord, standin’ in the need of prayer.”
The whole purpose of this resurrection, Paul says, is to bring you into the presence of the Father to live the life he meant you to live from the beginning. And all of this is for you, Paul points out, because grace makes its gains one person at a time. Read more
Categories: A Word of Grace, Devotional
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2nd Annual Christmas Carol Service – Festival of Lessons and Carols
On December 10th, come join us in celebrating the true meaning of Christmas!
Featuring the Kids Choir of Amherst, this unique candlelight evening of carol singing and special music will take place in the historic setting of the beautiful Russell Sage Chapel on the Northfield Campus in Northfield, Massachusetts.
Where: Sage Chapel – Northfield Campus, Northfield, MA
When: December 10, 2011 at 5 p.m.
This event is part of the fifth annual “Special Day in Northfield: A Holiday Celebration,” featuring musical performances, gift making and craft activities, demonstrations and shopping venues along the Main Street and back roads of Northfield, Mass. on Saturday, December 10, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Directions
No reservations are necessary, but please plan to arrive at least 20 minutes early for parking and seating.
Following Main Street north through town: Turn right on Moody St, left on Winchester, and, just past the Auditorium, enter the campus on the left. Please follow signs and signals from Parking Attendants.
Categories: C.S. Lewis College, Events
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The C.S. Lewis Foundation fosters and preserves C.S. Lewis' legacy by working to make Christian intellectual discourse a part of academic and cultural life.
By offering a variety of programs and resources for scholars, faculty, administrators as well as seekers and lay readers of all Christian traditions, the Foundation seeks to advance the renewal of Christian thought and creative expression throughout the world of learning. 
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