Very moving and inspiring talk. It's one of my favourite books by Lewis. I can't think of any other writer who can take you into 'the dark night of the soul' with such a sense of compassion. As an artist once said to me "can you imagine how it felt to be Judas?" It's a non judgemental way of helping us face our mistakes. Or rather it feels less 'judgy' and more compassionate. I imagine Lewis to have been someone who responded far more deeply to kindness than to a harsh tirade of his failings - a metaphorical thrashing by another person wouldn't have moved him to change. As always, the book is redolent with Lewis's understanding of what makes us sin, the covering up and plastering over of old wounds and emotional hurts with distraction becomes bad habit, difficult or seemingly impossible to change, without help. Again, the word 'compassion' comes to mind. Brilliant to listen to this Sunday morning, thank you!
Thank you doctor ward for revisiting the great divorce which I read about 50 years ago as a new christian.i will. Stay right here and process for as long as I need to the more that he owns the more I own. Thank you for creating such a bird Bath an inviting us to dive into it. It seems that Christ only used the bird cage approach when dealing with pharisees.blessings.
The Great Divorce is a great book as it reveals many side things that Lewis believed such as there being animals as well as our beloved animal companions in heaven.
Moral reality is way more real than bodily reality in a particular sense. The bodily can simbolize that wich is moral without falling short as an allegory. If you desire to find the truth in the book, you better read it in that way. To say, for instance, that a mere molecule of heavenly dust is far to big to fit in hell is not merely an literary device, but truth of things spiritual outspoken with the ordinary words that describe bodily reality, like time and space. They simply go farther, like an parable of the gospels.
I find it hard to understand how Christians, who believe in an immortal soul made in the image and likeness of God, would lose their free will after their human body dies. If the parable of the prodigal son is true, it is true across eternity. I do believe that some of us arrive in hell, but in no wise is this state eternal, unless we ultimately choose it to be so.
No second chances after death, unfortunately. "And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him." - Hebrews 9:27-28 Also, think of Jesus' parable about the rich man and Lazarus. The point is crystal clear. Once you arrive in Hell, you never leave.
Lewis isn't representing Hell as the grey town, but using the grey town as an allegory of life, this life. Hell is portrayed as the crack in the floorboards. Transcendentally, the 'outer Darkness' of nonbeing. Concepts of purgatory as a sort of holding room disappear in an omnipresent space-time Perusha perspective. He's treating this life, the bus trip and the grey town, as the purgative element of a purgatory. It's the closest he gets to transcendentalism in his apologetic books. I think it's his best.
I found The Great Divorce strangely inspiring and clarifying. Thanks for this lecture.
Very moving and inspiring talk. It's one of my favourite books by Lewis. I can't think of any other writer who can take you into 'the dark night of the soul' with such a sense of compassion. As an artist once said to me "can you imagine how it felt to be Judas?" It's a non judgemental way of helping us face our mistakes. Or rather it feels less 'judgy' and more compassionate. I imagine Lewis to have been someone who responded far more deeply to kindness than to a harsh tirade of his failings - a metaphorical thrashing by another person wouldn't have moved him to change. As always, the book is redolent with Lewis's understanding of what makes us sin, the covering up and plastering over of old wounds and emotional hurts with distraction becomes bad habit, difficult or seemingly impossible to change, without help. Again, the word 'compassion' comes to mind. Brilliant to listen to this Sunday morning, thank you!
Thank you doctor ward for revisiting the great divorce which I read about 50 years ago as a new christian.i will. Stay right here and process for as long as I need to the more that he owns the more I own.
Thank you for creating such a bird Bath an inviting us to dive into it.
It seems that Christ only used the bird cage approach when dealing with pharisees.blessings.
The Great Divorce is a great book as it reveals many side things that Lewis believed such as there being animals as well as our beloved animal companions in heaven.
Awesome commentary!
Dr. Michal Ward is brilliant I enjoy learning about C. S. Lewis' books from him. Thank you very much for this video.
My favorite C.S. Lewis book.
Moral reality is way more real than bodily reality in a particular sense. The bodily can simbolize that wich is moral without falling short as an allegory. If you desire to find the truth in the book, you better read it in that way. To say, for instance, that a mere molecule of heavenly dust is far to big to fit in hell is not merely an literary device, but truth of things spiritual outspoken with the ordinary words that describe bodily reality, like time and space. They simply go farther, like an parable of the gospels.
I find it hard to understand how Christians, who believe in an immortal soul made in the image and likeness of God, would lose their free will after their human body dies. If the parable of the prodigal son is true, it is true across eternity. I do believe that some of us arrive in hell, but in no wise is this state eternal, unless we ultimately choose it to be so.
No second chances after death, unfortunately.
"And just as it is destined for people to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."
- Hebrews 9:27-28
Also, think of Jesus' parable about the rich man and Lazarus. The point is crystal clear. Once you arrive in Hell, you never leave.
What preposterous, Calvinist rubbish.
@@OhioCoastie94 That's preposterous Calvinist nonsense. Read some David Bentley Hart. Read some George MacDonald. Read some C. S. Lewis.
@@phillipbrock9967read The Bible
because we never lose free will no idea where you're getting that from.
Lewis isn't representing Hell as the grey town, but using the grey town as an allegory of life, this life. Hell is portrayed as the crack in the floorboards. Transcendentally, the 'outer Darkness' of nonbeing. Concepts of purgatory as a sort of holding room disappear in an omnipresent space-time Perusha perspective. He's treating this life, the bus trip and the grey town, as the purgative element of a purgatory. It's the closest he gets to transcendentalism in his apologetic books. I think it's his best.