Prayer and the Bible

Notes on Hillsdale College Online Course about C.S. Lewis part 4

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Lecturer Michael Ward

In "Letters to Malcom"

Lewis wrote that the mistake he made  in praying was that he contemplated rather than enjoyed his time in prayer.  This burden later led him to abandon Christianity.

In "Spirits of Bondage", written during the time Lewis doubted the existence of God, he felt that if  God did exist, He was outside of and in opposition to the cosmic arrangements.

When Lewis became a theist, he saw God as a universal spirit--not the Christian God.

In a poem written after he became a Christian, he wrote, "This year, this year, as all the flowers foretell, We shall  escape the circle and undo the spell."

Lewis expressed that "A Christian is an articulation of God's word."

"We must, no doubt, distinguish this ontological continuity between Creator and creature which is, so to speak, 'given' by the relation between them, from the union of wills which, under Grace, is reached by a life of sanctity."

Some of Lewis' thoughts about the Bible: 

(Lewis was not a Biblical theologian).  

1.  The divine writers refer to Jesus as the Word of God. 

"It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God.  The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him.

2.  Distinguish the different genres of the Bible.

Knowing the type of literature we are reading is necessary in their interpretation.

Reading the Bible centered on Jesus as the key is a must. "We are committed to it in principle by Our Lord himself. To the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained the O.T. scriptures pertaining to Himself."