BEAUTY AS FOOD FOR THE SOUL

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“Beauty as food for the soul” comes from C.S. Lewis. The theme of beauty remained a central thread throughout Lewis’s life.

In fact, Jack (C.S. Lewis’s self-chosen childhood nickname) described himself as a beauty hunter. He spent his life seeking to find that place where all the beauty came from and of course he found it, our magnificent creator God. And that pursuit nurtured his work. Beauty, for Lewis, began in the simple beauty of the landscape and transposed itself into the literature Lewis came to love and master.

The more you study Lewis and his writing, the more you find a man of simple yet robust tastes. A man who took the time to imbibe the simplicity of the beauty around him. It was no frivolous pursuit. Beauty, as it turned out, was food for the soul.

  

Lewis enjoyed the habit of walking the garden before breakfast in order to drink in “the beauty of the morning, thanking God for the weather, the roses, the song of the birds, and anything else he could find to enjoy.”

His brother, Warren Lewis noted:

“Jack’s mind was developing and flowering on lines as unpolitical as can be imagined. His letters of the time are full of landscape and romance: they record his discovery of George MacDonald—a turning point in his life—and his first and characteristic delight in Chaucer, Scott, Malory, the Brontës, William Morris, Coleridge, de Quincey, Spenser, Swinburne, Keats.”

When was the last time you took a walk only to pick out the beauties surrounding you, thanking God for them? If you’re anything like me, it’s been too long.

You don’t have to be a literary giant, a great philosopher, or a mystic to understand and appreciate beauty. You just have to be willing to take a walk and, as Tolstoy says, look around you.

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Leo Tolstoy

ANOTHER C.S.LEWIS FAN – DR ALISTER McGRATH

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Dr. Alister McGrath is the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University. He holds three Oxford doctorates: a doctoral degree in molecular biophysics, a Doctor of Divinity degree in theology, and a Doctor of Letters degree in intellectual history. McGrath is a prolific author on many topics including science, faith, apologetics, C.S.Lewis, doctrine, and church history.

When asked, “Was there something in particular about C.S.Lewis that drew you to his writing”? his response will hopefully encourage you to start or read more of C.S.Lewis.

“You mustn’t laugh, but I had just become a Christian and was asking my Christian friends all these difficult questions. They got fed up and one of them, exasperated, said: “Why don’t you read C S Lewis?” I knew he had written a book about lions and wardrobes or something, so I bought one of his books and started to read. And it was as if someone turned the light on as if something clicked. I suddenly realised this makes sense. Nearly 50 years later I’m still reading, I’m still getting more out of C S Lewis because there’s so much there to discover.”

If you have not read any of C S Lewis books then can I suggest you start with Mere Christianity. Perhaps Screwtape Letters. You decide once you have heard Dr Alister McGrath.

THE GENIUS OF C.S.LEWIS

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Eric Metaxas interviews Oxford Fellow Dr. Michael Ward about his discovery of a secret code in C.S. Lewis’s CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, which Ward explores in his book PLANET NARNIA. Both men are brilliant and Christians. They expanded my view of Jesus and therefore God and hope they will do that for you as well. Whilst I have several of C.S.Lewis’s books this interview has inspired me to want to dig deeper. The level of C.S.Lewis’s faith was incredible. If you want to go deeper in your faith you need to read Miracles – Do they Really Happen.