I have been perusing a book lent to me with the above intriguing title (2008). It has been authored by an English senior psychiatrist, Dr Gaius Davies.
He has done detailed studies on Christians well-known to most who although highly gifted in certain areas suffered from moderate to more extreme cases of what we would call mental-emotional disorders.
To carry out this task Davies examines the lives of Martin Luther (Protestant Reformer), John Bunyan (prolific writer), William Cowper (hymn writer), Lord Shaftesbury (social reformer), Christina Rossetti (poet), Frances R. Havergal (hymn writer), Gerard Manley Hopkins (poet), Amy Carmichael (missionary to India), C.S. Lewis (literary academic, apologist, extraordinary writer and poet), J.B. Philips (New Testament paraphraser), and Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (preacher).
The treatment of Lewis' life by Davies is enlightening but I was particularly struck by the description given of Lewis in arguing against Naturalism opposed to Elizabeth Anscombe in 1948 at Oxford University at the Socratic Club of which Lewis was then President.
After this debate in which Anscombe (a Roman Catholic) appeared1 to show a significant defect in Lewis' argument against naturalism as presented in his book Miracles (1947, 1960), Lewis wrote an instructive poem.
The Apologist’s Evening Prayer
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
C.S. Lewis, Poems (1964).
Years ago I was in a Christian denomination that did not favour intellectual pursuits, particularly in respect to the Faith. Its watchwords were the Holy Spirit's power along with an unquestioning acceptance of signs of 'divine healing'.
One person warned me that 'thinking too much' would 'get me into trouble'. Now looking back I think that was good advice in the same respect that Lewis implies above.
Anything2 that we produce including our thoughts, arguments and ideas can so easily become the 'coins' we trust in rather than than the God who stands behind all that has been created.
1. It is still highly contested to this day whether Anscombe plausibly showed a weakness in Lewis' original argument. In any case, he revised his work and a new 1960 revision of Miracles was published.
2. Of course, it should be noted that even our feelings, and other 'experiences' are often in the same class as our thinking so let us not be fooled into believing that trusting our experiences means that we are trusting God.
He has done detailed studies on Christians well-known to most who although highly gifted in certain areas suffered from moderate to more extreme cases of what we would call mental-emotional disorders.
To carry out this task Davies examines the lives of Martin Luther (Protestant Reformer), John Bunyan (prolific writer), William Cowper (hymn writer), Lord Shaftesbury (social reformer), Christina Rossetti (poet), Frances R. Havergal (hymn writer), Gerard Manley Hopkins (poet), Amy Carmichael (missionary to India), C.S. Lewis (literary academic, apologist, extraordinary writer and poet), J.B. Philips (New Testament paraphraser), and Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (preacher).
The treatment of Lewis' life by Davies is enlightening but I was particularly struck by the description given of Lewis in arguing against Naturalism opposed to Elizabeth Anscombe in 1948 at Oxford University at the Socratic Club of which Lewis was then President.After this debate in which Anscombe (a Roman Catholic) appeared1 to show a significant defect in Lewis' argument against naturalism as presented in his book Miracles (1947, 1960), Lewis wrote an instructive poem.
The Apologist’s Evening Prayer
From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.
Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
C.S. Lewis, Poems (1964).
Years ago I was in a Christian denomination that did not favour intellectual pursuits, particularly in respect to the Faith. Its watchwords were the Holy Spirit's power along with an unquestioning acceptance of signs of 'divine healing'.
One person warned me that 'thinking too much' would 'get me into trouble'. Now looking back I think that was good advice in the same respect that Lewis implies above.
Anything2 that we produce including our thoughts, arguments and ideas can so easily become the 'coins' we trust in rather than than the God who stands behind all that has been created.
1. It is still highly contested to this day whether Anscombe plausibly showed a weakness in Lewis' original argument. In any case, he revised his work and a new 1960 revision of Miracles was published.
2. Of course, it should be noted that even our feelings, and other 'experiences' are often in the same class as our thinking so let us not be fooled into believing that trusting our experiences means that we are trusting God.
