PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS
MERE CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER 10: Hope
Before reading, number your paragraphs 1-6.
Paragraph 1:
If you have hope, are you to leave the world just as it is, that is, alone?
Which Christians made the biggest impact in this world?
What are some examples of Christians who were heavenly-minded and yet also earthly-good?
When did Christians start becoming INEFFECTIVE in this world?
What happens if you aim for heaven? What happens if you aim only for earth?
Improperly focusing on the wrong things can lead to bad results. Lewis cites a focus on health as an example. What happens when you focus on health?
When are you likely to get health provided?
Paragraph 2:
What has trained us to think only in terms of THIS world?
What is the second reason we find it difficult to think of heaven?
What happens whenever we do look into our own hearts?
What is true about that something we do want in our hearts?
Although the world offers to fill those wants and desires, what ends up happening?
When we fall in love, see a beautiful country, or take up some subject which excites us, do some real longings arise in us? Can any marriage, country, or subject satisfy those longings?
Is he referring to unsuccessful marriages, the wrong country, or the wrong subject? What is he speaking of?
"There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just __________ away in the reality." (This statement is huge and forms the basis of his sermon The Weight of Glory.)
Paragraph 3:
What does this fool go on all this life thinking?
What kind of people normally follow the Fool's Way?
Paragraph 4:
The person who follows this second way thinks that the whole thing was what?
This person claims that you naturally think this way whenever you are what age?
What do you finally stop doing whenever you grow up?
This person will settle down and learn what and repress what?
What 3 positive things can be said about the person who follows this second wrong way?
Following this wrong way tends to make a person a what?
If we did not live forever, would this attitude be the right one to adopt?
Suppose though that we do live forever and that infinite joy does await us, what will we find out right after we die?
Paragraph 5:
If I do find a desire which this world cannot satisfy, what is the most probably explanation?
If I have a desire this universe cannot satisfy, is the universe a fraud?
What were these earthly pleasures meant to do if they cannot satisfy the desires?
Lewis says that a fish does not feel wet whenever it is in water because that is its natural habitat; however, the Christian does not feel at home in this world. Unlike the fish he feels like he doesn't fit in. It's because he does NOT fit in. This world is NOT his home.
If this is so, what is the one thing I must take care to do and what is the one thing I must take care NOT to do?
What must I keep alive in myself?
What then becomes the main object of life? (This is huge for you fathers and future fathers?)
Paragraph 6:
According to Lewis all the scriptural imagery about heaven is what?
Why are musical instruments mentioned in the scriptural accounts of heaven?
Why does the Bible mention crowns?
What about gold?
If people take these symbols literally, what else should they do (according to Lewis)?
Book Three
Chapter 10
Although hope is a continual looking forward to the eternal world, it is not a form of "_______________ or ________________ thinking." Rather it is one of the things the Christian is "___________________ to do."
What is it normally that we think of whenever we claim we want heaven?
There are 2 wrong ways to deal with these unsatisfied longings. This paragraph deals with the first wrong way. Lewis calls this way "the Fool's Way." What does he mean by that?
What is the name of the second wrong way to deal with unsatisfied longings?
Now for the right way, the Christian Way. What do Christians believe about desires in general?
How should we respond to people who facetiously claim that heaven is nothing more than playing harps?