PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS

Weight of Glory

PART TWO: The Christian View of Glory

Page 36:

Now when the NT describes salvation, it describes it in terms of glory. What 2 ideas does "glory" suggest to Lewis?

How do the great Christian thinkers such as Milton, Johnson, and Aquinas think of heavenly glory?

Is this fame conferred upon us by other fellow creatures or by God?

Is this fame competitive?

What statement from Jesus makes up the divine accolade?

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Lewis has just said that affirmation is one of the 2 elements of glory in the NT. According to Lewis affirmation and humility go together. Part of humility is "the specific pleasure [desire] of the inferior: the pleasure of a __________________ before men, a ______________ before its father, a ____________ before his teacher, a _____________ before its Creator."

The deadly thing about this pleasure is that it can turn into the " deadly poison of _______-____________________."

Before this element of self-admiration kicked in, Lewis for one brief moment felt the pure joy of having pleased somebody he rightly loved and rightly feared. What is it that he hopes will happen in the future whenever he has been fully redeemed and fully changed?

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What does perfect humility dispense with?

In other words, if God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with what?

In the end what do each of us have to face?

We will all face one of 2 things whenever we see this Face? What are those 2 things?

What is even more important than what we think of God?

When is what we think of God truly important?

Although it is incredible, what is it that Christ's work has made possible?

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According to Lewis what is a weight or burden of glory?

What would have resulted if I had rejected what the Bible says about glory?

The connection now between my desire and biblical view of glory now is perfectly clear. According to Christianity what does glory do?

By ceasing to think about my own wants, what have I learned better about?

Lewis now describes one of the most curious characteristics of our spiritual longings. "We usually notice it [our spiritual longing] just as the moment of the vision ___________ _____________, as the music _______, or as the landscape loses the _______________ light."

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According to Keats what happens whenever you experience this spiritual longing?

For a few minutes what did we have?

Were we actually in that world or were we just mere spectators?

Because most of the things that are truly beautiful are inanimate, do they really notice us or take us into their world?

The mountians, the music, the books, etc. "become for a moment the ___________."

What makes the message so bitter?

By bitterness, is Lewis referring to pain or to resentment?

What is our inconsolable secret?

Page 41:

Lewis states that this view of glory "becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory means":

What will open at last?

Being noticed by beauty and glory seems a little strange. You would think that we would notice glory. According to Paul though when Christ returns will we know God or will we be known by God?

Doesn't God know everybody already though? Yet what terrifying words might God say to us on the last day of judgment?

What dark possibility faces each of us?

To put it another way, "We can be left urterly and absolutely ___________."

"On the other hand, we can be called ______, ______, ____________, ______________."

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What would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache?

Lewis has been speaking about the first part of glory, admiration or approval. Now he goes to the second element or second part of glory. What is that second element? Describe what he means by that.

Now this second part of glory is ignored by books on aesthetics, on beauty. What 2 things though do take notice of it?

We do not merely want to see beauty. What else do we want from beauty? "To be _______ with the beauty we see, to __________ _______ it, to ____________ it __________ ourselves, to ________ in it, to __________ __________ of it."

Because we want to become united with beauty, what have we done with the air and earth and water?

For this reason we see water goddesses and tree goddesses in Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

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Lewis says that these goddesses and nymphs, etc., do not really exist. Rather they are projections of OURSELVES. We have THEM unite with beauty as a means of US being united with beauty. These mythological goddesses and gods are actually us trying to unite with beauty.

What lovely falsehoods do the poets tell us?

The truth is that these are falsehoods only for the time being. What do we believe will happen one day according to Scripture?

The myths are false as history. However, they are truly as what?

At the moment we are on the wrong side of the door of beauty. What do we discern? Do they make us pure and fresh?

What does all the rustling of the leaves of Scripture tell us?

When will human souls put on this glory?

What is nature?

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What does Lewis mean when he says that nature is just the sketch of beauty?

Although nature is only a symbol of beauty, why is it an important symbol?

What shall we eat in the future, beyond Nature?

Although right now our souls live off of God, what is true about our minds and our bodies?

Right now the "faint, far-off results of those energies which God's creative rapture implanted in matter when He made the worlds are what we now call ____________ _________________." If we find present pleasures so intoxicating, what will it be like whenever we taste from the fountainhead of that stream? (That's a rhetorical question.)

According to Augustine what will the rapture of the saved soul do?

Should we even try to experience this overflow of the soul into the body?

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What thoughts must we drive out?

What though comes before the crown?

What are we invited to do in the meantime? What is the essential point?

NOW HERE COMES THE MAIN POINT OF THE SERMON. According to Lewis what has been the practical point of all this talk about the longing for beauty or glory?

What unfortunately is it possible for us to do?

What is it hardly possible for us to think too often about?

What weight should be put upon our backs?

This is a load so heavy that only what kind of person can carry it?

Whose backs will break beneath this weight?

It is a serious thing to live in a society made up of whom?

When you talk to somebody, one of 2 things is true about that person. What are those 2 things?

What are we doing all day long?

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It is with this in mind that "we shall conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are ________ ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere __________."

What is mortal?

"Their life is to ours as the life of a __________. But it is with ______________ whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit----___________ _______________ or ___________________ ___________________."

Lewis does not want us to be morose, unduly solemn. Rather our merriment should exist between people who have, from the outset, done what?

What kind of charity should we show towards others?

What do mere tolerance and indulgence parody? What does flippancy parody? Next to baptism and the Lord's Supper what is the holiest object to your senses?

In your fellow Christian is Christ, "the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."