More on Why We Read the Classics

Gals,

I was reading on one of my favorite blogs called Middle-aged Mormon Man and what he wrote made me feel so good about what our book group has been doing for the last five years . This is titled 'Thou Shalt Not Be Clueless'
http://middleagedmormonman.com/home/2014/01/thou-shalt-not-be-clueless.html

I hope we are less clueless now than we were five years ago because we read.

Sharon

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Hi Everyone!
Thanks for a great evening at Tammy's last weekend as we watched the remaining two hours of "North and South" and discussed the book.  I went reread the last couple of chapters of the book to see how it compared to the movie and it was somewhat different but just as abrupt!

Our next selection is by C.S. Lewis - "The Screwtape Letters".  Here's a short summary from Wikipedia:

The Screwtape Letters is a satirical Christian apologetic novel written in epistolary style by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in February 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior Demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility for securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient".

 And here's a little information about C.S. Lewis:

"Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly called C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist. Born in Belfast,Ireland, he held academic positions at both Oxford University (Magdalen College), 1925–1954, and Cambridge University (Magdalene College), 1954–1963. He is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, andThe Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings". According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptized in the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion) at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to the Anglican Communion, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England".^[1] His faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim."

We often hear C.S. Lewis quoted in General Conference so I thought it would be well worth our time to become more familiar with him, as the General Authorities quote him so frequently. There is no movie of this book (although I did read about a stage play that was made from this it), but there is are a couple of excellent movies about C.S. Lewis and his life. One is called "Shadowlands" and stars Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. I couldn't get a copy of this one. The other one is called "Through the Shadowlands" which won over a dozen presitigous awards including the International Emmy for Best Drama and two British Academy Awards.  I was able to get a copy of it.

I purchased a Kindle annotated copy of this book for about $13 on Amazon, but there are lots of used copies available for about $3.00. Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+screwtape+letters

It's not a very long book, so would the end of February work for getting togther for a discussion? I'll be out of town for part of the month, but will be back by the 18th. We could get together either February 21st or 28th. Let me know how those dates work for all of you.

Happy Reading!

Kris