C.S. Lewis on Calvinism and the Question of Free Will

In Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis, a selection from among his many letters, there is a short description of Lewis' take on Calvinism and the question of free will:

"On Calvinism. Both the statement that our final destination is already settled and the view that it still may be either Heaven or Hell, seem to me to imply the ultimate reality of Time, which I don't believe in. The controversy is one I can’t join on either side for I think that in the real (Timeless) world it is meaningless." (pp. 117-8)  

"All that Calvinist question—Free-Will and Predestination, is to my mind undiscussable, insoluble. Of course (say us) if a man repents God will accept him. Ah yes, (say they) but the fact of his repenting shows that God has already moved him to do so. This at any rate leaves us with the fact that in any concrete case the question never arrives as a practical one. But I suspect it is really a meaningless question. The difference between Freedom and Necessity is fairly clear on the bodily level: we know the difference between making our teeth chatter on purpose and just finding them chattering with cold. It begins to be less clear when we talk of human love (leaving out the erotic kind). ‘Do I like him because I choose or because I must?’—there are cases where this has an answer, but others where it seems to me to mean nothing. When we carry it up to relations between God and Man, has the distinction perhaps become nonsensical? After all, when we are most free, it is only with a freedom God has given us: and when our will is most influenced by Grace, it is still our will. And if what our will does is not ‘voluntary’, and if ‘voluntary’ does not mean ‘free’, what are we talking about? I’d leave it all alone." (p. 186)

The Difference in Gospel and Religion

"A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits etc.) can do the journey on their own." (Letters of C. S. Lewis/1966, p. 277)

Eight Rules for Good Writing from C. S. Lewis

In 1959, an American schoolgirl appealed to C. S. Lewis for writing advice, and he sent her a list of eight rules for good writing:

1. Turn off the radio [and television].
2. Read good books and avoid most magazines.
3. Write with the ear, not the eye. Make every sentence sound good.
4. Write only about things that interest you. If you have no interests, you won't ever be a writer.
5. Be clear. Remember that readers can't know your mind. Don't forget to tell them exactly what they need to know to understand you.
6. Save odds and ends of writing attempts, because you may be able to use them later.
7. You need a well-trained sense of word-rhythm, and the noise of a typewriter will interfere.
8. Know the meaning of every word you use.

It occurs to me that Lewis' advice centers on two themes - block out interference from the outside world while writing and have a keen connection to the outside world while not writing.  It makes sense doesn't it?  Writing, at least good writing, involves a process that requires focus, but also needs interesting content, which cannot be obtained without a connection to what is going on in the world around us (including to good writing from others).  It's the same with preaching and living out the Christian life - both require focus and are incomplete without a connection to others, Christian and non-Christian, living around us.  

What Christmas Means to Me

By C.S. Lewis

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business.

Recognizing the Glories and the Limitations of Our World

With typical evocative succinctness, C. S. Lewis orients us to our world:

The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.

– The Problem of Pain

Books Which Influenced C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis was an avid reader. He also had an extraordinary and enviable capacity to recall what he read. In 1962, The Christian Century approached the preeminent academic apologist for the Christian faith with the question of which books had been the most influential in his life. The precise question was: "What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life?" Lewis' response was published in the June 6, 1962 issue of the magazine.

It can be assumed that the Holy Scriptures would have been the single most important book to Lewis, although he did not include this self-evident text on his list. At the same time, it must be noted that Lewis did not possess a contemporary "fundamentalist" attitude towards the Bible. While he read it virtually every day of his life following his conversion (except when he was extremely ill), Lewis affirmed that "it is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him." Thus, the written word is the avenue for encounter the living Word. Here are the books Lewis mentioned as being influential in his life:

1. Phantastes by George MacDonald
2. The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton
3. The Aeneid by Virgil
4. The Temple by George Herbert
5. The Prelude by William Wordsworth
6. The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto
7. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
8. Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
9. Descent into Hell by Charles Williams
10. Theism and Humanism by Arthur James Balfour

In Lewis' final interview, conducted for Decision magazine by editor Sherwood Wirt, he reiterated that The Everlasting Man significantly influenced his faith. In response to the question "what Christian writers have helped you," he also included "Edwyn Bevan's book, Symbolism and Belief, and Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy, and the plays of Dorothy Sayers."

The C.S. Lewis Readers' Encyclopedia includes a variety of other volumes expressly referred to by Lewis as influential in his life. They include:

The Bible (especially the Psalms and New Testament)
Centuries of Meditations by Thomas Traherne

Confessions by Augustine
He Came Down from Heaven by Charles Williams
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis
Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales
The Man Born to Be King by Dorothy Sayers
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
The Sermon on the Mount by Charles Gore
Philosophy of the Good Life by Charles Gore
Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life by William Law
An Appeal by William Law
Smoke on the Mountains by Joy Davidman
Theologia Germanica
Works by Jane Austen, Scott and Trollope