by Joshua Pong (First published in Chinese in a Christian magazine in Taiwan) The Pilgrim’s Regress is a semi-autobiographical allegory by Lewis. We read in the story that John, the main character, in his search for the Island (the experience of joy), commits fornication with a brown girl in a wood and ends up producing a bevy of little brown Read More ›
From Words to the Wise (Hope Publishing House, 2000) I heard about a woman who was suing God because He struck her property with lightning. She said that she didn’t expect Him to appear in court to try to defend Himself against the charge, and if the court examined her past life it would find her reputation blameless. I assume Read More ›
Vermin: Dirty or destructive pests such as rats or cockroaches Small wild predators such as foxes or weasels Loathsome people 1919 “Satan Speaks” Spirits in Bondage (early poetry) Between their will and mine — such lot I giveWhile still in my despite the vermin live. (Lewis has Satan call humans vermin.) 1933 Pilgrim’s Regress But in each form the anguished Read More ›
Professor Yagyu was a professor of English at Kanto Gankuin University in Yokohama and Chancellor of the Kanto Gakuin system of schools. He discovered the literary criticism of C. S. Lewis in 1942. He translated into Japanese Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, and Miracles (the lattter with Lewis’s knowledge in 1963). He did Lewis research in England, became a friend Read More ›
by Nevill Coghill Upon a hill towards the sun,When part of my pilgrimage was done,I found my lover in a tree,Gathering bitter fruit for me.The branches tore his hands and feet,Yet, on the fruit he bade me eat,The bitterness was washed away;And in a year that was a dayThe tree was sometimes wild with flower,Sometimes a green and leafy bower,Sometimes Read More ›
Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is deeply committed to retaining its Baptist identity — so a student solemnly assured me when I visited the campus recently. Many parents pay dearly to send their children to a university that will pass on their Baptist heritage. Those same parents might be surprised to learn that the Baylor faculty wants to shut down Read More ›
Vice President Gore keeps telling us how proud he is that he voted against the Reagan tax rate reductions in 1981. This is a curious boast for a politician to make since, a year after the tax cuts went into effect, inflation and unemployment fell sharply and the economy began to grow very rapidly. Most observers credit the Reagan tax Read More ›
In criticizing Phillip Johnson’s “intelligent design creationism,” Robert Pennock raises a particularly worrisome legal consequence of Johnson’s view. According to Pennock, Johnson insists “that science admit the reality of supernatural influences in the daily workings of the world.” But what if the same reasoning that Johnson is trying to import into science were adopted in Johnson’s own area of specialization Read More ›
Stock markets are world-wide webs of information. So why half the time do they behave like members of some candy mountain mystical sect, torn between dreams of eternal wealth and horror of a bottomless pit? Ultimately ruling markets are data about the remorselessly real facts of supply and demand, the empirical realities of finance and the intricate, unforgiving details of Read More ›
This week Baylor University hosted a major conference on a profound subject. Organized by the new Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor and entitled The Nature of Nature, the conference will entertain weighty questions: Is nature all there is, or does it point beyond itself? Does the world exhibit signs of purpose, and if so, might we be able to detect Read More ›