The first book for Nana's Book Club will be one by C.S. Lewis called "The Great Divorce." The book jacket gives this summary: "In The Great Divorce C.S. Lewis again employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory. The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus bound for Heaven. The amazing opportunity is that anyone who wants to stay in Heavenn, can. This is the starting point for an extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment. Lewis's revolutionary idea is the discovery that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. In Lewis's own words, "If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell."Pick one up at the library or Barnes and Nobel, or borrow one. The idea of our blog is that as we are all reading, we can post insights, questions, and comments and make everyone's reading more profound.
If you have suggestions for additional books that meet the criteria outlilned for Nana's Book Club, please add them to your post.
First off, how in the world isn't CS Lewis a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? His insights are so on the mark with LDS doctrine. It worried me that I could see pieces of my own personality in many of the vignettes. A couple of quotes I loved: (page 75): "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened."
ReplyDeleteOn page 71: ""The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." There is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy--that is, to reality." Spending time examining what it is I am unwilling to let go of was a good exercise.
And my last favorite quote is on page 84. The Spirit is talking to the Ghost that is a painter. The spirit says: "No, you're forgetting. That was not how you began. Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light." I love this reminder of what our gifts and talents should be used for.
I loved this book. I would love to hear some of your insights.