The lone surviving reel of audio with Lewis's voice on it. He deals with prayer and evolution (Evolution on the second installment). Recorded during WW ll these talks eventually became "Mere Christianity"
love this man's contribution to Christian toughts. i was a muslim turned agnostic. his was a great influence that lead me to accepting the Son of God. God bless you, C.S. Lewis...
Even Islam makes more sense when we grasp Christ. I've found Christ helps me see the jist of what most useful religious thought is trying to tell us as He adds that living spark to it all somehow.
Agnosticism and even atheism to me, seem better starting points for exploring God's spirit than being born in to a believing family (generally speaking) as you're gonna have better chances of asking better more honest questions rather than just accepting a repetition of tradition with its cultural blindspots which may have more to do with that human culture than too with what actual God is actually perhaps trying to say to YOU, and it becomes becomes living daily relationship with your God rather than merely following religious traditions just because "that's what people do". Live it rather than the same old same old mechanical repetition which all mere religions are fully guilty of. They an become as an idol blocking out the light of the one they are meant to shine out for us.
Did he? Since he was just a man who knew he was a god pretending he had to perform some task as a man in order to appease his god self, doesn't that kind of take away some of the beauty. I mean he "died" (which he actually didn't) knowing full well that actually wasn't going to die at all. While on the cross he cried out to himself.....None of this makes any sense at all. You Christians sure don't think very hard.
In order for him to escape death, there must be no accusation against Him in hell. They couldn't hold Him longer than 3 days. He wasn't pretending anything, btw, everything He did was real and had significant meaning. Crying out to Himself is perhaps not the accurate way to understand the trinity. God could be as many as he infinitely wanted to but chose 3 for His own perfect reasons. These 3 persons are 1 because they disagree on nothing since their will is of a single mind. Each person represents a role in the redemption of humanity. Each person has a role in the relationship to man. Yet each of those persons love unconditionally because God loves you unconditionally.
That line really hit home for me, too. "You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only thing He ever created" was a close second. What a mind-blowing thought, that the Creator of the universe would pay such attention to each of us specifically.
@Angus Adolphus It's interesting that you claim Christians don't think very hard after creating multiple straw man arguments and defeating arguments that are augmented. It's pretty uncharitable to misconstrue someone's argument and then act like you have actually proved their humiliation... It is pretty cool that Christianity claims Christ died for you as well, even while you are misrepresenting Him and His message.
I had this thought this evening, what if I could hear an interview, and thus hear C.S. Lewis' voice. I'm 59 from the state of Michigan in United States 🇺🇸 I thought it would be nice to hear the country where each of you lives. This is amazing, like a new connection with Lewis. My late husband had almost all of Lewis' books.
I recall first reading Lewis - Mere Christianity I believe it was - and how much good I felt radiate from the experience, how it breathed life into my soul. I have really tried hard at times to be an atheist, but the sweetness of God is finally irresistible for me. And I hope for everyone.
To not2tees: So ... "the sweetness of God is ... irresistible" for you. Really. Is the God that you believe in the same "sweet" God who allows natural disasters to cause massive death, destruction, misery, and sorrow? And is that the same "sweet" God who allows babies to be born with every kind of physical and mental affliction you can think of? ... and allows all the life-long suffering that goes with that? Notice that I use examples of suffering that do not involve any free will. Thus, I prevent you from dredging up the old argument about people having free will to do good or evil. Enough of the superstitious nonsense. If your God exists, he is an evil monster.
citygeorge You must be a person who assumes he knows everything there is to know just from intellectual concepts. The "God" you portray is like a scientist conducting some experiment. This is an imaginary and unworthy god. I'm not anxious to save you from your own ignorance, if it is ignorance - maybe you're far more perceptive than I am. I'm agnostic about other people. But making the acquaintance of God, I do believe in.
not2tees: I don't have to "portray" the Christian God. The Bible does that, remember? It's fortunate for the vast majority of Christians that they have not read the Bible, because if they did read it, they would know that it is filled with weird stories about a God who massacred countless innocent people, including children, and did it several times. Don't take my word for it, just read the Bible. I agree with you that the Christian God is "imaginary and unworthy". So is every other God in every other religion. You don't believe in the many Hindu gods because there's no evidence that those gods exist, but you believe in the Christian God even though there is no evidence to support that either. As for me using my intellect to assess the truth of things, I certainly do. Yes, we non-believers do use reason and evidence-based knowledge to draw conclusions about all kinds of things, including religious beliefs. If you have a problem with that approach, I'm not surprised, because religious belief isn't based on evidence, it's based on blind faith. I don't object to people having religious faith. I just ask that they admit that their faith is blind, based on no evidence. Will you admit that? If not, I ask this simple question: How you know that God exists?
I would say that I do not have religious faith, and I'm not against anyone using their reason for whatever purpose. RU-vid comments are too minimal for real communication, unless you already agree with someone, but . . . where to find an experience of God, which experience causes me to speak of God's sweetness, you have to observe your own life and develop some skills at introspection. It's quite far from faith and from indoctrination into any belief.
not2tees Wouldn't this leave you in hallway of Lewis's Mere Christianity? Didn't he insist that we must choose a door for it is within the doors where we find fires and chairs (the deeper stuff of Mere Christianity)? Blessings
Rest in peace C.S. Lewis. Your life has inspired me to show others how Christianity is intellectually credible and true in every sense of the word in this day and age. I look forward to meeting you someday. You remind me so much of myself when it comes to how I think and question things. God Bless you!
@Jesus Didnt Exist, No Proof, Look It Up And you would be laughed out of liberal academia with such a stupid and transparent allegation of Jesus never existing....even arch liberals and anti Christians like John Dominic Crossan and Bart Ehrman would laugh in your face and mock you for such a ignorant assertion....through out every accredited Bibilical studies and Classic departments you will not barely find a handful of Profs who would agree with you....and those would be people on the fringe ......
@americadeserved9-11covid6people say Jesus didnt resurrect, i say okay. People say Jesus didnt die, I say well... people say He didnt exist, I say are you actually stupid?? Do you not know how much evidence we have about His life? But you do believe Julius Caesar lived right? There are about 300 early manuscripts about him. Guess how many are there that we have about Christ? More than 5000, as is five thousand. We can say for a fact He lived, and even that He died, and that the disciples (and others, about 500 ppl) believed He resurrected and saw Him risen.
What a truly great philosopher. His confidence is awesome, and his descriptions are very accurate. God bless all who listen and read Gods spirit in his work.
@@c1audiuseternal life in Christ perhaps, but I think C.S. Lewis would disagree with the term, "immortal" because he was mortal and died. He will be raised on the last day to face God, as we all are to come to the white throne of judgment after death.
@@GodBlessHipHop my only righteousness is in Jesus Christ through faith that produces righteousness when God looks for His servants and in what He has given me to practice as apposed to what I was practicing earlier in life. Now, while I can see the cause for accusation due to nitpicking, and I worried about that when I wrote my comment to you; however, when dealing with the name of the Holy Spirit it is dangerous to disrespect Him in any regard as words spoken against Him will not be forgiven according to the account in Matthew chapter 12. I say this hoping it was a mistake on my part as I understand that the word "Spirit" that the Holy Spirit has chosen to use to express Himself to our limited minds could have another meaning. A meaning that has to do with the character of the individual spoken of instead of the unique case that is made when talking about God's Spirit. If this was the case, though I do not expect you to remember the intentions you had when writing this comment 11 years ago, I apologize, not giving defence, but a genuine I am sorry for this accusation against you that would be false. Thank you for your time, and good day to you.
@@JT-kk5pu Do you typically comment out of ignorance or was this a special occasion? Lewis enlisted in the army during WW1 and was injured on the front line 4/15/1918 at the battle of Arras. His roommate was KIA and it had a deep impact on Mr. Lewis. So are you going to admit your speculation was ungenerous and in complete objective error, or remain silent so that your words will no longer betray the dearth of knowledge in your mind?
What a precious bit of audio from one of 20th century's greatest thinkers. I'm afraid the BBC would have nothing to do with the man in this day and age.....
@@cmcapps1963 Yes! I believe the BBC had a lot to do with trying to make people lose their regional accents and therefore the "music" of their individuality! As a result, some people are so "posh" that they can hardly be understood!
At age 30 I had a good look at the mess my life was in, and promptly proceeded to blame God for it; in doing so however, I realised that that made as much sense as blaming your tennis coach for your losses when you weren't following his tennis instruction.
I feel so blessed to be able to hear CS Lewis's voice in this wonderful recording! Thank you for posting it! He had a beyond marvelous way of drawing people who thirst for God, including me, deeper into God's magnificent Life. What a balm and encouragement his words must have been to war-ravaged England.
I believe that was the first time I’ve ever heard his voice. C.S. Lewis was undoubtedly one of the finest novelists who ever lived, and one of the most personally inspiring individuals at that. What a lovely recording.
Thank you for sharing this. I've been depressed lately and Lewis has helped me through the years, even throughout my many wanderings, to anchor me back. To hear his voice has a calming effect on me. Thank you again.
C.S Lewis was such an incredible mind! Truly not only a great theologian, and a deeply thoughtful and sensitive and human being, but clear and engaging teacher too! Anyone of his measure in profound Christian understanding and intellect is very hard to find these days!
@@melindalemmon2149 He was not a pastor, but he dealt with theology a lot, and on a professional level. So he can be called an "amateur" theologian. He wrote good arguments in defence of Christian faith.
I have to warn you, this book of Lewis’ bears almost no similarity to Jesus. This Aslan character is almost completely patterned after a different god/mighty one, namely, Apollo.
@@nattybumppo4151 Probably yes, but Aslan is a character in a tale. If you want the real Jesus Christ, take the Gospels. The point is that Lewis's tales and novels are stories from which one can learn A LOT about God, as Oscar says.
@@pepehaydn7039 Aslan per Lewis himself, Christ-type character. Why then give him characteristics of a false deity? This is dangerous and potentially harmful to children if you ask me. Just my opinion.
@@nattybumppo4151 Lewis would have said that Apollo was a false deity, but his characteristics are not false at all. The problem at issue here is the old iconoclasm, which you revitalize on false assumptions.
@@pepehaydn7039 Oh Aslan’s characteristics aren’t false they just aren’t the characteristics of my Messiah. Iconoclasm was supported by my God when he told the Israelites to tear down the high places they held so dearly. Iconoclasm was supported by the apostle Paul when he said we destroy strongholds. The christ figure in Narnia is not Jesus of scripture. It is a false deity that is ok with demonic entities like Pan and Bacchus. So we I’ve torn down the stronghold of CS Lewis in my life based on his ideas that are at complete odds with the set apart scriptures.
Thank you so much for this upload! Hearing the voice of my hero CS Lewis on tape like this was an indescribable experience, and I'm sitting here with trembling hands, dry throat and pounding heart. Thank you so much.
citygeorge after you meet God, George, a lot of these fun little discussions delight you the way frosting adds so much to cake, but its not the cake itself. And that's the claim I and so many others make, that not only is God real, but also accessible. These arguments comprising lofty thoughts and comprising words are meaningless after you've met Him. You might as well try and convince me my mother never existed. So to answer your question, I know He exists because I've met Him. And so can you. Anytime you want.
Grammar In the Old Testament God showed himself many times to people, but still did not change for the better. God doesn’t want to force people to worship them, he wants them to worship out of pure love. Not mindless machines or feared subjects, “ the fear of God “ is a strong expression to to say you love the Lord with everything, the early Christians and Lewis are proof of why we need God.
O Jehovah ... Before the mountains were bornOr you brought forth the earth and the productive land,From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. - Psalm 90:1,2
Rocky Severino is it grown up to believe in a doctrine that was written by men thousands of years ago who still lived in caves? I mean, you can put your faith in anything you desire, no problem it’s a free world. But being religious doesn’t mean you take some sort of moral or intellectual high ground, quite the opposite actually. It’s more rational and grown up to put your beliefs, faiths, ideals, thinking into things based on truth and reason. Personally, I think this world is nothing more than an accident of science and nature, an incredible accident. Religion was conceived by humans trying to understand their surroundings in a time where they had nothing to go by. Civilisations such as the Romans went on to exploit religion as a means of mass control, and it worked. The universe is vast beyond all understanding, we are a tiny spec in an infinite space. I’d love to be religious, for it all to be true but unfortunately nah we live we die the end.
Bless you, bless you, bless you, a million times over, bless you! I can't describe how wonderful it was to hear this amazing lecture in his own voice. Thanks for posting it, my friend. 🙃
Thank you very much for presenting this. I've wanted to hear his voice since finishing and re-reading my first CS Lewis book "The Screwtape Letters" 15 years ago. I've heard Christians who've read it describe it as "disturbing". In saying that, they've betrayed the almost certain fact they either did not comprehend it or read a few pages and forgot to read the rest. Thanks again, I can now scratch something else off a list I have.
C.S Lewis is one of my favorite authors next to JRR Tolkien. Thanks for posting this it was overwhelming to hear his voice for the very first time. Lol i almost cried of joy.
C.S. Lewis has been a part of my life since I was a small child. Hearing his voice is such a mind boggling experience!!! It's like meeting a great-uncle for the first time, or something. Thank you so much for posting!!!!
I love how Your Memorial used a bit of this broadcast in the intro track of their most recent album, Redirect. Lewis was brilliant, his understanding of Christ was amazing.
C.S Lewis had been one of the biggest inspirations in my life. Leading me to think about the real problems and issues within the Christian and Human experience.
I am so grateful to C.S. Lewis and love listening to his audiobooks. One of the greatest Christian thinkers ever lived. Thank you for allowing me to hear his voice.
I would love to hear the voice of Jesus, Shakespeare, the apostle Paul, Martin Luther, Mozart, Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, King David, Moses, Noah, and William Miller.
Jesus is God come to save the world. I can say that from my experience knowing Him. And all the witness of His life here. If you believe, ask forgiveness of your mistakes, love God and love your neighbor, study the Bible, with a true heart, you'll experience it too.
A retired Philadelphia PA public school principal answered my question about Lewis's wealth in front of about ten people once, "Lewis gave away ( of his book royalties) almost all he had!" Christ Jesus (JOHN 14:6) impacted my life through Lewis. I need to love my wife (Ephesians 5:25, the Bible) like Lewis loved his wife Joy, who had cancer all of their three year marriage. He was a man for the ages. "Give until it hurts," C. S. Lewis said, "Abstain from your favorite jelly or jam you might buy at the pub or corner store. Help someone else." Only Biblical writers and possibly Billy Graham, have had more influence on me, a 60 year old Philadelphian!!
John Echterhoff I actually do both - Read with a pen in hand (for underlining and pausing for those huge "Whoa" moments), AND listening, usually while driving. It seems like both methods have advantages over the other.
How lovely to actually hear the voice of one of my greatest heroes. I am currently re-reading Mere Christianity, and am again amazed at the crystal clarity of his teaching. Simple, yet profound. What a great intellect and wonderful man. Thank you for posting!
I so wish we had an audio of Lewis reading The Chronicles of Narnia. or the Screwtape Letters. Or The great divorce. There's nothing like hearing an author read his/her own work.
I'm surprised nobody has thought to ask the actor Edward Fox to read some of Lewis's books, as his voice is remarkably similar. Maybe they have asked and been refused, but it would be an amazing coup. The only problem might be that C.S. Lewis the speaker doesn't sound like C.S. Lewis the writer (or not how I imagined him).
I notice a couple of things - the second “d” disappearing in “good deal” and pronouncing “learnéd” (men) as one syllable, like the last tense of “learn”
He has the 'lot-cloth' split. So 'lot' and 'hot' but 'clawth'/'awfen'/'lawst'. This distinction has been lost in British English but survives in new York English. Also he uses a schwa sound at the end of 'there' and 'here'- 'hee-er'/'thei-er'. 'a' sound in words like 'bad' is raised to 'e' so 'bed'.
I'm an atheist who thinks C.S. Lewis really was brilliant. I'm glad there was a surviving recording of his voice (its so weird to hear his actual voice). Now that is definitely a mixture of an Irish and a English voice ha-ha. I'm definitely proud to be British ha-ha. I really wish I could have met the man.
I love Mr.Lewis his books and writings express such clear, intellectual thoughts distilled into entertaining stories or speeches. It’s always a wonderful joy to read a passage from his books, with his charming sharp tongue eliciting much happiness and humour. I appreciate his adherence to the Truth, it has clarified my own misconceptions concerning Christianity.
I have read C.S. Lewis my entire life starting with Narnia when I was younger, and then moving on to his theological works as I began to take Christianity seriously, as well as writing an essay on his life in High School. When ever my friends have questions, I quote something from Lewis. Thank you for posting this, it's truly a blessing.
Ben Thejrporter my guess is that when he talked to people from there or family, his accent probably did become stronger. If you listen to his non-BBC recordings, it’s a lot more apparent.
So good to listen to this jewels of C. S. Lewis' wisdom. A great man, a great writer, a great apologists. These words are like a spiritual pillar. Thank you very much for yout upload, it's a great pleasure to hear Lewis' voice.
Thanks so very much for making this available, and for your genuinely excellent creative editing efforts. Lewis was, of course, a uniquely gifted individual as (he notes) are we all.
IT IS BEYOND BRILLIANT AND GIVES SO MUCH MORE THAN A "GLIMPSE"! THANK YOU, LEWIS, FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WAYS OF MAKING CHRISTIANITY SEEM EXCITING AND FRESH!!! RIP. I shall see you someday, and there, we'll have so much to dicuss! Til then. . .
My daughter asked me tonight, "how does God hear all of our prayers, of so many people all at the same time when he is not next to us"......later I picked up "The Oxford Inklings" to start reading (a Christmas gift from my wife)......then as I finished the introduction I ended up at this video after using google to try and find Lewis' inaugural Cambridge lecture....as you can imagine, It was a pleasure to hear him start off by talking about prayer, specifically how we get caught up wondering how God hears millions of prayer at the same time. Even though she is only five, I plan to listen to this again in the morning with my little girl.
EnNuages in the presence of Jesus, CS Lewis will merely not even be relevant my friend. But I get the sentiment. I suspect CS Lewis might tell you the same.
Ciaran Ryan That's what I was thinking too! It sounds to me like an extreme affectation, but I'm sure that in his milieu it was the perfectly normal way of talking.
+Ciaran Ryan It sounds a fair bit like the accent of Rayner Unwin, who was the kid who reviewed The Hobbit when Tolkien sent it to the publisher; he can be heard on the Lord of the Rings extended edition extras CDs.
+Timothy Nelson I actually laughed when I first heard his voice. But that's a good point. Maybe it was a common accent for the well educated at that time. I was partly listening because the Lord of the Rings special features talk about him (maybe) having a booming loud voice. It's hard to tell from this, though.
8 лет назад
+Alice Glendarroch I remember the LOTR comment about a booming voice as well. Maybe he had that voice when he lectured to a large university hall?
This is a priceless gift and I am grateful for your efforts in sharing it with others. I have loved this exceedingly insightful author for many years, and it is a blessing to hear his voice. (Could you have someone correct the 3 spelling errors in the intro?)
Umm Lewis knows the Christian God who has incredible eternal knowledge & abilities to do everything there is to do in a flash. Then we read the bible and find an ignoramus who has the sun going round the earth, thinks a bat is a bird, & claims that Pi = 3.000, I tell you it doesn't add up. Real Divine truth must correspond with reality or your god is a man made delusion. The real God is the realizer of the natural laws that direct the forces of nature to evolve everything there is without the ignorant blunders in the bible.
Alana yes, I admit Christianity has been defanged by our Godly western enlightenment. The first fang came out during our revolution when we outlawed the biblically endorsed monarchy, You know Jesus' Divine Rights of Kings. We replaced totalitarian monarchy with our limited government democratic republic. The second fang came out with our civil war against the bible belt confederates. We outlawed the biblically endorsed slavery and replaced it with freedom. It took over a million deaths to establish a country based on modernity looking to the sciences to discover the truth that is contained in the complete set of natural laws AKA the mind of God. Yes I am a fundamentalist, I have a personal relationship with God that allows me to be corrected & directed by Divine providence. God does speak through measurable reality itself & that is best discovered by the world's top experts in their fields of expertise. Old out of date hogwash is as far from God's truth as you can get.
***** more like Gods got it all figured out, and I am open to being corrected. See in another 1,000 years everything that I believe and science figured out will be as out of date as the bible is today. Knowledge is a work in progress with God being the revealer. This is why 100% of my faith is in God, not the sciences, and certainly not out of date mystic babble. God being the natural laws & powers that evolve all truth.
It's so wonderful to be able to hear for the first time the voice of the man who wrote the books I loved as a child. And he seems to have a really solid theology, so this is beautiful all around. I'm thankful to God for creating Lewis and working in his life in the way that He did.
