Question about Miracles

[Guest]

Has anyone read the Book "Miracles"? I've been trying to read it- but I keep getting stuck. Any advice?
~Spamgirl

[Leslie]

I've read it several times. What kind of advice do you need? If you're having trouble understanding it, we may be able to help, if you can tell us where you're stuck.

[Guest]

I've just finished it. I just disciplined myself to read a certain amount every day. I also had to keep a dictionary around and kept a notebook with the words I didn't understand. Some difficult parts I would read over again. I found parts that were great to meditate upon. Remember like any difficult book the next time you read it you will understand it better. Of the Lewis books I've read it's probably the most technical, but it's good to read things that push you a bit. Also, pray and ask God to use it for His glory. Hope that helps.

[Kanakaberaka]

[Robert]

I have found the most difficult to read is his Study in Words, or his Experiment in Criticism. Both make fine distinctions of their subject matter, making them simliar to reading a scholarly journal.

[Guest]

[loeee]

The biggest problem I have with Lewis's scholarly (as opposed to popular) works is his habit of putting in quotes in Greek and Latin. The Greek is the worst for me, because even the alphabet is foreign. Some editions translate in footnotes, which is a huge help. A classical education must be a wonderful thing, too bad nobody has one anymore. :\

[Karen]

[a_hnau]

Oh! I quite agree; I try to read anything of Lewis's I can get my hands on, but in some of his work the only part of it I can grasp is his style - I am not familiar with, or haven't even heard of, some of the people, the literature, that he treats with such skill and precision. I do try and puzzle out bits of the foreign languages, though. A favourite quote, from That Hideous Strength;

Jane, though she had a smattering of Latin, had not understood their conversation. The accent was unfamiliar, and the old druid used vocabulary that was far beyond her reading - the Latin of a man to whom Apuleius and Martianus Capella were the primary classics and whose elegances resembled those of the Hisperica Famina. But Dimble had followed it.

I know I harp on about this, but the elderly gentleman I visit (who was a pupil of Lewis at Oxford in the 30's) represents a "dinosaur" - he is, I imagine, much as Lewis also was.

But Lewis is a way in to appreciation of the classics - for me, wanting to know even a fraction of what Lewis had at his fingertips is sufficient motive to dig deeper. I think it's in Screwtape, Lewis refers to the experience of a schoolboy who has heard bright tales of Troy, but now has to "buckle down" and start his lessons in Homer...

[Solomons Song]

I struggled with Miracles as well. But my big issue is with some of the essays in Christian Reflections. I bought the book for one essay, The Poison of Subjectivism. I am yet to read it completely due to it's structure. And, the sad thing is, the subjective nature of the church today makes it a subject I am intensily interested in.