Hi, Leslie:
Yes, Lewis's thinking is peculiar on the fabric of Nature. At least he used words like "may" in his published writings, admitting that he was speculating. For myself, it seems highly suggestive from a Christian viewpoint, though of course utterly mysterious, that all the forms of life are woven from a billion threads of birth and death. We would literally not exist as human beings, nor would any complex plant or animal exist, if our ancestors---all the way back to microorganisms---had not been born and died in a certain pattern. That's the fact of evolution. Suffering was involved throughout, or at least has been ever since some form of pain-feeling sentience appeared. But in what do we participate in the Christian story if not in creation through birth, suffering, death, and rebirth? Deep waters here---but then, if they were manifestly shallow, I'd be depressed . . .
Re. Wendell Berry: I've already mentioned Life is a Miracle, a brilliant reply to quasi-scientific reductionism. His master-work is The Unsettling of America, which made a major change in my ways of thinking when I read it. It's not explicitly theological, but is about "culture and agriculture" as the subtitle has it. Oddly, I have yet to read any of his poetry or novels. Is there a volume of poems you particularly like?
Best wishes,
Larry
