Lewis himself helps us understand this in his famous (also 1944, by the way) introduction to St. Athanasius’ book, On The Incarnation. “Every age has its own outlook,” he writes. “It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.” Why? Because “All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it.” He could have easily used Orwell’s name there.
The problem is that every period ends up sharing “a great mass of common assumptions” and contemporaries (or locals, etc.) have trouble thinking beyond those assumptions. Lewis offers one help: “to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries [different contexts with different assumptions] blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books,” in his case then one by the great Alexandrian bishop Athanasius.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
CS Lewis - the "clean sea breeze" of old books | No ideas in a vacuum - Joel J. Miller
Labels:
christianity,
quotes,
reading,
religion
via joeljmiller.com
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Old Paint: Sigmund Walter Hampel, Silent Hours | Pictures of people reading
by Sigmund Walter Hampel (1868-1949)
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