Normal & Nonsense

The scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.

C.S. Lewis

“Learning in War-Time” is the best of C.S. Lewis: true, wise, timeless. Frankly, these are some of the wisest words I’ve ever read. Here is some background and a concise summary in Lewis’s own words. Just substitute a word like “anxiety” or “worry” or “Covid-19” for the word “war.”

Background

On the evening of October 22, 1939, Oxford students packed into the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin hoping for words of comfort and encouragement. In September, Germany had invaded Poland and now war had been declared on Germany. Tension and fear reverberated throughout the university community and the world. It was hoped that C.S. Lewis, an ex-soldier and committed Christian, could put things into perspective.

Introduction

Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. We are mistaken when we compare war with “normal life.” Life has never been normal.

Eternal Perspective

What does war do to death? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 percent of us die. War makes death real to us, and that would have been regarded as one of its blessings by most of the great Christians of the past. They thought it good for us to be always aware of our mortality. All the schemes of happiness that centered in this world, were always doomed to a final frustration.

He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself.

Historical Perspective

Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the educated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.

We Face Three Enemies

1. Distraction

If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge [or faith, friendship, love, etc.] so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.

2. Frustration

You would be surprised if you knew how soon one begins to feel the shortness of the tether, of how many things, even in middle life, we have to say “No time for that,” “Too late now,” and “Not for me.”

A more Christian attitude, which can be attained at any age, is that of leaving futurity in God’s hands. We may as well, for God will certainly retain it whether we leave it to Him or not. Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ”as to the Lord.”  It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.

3. Fear

What does war do to death ? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 percent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased. It puts several deaths earlier, but I hardly suppose that that is what we fear. Certainly when the moment comes, it will make little difference how many years we have behind us. Does it increase our chances of a painful death? I doubt it. As far as I can find out, what we call natural death is usually preceded by suffering, and a battlefield is one of the very few places where one has a reasonable prospect of dying with no pain at all.

Does it decrease our chances of dying at peace with God? I cannot believe it. If active service does not persuade a man to prepare for death, what conceivable concatenation of circumstances would? Yet war does do something to death. It forces us to remember it. The only reason why the cancer at sixty or the paralysis at seventy-five do not bother us is that we forget them. War makes death real to us, and that would have been regarded as one of its blessings by most of the great Christians of the past. They thought it good for us to be always aware of our mortality. I am inclined to think they were right.

If we had foolish un-Christian hopes about human culture, they are now shattered. If we thought we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon.