EARTHY
SPIRITUALITY
C. S. Lewis AND INCARNATIONAL FAITH
GARY S. SELBY
An imprint of InterVarsity Press
Downers Grove, Illinois
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515‑1426
©2019 by Gary S. Selby
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.
InterVarsity Press® is the book‑publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover design: David Fassett
Images: blue‑green painted background: © enjoynz / iStock / Getty Images Plus
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C. S. Lewis 1947: © C. S. Lewis, 1947 by Arthur Strong / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images.
ISBN 978-0-8308-7277-0 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-5236-9 (print)
Never give up on the longing
Introduction: “Red Beef and Strong Beer”
An Inconsolable Secret: Our Longing for Joy
Not Safe—But Good: God as the Glad Creator
This Bleak Fantasy: Negative Spirituality and the Christian Life
A New Kind of Consciousness: The Alternative to Negative Spirituality
Very Far Inside: Spirituality and the Life of Virtue
Retinas and Palates: Spirituality and the Earthy Life
Those We Have Hitherto Avoided: Spirituality and the Other
The Beginning of All Things: Spirituality and the Life of Hope
Conclusion: The Joy of the Lord Is My Strength
It was the kind of moment every teacher dreams of.
Earlier that day I had introduced my students, all college sophomores, to C. S. Lewis’s argument about how our decisions shape our character. Lewis emphasized that every day, a hundred times a day, we are making choices, and taken together those choices determine the kind of people we become and, indeed, our eternal destiny. I gave them lots of examples—the decision whether to share a juicy bit of gossip, say, or to put the phone down and really listen to a friend, or let our gaze rest on another person in a lustful way, or even to begin the day with gratitude or a complaint. The problem, I told them, is that these choices are usually so small, so “beneath the radar” of our consciousness ...
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About Pursuing an Earthy Spirituality: C. S. Lewis and Incarnational Faith“Red beef and strong beer” was how C. S. Lewis described his education under one of his early tutors. It was, in other words, a substantial education that engaged deeply with the intellectual tradition and challenged him to grow. Gary Selby sees Lewis’s expression as an indication of the kind of transformation that is both possible and necessary for the Christian faith, and he contends that spiritual formation comes about not by retreating from the physical world but through deeper engagement with it. By considering themes such as our human embodiment, our sense of awareness in our everyday experiences, and the role of our human agency—all while engaging with the writings of Lewis, who himself enjoyed food, drink, laughter, and good conversation—Selby demonstrates that an earthy spirituality can be a robust spirituality. |
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