The

WEIGHT OF GLORY

AND OTHER ADDRESSES

C. S. Lewis

HarperOne

An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

HarperOne

the weight of glory: And Other Addresses. Copyright © 1949, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1976, revised 1980 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

HarperCollins Web site: http://www.harpercollins.com

HarperCollins®, ®, and HarperOne™ are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers.

first harpercollins paperback edition published in 2001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898–1963

The weight of glory: and other addresses / C. S. Lewis.

p. cm.

Contents: The weight of glory—Learning in war-time—Why I am not a pacifist—Transposition—Is theology poetry?—The inner ring—Membership—On forgiveness—A slip of the tongue.

ISBN 978-0-06-065320-0

1. Theology. I. Title: Weight of glory. II. Title.

BR50.L396 2000

252'03—dc21

00-063215

Contents

Introduction by Walter Hooper

Preface to the original edition by the author

The Weight of Glory

Learning in War-Time

Why I Am Not a Pacifist

Transposition

Is Theology Poetry?

The Inner Ring

Membership

On Forgiveness

A Slip of the Tongue

The

WEIGHT OF GLORY

INTRODUCTION

In his beautiful peroration at the end of his sermon “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis, after commenting on the immortality of the human soul, says, “This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously.”

I believe that this and similar encouragements by Lewis contribute significantly to the subject of what constitutes Christian behaviour. Having done the best we can to perform whatever God demands, should we not at least enjoy the good He sends us? Willing ourselves to be “perpetually solemn” when there is no reason for it seems to me not only a rejection of the happiness we could have on earth, but also to jeopardise our capacity to enjoy it in the future when every possible reason for unhappiness has been finally swept away.

We know from his earliest writings that Lewis was born with a sense of fun, and that it was considerably maimed by an entanglement of atheism and ambition. Perhaps a fiercely serious ambition for whatever it might be can never live in harmony with the merriment he describes. Certainly, Lewis could write no great works until he was converted to Christianity in 1931, after which he ceased to take much interest ...