“Even in the plastic arts, then, the Puritans were willing to record the truth as they saw it and to appreciate the beauty of that record. On gravestones, in meeting houses, and in the works of over two hundred poets, they were not, in Moses Coit Tyler’s words, ‘at war with nearly every form of …
Good Will on the First Page
“There is no work in which holes can’t be picked; no work that can succeed without a preliminary act of good will on the part of the reader” (C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, p. 116).
Life in the Provinces
“If a man is redeemed by Christ, then he is a member of this one Church — a Church founded in God’s decree before time existed, and by the grace of God manifested in history as long as sinful heirs of Adam have lived. Enter the modern rootless evangelical, who, with a bemused detachment, is …
Critics of Puritan Poetry
“Subsequent critics have done just that and have constructed a variety of theories to account for the Puritans’ failure to write poetry. Usually in works centered on other subjects, these critics have offered major statements on Puritan poetry. Since so many such statements exist and since even modern critics of Puritan poetry have taken little …
And the Problem is not With the Non-Readers
“And modern poetry is read by very few who are not themselves poets, professional critics, or teachers of literature” (C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, p. 96).
Non-Elect Branches
[Speaking of Romans 11 and John 15] “This does not mean that the elect can lose their salvation. But it does mean that branches can lose their position on the tree. The elect always bear fruit, and their fruit remains. And yet some false professors, with genuine historical connection to the tree, never bear fruit, …
Aesthetic Vulnerability
“We must risk being taken in, if we are to get anything. The best safeguard against bad literature is a full experience of good; just as a real and affectionate acquaintance with honest people gives a better protection against rogues than a habitual distrust of everyone” (C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, p. 94).
The Root Supports the Branch
“But the Reformers saw that some such distinction [between visible and invisible Church] was necessary. Without it, men fall readily into the trap of thinking that all that is necessary for salvation is to be in good standing with the visible Church. And because that is something they can readily arrange, they think that all …
Art Is Not A Tupperware Container for Truth
“It is this omnipresent flavour of feel that makes bad inventions so mawkish and suffocating, and good ones so tonic. The good ones allow us temporarily to share a sort of passionate sanity. And we may also—which is less important—expect to find in them many psychological truths and profound, at least profoundly felt, reflections. But …
Literary “Realism” Mistaken for an Argument
“Authors, restrained by our laws against obscenity—rather silly laws, it may be—from using half a dozen monosyllables, felt as if they were martyrs of science, like Galileo. To the objection ‘This is obscene’ or “This is depraved’, or even to the more critically relevant objection ‘This is uninteresting’, the reply ‘This occurs in real life’ …