It was quickly evident that this interview was going to be different from any that I had ever been granted. I found Mr. Lewis in a wing of the brick quadrangle at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where he is professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature. I climbed a flight of narrow, incredibly worn wooden steps, knocked at an ancient wooden door with the simple designation, \u201cProf. Lewis,\u201d and was shown in by the housekeeper.<\/p>\n
Passing through a simply furnished parlor, I came into a study that was quite Spartan in appearance. Professor Lewis was seated at a plain table upon which reposed an old-fashioned alarm clock and an old-fashioned inkwell. I was immediately warmed by his jovial smile and cordial manner as he rose to greet me; he seemed the classic, friendly, jolly Englishman. He indicated a straight-backed chair, then sat down, snug in his tweed jacket and two sweaters, and we were away.<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0Professor Lewis, if you had a young friend with some interest in writing on Christian subjects, how would you advise him to prepare himself?<\/p>\n
![\"C.](\"http:\/\/www.cbn.com\/images3\/CSLewis-1_MD.jpg\")
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI would say if a man is going to write on chemistry, he learns chemistry. The same is true of Christianity. But to speak of the craft itself, I would not know how to advise a man how to write. It is a matter of talent and interest. I believe he must be strongly moved if he is to become a writer. Writing is like a \u2018lust,\u2019 or like \u2018scratching when you itch.\u2019 Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0Can you suggest an approach that would spark the creation of a body of Christian literature strong enough to influence our generation?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThere is no formula in these matters. I have no recipe, no tablets. Writers are trained in so many individual ways that it is not for us to prescribe. Scripture itself is not systematic; the New Testament shows the greatest variety. God has shown us that he can use any instrument. Balaam\u2019s ass, you remember, preached a very effective sermon in the midst of his \u2018hee-haws.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
By this time the mettle of the man I was interviewing was evident. I decided to shift to more open ground.<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0A light touch has been characteristic of your writings, even when you are dealing with heavy theological themes. Would you say there is a key to the cultivation of such an attitude?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI believe this is a matter of temperament. However, I was helped in achieving this attitude by my studies of the literary men of the Middle Ages, and by the writings of G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton, for example, was not afraid to combine serious Christian themes with buffoonery. In the same way the miracle plays of the Middle Ages would deal with a sacred subject such as the nativity of Christ, yet would combine it with a farce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0Should Christian writers, then, in your opinion, attempt to be funny?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cNo. I think that forced jocularities on spiritual subjects are an abomination, and the attempts of some religious writers to be humorous are simply appalling. Some people write heavily, some write lightly. I prefer the light approach because I believe there is a great deal of false reverence about. There is too much solemnity and intensity in dealing with sacred matters; too much speaking in holy tones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0But is not solemnity proper and conducive to a sacred atmosphere?<\/p>\n
![\"C.](\"http:\/\/www.cbn.com\/images3\/csl_man2_MD.jpg\")
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cYes and no. There is a difference between a private devotional life and a corporate one. Solemnity is proper in church, but things that are proper in church are not necessarily proper outside, and vice versa. For example, I can say a prayer while washing my teeth, but that does not mean I should wash my teeth in church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0What is your opinion of the kind of writing being done within the Christian church today?<\/p>\n
\u201cA great deal of what is being published by writers in the religious tradition is a scandal and is actually turning people away from the church. The liberal writers who are continually accommodating and whittling down the truth of the Gospel are responsible. I cannot understand how a man can appear in print claiming to disbelieve everything that he presupposes when he puts on the surplice. I feel it is a form of prostitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0What do you think of the controversial new book,\u00a0Honest to God<\/i>, by John Robinson, the bishop of Woolwich?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI prefer being honest to being \u2018honest to God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0What Christian writers have helped you?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe contemporary book that has helped me the most is Chesterton\u2019s\u00a0The Everlasting Man<\/i>. Others are Edwyn Bevan\u2019s book,\u00a0Symbolism and Belief<\/i>, Rudolf Otto\u2019s\u00a0The Idea of the Holy<\/i>, and the plays of Dorothy Sayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0I believe it was Chesterton who was asked why he became a member of the church, and he replied, \u201cTo get rid of my sins.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point I was surprised by the suddenness of Professor Lewis\u2019 reply.<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cIt is not enough to want to get rid of one\u2019s sins,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also need to believe in the One who saves us from our sins. Not only do we need to recognize that we are sinners; we need to believe in a Savior who takes away sin. Matthew Arnold once wrote, \u2018Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.\u2019 Because we know we are sinners, it does not follow that we are saved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0In your book\u00a0Surprised by Joy<\/i>\u00a0you remark that you were brought into the faith kicking and struggling and resentful, with eyes darting in every direction looking for an escape. You suggest that you were compelled, as it were, to become a Christian. Do you feel that you made a decision at the time of your conversion?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI would not put it that way. What I wrote in Surprised by Joy was that \u2018before God closed in on me, I was offered what now appears a moment of wholly free choice.\u2019 But I feel my decision was not so important. I was the object rather than the subject in this affair. I was decided upon. I was glad afterwards at the way it came out, but at the moment what I heard was God saying, \u2018Put down your gun and we\u2019ll talk.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0That sounds to me as if you came to a very definite point of decision.<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cWell, I would say that the most deeply compelled action is also the freest action. By that I mean, no part of you is outside the action. It is a paradox. I expressed it in\u00a0Surprised by Joy<\/i>\u00a0by saying that I chose, yet it really did not seem possible to do the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0You wrote 20 years ago that \u201ca man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic\u2014on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg\u2014or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool; you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would you say your view of this matter has changed since then?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cI would say there is no substantial change.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Aslan](\"http:\/\/www.cbn.com\/images3\/Aslan_MD.jpg\")
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0Would you say that the aim of Christian writing, including your own writing, is to bring about an encounter of the reader with Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThat is not my language, yet it is the purpose I have in view. For example, I have just finished a book on prayer, an imaginary correspondence with someone who raises questions about difficulties in prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirt:<\/b>\u00a0How can we foster the encounter of people with Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n
Lewis:<\/b>\u00a0\u201cYou can\u2019t lay down any pattern for God. There are many different ways of bringing people into his Kingdom, even some ways that I specially dislike! I have therefore learned to be cautious in my judgment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we can block it in many ways. As Christians we are tempted to make unnecessary concessions to those outside the faith. We give in too much. Now, I don\u2019t mean that we should run the risk of making a nuisance of ourselves by witnessing at improper times, but there comes a time when we must show that we disagree. We must show our Christian colors, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent or concede everything away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a character in one of my children\u2019s stories named Aslan, who says, \u2018I never tell anyone any story except his own.\u2019 I cannot speak for the way God deals with others; I only know how he deals with me personally. Of course, we are to pray for spiritual awakening, and in various ways we can do something toward it. But we must remember that neither Paul nor Apollos gives the increase. As Charles Williams once said, \u2018The altar must often be built in one place so that the fire may come down in another place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was taken from\u00a0Decision<\/a><\/i>\u00a0magazine<\/a>, September 1963; \u00a9 1963 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.<\/p>\n Fonte:\u00a0http:\/\/www.cbn.com\/special\/Narnia\/articles\/ans_LewisLastInterviewA.aspx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Sherwood Eliot Wirt Assist News Service CBN.com\u00a0\u2013\u00a0CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND (ANS) — I drove to Cambridge, England, on May 7 [1963] to interview Mr. Clive Staples Lewis, author of\u00a0The Screwtape Letters\u00a0and one of the world\u2019s most brilliant and widely read Christian authors. I hoped to learn from him how young men and women could be encouraged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29085],"tags":[5497],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artigos-em-ingles","tag-entrevista"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultimato.com.br\/sites\/cslewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}