Finally a Narnian
The Chronicles of Narnia, The Pink Fairy Book, and Our Oriental Heritage in this month's Roundup!
I still plan to do book reviews as I read great amazing books, but I wanted to get on a more frequent writing schedule detailing some of the books I don’t have time to write a more in-depth review on. So I am now writing this end of the month “Reading Roundup” on a monthly basis. I will briefly note some of the books I read this month and a few good thoughts to draw from them. I think reading is incredibly important, especially in our time as we are having history, the classics, and reality itself swept right out from under us. Fighting back by filling yourself with good information is paramount in our age. So this is another small way to encourage it in others! I also want this monthly roundup to give me a chance to comment on a few wild things going on in the world and to give my two-cents. So here goes!
Finally a Narnian
I finally did what all of us should do at least once in our lives! I went to Narnia! My profession allowed me to listen to all seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia in three days! It was a ton of story all at once but it was really cool to listen to them all sequentially in such a short time! I’m sure there is someone reading that will be frustrated to know that the audiobook I selected from Audible read them in chronological order rather than Lewis’ order. If this rubs you the wrong way I apologize and I will be sure to read them the way Lewis intended next time around!
We are obsessed in our time in making “tier lists” for every hobby and obsession out there. So I’ll join in the fun and rank the books in my own order. I would love to hear what your order would be in the comment section!
The Silver Chair
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
The Magician’s Nephew
The Last Battle
Prince Caspian
The Horse and His Boy
I hope I didn’t let anyone down with my list! I chose the Silver Chair because I am a sucker for mines, giants, and escapes. The Silver Chair reminded me a ton of George Macdonald’s "The Princess and the Goblin”, because the Witch of Underland was digging to come out right under Narnia, just like the Goblins were in Madonald’s story! I particularly loves Puddleglum and The Witch’s dialogue in Underland.
“One word, Ma'am," he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. "One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things-trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that's a small loss if the world's as dull a place as you say.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
Whether Narnia (heaven) exists it or not (which it certainly does) I would rather believe in it than this wretched Underland (The secular/modernity hellscape) because whatever the world has to offer is fecal matter compared to the glories of Narnia! I am going to live like a Narnian whether Narnia is real or not! I love that! It moved me so much and I hope it moves you too
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was like a modern version of the Odyssey by Homer. Entertaining the whole way through. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is just masterful storytelling. The Magician’s Nephew is dull initially, but quickly teeters on incredible once the whole crew makes it to Narnia to see Aslan create it! The Last Battle has some really good lines, particularly from the last King of Narnia, Tirian. The view of heaven and the call to come “Further up and Further in” is such a cool phrase to capture what we will be doing for all eternity. Prince Caspian is good but nothing particularly noteworthy, and the same can be said for the Horse and His Boy. I may change my opinions in the future, but this is my final analysis from my first time around!
The Pink Fairy Book
Andrew Lang wrote this one. Fairy tales can be very amusing but also very gruesome which cracks me up. There are some real gems in this one. I wrote down my favorites to read my children one day. In this book Andrew Lang is compiling fairy tales from all over the world. Each tale tells you where it came from and who wrote it. Very cool to see these themes shared by so many cultures. Here are the best ones to read. You can probably find them as stand alones.
How the dragon was tricked
The house in the wood
The shirt collar
The princess in the chest
The snow queen
The Fir Tree (really great lessons here about being patient)
Hans, the Mermaids son
Peter bull (this one is clowning)
How the Hermit helped to win the King’s Daughter
The water of life
The wounded lion
Esben and the witch
Maiden bright eye
King Lindorm (kids should be older.)
The jackal, the dove, and the panther
Our Oriental Heritage
This is a BEAST! 1,000 pages of just straight history. I understand this may not be for everyone, but it’s very important to understand the history of the world. If you don’t feel like you have that, this is a great place to start. The beginning of the book is fantastic. He highlights the pieces of society that make civilization possible. Things like an established religion, custom, language, ethics, etc. You have to have these things to have civilization. If you don’t have them, you have a degenerate form of humanity. He makes a subtle jab at communism here, because all of the backwards degenerate people groups (think about an isolated tribe deep in the Amazon rainforest) live very similarly to the tenets of communism. What’s the upshot? Communism is a degenerate backwards ideology that inhibits civilization rather than blesses it. in short, Communism is the undoing of civilization. It was great analysis
After he establishes the building blocks of civilization he then goes through all the ancient civilization in the ancient near/far east. Sumerians, Egyptians, Semitic peoples, Babylonia, Assyrians, Persians, India, China, and Japan. I left a few at but those are the major ones discussed. What I realized is that EVERY culture universally condemned homosexuality and abortion. It is comical that we think ourselves so advanced because of technology, but ethically we are more backwards than civilization 5,000 years ago. It was also very evident that all these cultures have the law of God written on their hearts. It was also clear why the far east was more primed for communism than the west. It has always been inherently atheistic because Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism are not exactly theistic. It was a great walk through history.
Protestant Thought on Natural Science
I also just finished Protestant Thought and Natural Science: A Historical Interpretation by John Dillenberger. Nothing crazy besides really establishing for me how huge Aristotelianism was for the medieval church and how that caused problems as natural science progressed. It was also refreshing to see how Protestantism was a major force for the development of Natural Science. I could say more here but it would bore you. This was more personally for my course, The Natural Philosophy of Creation I will be teaching for Kepler Education next Fall!
Quick Hits
Current Events
I’m really pleased to see some of the executive orders and things Trump is getting done. I’m really hoping to see a Bitcoin reserve created for America here soon. I think it is the right thing for Trump to abolish Income Tax as well. Historically Income Tax was not a thing in America and we should return to that. Income Tax is wicked and is a deification of the state.
I also loved J.D. Vance’s presentation of “ordo amoris” is amazing to see! We need way more of this in the church. It’s incredibly important to get this right. Let’s keep this going and keep pressing the center with concepts like this!
Scripture
Vindicate me, O God,
And plead my cause against an ungodly nation;
Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!Psalm 43:1
God will please our cause against evil nations.
For they do not speak peace,
But they devise deceitful matters
Against the quiet ones in the land.Psalm 35:20
reminds me of 1 Thess. 4:11-12. We ought to be quiet and not boisterous as Christians.
Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
Hebrews 7:9-10
Lots of implications here for Covenant theology. The Children play a part in the deeds of their Fathers. Also shown in the following verse
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.
Hebrews 11:23
Entertainment
My wife and I just watched Braveheart which was amazing.
we also watched Grave of Fireflies, which is a film by Studio Ghibli. It was incredibly sad and hard to get through but such a good story.
We are getting through all the seasons of the Dick Van Dyke Show. These are super amusing but also interesting to see progressive sexuality creeping in even in the 60’s. It is very tame for our standards but roots lead to fruit.