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The Weight of Glory: 13 Key Lessons, Summary and Review

Discover the transforming power of reflection and wisdom contained in the pages of  The Weight of Glory.

Immerse yourself in the profound and inspiring words of one of the greatest Christian writers of all time, C.S. Lewis and begin to unlock the secrets of faith and life with more clarity and meaning to change your experiences! And check other book summaries clicking here!

Table of Contents

Synopsis of The Weight of Glory

Read a brief synopsis of the work below:

The book “The Weight of Glory” is a collection of essays written by C.S. Lewis, renowned author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”. The essays explore themes such as human nature, Christian faith and ethics.

With his elegant and thoughtful prose, Lewis invites the reader on an intellectual and spiritual journey, offering deep insights into life’s essential questions. You can buy The Weight of Glory clicking here!

Who is C.S. Lewis?

See a little more about the life of the author of the book:

The author of “The Weight of Glory” is C.S. Lewis, a British writer and philosopher born in 1898 and died in 1963. He is known for his works of fiction, including “The Chronicles of Narnia” series, as well as his writings on Christian theology, philosophy and literature.

Lewis was also a renowned university professor and fellow at the prestigious University of Oxford.

Summary of The Weight of Glory

As mentioned earlier, the book “The Weight of Glory” is a collection of essays written by the famous British author C.S. Lewis, originally published in 1949.

These essays present deep, theological reflections on the nature of the Christian faith, morality, the afterlife, and other important topics. Lewis uses his literary skill to engage the reader in a reflective dialogue, raising fundamental questions about human existence and the divine nature.

His essays cover a wide range of topics, from the relationship between literature and religion to the difference between true love and selfish passion.

In “The Weight of Glory,” Lewis offers a deeply philosophical and religious perspective that continues to inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. You can buy The Weight of Glory clicking here!

Review of The Weight of Glory

The book stands out for its ability to convey profound ideas in a clear and accessible way.

The author’s ability to use simple yet elegant language makes reading fluid and enjoyable. One of the highlights of the book is Lewis’ reflection on universal issues such as human nature, morality and religion. He presents compelling arguments while remaining humble and open to different points of view.

Furthermore, his approach is always based on a deep understanding of history and culture, which makes his writing even richer and more meaningful.

“The Weight of Glory” is an essential work for all those who seek a deeper understanding of the world and themselves. Read a summary on ‘Til we Have Faces by C. S. Lewis here!!

Key Lessons from The Weight of Glory

The book has several lessons. See below:

1. Man is small before God

True greatness lies in recognizing the smallness of human beings in the face of the greatness of God.

2. Happiness is the search for something greater

True happiness is not an end in itself, but a consequence of pursuing a greater purpose.

3. Life has challenges

Life is a journey full of challenges and mishaps, but it is possible to find strength and hope in God.

4. Man can be good or bad

Human nature is dual, with tendencies towards both good and evil.

5. Humility is key

Humility is an essential virtue for the Christian life and must be constantly cultivated.

6. We shall be fair

Justice is one of the main qualities of God and must be sought by human beings in their interpersonal and social relationships.

7. We should study about faith

Faith is a conscious choice and can be strengthened by reflection and the study of the Scriptures.

8. Praying is essential

Prayer is a powerful tool for connecting with God and seeking His guidance.

9. Community life is something positive

Fellowship with other Christians is an important part of spiritual life and can help strengthen faith.

10. Eternal life begins now

Eternal life is not just a future reward, but a reality that begins now, in the relationship with God.

11. Being charitable is fundamental

Generosity and charity are fundamental values ​​of the Christian life and must be practiced without expecting rewards. Check a review on Reflections on the Psalms by clicking here!

12. Freedom requires wisdom

Freedom is a gift from God, but it is also a responsibility to be exercised with wisdom and moderation.

13. Seek to have artistic culture

Art and culture are ways in which human beings can express their creativity and connect with the divine.

14. Death is not the end

Death is not the end of life, but just a passage to a new dimension of existence.

15. Keep hope

Hope is a driving force that allows us to face life’s adversities with courage and resilience.

Negative Points of The Weight of Glory

The book “The Weight of Glory” by British Christian author C.S. Lewis, despite being a much admired work, has some negative points.

One of them is that, at times, the author seems to use complex and far-fetched language, which can make reading tiring and difficult for some readers. Still, it’s worth checking out.

However, it is important to emphasize that these negative points do not invalidate the importance and depth of the reflections presented by C.S. Lewis in “The Weight of Glory”. Check a summary about the book On Stories by Lewis here!

Positive Points of The Weight of Glory

One of the main qualities of this work is Lewis’s ability to address deep and complex themes in a clear and accessible way.

Lewis shows a deep understanding of human nature, discussing the importance of morality and virtue in our lives, and how these values ​​are fundamental to building a just and balanced society.

Furthermore, the author uses his broad erudition to illuminate philosophical and theological issues in an engaging and engaging way for the general reader.

Therefore, “The Weight of Glory” is an inspiring and thought-provoking work that challenges us to reflect on our choices and actions, and encourages us to seek the best of ourselves. You can buy The Weight of Glory clicking here!

Is The Weight of Glory worth reading?

But after all, is the book worth reading or not?

If you are looking for a reading that leads you to a deep reflection on human nature and the search for truth, “The Weight of Glory” is the ideal book for you.

Written by one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, this book offers a Christian perspective on universal themes, such as suffering, hope, virtue and faith, inviting the reader on a journey of self-knowledge and personal growth.

Don’t miss the opportunity to read this masterpiece of Christian literature and find inspiration to live more fully and meaningfully. You can buy The Weight of Glory clicking here!

Questions about The Weight of Glory

See the main questions about this famous book by C. S. Lewis:

Who is the author of the book “The Weight of Glory”?

C.S. Lewis was one of the most influential Christian authors of the 20th century, known for his literary skill and his deep reflection on universal themes.

Where to buy the book “The Weight of Glory”?

The book The Weight of Glory is available on Amazon.

How many pages does the book “The Weight of Glory” have?

The book The Weight of Glory has 192 pages.

What does the weight of glory mean?

“The weight of glory” is a term coined by Christian writer C.S. Lewis to describe the idea that glory, or ultimate excellence, is a powerful and often frightening force that can either crush us or elevate ourselves or others.

What is the weight of glory in Christians?

For Christians, the weight of glory refers to the burden and responsibility of living a life that glorifies God and reflects his character, even when it means personal sacrifice and facing hardship and persecution.

What is the biblical meaning of glory?

In the biblical context, glory is often associated with the visible manifestation of God’s presence and power.

What is the meaning of glory in Hebrew?

The Hebrew word for glory, “kabod”, means “heaviness” or “importance”, and is used to describe the majesty, splendor and grandeur of God. Glory is also associated with the honor, praise, and recognition given to God by human beings.

Vítor Costa

PhD in Polymer Science and Technology. Loves to read and study about sciences, psychology, philosophy and other subjects.

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The Weight of Glory and Other Essays

Allen adams.

Author's Note: I have written this essay as a short overview of the themes of the book The Weight of Glory. This is not a complete review or indepth critique of the material. It's primary purpose is interactive to promote further reading of the material.

The Weight of Glory

This sermon was preached when England was at war with Germany, on June 8, 1941. People were probably at that time struggling with issues like truth, and justice and relevance in a world that is falling apart. Lewis puts forward the idea that a desire for reward is a basically biblical idea. He goes on to state that the appeals in scripture are actually given with desire in mind, and that desire is built into the design of man. He also states that the reward fits the behavior and is not an inappropriate or mercenary reward but the culmination of the activity. "The proper rewards are not tacked onto the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation."

He goes on to make the point that within us is the desire for heaven since that is what we were created for. I also appreciate his discussion of the concept that our memories of things that are good are actually memories of memories, that is the good things we have experienced in our lives are mere shadows of the desire within us for the ultimate good, heaven. This is helpful in understanding the longing within us, for that other land is something yet not experienced and should not be confused with those things that have awakened that desire within us. Lewis wrote about this longing in Till We Have Faces also, "Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back. All my life the God of the Mountain has been wooing me. Oh, look up once at least before the end and wish me joy. I am going to my lover." This longing I would agree with Lewis is in the heart of every man. His argument is very successful because it appeals to that inner truth that is part of general revelation. The passage in Romans Chapter 8 indicates that man desires the redemption of creation, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now". Romans 8:20-22. This passage supports what Lewis is saying, in the heart of all mankind there is a longing for everything to be put right once again.

The other very good insight Lewis makes in this sermon is the value we are to place on each other. We truly have never met a mortal person. We all shall live forever. This should have an impact on how we think about people.

Learning in War Time

I really appreciate Lewis' argument here. He states that we are never really secure in life. Human life is lived on a precipice of constant danger. He also states that if we waited until we were safe to pursue beauty we would never begin that pursuit. Lewis preached this sermon in 1939 while tensions over the war in Europe were raging. Lewis as an former soldier and Christian was called in to set things in perspective. I am certain he was addressing the question, "Why should we continue with our studies when the world is hanging on the edge of disaster?" He divides the question into two categories, one is the need for the saving of souls, and secondly the need for exclusive nationalism.

He goes on to discuss the idea of the totality of life being offered to God. This brings glory to God and is in line with our purpose. Also Lewis makes the point that the pursuit of the mind is essential for addressing the intellectual attacks of the heathen. If believers don't pursue intellectual understanding we are in essence laying down our weapons and abdicating the realm of intellect to the enemy. The unlearned and naive will become fair game then for this kind of attack.

He goes on to mention three mental exercises to defend against three mental attacks for the scholar. First the battle against excitement. To battle against this way of thinking is to realize that a perfect time will never come. It is the old axiom we use, "The tyranny of the urgent!". We will always have external situations that wage war against our thinking and demand our attention. We must come to the realization that this will always be and we must continue with the really important things, not be ruled by that dreaded tyrant.

Secondly the battle is against frustration. We will all face that nagging feeling that we don't have enough time to complete the things God has called us to do. I know for myself that is a pressing feeling at times. The answer here is to commend the future to God. We are to do our work daily unto the Lord and find our fulfillment in the present work.

Thirdly the battle is against fear. Mainly fear of death. Lewis points out that even war doesn't increase the percentage of deaths, it is still 100%, it just makes us more aware of our own mortality. I would agree with Lewis here as I think anyone who really thinks about it would also. I have a special reason to think about it, my chronic illness, with multiple sclerosis raging inside me I have become keenly aware of my own mortality. Fear is something to deal with, but for me it is the fear of the unknown. What will my future look like. How disabled will I become. This caused me to really think about the issues here. This knowledge causes me to value the time I do have and want to do what I can while still able. It makes my time here at seminary more precious. As I prepare for the future God has called me to, I remind myself constantly that the life of learning I am undergoing is an approach to divine beauty and divine reality. C. S. Lewis does a masterful job with his argument here. He addresses the objections people could raise. He understands the emotional impact on people and battle of the mind that they were going through. This is a fine sermon.

Why I am not a Pacifist

I appreciate how Lewis starts out this talk by defining his terms carefully. He is using logic to appeal to the audience and this is very effective as it considers all options. He is going to systematically take apart these options one by one and be left with his own position as the best option.

He is addressing a group of pacifists, according to Hooper in the introduction. I wonder why a group of pacifists would ask Lewis to speak, since he was a soldier himself, and an outspoken supporter of the war? This is particularly interesting since he had one year earlier preached The Weight of Glory and openly spoke of duty to serve one's country. "The rescue of a drowning man is, then a duty worth dying for, but not worth living for. It seems to me that all political duties (among which I include military duties) are of this kind" This makes me wonder if Hooper is correct as to where this talk was given. He may be right but it does make me wonder.

Lewis masterfully takes on this argument from each of his three points, facts, intuition, and authority. For the sake of brevity I will not elaborate here. As he works through this idea, he explains how each of these work against the pacifist idea. He then concludes his argument by saying that pacifists are probably persuaded more by their passions than their reasoning. They want to believe this way so they do. It is an irrational system of belief.

One insight I really did appreciate and it was a strong point was when he said that pacifism practiced would be, "taking the straight road to a world in which there will be no Pacifists." This is a thought for those who embrace this kind of thinking.

Transposition

Lewis tackles a tough issue here, the issue of tongues. He starts by explaining the difference between sensations and emotions. Emotions are a higher order than sensations and sometimes the same sensation can be used for different and even opposing emotions.

He goes on to explain the idea of transposition. To understand this he uses several good illustrations, taking a musical score intended for a symphony orchestra and writing it for a piano, you must allow the notes that are intended for a flute in one part of the score also be the same notes that are intended for a violin in another part. The idea here is taking something that has a complex language and putting the same idea in another format using a smaller vocabulary. In the lesser format the expressions must have more than one meaning because of the reduced ways of expressing them. The emotions are quite complicated and the sensations often use the same feeling to express differing emotions. This is the concept he is expressing.

He goes on to compare the spiritual world and the material world. He states that the spiritual world is the superior world like the real world is to a pencil drawing. This world is the diminution and the other the real. We are phantoms waiting to be made real. This reminds me of Lewis' discussion in The Great Divorce when we find that the people from hell are transparent and the grass cuts their feet while in heaven. In Lewis' mind this is the transparent world and the solid world will be heaven. I am also reminded of the passage in I Cor 15:44 "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" Our bodies are compared here with a seed and the resurrected body with the tree that grows from that seed. The idea here is again transposition. Lewis shows great insight here especially when he applies this idea to the incarnation. I am going to give this idea some thought.

I also appreciate his closing statement, "May we not , by a reasonable analogy, suppose likewise that there is no experience of the spirit so transcendent and supernatural, no vision of Deity Himself so close and so far beyond all images and emotions, that to it also there cannot be an appropriate correspondence on the sensory level?" He leaves the argument open for the gift of tongues to be a valid gift of the Spirit.

Is Theology Poetry?

"Does Christian theology owe its attraction to its power of arousing and satisfying our imaginations?" That is the question Lewis attempts to answer in this essay. He made this speech at Oxford University at the Socratic Club on Nov. 6, 1944. He talks about his own experience to show the inadequacy of the Christian faith to be merely poetic in its appeal. He states that he prefers other mythologies to Christianity if it were merely mythical. He is particularly fond of Norse Mythology.

Lewis in no way says that Christianity doesn't have poetic qualities within it. He indicates that there are aesthetically pleasing things within the faith. He goes on to warn against believing that Christianity is merely poetry. Christianity uses poetic language to describe concepts that are foreign to us. We can't understand a spiritual being without body completely, it becomes necessary to use poetic language to help us to understand, but the poetry is not the reality. We do not really think God sits on a physical throne. So we use metaphorical language to explain those concepts we can't otherwise explain.

I chuckled at his humor at discussing the "Scientific Outlook"as an Elizabethan tragedy. He sees that image as more fitting of mythology than the Christian position. Lewis goes on to compare the concepts of science and theology. I enjoyed this discussion as it showed great insight into both. He partly gives his testimony in a nutshell here, how he abandoned science because of the insistence that the brain was nothing more than biochemical impulses. He says, "...Reason is simply the unforeseen and unintended by product of mindless matter at one stage of its endless and aimless becoming. Here is a flat contradiction. They ask me at the same moment to accept a conclusion and to discredit the only testimony on which that conclusion can be based." He shows how inconsistent thought caused him to reject that idea and to consider the idea of Theism. Once he accepted Theism, he had to consider the claims of Christ.

He concludes his argument with showing how Christianity makes room for science and other religious ideas. He also shows how science cannot make room for Christian thought. His argument is quite effective here also. He has anticipated most objections that could be made and answered them. He has built an iron clad case in my opinion. I really enjoyed his use of humor as he somewhat mocked the naturalist view as I stated earlier. I don't believe he was being contemptuous in any way, he was just using humor to get his point across, and he did it very well.

The Inner Ring

This talk was given at Kings College, University of London during a commemoration Oration on Dec. 14, 1944. He talks about the idea of inner rings, or in other words, being a part of a specific group. This group can be for any purpose, the main point is the desire to belong.

He warns that this natural tendency can be dangerous if we live for it, that desire to be on the inside. It is a true danger to be influenced by those people we desire to please the most, we can be vulnerable to their influence when crucial decisions are to be made. I think Lewis is making a very good point here, peer pressure works on people no matter what age they are. I think for a young person the real danger is being given over to a life style of giving into peer pressure. That is what Lewis is getting at in this lecture. Lewis mentions this same idea in The Weight of Glory when he says, "I wonder whether the shoe is not sometimes on the other foot. I wonder whether in ages of promiscuity, many a virginity has not been lost less in obedience to Venus than in obedience to the caucus. For of course when promiscuity is the fashion, the chaste are outsiders. They are ignorant of something that other people know. They are uninitiated. And as for the lighter matters, the number who first smoked or first got drunk for a similar reason is probably very large." This kind of pressure is real and should be resisted. It takes a deliberate act of the will to battle in this area. The danger here is not being aware of the battle and simply going along without having thought it through.

The real issue which Lewis speaks of is friendship. Not seeking to be in someone's inner circle but being with the people you really enjoy being with. This is the better road and the road must be followed deliberately.

Lewis again does a good job of getting his point across. I think he is quite effective. The group he is addressing are young college students who are just starting out in life. He is attempting to help them not to fall into a common trap of impressionistic young people.

The best insight that I see in this essay is the point about real friendship. I think that is how Lewis' life was characterized. I know he was shunned by many of his colleagues most of his career and he himself in some sense remained an outsider. This speaks volumes to me in the area of his personal integrity so his argument has a strong impact.

Faith has been relegated to a position of solitude, this is both paradoxical, dangerous, and natural. He states it is paradoxical considering that every other activity in recent history has robbed us of solitude. Secondly he states that this is dangerous because solitude has been pushed out of our lives, this effectively can keep religion out of our lives if we accept that concept. He also states this idea is natural, by that I mean we fall into the mentality of collectivism and fail to understand the meaning of being a part of the "Body of Christ". Collectivism reduces the value of the individual and only speaks of the value of the group to which the individual belongs, while the concept we should embrace states both the value of the group as a whole entity and yet keeps the importance of each individual member within that specific group. That is the essence of what Lewis is arguing for. He gave this address to the Society of St. Alban and St. Sergius, Oxford, on Feb. 10, 1945 and appears to be addressing the growing problem of understanding both the value of solitude and the importance of the individual within the context of the whole. He argues against two extremes, first is Pelagian thought which states that the chief end of man is the expression of individuality. The second idea is that the collective body is what is important with the loss of personal identity. Both of these concepts are in error. The truth is that God is interested in new creatures.

Lewis is quite effective in his argument here. He is persuasive and insightful. He is systematic in his approach and builds one idea on top of another. I very much appreciate his logical approach to matters.

On Forgiveness

This essay was published after the death of Lewis, he sent it to Father Patrick Irwin for publication in 1947 but Father Irwin was transferred before he could publish it. It was placed into the Bodleian Library and was published in 1975. The question he is answering is why do we recite in the creeds the phrase, "We believe in the forgiveness of sins"? He assumes this is just something we all understand, but after giving it some thought he sees the wisdom of the writers of the creeds. We by nature need to be reminded of our own sinfulness and our need for forgiveness.

Here is where he goes on to explain our terms and what we wrongly think about forgiveness. The issue here understanding forgiveness, a biblical understanding, that effects our actions. We often change that concept into making excuses for our sins. We expect God to overlook our sins instead of the biblical understanding that we look at our sin straight on, call it sin, assume full responsibility for that sin, and ask God to forgive it. We also have that same responsibility when someone sins against us. There may be some degree of excuses for the offense and that can be overlooked, but the real issue must be we are to forgive the sin, in the like manner that God forgives us our sin.

Forgiveness on our part is not an easy thing to do. Lewis makes that very point in Reflections of the Psalms, "There is no use in talking as if forgiveness were easy. We all know the old joke, "You've given up smoking once: I've given it up a dozen times." In the same way I could say of a certain man, "Have I forgiven him for what he did that day? I've forgiven him more times than I can count.: For we find that the work of forgiveness has to be done over and over again."

Lewis does a very good job as he always does with his positions. He is a master of his argument here again. He understands how human nature works and how we are inclined to think about forgiveness itself and how we will probably treat others when we are sinned against.

A Slip of the Tongue

This was the last sermon Lewis ever preached. He gave this talk at Oxford in a small chapel in Evensong on Jan. 29, 1956. The question he seems to be addressing is the reluctance of the believer to fully commit himself to God. He became aware of this in his prayer life. The difficulty seems to be the real fear that God will require something more than we wish to give at that time. The illustration he uses of paying taxes, we all agree in the necessity of paying taxes, but at the same time we all want to know how little we can get away with paying. So is our thinking with our relationship with God, we desire a relationship with Him but we don't want Him to demand too much of us. We desire to "keep things temporal" as Lewis puts it.

The danger Lewis point out is those areas we desire to keep are areas of death. They are areas in which we can't receive the blessing of God. If He doesn't own that area of our life, He will not bless it. The very thing we need to let go of we fear letting go of the most.

He points out correctly that we can't do this ourselves and that it is God working in us. Yet at the same time he does emphasize that it is through the faculty of our wills that this work is done. So both are true, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. His argument is very well done again. I so appreciate Lewis' work because he stimulates much thought in me. I find myself pondering things I have never before thought of through the reading of these essays.

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Summary of The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

In The Weight of Glory,  C.S. Lewis tries to weave “the strongest spell that can be found to wake [us] up from the evil enchantment of worldliness” (thanks to our educational systems and modern philosophies) because “we walk every day on the razor edge between two incredible possibilities”:

• to be known, appreciated and delighted in by God – Christian glory : “ Well done, thou good and faithful servant ” (Mt 25:21), or
• to be forgotten, shamed and dismissed by God: “ I never knew you. Depart from Me ” (Mt 7:23).

To begin weaving this spell, Lewis appeals to desire . We have a deep desire to be acknowledged in this universe and nothing seems to satisfy this innate desire. Lewis boldly suggests – with the support of the Gospels – that our desires are in fact far too weak because we are content with the vanities of this world while infinite glory in heaven is offered to us!

By exploring the “puzzling and repellent” ideas of Christianity, Lewis concludes that Christian glory  – to be delighted in by God – is the only match for our deepest desire  and becomes not only a weight of glory that we must bear in our daily lives because of the possibility of incomprehensible happiness, but also a call to carry the weight of our neighbour’s glory every day – in whom Christ, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

Favourite Quotes:

1. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased (1).

2. If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy (4).

3. Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years (5).

4. If our religion is something objective, then we must never avert our eyes from those elements in it which seem puzzling or repellent; for it will be precisely the puzzling or the repellent which conceals what we do not yet know and need to know (7).

5. In the end that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised (10).

6. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is (10).

7. Glory , as Christianity teaches me to hope for it, turns out to satisfy my original desire and indeed to reveal an element in that desire which I had not noticed. By ceasing for a moment to consider my own wants I have begun to learn better what I really wanted.

8.   Nature is mortal; we shall outlive her. When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive. Nature is only the image, the symbol; but it is the symbol Scripture invites me to use. We are summoned to pass in through Nature, beyond her, into that splendour which she fitfully reflects

9. It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

10. “For glory meant good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”

11. “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

12. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat —the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”

Other Links:

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis (PDF copy)

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis (Word document copy)

• Discussion guide for  The Weight of Glory   by Harper One
• The Weight of Glory Commentary by Peter Kreeft
• Discovering the Weight of Glory  by Lucas E. Morel
• Celebrating C. S. Lewis: “The Weight Of Glory”   by Anita Kobayashi Sung
• The Structure of “The Weight of Glory” by Evan Rosa
• The “Weight of Glory” in the Letters of Peter – my blog
• Are you willing to bear the weight of your neighbour’s glory? – my blog

(Interesting that  kâbôd   is the Hebrew word for glory ; it literally means “ weight “).

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‘The Weight of Glory’ Turns 80

More By Joseph A. Kohm Jr.

On this day 80 years ago, C. S. Lewis climbed the steps to the canopied pulpit in Oxford’s historic Church of St. Mary the Virgin to deliver a sermon to one of the largest congregations ever assembled in the building. The result, according to Walter Hooper, who recently passed away after almost 50 years of faithfully serving as Lewis’s Boswell, was a sermon “so magnificent” that it is “worthy of a place with some of the Church Fathers” ( The Weight of Glory  [HarperOne, 1980], 17).

Eight decades later, Lewis’s sermon-turned-essay is a timely vaccine for our current cultural climate so divided by race, political party, sexuality, class, religion, and identity.

Clashing Identity Narratives

Lewis’s idea regarding glory addresses one of the main narratives of modernity: identity. In his sermon, Lewis said he initially believed that glory meant either fame, as in being better known than other people, or luminosity. Neither idea appealed to him, though it certainly appeals to us. Fame is measured by Twitter and Instagram followers; the accumulation of a certain number of them makes one a “social-media influencer.” Instead, Lewis found that eternal glory in heaven will come from God. In fact, the idea of this “weight or burden of glory” is almost beyond our capacity to understand, in that we could be “a real ingredient in the divine happiness . . . to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work” (39).

Lewis’s sermon-turned-essay is a timely vaccine for our current cultural climate so divided by race, political party, sexuality, class, religion, and identity.

In the current identity narrative, people define themselves and others based on race, class, sexuality, religion, and political party. Innate to each of us, Lewis observes, is “a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy” (32). In our quest to fulfill this desire for affirmation, significance, or power, these classifications turn into golden calves, giving rise to idolatry. Of course, differences can be good, but it never ends well for those who make modern classifications of identity into gods. Fixating on these classifications makes us like the child who “wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea” (26).

Instead, Lewis encourages us to put an end to the temporal pursuit of this search for identity, because we have work to do. “A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.” The walls of our world are pitiless indeed. Spend a few minutes on social media and observe how people—Christians included—speak to each other as a reflection of our division. Like the dinosaur, grace is extinct, replaced with a collective anger simmering just below boil. Like all great writers, for emphasis Lewis can turn the ear into the eye and make the audible visual. Christians are to follow our great Captain, Jesus Christ, into the dark places and crevices of the world, bringing his light to these cultural fissures of identity.

Holiness, Now and Forever

It is just here, in perhaps the best-known phrase from The Weight of Glory , that Lewis’s words are most applicable for us today. In the penultimate sentence he writes, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses” (46).

Holiness, along with glory, will one day be perpetual and eternal for each of us. These will be our common denominators and our authentic identity in the great multitude, leaving all earthly identities to fade away.

Joseph A. Kohm Jr. (JD and MDiv, Regent University) is a vice president at the C. S. Lewis Institute and the author of The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C. S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves (Wipf and Stock, January 2022).

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The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses Summary & Study Guide

The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses Summary & Study Guide Description

This volume contains nine of C.S. Lewis's sermons. Originally, he gave the sermons to college students in England. He carefully and thoroughly argues each viewpoint, using a careful, almost scientific approach in his arguments. The language of his sermons is that of a highly educated man, which reflects his audience. The combination of these two aspects of the sermons makes some of the arguments complicated and hard to follow.

Lewis, however, continues his reputation for honest and profound observations both of the spiritual and the carnal world. He honestly expresses his own weaknesses in respect to his own devotion.

However, he also gives his advice for dealing with such struggles. The viewpoints of others, such as pacifists and evolutionists, receive the same honest speculation, however. Sometimes, surprisingly, Lewis agrees with parts of the opposition. Quickly, though, he refutes such arguments with his own careful and logical response.

The topics range from war to the afterlife. He never fails to apply his topics directly to his audience. Sometimes he speaks on topics requested by others, and sometimes the topic seems to be of his own choosing. Each sermon exists independently, though. He never refers back to previous sermons within this volume. The time line among the sermons is, in fact, unclear. One assumes they were given in order, but no evidence of this exists.

The reader feels the passion of the speaker, even if the reader doesn't agree with his points. Though Lewis gave the sermons some time ago, their truths apply in a largely timeless fashion to any time and culture. What's more, even in the printed form, the arguments retain much of their impact. Few clues about the speaker's delivery remain.

Lewis offers no apologies for his views about Christianity. In fact, he refutes many other beliefs systems in favor of Christianity. His arguments appear so clearly and concisely that the reader, though he may disagree, may have a difficult time refuting Lewis.

The language of the volume clues the reader in to the period of time the sermons were given: the early twentieth century. Difficulties in understanding Lewis stem not from differing language due to time or space, however.

Instead, Lewis's education may make the sermons difficult to understand. Frequently, he refers to Latin terms while offering no explanation. Often, though, context clues offer help in figuring out the meaning of such statements.

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The Weight of Glory

March 22, 2023

Scripture — 2 Corinthians 4:17 (NRSV)

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure. . . .

2 Corinthians 4:17 presents a striking contrast between the affliction of mortal life and the glory we will experience in God’s future. In comparison to the weightiness of our future glory, our current suffering is light. It is also temporary, whereas the glory of the future will never end. The hope of glory does not cause us to be unduly focused upon ourselves, however, because we will see our neighbors as people of glory. Thus we’ll be committed even more to treat them with justice and love.

This devotion is part of the series: Treasure in Clay Jars .

I cannot read 2 Corinthians 4:17 without thinking of C.S. Lewis and his classic essay, “ The Weight of Glory .” Written as a sermon, it was originally published in 1941. Since then, it has been read millions of times and quoted thousands of times by theologians, preachers, and authors. I’ll join this throng of quoters later in today’s devotion.

Paul begins 2 Corinthians 4:17 by speaking of “this slight momentary affliction.” The context shows that he is referring to the wasting away of his outer, physical nature, which is a result chiefly of the rigors and persecutions associated with his apostolic ministry. Paul often mentions his experiences of “affliction,” including several times in 2 Corinthians (1:4, 8; 6:4; 7:4).

Yet Paul does not over-emphasize the reality and pain of his struggles. Rather, in verse 17, he offers a striking contrast between his affliction and his future glory. First, his affliction is “slight,” whereas the coming glory has “weight.” The contrast is even stronger in the Greek, since the word translated as “slight” literally means “light in weight” or “light to carry.” The difficulties Paul experiences in the present time are relatively light in comparison to the heaviness of the glory that is to come. That glory will be heavy “beyond all measure.”

Second, affliction is “momentary” whereas glory will be “eternal.” In the moment, suffering can feel as if it will go on forever, but in fact it will come to an end. The glory of God’s future, however, will never end. For Paul, the reality of eternal glory enables him to experience his present suffering as temporary. He can be resilient because he knows a better future is coming.

We may wonder about the nature of the glory we will experience in the age to come. Romans 8 gives us some clues. Verse 18 reads, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” In time, we will see clearly the matchless glory of God. But that’s not all. Verse 17 explains that, as “joint heirs with Christ,” we “suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” In some mysterious way, we will share in the very glory of Christ.

Earlier in 2 Corinthians we learned that this process of our glorification has already begun: “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (3:18). Even now, we see the glory of the Lord, not just in heaven, but in a mirror. We are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). In the age to come, the process of our glorification will be completed. But now, through presence of the Holy Spirit, it has already begun.

Does focusing on our own future glory lead us to be preoccupied with ourselves? Might it cause us to be less committed to the things of this present age? Might we be less concerned about justice and loving our neighbor? In his essay “The Weight of Glory,” C.S. Lewis answers these questions in a striking if not surprising way. Here are some excerpts from the last paragraph in “The Weight of Glory”:

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. . . . There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit— immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. . . . Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.

If we take seriously the fact that “there are no ordinary people,” we won’t be less inclined to care about their wellbeing. We won’t be so focused on ourselves that we neglect justice and love for others. On the contrary, we’ll be even more committed to seeking what’s best for others. The heaviness of their future glory motivates us now to see that they are treated with dignity, honor, justice, and love.

When you think about the life of the age to come, what we often call Heaven, what comes to mind? What images? What feelings?

What do you think of the idea that you one day you will share in the glory of Christ?

How might “the weight of glory” make a difference in the way you work today?

As you interact with people in your work today, remember that they are beings who will one day share in God’s glory.

Gracious God, I must confess that sometimes my “afflictions” don’t feel very momentary. I can get so wrapped up in the moment and my struggles that I forget the big picture. I forget where my life is heading and the glory that lies ahead.

Help me, dear Lord, to see my life from a heavenly perspective. Give me the grace to see my current struggles as temporary as I look to your future and the glory that is coming.

I also pray, Lord, that you will enable me to see people in my life as bearers of your image and glory. May I treat them with the utmost respect and love. May I seek their best in all parts of life. Amen .

Banner image by Joshua Hogan on Unsplash.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here . Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project . Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: No Ordinary People .

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Mark D. Roberts

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Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a Senior Strategist for Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership, where he focuses on the spiritual development and thriving of leaders. He is the principal writer of the daily devotional, Life for Leaders,...

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The Weight of Glory Paperback – Deckle Edge, March 1, 2001

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The classic Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis, the most important Christian writer of the 20th century, contains nine sermons delivered by Lewis during World War Two. The nine addresses in Weight of Glory offer guidance, inspiration, and a compassionate apologetic for the Christian faith during a time of great doubt.

• Print length 208 pages
• Language English
• Publisher HarperOne
• Publication date March 1, 2001
• Reading age 18 years and up
• Dimensions 5.31 x 0.47 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 0060653205
• ISBN-13 978-0060653200
• See all details

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Addressing some of the most difficult issues we face in our day-to-day lives, C. S. Lewis's ardent and timeless words provide an unparalleled path to greater spiritual understanding. Considered by many to be his most moving address, "The Weight of Glory" extols a compassionate vision of Christianity and includes lucid and compelling discussions on forgiveness and faith.

About the Author

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Out of the Silent Planet , The Great Divorce , The Screwtape Letters , and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo .

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperOne; 1st edition (March 1, 2001)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060653205
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060653200
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.47 x 8 inches
• #1 in Christian Sermons (Books)
• #43 in Christian Apologetics (Books)
• #156 in Christian Personal Growth

About the author

CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a fellow and tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954 when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics, the Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

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Weight of Glory

Wrong side of the door.

• Mar 07, 2019
• Zach Kincaid

Lewis has this great moment in “The Weight of Glory” when this sense of longing for eternity really finds its way through the dark paths of my heart. He asks whether we are on the wrong side of God’s door because we can see the beauty and freshness of creation but …

This World is Not My Home

• Jun 28, 2017

In relation to our want of heaven and abandoning the earthly rewards that we once ran after, Lewis writes that it probably will not happen in a day. Rather, he says, “poetry replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience, as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship.”

• Mar 16, 2017

In The Weight of Glory, Lewis says we will be transformed in eternity, whether in Heaven (or Hell). “It’s a serious thing,” Lewis says, “to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, …

Tom-Foolery

• Apr 21, 2015

“I know that many wiser and better Christians than I in these days do not like to mention Heaven and hell even in a pulpit,” says Lewis (The Weight of Glory). He goes on to say that nearly all the references in the New Testament about both destinations come from …

The "Die-er" of the Universe

• Feb 24, 2015

The idea that Christ is the corn king – the fulfillment of the myths that thread through history – rings loud and often in Lewis’s work. In Miracles Lewis presents the Incarnation as the greatest of all the signs of God.

C.S. Lewis and The Man Born to be King

• Dec 26, 2014

In 1943, Dorothy L. Sayers’ script of twelve radio broadcasts was published by Harper & Brothers as The Man Born to Be King: A Play-Cycle on the Life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. She had written these dramatic episodes for the radio at a time when there was …

The Weight of Glory: 50% off + free shipping until 7/28

• Jul 22, 2014
• Uncategorized

If you’ve never read The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis, you may want to add this paperback to your bookshelf this week. From now until 7/28, The Weight of Glory is 50% off + free shipping on CSLewis.com.   Featuring nine memorable addresses C. S. Lewis delivered during …

Lewis as Preacher – A 75th Anniversary Reflection

• Jul 04, 2014
• William O'Flaherty

2013 was the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death, but did you know that this year is the 75th anniversary of his first sermon? During his life he preached more than seven sermons. Most of them were adapted into articles and published in his lifetime. The following summarizes what is known.

Why I'm Not a Pacifist

• Jun 19, 2014

In the frequently debated essay in The Weight of Glory titled “Why I’m Not a Pacifist,” Lewis asks a simple, provocative question:  “How do we decide what is good or evil?” It seems easy enough. It’s our conscience, right? Lewis says that’s the usual answer, breaking it up into what a person …

Imagination Leading to Faith

• May 30, 2014

If you read Lewis, the idea of imagination leading to faith is richly woven into nearly all his work. He certainly imagines Heaven in The Great Divorce and hellish battles in Screwtape Letters. The idea of holding at bay all you know in order to believe afresh, could be, in …

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Bearing the Weight of Glory – The Cost of C.S. Lewis’s Witness

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The Cost of C.S. Lewis's Witness

On June 8th, 1941 C.S. Lewis delivered a sermon in Oxford on "The Weight of Glory." This weight shaped Lewis' perspective of humanity and his own calling and place in the world.

The vividness by which Lewis perceived the potential eternal destinies of every man and woman compelled him to direct a great part of his energies towards the saving of souls. Lewis sacrificed his own comfort and academic and professional advancement in order to help others know and experience God's love in Jesus Christ.

This audio recording is based on an essay by Christopher Mitchell , and is presented here as an audio message by Richard Leonard.

What is it that motivated C.S. Lewis, a comfortable academic with more than enough to do, to direct so much of his time writing and speaking towards the conversion of the unbelieving of the world? What made him sacrifice not only the regard of many of his colleagues but his own academic advancement to defend the faith? The answer will no doubt appear quite obvious once it is stated. But since it says something important about Lewis and something quite profound about the human drama viewed through the lenses of the Christian faith, and because I do not recall anyone having yet called specific attention to the connection I propose (though some have hinted at it), [i]  it seems appropriate to present the matter here.

To state the case most plainly, the vividness by which Lewis perceived the potential eternal destinies of every man and woman compelled him to direct a great part of his energies towards the saving of souls. Lewis perceived evangelism to be his lay vocation, and the means by which he expressed this evangelistic impulse were through his writing and speaking. The particulars of his ministry are generally well known. However, a summary of them in the context of his life will be necessary in order to appreciate the significance of his motivation.

Lewis's bent toward evangelism began to assert itself within the first year of his conversion in 1931. [ii]  He "felt it was the duty of every Christian," observed Owen Barfield, "to go out into the world and try to save souls." [iii]  In an essay on "Christianity and Culture" Lewis stated plainly that "The glory of God, and, as our only means to glorifying him, the salvation of the human soul, is the real business of life," and in another place admitted that most of his books were "evangelistic." [iv]  Speaking of the fundamental difference between the Christian's and the unbeliever's approach to literature, and by extension to any of the great works of human culture, Lewis said without qualification, that "the salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world." [v]

His vision for employing his own fiction as a means of evangelizing came quite unexpectedly and quite early. When in 1939 Lewis became aware that most of the reviewers of his book  Out of the Silent Planet  failed to recognize its Christian theology, the idea struck him that the Gospel could be "smuggled into people's minds" by means of fiction. [vi]  It was a vision he sustained throughout his career. Less than six months before he died, in answer to the question, asked by an American evangelical: "Would you say that the aim of...your own writing, is to bring about an encounter of the reader with Jesus Christ?", he replied, "That is not my language, yet it is the purpose I have in view." [vii]

Lewis, whose literary output was enormous, has been aptly called a "literary evangelist." [viii]  Before his death in 1963, he wrote forty books and edited three. Since his death, nearly a dozen volumes of his essays have been published. In addition, he wrote thousands of letters (many of them published). Add to his writing (most of which was evangelistic) his speaking, praying and discipling, [ix]  and one begins to sense Lewis's enormous drive to save souls.

It is important to notice, however, as Michael Ward has recently pointed out, that Lewis's brand of evangelism never involved the kind of direct appeal that bids people to "come to Jesus." [x]  Lewis saw himself not so much a reaper of souls, but one who prepares the soil, sows the seed, and weeds out what hinders growth. His job, as he understood it, was on the one hand to seek to break down the intellectual prejudices to Christianity by detecting and exposing the fallacies of current objections to belief in such a way as to make faith in Christianity intellectually plausible, and on the other to prepare the mind and imagination to receive the Christian vision.

His evangelistic genius was not in his ability to inspire faith (this he flatly disavowed), but to maintain an atmosphere where faith could be possible--rationally and imaginatively plausible--and where it could grow and even thrive. He was happy to prepare the way for those who were gifted to reap what had been sown--who could successfully bring the direct appeal to the heart.

The well-known preacher Stephen Olford tells of an experience he had with Lewis during a "This is Life"   crusade, held in London, when he found himself on the same platform as Lewis. Lewis spoke first, brilliantly arguing, according to Olford, the case for Christianity before an audience of approximately 3000. Following Lewis, Olford picked up on a motif that came through Lewis's message and used it to lead into his own message and ultimately to an invitation for an open commitment to Christ. After the meeting, Olford remembers Lewis coming right up to him, shaking his hand and saying, "That was so impressive and effective. Thank you for that." "I hope you didn't mind my taking up on what you said," replied Olford. "No," said Lewis, "That was magnificent!" [xi]

Lewis's prominence as a representative of the Christian faith began initially in 1940 with the publication of his book  The Problem of Pain , rose in 1941 as a result of his series of broadcast talks over the BBC, and reached new heights with the publication of  The Screwtape Letters  in 1942. Other avenues for speaking of the faith included such diverse settings as talks to Britain's RAF, the weekly meeting of the Oxford University Socratic Club, Christian groups on university campuses, and the occasional sermon.

A Hated Man

Lewis's evangelistic impulse not only brought him public acclaim, but also created tensions and hostility among friends and colleagues. Owen Barfield, who was one of Lewis's closest friends, honestly admits that Lewis's zeal for the conversion of the unbeliever bothered, even embarrassed him at times. [xii]  He could appreciate Lewis's faith as a private matter, but found it difficult to accept his determination to take it public with the aim of converting others.

Barfield was not alone. The amount of ridicule and scorn it fostered among his non-Christian colleagues was especially virulent. His theological books and his standing as a Christian apologist which made him much loved also spawned a great amount of ill-feeling. According to Harry Blamires, Lewis was acutely sensitive to the fact. He recalls that Lewis once told him with great feeling, "You don't know how I'm hated." [xiii]

One of the reasons for this hatred is that Lewis's use of his training as a scholar in the work of Christian apologetics was viewed by many of his colleagues as a form of prostitution. In an attempt to explain to Walter Hooper the reason for Lewis's unpopularity among so many dons in Oxford, J.R.R. Tolkien observed: "In Oxford, you are forgiven for writing only two kinds of books. You may write books on your own subject whatever that is, literature, or science, or history. And you may write detective stories because all dons at some time get the flu, and they have to have something to read in bed. But what you are  not  forgiven is writing popular works, such as Jack did on theology, and  especially  if they win international success as his did." [xiv]

Lewis's work on a popular level, which appealed to vast audiences outside the University defied academic protocol. "In the eyes of some," says Blamires, "he was using a donnish knowledge to mesmerize the innocent masses with dialectical conjuring tricks." [xv]  Moreover, he chose to express his faith in the vernacular rather than in the language of the scholar. Although he did so in order that he might make the faith accessible to all, this was viewed by many in the University as a thing not proper to his profession. Besides, it was thought that a professor of English Literature should teach literature not theology. It appears that Lewis's growing fame as an amateur theologian contributed to his being twice passed over for appointments to much-coveted Chairs in English Literature at his University despite his scholarly claim to the appointments. Some certainly objected to his Christianity in itself, but apparently also suspected, along with perhaps even some sympathetic colleagues, that his commitment to the salvation of human souls would not allow him the time to fulfill the duties and responsibilities the position would require. [xvi]

Lewis was himself, however, clearly uncomfortable with the publicity his success brought. As early as 1941 he was already feeling the sting of hostility and the crush of popularity. Responding to a point made by Dom Bede Griffith in a letter in October of this year concerning his growing public persona, he acknowledges the growing tension within himself: "As for retiring into 'private life', while feeling  very  strongly the evil of publicity, I don't see how one can. God is my witness I don't  look  for engagements." [xvii]

A particularly burdensome outcome of this growing popularity was the ever increasing amount of correspondence he felt obliged to answer. One of the reasons Lewis chose to terminate the radio broadcast talks was that he could not face the increase in the number of letters that would certainly be generated if he didn't. [xviii]  Already he was spending countless hours responding to the correspondence he was receiving. When describing, in his autobiography  Surprised by Joy , what he considered the perfect day, he made a special point of noting that an essential element of the happy life was that one "would have almost no mail and never dread the postman's knock." [xix]

Yet the number of letters continued to increase as the years went on. There was a time, Lewis told a young correspondent in 1956, when he was apt to delay responding to letters. But that was when there were fewer of them. "[N]ow that I have such a lot to write," he said, "I've just got to do them all at once, first thing in the morning." [xx]  For, unlike many in his position, Lewis felt a commitment to answer every letter that required a personal response. (His brother Warren, who in 1943 took on the role of secretary for his brother, routinely answered those letters not requiring Lewis's personal attention.) Although there were moments when he complained about his vast correspondence, he continued the practice to the end of his life. A letter dated March 26, 1963, just a few months before his death, provides a vivid picture of both his reluctance and commitment to letter writing. The letter is addressed to Hugh, a young man and the eldest of eight children who had been corresponding with Lewis since 1954: "Don't get any more girls to write to me," he wrote, "unless they really need any help I might be able to give. I have too many letters already." [xxi]

Lewis's Evangelistic Drive

Now here is the question:  Why  did Lewis willingly persist in the kind of evangelistic activity that created obvious tensions and hardships in his personal and professional life and that increased an already heavy work load? [xxii]  He did not have to do so. He could have easily avoided such problems and still lived an active and fruitful, enormously fruitful, Christian life. Admittedly, no single factor can account for Lewis's actions at any given moment, and certainly in the case of his commitment to evangelize several other factors could be suggested. For example, in one place he explained his passionate and forceful defense of the Christian faith in terms of Donne's maxim, "'The heresies that men leave are hated most.' The things I assert most vigorously are those that I resisted long and accepted late." [xxiii]

Yet I would propose that the primary driving force behind his evangelical impulse is best summed up by his conviction that "there are no  ordinary  people." [xxiv]  The line comes near the conclusion of his sermon "The Weight of Glory," which was preached in Oxford at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin on June 8, 1941. Coming when it did, just about the time his ministry as a herald and defender of the Christian faith was taking off, the sermon may reasonably be assumed to expresses an early fundamental and guiding conviction. The sermon's beauty, force, and clarity seem to suggest this as well.

Lewis began the sermon with the startling assertion that "if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,... We are far too easily pleased."  [xxv]

He went on to argue that there is reason to believe that such infinite joy does in fact exist--indeed our deepest longings suggest it is so. At the moment, however, we all are on the wrong side of the door, leaving us with two possibilities: we can choose to be "left utterly and absolutely  outside --repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored" or "we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknowledged." But to  get in  we must choose to follow Jesus Christ who has opened the way and who invites us to follow him inside. We have a choice. "We walk every day," said Lewis, "on the razor edge between these two incredible possibilities." Consequently it is hardly possible, he concluded in the crowning paragraph of the sermon, to think too often or too deeply about my neighbor's potential glory.

The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary  people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal,... But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. [xxvi]

A Burden of Glory

Why was Lewis willing to sacrifice his own pleasure and comfort, risk alienating friends and colleagues, and jeopardize possible career opportunities? Because of the enormous magnitude and weight of the possible eternal destinies of human beings: "[A] weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain." [xxvii]  According to Tolkien, Lewis knew the price of such popularity, he knew he would be hated, yet "he was driven to write popular works of theology because of his  conscience ." [xxviii]  Lewis was convinced that one of these two destinies was true for all humanity, and it compelled him to make the saving of souls the chief end of his earthly labors. [xxix]  To put it most plainly, Lewis preached what he believed, and practiced what he preached. As he said to Dom Bede Griffith in the same year he delivered this sermon, "I don't see how one can" do otherwise.

This is not to say that Lewis never struggled with his commitment (he would have been happy to have avoided the public notoriety), nor that he felt himself more saintly than other Christians who did not share his sense of urgency in the matter. Rather, he simply did not see that  he  had a choice. The possibilities were plainly too momentous to be ignored. But Lewis did not do the work of evangelism simply out of a feeling of duty either. It was for him also a labor of love.

Dorothy L. Sayers gave memorable tribute to this side of Lewis's evangelistic person in a letter addressed to him in May 1943. Sayers had herself by this time become quite well known in Britain for her creative and effective presentation and defense of orthodox Christianity. And like Lewis she had attracted a growing number of correspondents who wrote to her about religious concerns. Speaking of one particular pesky atheist, she wrote Lewis:

Meanwhile, I am left with the Atheist on my hands. I do not want him. I have no use for him. I have no missionary zeal at all. God is behaving with His usual outrageous lack of scruple....If he reads any of the books I have recommended, he will write me long and disorderly letters about them. It will go on for years. I cannot bear it. Two of the books are yours--I only hope they will rouse him to fury. Than I shall hand him over to you. You like souls. I don't. [xxx]

Sayers recognized that Lewis "liked souls" in a way she did not. In other words, viewed from the perspective of eternity, he worked sacrificially and without complaint for what he understood to be the soul's ultimate good. This is not to say that he liked all the people with whom he associated. Lewis was, as are the rest of us, possessed of a particular social disposition. Although he was typically pleasant and courteous to all those with whom he had contact, he maintained that his temperament was such that he tended to shy away from the company of others beyond the close circle of friends he maintained in and near Oxford. Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that Lewis did not always like people, he valued them enough to risk directing his unique talents and the majority of his energies toward their spiritual good. [xxxi]

"But heaven forbid we should work in the spirit of prigs and Stoics," Lewis declared, writing of the ultimate purpose of love in his book  The Four Loves . "While we hack and prune we know very well that what we are hacking and pruning is big with a splendour and vitality which our rational will could never of itself have supplied. To liberate that splendour, to let it become fully what it is trying to be, to have tall trees instead of scrubby tangles, and sweet apples instead of crabs, is part of our purpose." [xxxii]  In his fiction, theology, apologetics and correspondence Lewis can be seen hacking and pruning with the hope that his efforts might be used to produce "everlasting splendours."

I am reminded of the vision expressed by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: "we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Although Lewis never refers to this text in "The Weight of Glory,", its spirit and truth pervade the work, and all his work.

Lewis longed above all else for the unseen things of which this life offers only shadows, for that weight of glory which the Lord Christ won for the human race. And knowing the extraordinary nature of every human person, Lewis longed for and labored for their glory as well.

[i]  See for example, Patrick T. Ferry's fine essay, "Mere Christianity Because There Are No Mere Mortals: Reaching Beyond the Inner Ring,"  C.S. Lewis: Lightbearer in the Shadowlands , edited by Angus Menuge (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1997), pp. 169-90, where he suggests that the motive behind Lewis's sermon, "The Weight of Glory," unites Lewis's idea of 'mere Christianity' to evangelism.

[ii]  George Sayer,  Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times  (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988), p. 138.

[iii]  Oral History Interview, conducted by Lyle W. Dorsett, Kent, England, July 19 & 20, 1984, for the Marion E. Wade Center, p. 61.

[iv]  "Christianity and Culture,"  Christian Reflections , ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1992), p. 14; "Rejoinder to Dr. Pittenger,"  God in the Dock  (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), p. 181. According to the poet and novelist John Wain, who had been one of Lewis's students, "Lewis used to quote with approval general Booth's remark to Kipling: 'Young man, if I could win one soul for God by--by playing the tambourine with my toes, I'd do it.' Lewis did plenty of playing the tambourine with his toes, to the distress of some of the refined souls with whom he was surrounded at Oxford." "A Great Clerke," in  C.S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences , ed. James T. Como (Harcourt Brace/Harvest Books, 1992), p. 69.

[v]  "Christianity and Literature," in  Christian Reflections,  p. 10. Similarly, he wrote in the midst of a sharp argument against T.S. Eliot, that I agree with him about matters of such moment that all literary questions are, in comparison, trivial."  A Preface to "Paradise Lost" ( Oxford University Press/Galaxy Books, 1961), p. 9.

[vi]  Letter to Sister Penelope, July 9, 1939,  Letters of C.S. Lewis , Revised and Enlarged Edition, edited by Walter Hooper (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993), p. 322. It is not the purpose of this essay to go into how Lewis dealt with the problem of communicating traditional Christian content by using modern literary forms such as fantasy. Those interested in this aspect will find help in Doris T. Myers,  C.S. Lewis in Context  (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1994) and in Meredith Veldman's treatment of the subject in  Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain: Romantic Protest, 1945-80  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

[vii]  "Cross-Examination,"  God in the Dock  , p. 262.

[viii]  Lyle W. Dorsett,  The Essential C.S. Lewis  (New York: Colliers/Macmillan, 1988), p. 8.

[ix]  Philip Ryken has nicely summarized the various aspects of Lewis's ministry of evangelism under teaching, writing, praying, and discipling in, "Winsome Evangelist: The Influence of C.S. Lewis,"  Lightbearer in the Shadowlands , pp. 55-78

[x]  Michael Ward, "Escape to Wallaby Wood: Lewis's Depictions of Conversion,"  Lightbearer in the Shadowlands , p. 143.

[xi]  Oral History Interview with Stephen F. Olford, conducted by Lyle W. Dorsett, Oxford, England, July 26, 1985, for the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, pp. 6-7. Lewis said that his predominately intellectual approach in evangelism was due to the limitation of his own gifts. However, he was very sensitive to and appreciative of what he called the more emotional and more "pneumatic" kind of appeal which he had seen "work wonders on a modern audience." "Where God gives the gift, the 'foolishness of preaching' is still mighty. But best of all is a team of two: one to deliver the preliminary intellectual barrage, and the other to follow up with a direct attack on the heart "Modern Man and his Categories of Thought," in  Present Concerns , ed. Walter Hooper (New York: Harcourst Brace Jovanovich, Pub., 1986), p. 66.

[xii]  Oral History Interview, conducted by Lyle W. Dorsett, Kent, England, November 19, 1983, for the Marion E. Wade Center, p. 9.

[xiii]  Harry Blamires, "Against the Stream: C.S. Lewis and the Literary Scene,"  Journal of the Irish Christian Study Centre , vol. 1 (1983), p. 16. A.N. Wison wrote that the  Oxford History of English Literature , published in 1954, "established Lewis as a giant among pygmies of the Oxford English Faculty, which made their failure to promote him to a professorship all the more surprising."  C.S. Lewis: A Biography  (W.W. Norton, 1990), pp. 244-45.

[xiv]  Quoted in a letter from Walter Hooper to Christopher W. Mitchell, February 8, 1998. Lewis himself noted that having written imaginative books was used against a writer if he then wrote theology or literary criticism.  English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama  (Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 185.

[xv]  Blamires, "Against the Stream," p. 17.

[xvi]  Walter Hooper,  C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide  (London: Harper Collins, 1996), p. 65.

[xvii]   Letters of C.S. Lewis , p. 369., Lewis "was a rare case of the don who is forced into the limelight by the demands of his own conscience," noted Wain. "I believe he would never have bothered to court the mass public at all had he not seen it as his duty to defend the Christian faith...against the hostility or indifference that surrounded it." "A Great Clerke," p. 69. Lewis observed: "If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now--not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground--would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen." Quoted from "Learning in War-Time," in  The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses , Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980), p. 28.

[xviii]  Sayer,  Jack , p. 170.

[xix]   Surprised by Joy  (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1984), p. 143. Walter Hooper states that if all the extant letters of Lewis were published today the entire collection would run to at least a half dozen volumes.

[xx]  Letters to Children , edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead (New York:Touchstone Book, Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 60.

[xxi]   Ibid., p. 106f.

[xxii]  Lewis typically had a heavy tutorial load each term, frequently lectured, and was often occupied in the afternoons with domestic duties at home. See "Memoir of C.S. Lewis," by W.H. Lewis in  Letters to C.S. Lewis , p. 37.

[xxiii]   Surprised By Joy , p. 213.

[xxiv]  "The Weight of Glory," in  The Weight of Glory and other Addresses ,p. 19.

[xxv]  Ibid. pp. 3-4.

[xxvi]  Ibid., pp. 18-19.

[xxvii]  Ibid., p. 13.

[xxviii]  Quoted in a letter from Walter Hooper to Christopher W. Mitchell, February 8, 1998.

[xxix]  Patrick Ferry does a compelling job of linking this idea with Lewis's notion of "Mere Christianity": "A respectful regard for the glory of eternity finally must overcome factionalism for the benefit of those who are still outside the faith....As long as there are people who are numbered among those who comprise the communion of saints, the  una sanctu  remains in need of a 'mere' Christianity--because, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, there is no such thing as a 'mere' mortal." "Mere Christianity Because There Are No Mere Mortals,"  Lightbearer in the Shadowlands , pp. 170-71.

[xxx]   The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers , Volume 2, Chosen and edited by Barbara Reynolds and published by the Dorothy L. Sayers Society (Cambridge: Carole Green Publishing, 1997), p. 413. Sayers is having a bit of fun at her own expense here, for as Barbara Reynolds notes, Sayers continued the correspondence for at least another year and even permitted the Atheist to call on her twice (n. 8, p. 413).

[xxxi]  Once again, Patrick Terry's treatment of the connection between Lewis's concept of "Mere Christianity" and his idea of the "Weight of Glory" provides a compelling illustration of this point. One further qualification is in order. I do not mean to leave the impression that Lewis's ministry was limited to the written word. See for example his brother Warren's estimate of Lewis's sense of charity in "Memoirs of C.S. Lewis,  Letters of C.S. Lewis , pp. 41-42.

[xxxii]   The Four Loves  (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1988), pp. 117-18.

Christopher Mitchell

Christopher Mitchell, Theologian, (1951 – 2014) was the third director of the Marion E. Wade Center from 1994 to 2013, and the first holder of the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. Mitchell was also the Consulting Editor for VII: An Anglo-American Literary Review (now VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center ). Prior to coming to Wheaton College he served as a missionary and pastor. He has published several articles including “C.S. Lewis and Authentic Discipleship,” Knowing and Doing (C.S. Lewis Institute, Spring 2011 Issue.) Mitchell received his M.A. from Wheaton College, and a Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where his concentration was Historical Theology with a focus on Jonathan Edwards.

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