{"id":92204,"date":"2025-06-30T11:51:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=92204"},"modified":"2025-09-15T17:37:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:37:27","slug":"c-s-lewis-50-gems-of-wisdom-from-his-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2025\/06\/c-s-lewis-50-gems-of-wisdom-from-his-letters.html","title":{"rendered":"C. S. Lewis: 50 Gems of Wisdom from His Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_92207\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92207\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2025\/06\/LewisBirdBaby2.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-92207\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2025\/06\/LewisBirdBaby2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-92207\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Photo credit<\/strong>: The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, England, affectionately known by Lewis and his friends, the \u201cInklings\u201d \u2014 who used to gather there for regular discussions \u2014 as \u201cThe Bird and Baby\u201d [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\">C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), the Anglican author of <em>The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em> and classics such as <em>The Screwtape Letters<\/em> and <em>Mere Christianity<\/em>, is widely considered to be the best defender of the Christian faith in the 20th\u00a0century. These quotations are drawn from\u00a0<em>The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume II: Books, Broadcasts, and the War 1931-1949<\/em>, and <em>Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963<\/em>, both edited by Walter Hooper and published by HarperSanFrancisco in 2004 and 2007.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*****<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>1) Paganism and Christianity<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I think the thrill of the Pagan stories and of the romance may be due to the fact that they are mere beginnings \u2013 the first, faint whisper of the wind from beyond the world \u2013 while Christianity is the thing itself: and no thing, when you have really started on it, can have for you then and there just the same thrill as the first hint. (Nov. 8, 1931)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>2) Early Christians and Ecclesiology<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We should be glad that the early Christians expected the second coming and the end of the world quite soon: for if they had known that they were founding an organization for centuries they would certainly have organized it to death: believing that they were merely making provisional arrangements for a year or so, they left it free to live. (Christmas Day, 1931)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>3) Reading<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I think re-reading old favourites . . . is one of my greatest pleasures: indeed I can\u2019t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. (Feb. 1932)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>4) God\u2019s Will and Our Lives<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Just because<\/em> God wants for us what we really want and knows the only way to get it, therefore He must, in a sense, be quite ruthless towards sin. He is not like a human authority who can be begged off or caught in an indulgent mood. The more He loves you the more determined He must be to pull you back from your way which leads nowhere into His way which leads you where you want to go. (Sep. 12, 1933)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>5) Evil<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The truth is that evil is not a real <em>thing<\/em> at all, like God. It is simply good <em>spoiled<\/em>. That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good. You know what the biologists mean by a parasite \u2013 an animal that lives on another animal. Evil is a <em>parasite<\/em>. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse. (Sep. 12, 1933)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>6) Friends<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, \u2018sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.\u2019 I know I am very fortunate in that respect . . . (Dec. 29, 1935)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>7) Nature Mysticism and Romanticism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>What indeed can we imagine Heaven to be but unimpeded obedience. I think this is one of the causes of our love of inanimate nature, that in it we see things which unswervingly carry out the will of their Creator, and are therefore wholly beautiful: and though their <em>kind<\/em> of obedience is infinitely lower than ours, yet the degree is so much more perfect that a Christian can see the reason that the Romantics had in feeling a certain holiness in the wood and water. The Pantheistic conclusions they sometimes drew are false: but their feeling was just and we can safely allow it in ourselves now that we know the real reason. (Jan. 8, 1936)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>8) Philosophy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I must have expressed myself very badly if you thought I held that one system of philosophy was as good as another or that pure reason was mutable. All I meant was that no philosophy is perfect: nor can be, since, whatever is true of Reason herself, in the human process of reasoning there is always error and even what is right, in solving one problem, always poses another. . . . The dominance (and revival) of particular philosophy does seem to me to have historical causes. In any age, foolish men want that philosophy whose truths they <em>least<\/em> need and whose errors are most dangerous to them: and wise men want the opposite. In the next age neither fools nor wise want the same. . . . Reason, no doubt, is always on the side of Christianity: but that amount and kind of human reasoning which gives an age its dominant intellectual tone, is surely sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other. (April 24, 1936)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>9) Jesus, Poetry, and Philosophy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Surely the \u2018type of mind\u2019 represented in the human nature of Christ . . . stands at just about the same distance from the poetic as from the philosopher. The overwhelming majority of His utterances are in fact addressed neither to thought nor to the imagination, but to the \u2018heart\u2019 \u2013 i.e., to the will and the affections . . . The parables approach poetry just about as much [as] His argumentative utterances approach philosophy . . . how full of argument, of repartee, even of irony, He is. The passage about the denarius (\u2018whose image and superscription\u2019 [Mt 22:20]); the dilemma about John\u2019s baptism [Mt 21:25]; the argument against the Sadducees from the words \u2018I am the God of Jacob etc\u2019 [Mt 22:32]; the terrible, yet almost humorous, trap laid for his Pharisaic host (\u2018Simon, I have something to say to you\u2019 [Lk 7:40]); the repeated use of the <em>a forteriori<\/em> (\u2018If . . ., how much more\u2019 [Mt 6:30; Lk 12:28]); and the appeals to our reason (\u2018Why do not ye of yourselves judge what is right? [Lk 12:56-57]) \u2013 surely in all these we recognize as the human and natural vehicle of the Word\u2019s incarnation and mental complexion in which a keen-eyed peasant <em>shrewdness<\/em> is just as noticeable as an imaginative quality \u2013 something in other words quite as close (on the natural level) to Socrates as to Aeschylus. (May 23, 1936)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>10) The Psalms\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>My enjoyment of the Psalms has been greatly increased lately. . . . what an admirable thing it is in the Divine economy that the sacred literature of the world should have been entrusted to a people whose poetry, depending largely on parallelism, should remain poetry in any language you translate it into. (July 16, 1940)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>11) Poetry, Mythology, Religion, and Reality<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Poetry \u2018creates life\u2019 in the sense of producing life-like fictions, and the world of fictions I call the \u2018spiritual world\u2019 . . . Poets \u2018proclaim the mystery\u2019 in the sense that they remind us we don\u2019t know what the real universe is like . . . Oddly enough they also produce the illusion of penetrating the mystery . . . Mythologies and religions are products of the imagination in the sense that their content is <em>imaginative<\/em>. The more <em>imaginative<\/em> ones are \u2018nearer the mark\u2019 in the sense that they communicate more Reality to us. Poetry \u2018creates life\u2019 in the sense that its products are something more than fictions occurring in human minds, mere psychological phenomena, and can therefore be described as inhabiting a \u2018spiritual world.\u2019 Poets \u2018proclaim the mystery\u2019 in the sense that they somehow convey to us an inkling of supersensual and super-intellectual Reality . . . which transcends our common modes of perception. (Sep. 25, 1940)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>12) Agnostics<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A <em>pure<\/em> agnostic is a fine thing. I have known only one and he was the man who taught me to think. . . . one of the most dangerous things about the modern world seems to me the fact that most of those who call themselves agnostics have not really got rid of religion but merely exchanged civilized religion for barbarous religion \u2013 worship of sex, or the State, . . . or the dead, or Mystery as such. (Sep. 25, 1940)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>13) Christian Apologetics<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Many laymen who believe the Christian doctrines desire to hear them supported and expounded from the pulpit, and are disappointed when they hear only moral exhortation. I do not think this desire is confined to educated laymen, for I have ben present when an airman who had heard a lecture on the historicity of the Gospels exclaimed, \u2018This is the first time I\u2019ve heard anyone advance a reason for believing the Bible might be true.\u2019 In my experience we laymen are often more easily shocked than our clergy by clerical disbelief or neglect of doctrine. (Dec. 11, 1942)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>14) Original Sin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is to me inconceivable that Nature as we see it is <em>either <\/em>what God intended <em>or <\/em>merely evil: it looks like a good thing spoiled. The doctrine of the Fall (both of man and of . . . \u2018angels\u2019) is the only satisfactory explanation. Evil begins, in a universe where all was good, from free will, which was permitted because it makes possible the greatest good of all.\u00a0 The corruption of the first sinner consists not in choosing some evil thing (there are no evil things for him to choose) but in preferring a lesser good (himself) before a greater (God). The Fall is, in fact, Pride. The possibility of this wrong preference is inherent in the very fact of having, or being, a self at all. But though freedom is real it is not infinite. Every choice reduces a little one\u2019s freedom to choose the next time. There therefore comes a time when the creature is fully <em>built<\/em>, irrevocably attached either to God or to itself. This irrevocableness is what we call Heaven or Hell. Every conscious agent is finally committed in the long run: i.e. it rises above freedom into willed, but henceforth unalterable, union with God, or else sinks below freedom into the black fire of self-imprisonment. (July 20, 1943)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>15) Suffering<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one\u2019s \u2018own\u2019, or \u2018real\u2019 life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one\u2019s real life \u2013 the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one\u2019s \u2018real life\u2019 is a phantom of one\u2019s own imagination. (Dec. 20, 1943)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>16) Accents<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The first time I heard my voice on a record I didn\u2019t recognize it and was shocked. <em>Moral<\/em>: <em>A<\/em>. No man knows what his own accent is like. <em>B<\/em>. No man\u2019s accent is there because he has chosen it. <em>C<\/em>. It may not be the accent he likes. (March 13, 1944)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>17) Loving God<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Certainly I cannot love my neighbour properly till I love God. . . . On the other hand we have no power to make ourselves love God. The only way is absolute obedience to Him, total surrender. He will give us the \u2018feeling\u2019 if He pleases. But both when He does and when He does not, we shall gradually learn that <em>feeling<\/em> is not the important thing. There is something in us deeper than feeling, deeper even than conscious will. It is rather <em>being<\/em>. When we are quite empty of self we shall be filled with Him . . . (May 23, 1944)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>18) God\u2019s Grace and Our Pride<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Of course it is good . . . to \u2018realise\u2019 that the source of all our good feelings is God. That is the right way to deal with pride: not to depreciate the good thing we are tempted to be proud of but to remember where it comes from. (May 23, 1944)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>19) Christian Witness<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The only hope lies in you and in any other Christian friends she has. It is in so far as you succeed in representing Christ to her by all your actions and words that she may, even unconsciously, cone to know Him. (June 7, 1945)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>20) Crying<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t cry enough nowadays, that\u2019s one of the things that is wrong with us. Achilles cried, Roland cried, Lancelot cried. It\u2019s in Shakespeare that characters first start apologizing for tears. (c. Nov. 8, 1945)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>21) Lewis\u2019 Agnosticism and Return to Christianity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>My Christian faith was first undermined by the attitude taken towards <em>Pagan<\/em> religion in the notes of modern editors of Latin &amp; Greek poets at school. They always assumed that the ancient religion was pure error: hence, in my mind, the obvious question \u2018Why shouldn\u2019t ours be equally false?\u2019 . . . I abandoned all belief in Christianity at about the age of 14 . . . My beliefs continued to be agnostic, with fluctuation towards pantheism and various other sub-Christian beliefs, till I was about 29.\u00a0 I was brought back (a.) By philosophy. . . . (b.) By increasing knowledge of medieval literature. It became harder &amp; harder to think that all those great poets &amp; philosophers were wrong. (c.) By the strong influence of two writers, the Presbyterian George Macdonald &amp; the R.C., G. K. Chesterton. (Feb. 15, 1946)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>22) Hell<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>About Hell. All I have ever said is that the N.T. plainly implies the possibility of some being finally left in \u2018the outer darkness.\u2019 Whether this means (horror of horror) being left to a purely mental existence, left with nothing at all but one\u2019s own envy, prurience, resentment, loneliness &amp; self-conceit, or whether there is still some sort of environment, something you could call a world or a reality, I would never pretend to know. But I wouldn\u2019t put the question in the form \u2018do I believe in an <em>actual<\/em> Hell\u2019. One\u2019s own mind is actual enough . . . when there is nothing for you <em>but <\/em>your own mind (no body to go to sleep, no books or landscape, no sounds, no drugs) it will be as actual as . . . a coffin is actual to a man buried alive. (May 13, 1946)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>23) Self-Sacrifice<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You can <em>keep <\/em>forever only what you give up: beginning with the thing it is hardest to give up \u2013 one\u2019s self. What you grab you lose: what you offer freely and patiently to God or your neighbour, you will have. (June 30 [Lewis wrote \u201c31\u201d], 1947)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>24) God\u2019s Providence<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I am sure God has not forced B to give A the job. God\u2019s action would consist, I believe, in arranging all the circumstances so that A came at the right moment etc \u2013 i.e. in presenting B with the <em>situation<\/em>, on which then his free will worked. Ordinary people regard life as a mixture of \u2018luck\u2019 and free will. It is the part usually called \u2018luck\u2019 by which, on my view, God answers prayers. (Sep. 9, 1947)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>25) Prayer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Prayer is a species of request: and the essence of request, whether to God or to a human superior, is that it may or may not be granted, and the essence of faithful and humble Christian prayer is that the petitioner is willing that it should not be granted (\u2018Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt\u2019 [Mt 26:39]) (March 25, 1948)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>26) Timeless God<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I firmly believe that God\u2019s life is non temporal. Time is a defect of reality since by its very nature any temporal being loses each moment of its life to get the next \u2013 the moments run through us as if we were sieves! God forbid that we should think God to be like that. (February 4, 1949)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>27) Sin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Sin<\/em> is the turning away of the will from God. But the experience of sin will differ in different people: e.g. to an uninstructed person it may appear in consciousness merely as disobeying human authority, or taking a legitimate indulgence. That sin-as-it-really-is is <em>ever<\/em> fully present to human (as opposed to diabolical) consciousness at the moment of commission, I doubt. The rebellion of the will is nearly always accompanied with <em>some<\/em> fogging of the intelligence. (March 28, 1949)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>28) The Lord\u2019s Prayer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We make a great mistake by quoting \u2018thy will be done\u2019 without the rest of the sentence \u2018on earth as it is in <em>Heaven<\/em>\u2019 [Mt 6:10]. That is the real point, isn\u2019t it? Not merely submission but a prayer that we may be enabled to do God\u2019s will <em>as <\/em>(in the same way as) angels and blessed human spirits do it, with alacrity &amp; delight like players in an orchestra responding spontaneously to the conductor. (July 27, 1949)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>29) Praising the Lord<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In so far as a creature sees God it cannot help in some way (not of course necessarily by words) telling Him what it sees (silence might be one way). Its \u2018praise\u2019 is a necessary reaction: the divine light sent back to its Source from the creature which has become its mirror. The sun is not brighter because a mirror reflects it: but the mirror is brighter because it reflects the sun. (August 17, 1949)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>30) Communal Christianity \/ Going to Church<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion: some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles. So we must be regular practicing members of the Church. Of course we differ in temperament. Some (like you \u2013 and me) find it more natural to approach God in solitude: but we must go to church as well. For the Church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities but the Body of Christ in which all members however different . . . must share the common life, complementing and helping and receiving one another precisely by their differences. . . . If people like you and me find much that we don\u2019t naturally like in the public &amp; corporate side of Christianity all the better for us: it will teach us humility and charity towards simple low-brow people who may be better Christians than ourselves. (Dec. 7, 1950)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>31) Learning<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Unless one has to qualify oneself for a job . . . the only sensible reason for studying anything is that one has a strong curiosity about it. And if one has, one can\u2019t help studying it. . . . I never see why we should do anything unless it is either a duty or a pleasure! . . . one usually learns more from a book than from a lecture. (March 17, 1951)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>32) Formal Liturgy and Prayer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The advantage of a fixed form of service is that we know what is coming. <em>Ex tempore<\/em> public prayer has this difficulty: we don\u2019t know whether we can mentally join in it until we\u2019ve heard it \u2013 it might be phoney or heretical. We are therefore called upon to carry on a critical and a <em>devotional<\/em> activity at the same moment: two things hardly compatible. In a fixed form we ought to have \u2018gone through the motions\u2019 before in our private prayers: the rigid form really sets our devotions <em>free<\/em>. I also find the more rigid it is, the easier it is to keep one\u2019s thoughts from straying. Also it prevents any service getting too completely eaten up by whatever happens to be the pre-occupation of the moment (a war, an election, or what not). The <em>permanent <\/em>shape of Christianity shows through. I don\u2019t see how the <em>ex tempore<\/em> method can help becoming provincial &amp; I think it has a great tendency to direct attention to the minister rather than to God. (April 1, 1952)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>33) Salvation of Non-Christians<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I think that every prayer which is sincerely made even to a false god or to a very imperfectly conceived true God, is accepted by the true God and that Christ saves many who do not think they know Him. For He is (dimly) present in the <em>good<\/em> side of the inferior teachers they follow. (Nov. 8, 1952)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>34) Abuse of Bible Verses in \u201cProoftexting\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We must not use the Bible . . . as a sort of Encyclopedia out of which texts (isolated from their context and not read with attention to the whole nature &amp; purport of the books in which they occur) can be taken for use as weapons. (Nov. 8, 1952)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>35) Ghosts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Everyone fears lest he should meet a ghost, but there seems to be some ground for supposing that those who really meet them are often quite unafraid. (Dec. 11, 1952)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>36) Television<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We haven\u2019t got a set, and don\u2019t propose to get one; it is I think a very bad habit to develop. People who have sets seem to do nothing but go into a huddle over them every evening of their lives, instead of being out walking, or in their gardens. And of course, like all things which begin as luxuries, they end up being necessities . . . (July 17, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>37) Emotions and Spirituality<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is a great joy to be able to \u2018feel\u2019 God\u2019s love as a reality, and one must give thanks for it and use it. But you must be prepared for the feeling dying away again, for feelings are by nature impermanent. The great thing is to continue to believe when the feeling is absent: &amp; these periods do quite as much for one as those when the feeling is present. (July 23, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>38) Holy People<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I am so glad you gave me an account of the lovely priest. How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing (and perhaps, like you, I have met it only once) it is irresistible. If even 10% of the world\u2019s population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year\u2019s end? (August 1, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>39) Hard Sayings in the Bible<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>You experience in listening to those philosophers gives you the technique one needs for dealing with the dark places in the Bible. When one of the philosophers, one whom you know on other grounds to be a sane and decent man, said something you didn\u2019t understand, you did not at once conclude that he had gone off his head. You assumed you\u2019d missed the point. Same here. . . . Behind that apparently shocking passage, be sure, there lurks some great truth which you don\u2019t understand. If one ever <em>does<\/em> come to understand it, one will see that [He] is good and just and gracious in ways we never dreamed of. . . . But why are baffling passages left in at all? Oh, because God speaks not only for us little ones but for the great sages and mystics who <em>experience<\/em> what we only <em>read about<\/em>, and to whom all the words have therefore different (richer) contents. Would not a revelation which contained nothing that you and I did not understand, be for that very reason rather suspect? To a child it would seem a contradiction to say both that his parents made him and that God made him, yet we see both can be true. (August 8, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">40) Cultural Apostasy<\/span><br>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I feel that very grave dangers hang over us. This results from the apostasy of the great part of Europe from the Christian faith. Hence a worse state than the one we were in before we received the Faith. For no one returns from Christianity to the same state he was in before Christianity but into a worse state: the difference between a pagan and an apostate is the difference between an unmarried woman and an adulteress. For faith perfects nature but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light but also the natural light which pagans possessed. (Sep. 15, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>41) Christmas Commercialism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I feel exactly as you do about the horrid commercial racket they have made out of Christmas. I send no cards and give no presents except to children. (Nov. 27, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>42) Vocations and Monasticism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Most spiritual writers distinguish two vocations for Christians. (i.) The monastic or contemplative life. (ii) The secular or active life. <em>All<\/em> Christians are called to\u00a0 abandon the \u2018World\u2019 (sense ii) in spirit, i.e. to reject as strongly as they possibly can its standards, motives, and prized. But some are called to \u2018come out of it\u2019 [Rev 18:4] as far as possible by renouncing private property, marriage, their professions etc: others have to remain \u2018in it\u2019 but not \u2018of it\u2019. (Dec. 1, 1953)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>43) God\u2019s Mercy and Forgiveness<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I fully agree with you about the difference between a doctrine merely accepted by the intellect and one (as Keats says) \u2018proved in the pulses\u2019 so that [it] is solid and palpable. . . . About two years ago I made a similar progress from mere intellectual acceptance of, to realization of, the doctrine that our sins are forgiven. That is perhaps the most blessed thing that ever happened to me. (Feb. 5, 1954)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>44) Faith<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Two men had to cross a dangerous bridge, The first convinced himself that it would bear them, and called this conviction Faith. The second said, \u2018Whether it breaks or holds, whether I die here or somewhere else, I am equally in God\u2019s good hands.\u2019 And the bridge did break and they were both killed: and the second man\u2019s Faith was not disappointed and the first man\u2019s was. (March 26, 1954)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>45) Meditating on the Passion of Christ<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And of course you are doing the very best thing in meditating on the sufferings of Our Lord. (Sep. 19, 1954)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>46) \u201cCookie Cutter\u201d Salvation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is right and inevitable that we should be much concerned about the salvation of those we love. But we must be careful not to expect or demand that their salvation should conform to some ready-made pattern of our own. Some Protestant sects have gone very wrong about this. They have a whole programme of \u2018conviction\u2019, \u2018conversion\u2019 etc. marked out, the same for everyone, &amp; will not believe that anyone can be saved who doesn\u2019t go through it \u2018just so\u2019. . . . What we practice, not (save at rare intervals) what we preach is usually our great contribution to the conversion of others. (March 2, 1955)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>47) Heaven<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The good things even of this world are far too good ever to be reached by imagination. Even the common orange, you know: no one could have imagined it before he tasted it. How much less Heaven. (Aug. 7, 1956)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>48) Traveling by Car or Train<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The real trouble about motoring, however, is not that you don\u2019t see little things close up. You do: and too many. Nature allows us to see either a few things close up (when we walk) or many things far off (when we look down from a hill-top). But trains and cars give you many things, each close up in its turn and therefore each soliciting the attention which the speed does not allow you to give. . . . like walking in a crowd where you see face after face: which as someone said is like being forced to read the first page, and no more, of a hundred books in rapid succession. (Oct. 3, 1956)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>49) Satan and Our Sins<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>One must come down to brass tacks. If there is a particular sin on your conscience, repent &amp; confess it. If there isn\u2019t, tell the despondent devil not to be silly. You can\u2019t help <em>hearing<\/em> his voice (the odious inner radio) but you must treat it merely like a buzzing in your ears or any other irrational nuisance. . . . one must always get back to the practical and definite. What the devil loves is that vague cloud of unspecified guilt feeling or unspecified virtue by which he lures us into despair or presumption. (July 21, 1958)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>50) Disputation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We could show our juniors \u2013 what they increasingly need to be shown \u2013 that disputation is not the same as quarrelling. (Aug. 22, 1959)<\/p>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">*<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div>***<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>*<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><em><strong>Practical Matters<\/strong><\/em>:\u00a0 I run the most comprehensive \u201cone-stop\u201d Catholic apologetics site:\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2024\/07\/top-personal-christian-blogs-ranked-by-ai-composite-score\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rated #1\u00a0for Christian sites<\/a>\u00a0by leading AI tool, ChatGPT \u2014 endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 5,000+ free online articles or\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2009\/06\/dave-armstrongs-catholic-apologetics-bookstore-49-books-paperback-e-pub-mobi-nook-book-amazon-kindle-itunes-pdf-rock-bottom-regular-prices-67-savings-for-e-books-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fifty-six books<\/a>\u00a0have helped you (by God\u2019s grace) to decide to\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2006\/11\/feedback-comments-on-my-writing-from.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">become a Catholic\u00a0<\/a>or to\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2014\/01\/feedback-comments-on-my-writing-from-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">return to the Catholic Church<\/a>, or better understand some doctrines and\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2021\/02\/the-biblical-basis-of-apologetics-defense-of-christianity.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>why<\/em>\u00a0we believe them<\/a>. If you believe\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2006\/07\/my-literary-resume.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my\u00a0full-time apostolate<\/a>\u00a0is worth supporting, please seriously consider a much-needed monthly or one-time financial contribution. \u201cThe laborer is worthy of his wages\u201d (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV).<\/div>\n<div class=\"ad__child-13 ad__align ad__slot--wrapper\" data-instance-child=\"iGmLn\">\n<div id=\"incontent15\" class=\"ad__slot\" role=\"region\" data-unit=\"Alfv5\" aria-label=\"Advertisement\" data-google-query-id=\"CIftibvO3IsDFa8VigMdOcM5FQ\">\n<div>*<\/div>\n<div><a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/us\/webapps\/mpp\/sem\/account-selection-signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">PayPal donations<\/a>\u00a0are the easiest: just send to my email address:\u00a0apologistdave@gmail.com. Here\u2019s also a\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/us\/digital-wallet\/send-receive-money\/send-money\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">second page to get to PayPal<\/a>. You\u2019ll see the term \u201cCatholic Used Book Service\u201d, which is my old side-business. To learn about the different methods of contributing (including<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zellepay.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u00a0Zelle<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>100% tax-deductible donations<\/strong>\u00a0if desired), see my page:\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/08\/about-dave-armstrong-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">About Catholic Apologist Dave Armstrong \/ Donation Information<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div>*<\/div>\n<div>You can support my work a great deal in non-financial ways, if you prefer; by subscribing to, commenting on, liking, and sharing videos from my two\u00a0<em>YouTube<\/em>\u00a0channels,\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KennyBurchard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Catholic Bible Highlights<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Lux Veritatis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(featuring\u00a0<em>documentaries<\/em>), where I partner with\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kennyburchard.com\/about-kenny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Kenny Burchard<\/a>\u00a0(see\u00a0<a class=\" decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2024\/12\/my-videos-page-catholic-bible-highlights.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">my own videos and documentaries<\/a>), and\/or by signing up to receive notice for new articles on this blog. Just type your email address on the sidebar to the right (scroll down quite a bit), where you see, \u201cSign Me Up!\u201d\u00a0<em><strong>Thanks a million!<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div>*<\/div>\n<div>***<\/div>\n<div>*<\/div>\n<div><strong>Photo credit<\/strong>: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, England, affectionately known by Lewis and his friends, the \u201cInklings\u201d \u2014 who used to gather there for regular discussions \u2014 as \u201cThe Bird and Baby\u201d<\/span> [public domain \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Eagle_and_Child.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a>]<\/div>\n<div>*<\/div>\n<div><em>Summary<\/em>: Collection of quotations from Anglican apologist C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), from his \u201cCollected Letters\u201d Vol. II, 1931-1949, &amp; Volume III: 1950-1963, edited by Walter Hooper.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), the Anglican author of The Chronicles of Narnia and classics such as The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity, is widely considered to be the best defender of the Christian faith in the 20th\u00a0century. These quotations are drawn from\u00a0The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume II: Books, Broadcasts, and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":92207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2363,20054,20063,20060,20057,9537],"class_list":["post-92204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-apologetics","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-c-s-lewis-quotations","tag-c-s-lewis-correspondence","tag-c-s-lewis-letters","tag-collected-letters-of-c-s-lewis","tag-walter-hooper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>C. S. Lewis: 50 Gems of Wisdom from His Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Collection of quotations from Anglican apologist C. S. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"C. S. Lewis: 50 Gems of Wisdom from His Letters","description":"Collection of quotations from Anglican apologist C. S. 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Lewis: 50 Gems of Wisdom from His Letters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/","name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","description":"Catholic biblical apologetics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e","name":"Dave Armstrong","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dave Armstrong"},"description":"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}