Good morning! Or if you read this later... good afternoon and good evening! (Truman Show reference).
I'm back at home in Florida (finally not feeling cold any more). While I was on the road, I re-read a great book. I'm mentoring a young adult who went through the Truth and Beauty immersion experience in Rome (more on that below). This student had chosen to read this book, on my recommendation, and so I read it again so that I will be able to discuss it.
The book is: Out of the Silent Planet - the first book in CS Lewis' "Space Trilogy."
Anything by CS Lewis is always worth reading more than once, but especially the ones that have allegory in them - you always get more out of it the second time around. In this case, I think that I read it the first time simply as a sci-fi story, and I DO love stories about space travel that were written before anyone had actually traveled in space, or before we knew what the surface of Mars looks like. There is so much more room for speculative description, and Lewis is THE master at that.
But of course this is one of his allegorical stories as well. And in that sense, the Space Trilogy is prophetic - the faith vs. science debate was already raging, of course, in the mid-twentieth century, and it was already apparent that many people were not only choosing to trust science over religion, they were making science into a religion that would replace religion.
And Lewis sees where all that was going, and the third book in the series could have been written as an insider's indictment of twenty-first century academia. In any case, I won't get into the details of the allegory, but Lewis can see that it's not just about science vs religion, it's science vs morality, and he calls out the hypocrisy of a supposed altruism of science (for the good of humanity) that allows for the willingness to sacrifice individual humans for the cause (and he didn't even have abortion in mind yet). In this way, Lewis anticipates the question posed in the Star Trek films - the needs of the one vs the needs of the many - and if you answer that question by saying that you can kill some for the greater good of the species (or the environment), you have sold the soul of collective humanity. It's all summed up in a comment made at the end of the book, where the tension between science and faith is referred to as a tension between space versus heaven.
So I highly recommend the Space Trilogy - the first two books are short, and actually make a great intro to CS Lewis if you haven't read anything by him (though of course so does the Narnia series).
Regarding the Truth and Beauty Project. This is an immersion experience for young adults, focusing on art as a way into spirituality, that is, spiritual growth by making the connection between truth and beauty. It takes place in Rome, and it's run by my friends John and Ashley Norohna. If you know of any young adults who might be interested in this program, they are accepting applications for the next session right now - check it out, or send your young adults to:
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
Hi folks,
When I was putting together my list of how to read the rest of the NT chronologically, I now realize that I left out the Letter to the Hebrews!
As you know, in the early and medieval Church there was a debate over whether St. Paul wrote this, and whether it should be included among his letters. Since most scholars do not include Hebrews among the letters of Paul, I had left it off my chronology of Paul's life. If he did write it, we don't know when - but I suspect that if he wrote it, it would have his name on it. In any case, it has to have been written before 70 AD because it speaks of the temple sacrifices as ongoing, and Clement of Rome quotes it in 1 Clement a couple decades later. So I would put Hebrews either with James (after the prison epistles of Paul) or with Peter's letters (after the pastoral epistles of Paul). I'm not saying that I think James or Peter wrote it, but they would be interesting candidates for authorship.
And if you want a couple short, but ...
Hi Folks,
I'm planning to shut down the platform this Saturday. It will be 3 years almost to the day since we started. It's been a lot of fun, and I hope we keep in touch.
Stay subscribed to my YouTube channel for all the upcoming episodes of The Way of the Fathers podcast. The second episode on St. Thomas Aquinas will air on the 29th, and in November we're jumping out of the chronological sequence to talk about the newest doctor, St. John Henry Newman! (And I will be taking December off, getting back into it with St. Catherine of Siena in January.)
And make sure you're on the email mailing list, so you'll know about new books and future pilgrimages (HINT: Mike Aquilina and I are already planning ROME 2026 - probably right about a year from now - so stay tuned...). You can sign up for the email list, which comes no more than once a month, at my home page: https://jimpapandrea.wordpress.com/
Thanks again for all your support!
- Jim
I made this during my PhD program, so about 30 years ago, but I think it holds up - still, please let me know if you see anything you want to nuance or question. I have Paul being executed in 64 or 65, but my latest research suggests that 67 or even early 68 might be more accurate. Also, to the question of whether Paul was martyred before Peter or after him, the evidence suggests Peter was martyred first, but Peter's comments about Paul's letters being Scripture feels to me like Paul was already dead when Peter wrote that. Legends that they were martyred together were created to overcome an apocryphal story that they had had a falling out, but that's not really true.
Jim
