<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }</style>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
“<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE”
MINISTRIES</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Jim & Marie Watt</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email:
<a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Web: <a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/">www.2rbetter.org</a></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
October 28, 2011</p>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); }</style>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b><br></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>March
7, 2007 </b></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><u>“<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>LEWIS
AGONISTES” – by Louis Markos</b></font></u><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">November
22, 1963 stands out as a day of tragic memory for the world. It is
the day of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> But
it is also the day of the death of C.S. Lewis. It passed practically
unnoticed because of the former. Yet this man of 64 years, of Irish
birth, but professor at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, has made a
mark in the world because of his writings that should be well known.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> His
“Screwtape Letters” came to my attention many decades ago. I
noted that the insights of Lewis on this subject were most unusual
and helpful. It is slated to come out as a movie in 2008 along with
the second book of “The Tales of Narnia.”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> His
“Mere Christianity,” “The Tales of Narnia,” and his 3 Sci-Fi
novels are also most insightful.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> In
2000 “The Teaching Company” came out with “The Life and
Writings of C.S. Lewis” – taught by Professor Louis Markos,
Houston Baptist University. I encouraged my daughter to purchase this
Great Course on Religion. Search it out on </font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.teach12.com/"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>www.TEACH12.com</b></font></a></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>
. </b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">This 12 lesson
course can be purchased once a year at a special price just under
$20.00, including a 73 page “Course Guidebook” prepared by
Professor Markos. Following is the “Scope” of this Course:</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">In
the twelve lectures that follow, we shall explore the life and
writings of C. S. Lewis and consider why Lewis’s works have
continued to gain in power and popularity over the last half-century.
After an introductory lecture that considers Lewis’s remarkable
range as a writer and surveys some of the events and people that
shaped his thought and his works, we jump headlong into a
four-lecture consideration of his key apologetical works.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">We
begin in Lecture Two with a close analysis of both his fictional and
nonfictional autobiographies (</font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>The
Pilgrim’s Regress </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">and
</font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>Surprised by Joy</i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">,
respectively) that will explore not only the nature of Lewis’s own
conversion to Christianity but also the nature of his most powerful
and persistent apologetic: the argument by desire. In Lecture Three,
we shift from this desire-based apologetic to one grounded in ethics
and morality. Through a close look at </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>Mere
Christianity </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">and </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>The
Abolition of Man,</i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> we
explore Lewis’s belief that the code of ethics by which Christians
live is not a manmade construct but constitutes a set of divinely
revealed standards, the truth and relevance of which is universal,
absolute, and cross-cultural (a set of standards that Lewis dubbed
the Tao). With Lectures Four and Five, we move away from the more
general apologetics of Lectures Two and Three to study closely
Lewis’s answers to such perennial spiritual questions as: why (and
whether) miracles happen; why, if God is good, there is so much pain
in our world; whether heaven and hell exist and what role our choices
play in determining our final destination; what exactly is the nature
of sin and evil and how does it separate us from God and salvation?
Our texts for these two lectures will include </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>Miracles,
The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">and
</font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>The Great Divorce.</i></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Lecture
Six functions as a transitional lecture that takes up Lewis’s role
as scholar and academic. Through a look at such critical classics as
</font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>The Discarded Image</i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
and </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>A Preface to
Paradise Lost,</i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> we
will explore how Lewis, in his scholarly works, sought to breakdown
modern prejudices concerning the past and replace them with a vivid,
accessible view of the medieval and Renaissance world that is true to
those who lived in those oft-misunderstood ages.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">With
Lecture Seven, we turn to Lewis the novelist. Lectures Seven and
Eight will consider his Space Trilogy: </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>Out
of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">and
</font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>That Hideous Strength.
</i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Lectures Nine, Ten,
and Eleven will focus on his best-known and loved works, The
Chronicles of Narnia: </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the
Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician’s
Nephew; </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">and </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>The
Last Battle. </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">All five
of these lectures will offer synopses of the key plot elements in
each work and explore the rich, often profound, Christian allegories
that lurk just below the surface of each tale.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">The
final lecture will take up Lewis’s last and strangest novel, </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>Till
We Have Faces, </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">a
mature and profound reworking of the classical myth of Cupid and
Psyche. The heroine of this work was patterned after Lewis’s wife,
Joy Gresham. The lecture, and the series, will conclude with a
poignant look at </font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><i>A
Grief Observed, </i></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Lewis’s
personal and moving account of his despair over the death of Joy and
his long, painful road back to faith.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">I
find this Course to be a most valuable answer to Modernism, Marxism,
Darwinism, Nietzsche and the Enlightenment. It also is a most
satisfying answer to the inadequacy and bankruptcy of Rousseau that I
have come across.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">But
in 2003 Louis Markos came out with a 170 page 6 chapter book entitled
“Lewis Agonistes.” This can be purchased through </font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>www.Amazon.com</b></font></a></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>
</b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">, new or used at a
reasonable price. A friend of Markos was introduced to C.S. Lewis in
a new way, and highly recommends the above volume. Following is his
most interesting review of this book:</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u><b>Lewis
Agonistes: How C.S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle With the Modern and
Postmodern World</b></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>
by Louis Markos</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">31
of 34 people found the following review by Stanley P. Santire of
Houston Texas helpful:</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">*****
</font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>A Scholar’s
Brilliant Gift, </b></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">September
3, 2003</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">This
book will be required reading for any university class on C.S. Lewis.
The warm combination by Louis Markos of biographical portrait,
intimate analysis of the subject’s ideas, and a panoramic sweep of
Western Philosophy and Judeo-Christian thought assure this. Destiny
holds another rightful place for it outside the classroom as insight
into the wisdom of Christianity with deep roots in the Hebrew legacy.
It is the gift of a brilliant scholar to those with, as he describes
in this book, “ … the heart that yearns for God and the mind that
seeks to know him.” </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> A
small caveat. The author is a friend of mine. I am even mentioned in
the credits, a discovery that surprised me when I read the preface
just after buying the book. I attribute the honor to discussions I
have been privileged to have with Louis Markos, explorations of ideas
in which I always find him a warm and wise companion. More to the
point, I did not review the manuscript before publication. I knew
Markos was working on a book about C.S. Lewis. That is all I knew. We
did not discuss it and for this I am thankful. Otherwise, I would
have started my reading with some predisposition and less
objectivity. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Indeed,
in our little talks I have always disagreed with Markos on some
points. As a consequence, I picked up Lewis Agonistes not knowing
what I would find. It is a rare blend of intellect, knowledge and
fervor. Before meeting Louis Markos, I never paid much attention to
C.S. Lewis. I thought the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and the
Screwtape Letters was just a pioneering science fiction writer who
periodically ventured into theology. Then I began those little
conversations with Markos. Suddenly I found that C.S. Lewis was a
thinker that, much to my loss, I had minimized. Still, he had always
been a small part of our conversations ranging from Genesis and Plato
to Dante and Nietzsche. This book brings to me the full force of C.S.
Lewis’ genius. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> As
I read Lewis Agonistes I felt like Bilbo Baggins before Gandalf and
the Dwarfs dragged him off. Bilbo was so comfortable in his little
Hobbit hole. Still, even as he protested against leaving for far off
dangers, he heard the call to adventure. Like Bilbo, many of us are
comfortable in the ideas to which we are accustomed. Markos is a
Gandalf, happily pulling us up to another level of the world, a place
that many of us only pretend to know. His enthusiasm draws us to the
heights of Christianity with C.S. Lewis as a lively companion. This
role of Markos as Gandalf is appropriate. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> As
the book points out, C.S. Lewis and T.R.R. Tolkien were friends, a
relationship that enriched the works of both men. Though I have
escaped into the sensuousness of The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings, my mind has long been saturated with scenes of the world drawn
from the philosophers of reason and idealism, ancient pagans and
modern atheists. This book wrenches me out of my complacency. It
opens a vibrant window into a different worldview. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> With
a blend of faith and rigorous analysis, Louis Markos raises C.S.
Lewis from the dead. He makes the Christian ideas of Lewis march like
soldiers contending against the faithless and the cynic.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> In
the preface Markos cautions us when he writes “There will,
therefore, be long passages in this book where Lewis’s name is not
mentioned.” The author points out that in those stretches he will
“either be working through an examination of the precise challenges
leveled by the modern and post modern reader … or constructing an
argument of my own that is guided by Lewis’s method and approach …”</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> Here,
though he is my friend, I must disagree with the author. Much of the
brilliance in the book he attributes to his hero C.S. Lewis. I am
more objective. In the public light of his lectures and the private
moments of our conversations, I have found Louis Markos to stand on
his own as a great adventurer in ideas. More to the point, in the
book I found that the thoughts of a living Markos and a long dead
C.S. Lewis blend so intimately that the effort to differentiate one
from the other is best traded in by the reader for the experience of
bearing witness to soaring visions of God</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><u><b>NOTE:</b></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">
I have to confess that Markos has done for me concerning C.S. Lewis
– the same as he has done for Stanley P. Santire.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> I
have some 144 mentors that I have benefited from. The four that stand
out have been “George Muller of Bristol” by Dr. A.T. Pierson,
“Rees Howells, Intercessor” by Norman P. Grubb, Oswald Chambers,
and “One New Man” by Reuven Doron. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> I
sense already that I am going to have to add C.S. Lewis to this
abbreviated list. But as a key to benefit adequately from him, one
will need to add Louis Markos as his interpreter.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"> I
am sensing that those who take this recommendation sufficiently
serious to act upon it – you like myself are going to discover a
new C.S. Lewis – and an exciting and profitable voyage of
discovery.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2">Your
friend – Jim Watt</font></p>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }</style><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER"></p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="CENTER">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<font size="3"><b>TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email:
<a href="mailto:mailing-subscribe@2rbetter.org">mailing-subscribe@2rbetter.org</a></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<font size="3"><b>TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email:
<a href="mailto:mailing-unsubscribe@2rbetter.org">mailing-unsubscribe@2rbetter.org</a></b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<font size="3"><b>FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES -
Web:<a href="http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/">http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/</a> </b></font>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>