SPCK
The Lion's World - 5 - The silent gaze of truth The Lion's World
The Lion's World - 5 - The silent gaze of truth The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
The silent gaze of truth Being told your story by Aslan doesn’t compel your assent. The pain of being confronted with what you have done in all its detail is acute, as we have seen, and it should not surprise us if some will not accept it. In such a case, there is ultimately no s…
The Lion's World - 4 - No story but your own The Lion's World
The Lion's World - 4 - No story but your own The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
No story but your own Aslan loves his world and yet he cannot spare it – in the sense that he cannot make the experience of meeting him easy for persons who habitually settle for much less than the truth in their account of themselves and their world. And one of the simplest and …
The Lion's World - 3 - Not a tame lion
The Lion's World - 3 - Not a tame lion
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
Not a tame lion The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe carefully prepares the way for Aslan’s appearance. When in Chapter 7 Mr Beaver confides ‘in a low whisper’ that ‘They say Aslan is on the move’ (p. 141), we are given a glimpse of what is instantly evoked by the name for the ch…
The Lion's World - 2 - Narnia and its crtitics
The Lion's World - 2 - Narnia and its crtitics
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
Narnia and its critics I mentioned earlier the way in which Philip Pullman had conceived his own trilogy as a sort of riposte to the Narnia books. The parallels are clear enough – an alternative universe including talking animals, even (though Pullman might dispute this) an activ…
The Lion's World - 1 - The Point of Narnia The Lion's World
The Lion's World - 1 - The Point of Narnia The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
The point of Narnia The Lion’s World A middle-aged bachelor teaching English Literature at Oxford proposes to publish a children’s fantasy: in most publishers’ offices, it is a proposal destined for the wastepaper basket. Yet no one could deny the extraordinary and continuing app…
The Lion's World - Introduction The Lion's World
The Lion's World - Introduction The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
Introduction The Lion’s World Not every reader has been charmed by C. S. Lewis’s Narnia stories, and the recent release of high-earning film versions of several of the books has renewed the controversy. Critics of Christian faith have been predictably vocal – though their comment…
The Lion's World - Preface The Lion's World
The Lion's World - Preface The Lion's World
by SPCK - Rowan Williams
Preface The Lion’s World I came late to Narnia; despite an obsessively bookish childhood in a Christian household, Lewis’s books somehow did not cross the radar until I had discovered his works of apologetic as a teenager. I had read The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, The …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Second Sunday of Christmas Jeremiah 31.7–14 Ephesians 1.3–14 John 1.1–18 Take a deep breath, and try reading Ephesians 1.3–14 all in one go. It is, after all, a single sentence in the Greek, a Christian version of the Jewish-style prayer, ‘Blessed be the God who . . .’. Only …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Christmas 1 Samuel 2.18–20, 26 Colossians 3.12–17 Luke 2.41–52 The boyhood stories of Jesus and Samuel jar slightly with one another. Samuel’s mother deliberately takes him to the Temple in order to leave him there; Jesus’ parents intend to take him home, but …
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Second Sunday of Christmas John 1. [1-9] 10-18 Gaze on all of God’s glorious creation, at once so mysterious and yet so familiar. It is hard to find an image today that captures the carefulness of God’s work, for we are in a world where everything is mass produced, and we are…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The First Sunday of Christmas Luke 2.41-52 Gaze on the chaos of a pilgrimage – the coaches lined up one by one in the car park, people trying to remember which their coach was, and do they recognize the driver? Imagine Mary and Joseph, missing Jesus, but confident he’s with anoth…
Gazing on the Gospels year c - Christmas Day Year C
Gazing on the Gospels year c - Christmas Day Year C
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Christmas Day John 1: 1-14 Gaze on the darkness of the midnight sky over a rough sea. Gaze on a lighthouse, painted bright white, seeming to grow out of the rocky island it is built upon. This is not a place of safety. Waves lash the rocks, the wind roars and spray covers you wit…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The Second Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Christmas Jeremiah 31.7–14 Ephesians 1.3–14 John 1.10–18 What is grace? Both John and Ephesians have the word more than once. It’s a word that we use quite frequently in Christian circles. Most meetings I go to, you know when they’ve ended because someone say…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - The First Sunday of Christmas Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The First Sunday of Christmas 1 Samuel 2.18–20, 26 Colossians 3.12–17 Luke 2.41–52 To get the full picture of what is going on in the reading from 1 Samuel, we really need the verses that the lectionary chooses to leave out. The story is actually about different kinds of sonship.…
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
Lectionary Reflection Year C - Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Year C
by SPCK - Jane Williams
Christmas Day/Christmas Eve Isaiah 52.7–10 Hebrews 1.1–4 John 1.1–14 What difference would it make if the Christmas story were not true? If God had not come to be born, live and die as a human being? Today’s readings shout out that the Christmas story is the key to what the world…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Fourth Sunday of Advent Micah 5.2–5a Hebrews 10.5–10 Luke 1.39–45 ‘He shall be the one of peace.’ We can feel the sigh of relief rising from prophet and hearers alike. To a world of uncertainty, fear, wars and rumours of wars, there comes the news of a king whose rule will es…
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Third Sunday of Advent Year C
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Third Sunday of Advent Zephaniah 3.14–20 Philippians 4.4–7 Luke 3.7–18 The new lectionary has hardly begun, and I fear I am going to grumble about it as I did about its predecessor. How will people ever learn that the Bible and its message are politically relevant – that the …
Twelve Months of Sunday year c - The Second Sunday of Advent Year C