15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly inspirational look at a truly inspirational life..., October 6, 2005
This review is from: Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis (Paperback)
This book is obviously the result of an incredible amount of research. Thank you, Professor Dorsett, for all of your hard work. Lyle Dorsett has drawn from numerous sources, but the most interesting are the detailed accounts of Lewis's correspondence with ordinary individuals who sought out his spiritual advice. Lewis corresponded regularly with some of these people for over 20 years, and Professor Dorsett personally interviewed many of them. Equally informative are the interviews with many of Lewis's former students, friends and colleagues.
What one comes away with is a very distinct picture of what the man C.S. Lewis was really like. I already had great appreciation for Lewis the Christian thinker, writer, and apologist. After reading the book, I have a much greater appreciation for Lewis the follower of Christ. His greatness and his influence were not primarily the result of his brilliant mind, but rather his determination to "see Jesus Christ, to know and love Him". And to Lewis, this meant "a steady attempt to obey all the time", because "I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him".
Through this precious book, one learns what "obeying Him" looked like to C.S. Lewis. He was a man of constant prayer, commitment to the local church, devotion to the Word of God, submission to spiritual direction, and a tireless dedication to being used by God in the spiritual encouragement and mentoring of others. His faithfulness to this last conviction was truly remarkable. As Dorsett points out, to one correspondent who feared she took up too much of his valuable time, Lewis responded that "every human being, still more every Christian, has an absolute claim on me for any service I can render them without neglecting other duties". Wow.
After reading this book, I see Lewis even more as a true saint who took serious the call of Christ to "deny yourself, pick up your cross daily, and follow me". When Lewis advised us in Mere Christianity to "give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it", he was only telling us to do what he was already committed to doing. Thank God for his life. And thank you, Professor Dorsett, for this book.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Chronicles of C. S. Lewis' Spiritual Formation, May 11, 2005
This review is from: Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis (Paperback)
In "Seeking the Secret Places," historian and C. S. Lewis scholar, Dr. Lyle Dorsett, writes a lively story of the spiritual life of author C. S. Lewis. As Dorsett notes in his Preface, much has been written about Lewis the Christian author, but much less about "how he grew from infancy to maturity in the Christian faith" (p. 15). Thus, Dorsett's purpose is pinpoint: "As a student of his life and writings for well over two decades, I have been intrigued by a question that has inspired this book: How did C. S. Lewis mature spiritually after his conversion to Christianity in 1931?" (p. 15).
Prayer is the first of Lewis' spiritual habits that Dorsett explores. Appropriately so, since Lewis himself taught other young converts that the first rule of spiritual growth was "be busy learning to pray" (p. 30). Dorsett's description of Lewis' struggle with believing prayer, brought on it part by the death of Lewis' mother when he was only nine, is worth the price of the book. Lewis summarized his own battle, as only he could: "Often when I pray, I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address" (p. 34). Throughout his excellent chapter on prayer, Dorsett demonstrates the stages of growth in Lewis' prayer life and the nature of that life of prayer. In no small part, prayer for Lewis had to be real, not sentimental, because our lives "do in truth influence God" (p. 39), and because "one of the purposes for which God instituted prayer may have been to bear witness that the course of events is not governed like a state but created like a work of art to which every being makes its contribution (in prayer) a conscious contribution, and in which every being is both an end and a means" (p. 39).
Reading this chapter not only informed me, but enthused me, even as "joining into this artistic enterprise enthused C. S. Lewis" (p. 39). "That we creatures are coworkers with the Creator quite simply excited him" (p. 39). As he grew in the school of prayer, Lewis was delighted to learn "that God invites us to be partakers in the execution of his will" (p. 46). Dorsett's explanation of Lewis' views on the age-old issue of Divine sovereignty, human responsibility, and prayer, provide some of the clearest, most practical theology that you can read on the topic.
Real regarding prayer as petition, Lewis was even more raw concerning prayer as praise, noting that initially he felt as if God said, "What I most want is to be told that I am good and great" (p. 47). "He wrote that such an attitude disgusts us when we encounter it in humans" (p. 47). A lifetime of struggle to praise led to a depth of insight toward the end of his life. "It is not that God insists or demands our praises, it is that when we begin to see Him more clearly--then who He is demands one's praise" (p. 48).
To his description of Lewis growing in grace through the spiritual discipline of prayer, Dorsett adds equally compelling chapters on Lewis and Scripture, Lewis and the Church, Lewis and Spiritual Friends, Lewis and Spiritual Guidance, and Lewis on Soul Care (what I call "sufferology"). Dorsett then concludes with an important chapter summarizing Lewis' spiritual formation legacy.
If you want to understand C. S. Lewis' practice of the traditional spiritual disciplines of the faith, I know of no better source than "Seeking the Secret Place." If you want to be schooled in why and how to practice these disciplines, and if you want to be motivated to do so, then "Seeking the Secret Place" is the place for you.
Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," "Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," and the forthcoming "Sacred Companions: A History of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lewis in his own words, February 10, 2005
This review is from: Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis (Paperback)
A powerful book that outlines Lewis' spiritual development using primary source material. Topically arranged, it shows how prayer, scripture, and obedience refined and tempered the man who's works have influenced countless thousands. Read it not only as a guide to the life of C.S. Lewis, but also to bless your own life with the study of one of the church's greatest 20th century saints and the God whom he served.
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