Year: 2024

Fleeing Female Slave Impersonates Planter, Husband Posing As Trusty Servant: William & Ellen Craft
Civil War Memories

Fleeing Female Slave Impersonates Planter, Husband Posing As Trusty Servant: William & Ellen Craft

Bruce Strom 0

In the 1850s, “William and Ellen Craft were slaves in the State of Georgia.” Their “desire to be free was very strong.” It was rare for slaves that deep in the Confederacy to successfully flee, but it “occurred to William and Ellen, that she might act the part of master and her husband the part of servant.”
“Ellen was fair enough to pass for white,” but how to transform her into a young planter? She needed to “dress elegantly in a fashionable suit of male attire, and have her hair cut in the style usually worn by young planters.” But she was beardless. So, they muffled up the face of the young planter as if he were “suffering badly with a toothache.” […]

Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: The Theological Virtues
CS Lewis

Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: The Theological Virtues

Bruce Strom 0

CS Lewis teaches us, “Charity means Love in the Christian sense. But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves and must learn to have about other people.”
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.” Be kind to your neighbor, and often you will like and love him more. But if they do not reciprocate, or are openly hostile, love them anyway, and help them if you can. We always find it easier to love, or like, those who are courteous towards us. […]

CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Forgiveness, Pride, and Envy. Can Pride Ever Be Good?
CS Lewis

CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Forgiveness, Pride, and Envy. Can Pride Ever Be Good?

Bruce Strom 0

CS Lewis notes that in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer we pray: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” He observes: “There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive, we shall not be forgiven.”
Indeed, immediately after the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew, Jesus exhorts us: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” […]

Mere Morality and the Cardinal Virtues in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Prudence, Temperance, and Justice
CS Lewis

Mere Morality and the Cardinal Virtues in CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Prudence, Temperance, and Justice

Bruce Strom 0

CS Lewis has “two bits of evidence that the Somebody,” whom we worship as the Almighty God, truly exists. “One is the universe he made.” “The other bit of evidence is that Moral Law which He has put into our minds. And this is a better bit of evidence than the other because it is inside information.” In the Judeo-Christian traditions, “we conclude that the Being behind the universe is intensely interested in right conduct: in fair play, unselfishness, courage, good faith, honesty and truthfulness.” […]

Preparing the Way for Vatican II: CS Lewis' Mere Christianity
CS Lewis

Preparing the Way for Vatican II: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity

Bruce Strom 0

CS Lewis did not wave the flag of ecumenicism, attending this conference or that on interfaith dialogues, but instead prepares the way, saying that what denominational creed you profess is less important than whether you truly believe the core Christian teaching of the two-fold Love of God and neighbor. This was the key change wrought by Vatican II, no longer did the Catholic Church believe you needed to be Catholic to be saved. Likewise, CS Lewis is against the notion that Catholics cannot be saved. […]

Facing the Nazi Menace: CS Lewis' Mere Christianity and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning
CS Lewis

Facing the Nazi Menace: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning

Bruce Strom 0

Mere Christianity was compiled from a series of radio addresses by CS Lewis explaining the tenets of Christianity which were broadcast during the dark days of World War II, when Londoners fled to the safety of the underground subway tunnels while Nazi bombers destroyed their homes above. We will reflect on the many instances where CS Lewis referred often to this monumental struggle, one of the rare political struggles that actually pitted the forces of good and evil against each other, in Mere Christianity. […]

Good Friday, Easter, and the Trinity SMALL CS Lewis Mere Christianity, the Chronciles of Narnia, and St Augustine
CS Lewis

Good Friday, Easter, and Trinity: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Narnia, & St Augustine’s Confessions

Bruce Strom 0

How can we make sense of Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday? CS Lewis proclaims, “The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start.” “We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity.” CS Lewis discusses how atonement erases the stain of original sin from mankind, but he avoids using these Catholic-sounding words. […]

Was CS Lewis a Closet Catholic- Reflections on Mere Christianity
CS Lewis

Was CS Lewis a Closet Catholic? Reflections on his Mere Christianity

Bruce Strom 0

In the Preface, CS Lewis states that “the reader should be warned that I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two Christian denominations. You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic.” “There is no mystery of my own position. I am a very ordinary layman of the Church of England, not especially high, nor especially low, nor especially anything else.” He states he avoids discussions that divide, such as the controversies on the exact nature of the Virgin Mary, and avoiding topics like birth control. […]

Horses and Cavalry from Xenophon in Ancient Greece to the American Civil War, and in New York City
Greek and Roman History

Horses and Cavalry from Xenophon in Ancient Greece to the American Civil War, and in New York City

Bruce Strom 0

From antiquity, in combat, horses had three roles: hauling supplies, fighting in highly mobile cavalry regiments, sometimes pulling chariots in ancient times, and enabling generals to quickly survey the battlefield. From ancient times, in both war and peace time, technological improvements meant horses could be used more effectively. Improved harnesses made chariot warfare common throughout the Ancient Near East, quite often several archers would ride in the chariot. In the Old Testament, we read that King Ahab died when an arrow struck him in his chariot, likely he was standing next to an archer. […]

Why I Joined Rotary
Business and Science

History and Philosophy of Rotary International, and My Personal Experience

Bruce Strom 0

Early in its history, the Rotary Clubs adopted the Four Way Test. The Rotary website states that “the Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say, or do:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?” […]