{"id":103,"date":"2018-01-29T08:30:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T08:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/?p=103"},"modified":"2018-01-09T08:47:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T08:47:57","slug":"lewiss-oxford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/2018\/01\/29\/lewiss-oxford\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis\u2019s Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"

For something a little different, here is a brief glimpse of the real world university where C. S. Lewis lived and worked as a professor for much of his life:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lewis’s Oxford<\/span><\/p>\n

by Professor Alan Synder<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, I had a whirlwind tour of a very small section of Oxford. This time, with my university students, I was able to spend a little more time\u2014not enough, but more directed, more significant, more focused on the sites with which C. S. Lewis was familiar.<\/p>\n

Lewis taught at Magdalen College for approximately thirty years. For the first time in my sixty-six years, I was on the same grounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019s rooms were in the New Building (\u201cnew\u201d because it wasn\u2019t built until the eighteenth century), top floor, the two windows to the right of the protruding section in the middle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I neglected to take a picture of the sign that told students to keep off the grass. It would have been humorous.<\/p>\n

Next to the New Building was the entrance to Addison\u2019s Walk, a lovely wooded path by the winding river. It was here that Lewis had a long conversation with Tolkien and another Inkling, Hugo Dyson, that convinced him to believe in God.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We also stopped by the University Church of St. Mary the\u00a0Virgin. It was from this pulpit that Lewis delivered one of the most powerful sermons I\u2019ve ever read: \u201cThe Weight of Glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My favorite passage from that sermon is a poignant reminder of how we should view other people:<\/p>\n

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

There are no\u00a0ordinary\u00a0people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization\u2014these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit\u2014immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*<\/p>\n

This is the end of the portion about Lewis’s school, but continue to Professor Snyder’s blog<\/a> to see photos from his trip to The Eagle and The Child, the pub where the Inkings–Tolkien, Lewis, and their friends–would meet to discuss philosophy and literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For something a little different, here is a brief glimpse of the real world university where C. S. Lewis lived and worked as a professor for much of his life: \u00a0Lewis’s Oxford by Professor Alan Synder Twenty years ago, I had a whirlwind tour of a very small section of Oxford. This time, with my university students, I was able to spend a little more time\u2014not enough, but more directed, more significant, more focused on the sites with which C. S. Lewis was familiar. Lewis taught at Magdalen College for approximately thirty years. For the first time in my sixty-six years, I was on the same grounds. Lewis\u2019s rooms were in the New Building (\u201cnew\u201d because it wasn\u2019t built until the eighteenth century), top floor, the two windows to the right of the protruding section in the middle. I neglected to take a picture of the sign that told students to keep off the grass. It would have been humorous. Next to the New Building was the entrance to Addison\u2019s Walk, a lovely wooded path by the winding river. It was here that Lewis had a long conversation with Tolkien and another Inkling, Hugo Dyson, that convinced him to believe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,21,23,24],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-fantastic-schools","tag-oxford","tag-professor-alan-synder"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}