In the last episode, an episode 82, we talked about your early impressions of CS Lewis beginning

for you when you read Mirror Christianity in 1964.

And in light of the upcoming national conference here in the Twin Cities, what have been Lewis's

most enduring marks on you and your ministry?

Any time I'm asked the question of the influence, I always have to plead, I could be wrong, because

I think we're influenced in ways and by people, we don't even understand completely.

So here's my best effort to describe some of the marks that are still on me that come from

CS Lewis.

Number one, Lewis exposed my adolescent chronological snobbery.

He's known for that.

Chronological snobbery says things are better because they're new and they're worse because

they're old.

And Lewis comes along and says nothing is better for being new and nothing is worse for

being old.

It's like saying an idea you had on Thursday is better than the idea you had on Tuesday.

I think that's so he chestered and put it.

And centuries don't make truth go away.

And then he supplemented that after curing me of this pride.

He said the old has in fact a very special value because when you read an old book, it

doesn't have the same blind spots and prejudices that your new books do and therefore it has

the unique potential of freeing you from things in your culture and in your life that you

don't even know you are captivated by.

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