What is salvation? How can we know God? In this episode, we discuss the weakness of explanations without participation--the difference between truth and reality--and the power of story to bridge the gap. As C. S. Lewis puts it in his essay "Myth Became Fact":
“Human intellect is incurably abstract. Yet the only realities we experience are concrete- this pain, this pleasure, this dog, this man. While we are loving the man, bearing the pain, enjoying the pleasure, we are not intellectually apprehending Pleasure, Pain or Personality. [...] This is our dilemma—either to taste and not to know or to know and not to taste—or, more strictly, to lack one kind of knowledge because we are in an experience or to lack another kind because we are outside it. As thinkers we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality,the less we can think. You cannot study pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humor while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things? ‘If only my toothache would stop, I could write another chapter about pain.’ But once it stops, what do I know about pain? Of this tragic dilemma, myth is the partial solution.”
Before listening to this episode, you might want to check out the previous episode, "The Light Princess," if you haven't already. You can also read the story here.
VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. We are currently accepting applications for the next class.
What is salvation? How can we know God? In this episode, we discuss the weakness of explanations without participation--the difference between truth and reality--and the power of story to bridge the gap. As C. S. Lewis puts it in his essay "Myth Became Fact":
“Human intellect is incurably abstract. Yet the only realities we experience are concrete- this pain, this pleasure, this dog, this man. While we are loving the man, bearing the pain, enjoying the pleasure, we are not intellectually apprehending Pleasure, Pain or Personality. [...] This is our dilemma—either to taste and not to know or to know and not to taste—or, more strictly, to lack one kind of knowledge because we are in an experience or to lack another kind because we are outside it. As thinkers we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality,the less we can think. You cannot study pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humor while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things? ‘If only my toothache would stop, I could write another chapter about pain.’ But once it stops, what do I know about pain? Of this tragic dilemma, myth is the partial solution.”
Before listening to this episode, you might want to check out the previous episode, "The Light Princess," if you haven't already. You can also read the story here.
VB Fellows is a faith-based leadership development and apprenticeship program for recent college grads in Virginia Beach, VA. We are currently accepting applications for the next class.