I found these quotes while rereading C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, an autobiography, and wanted to share them with you.
"I soon had the shock of discovering that he-clearly the most intelligent and best-informed man in that class - was a Christian and a thoroughgoing supernaturalist" (206)
"I had not long finished The Everlasting Man when something far more alarming happened to me. Early in 1926 the hardest boiled of all the atheists I ever knew sat in my room on the other side of the fire and remarked that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good. 'Rum thing,' he went on. 'All that stuff of Frazer's about the Dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it had really happened once.'"
"I did not see then what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compel them to come in, properly understood, plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation." (221)
"I was by now too experienced in literary criticism to regard the Gospels as myths. [This is before he became a Christian, by the way] They had not the mythical taste. And yet the very matter which they set down in their artless historical fashion - those narrow, unattractive Jews, too blind to the mythical wealth of the Pagan world around them - was precisely the matter of the great myths. If ever a myth had become fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this. Myths were like it in one way. Histories were like it in another. But nothing was simply like it." (p 228)
And my favorite...
"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere- 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." (p. 185)
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I have really enjoyed Lewis as an author. I don't think I read the book you mentioned(another one to add to my long lost ^_^), but the quotes are rather familiar.
(206) "The love of God should inspire all greatness and aspirations of greatness, not for one's own sake, but for the everlasting glory of the One who loved first." I do love it to see a Christian living out their faith in their own particular mission field.
[Hard boiled-atheist] That does seem to the story with many atheists--they hate the Gospel on accounts of being fake, false; then when they research it in depth they realize its truth. Reminds me of the statement: [paraphrase]"If it[the gospel, Christianity] is of man, it will die out eventually, but if it is of God, who are we to try to stop it?"
(221) Who can understand the mysteries of God? One of the first questions I want to ask of Him is "How, why did you love us?" "How", because I do not understand what would cause a holy God to love and care for something sinful and arrogant and running straight away from Him. I do not understand how He would have so much patience with us, though we fail and fail again. "Why", because I do not understand why He would even bother to save us, when He has the power to destroy and make anew as perfect. Truly amazing is our Lord; holy and merciful and abounding in steadfast love!
(185) I love this quote--Lewis gives a particular almost-satirical humor in the way he conveys the truth of this paragraph.
Honestly, though, I am glad that God is "unscrupulous"; if He wasn't, how much joy those atheists would have missed, and how much joy we would miss(if people like C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel had remained atheist)!
Praise God for His might deeds!
--Josiah C.
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