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Men Without Chest


C.S. Lewis "The Abolition of Man" first chapter clearly speaks to the issues of today.   Being aware and digging deep takes time which is something that we have so little of or at least think we have so little of. 

 And yet, without knowing where we are coming from how do we truly know where we are going.  In our thinking, our relationships and our spiritual life.

In the chapter "The Man Without Chest" C.S. Lewis challenges our notions and beliefs around feelings and emotions.  In reviewing a contemporary text book of his time he teaches us to unwrap the thinking behind the writing.

He tackles of the heart!  The chest.  Some highlights:

"They see the world around them swayed by emotional propaganda-they have learned from tradition that youth is sentimental-and they conclude that the best thing they can do is to fortify the minds of young people against emotion.  My own experience as a teacher tells an opposite tale.  

For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity!" (C.S. Lewis 1944)

"The task of the modern educator," he says, "is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts!"

"The head rules the belly through the chest!" 

"We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful."


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