The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses

Addressing university students, Lewis acknowledges that pursuing learning in the uncertainty of wartime is “an odd thing to do” and asks whether doing so is not equivalent to “fiddling while Rome burns” (47). Lewis widens the context of the question: why one should study at all when the really crucial question is whether one is headed for heaven or Hell.

Lewis posits that the two questions are really one and the same. Wartime does not fundamentally change the human condition but only brings the reality of that condition forcibly home. In fact, it is misleading to compare war with “normal life” because “Life has never been normal” (49). Although there may be valid reasons for postponing cultural activities until “material welfare and security” are in place (50), it is in humans’ nature to ignore those reasons, pursuing “knowledge and beauty” in any situation (50).

Lewis concedes that simply because this attitude is natural does not make it right. He therefore frames a double question: “How can you be so frivolous and selfish as to think about anything but the salvation of human souls?” (50), and “How can you be so frivolous and selfish as to think of anything but the war?” (51). These questions are, Lewis argues, tantamount to asking whether life can be exclusively religious, on the one hand, and exclusively national, on the other.

To both questions, Lewis gives a commonsense answer: Whether or not one thinks that life should be exclusively devoted to religion or exclusively devoted to the nation, this is simply unrealistic. Cultural life will go on whether people want it to or not; the question is what moral quality that life is going to have. The war will not last forever and cannot be treated as though it will. While Lewis asserts that participating in the war is an absolute duty, it is unreasonable to insist that people live exclusively for it. Lewis claims that “all political duties” are of the kind that are “worth dying for, but not worth living for” (53).

Turning to religion, Lewis makes a similar case, though “for a very different reason” (53). In one sense, religion “must occupy the whole of life” (53); there is no compromise with God. In another sense, however, Christianity accommodates the day-to-day business of human life. The crucial point is to practice all activities “to the glory of God” (55). While one may have to sacrifice some personal pursuits in the interests of the spiritual life, the two are not inherently contradictory.

Now Lewis confronts the central question. On the one hand, he rejects the point of view that sacralizes cultural activities as such; all activities become spiritual only insofar as they are offered humbly to God. Indeed, Christians are all diverse members of one body in Christ, with distinctive vocations. However, since God “makes no appetite in vain” (56), Christians can safely assume that the thirst for knowledge and beauty is legitimate and hence that the intellectual life can be pursued for its own sake. How these things relate to “the vision of God” may be up to others to discover (57). Lewis emphasizes the need for intellectual humility among scholars; if their research becomes prideful and self-focused, it is time to sacrifice these things.

Lewis observes that it is more important than ever to cultivate the intellect in the interests of spreading the Christian message: “[B]ad philosophy needs to be answered” (58). In particular, Lewis posits the importance of understanding history, which allows people to see the present in the proper perspective. Scholars must also maintain humility and accept the necessity of drudgery in their intellectual pursuits. 

In closing, Lewis suggests three “mental exercises” for scholars to fight against “the three enemies which war raises up against the scholar” (59). First, one should avoid being distracted from scholarly work by the “excitement” of the war. No conditions are truly optimal for scholarship, but scholars must keep working no matter what. Second, scholars should avoid becoming frustrated by the prospect of not having time to finish their work. Lewis advises approaching one’s work day to day and leaving the future in God’s hands. Finally, fear of death is irrational: War does not actually make death any more certain or frequent than it already is. Rather, people should accept as a blessing the fact that war “makes death more real to us” (62). They can then embrace the life of learning as an approach to “the Divine reality and the Divine beauty” (63).