The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses

The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses is a collection of essays, originally delivered as sermons during and after World War II, by the British Christian writer C. S. Lewis. The essays were originally published as Transposition and Other Addresses in London in 1949 and (with a slightly different selection) as The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses in New York the same year. In 1980, Lewis’s friend and literary executor Walter Hooper re-edited the essays, arranging them chronologically and adding four additional pieces. Hooper’s edition is the one referred to in this guide and consists of nine self-contained essays/chapters.

Known for its central essay, “The Weight of Glory,” the collection as a whole explores Christian longing, virtue, and hope in times of conflict, exploring themes of Christian Vocation and Moral Courage in Wartime, The Relationship Between Education, Culture, and Spiritual Life, and The Challenge of Living Faith in Community. Other topics addressed in the essays include the nature of heavenly happiness, pacifism, the poetic dimension of theology, and the relationship between the temporal and spiritual. 

This guide refers to the 2000 HarperOne edition of the collection.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, substance use, mental illness, and sexual content.

Summary

The title essay, “The Weight of Glory,” takes up the theme of the theology of desire. Lewis suggests that desire, ultimately understood as the desire for heaven, is an integral part of the Christian faith. He speculates on what heavenly “glory” will be like and how earthly desires relate to their heavenly fulfillment.

“Learning in War-Time,” addressed to university students during World War II, offers a defense of engaging in intellectual and cultural pursuits during civil conflict. Lewis posits that patriotic duties, while important, should not override personal development and that pursuing cultural activity in adverse circumstances is part of human nature.

In “Why I Am Not a Pacifist,” Lewis argues against pacifism on the grounds of tradition, authority, and logical moral argument while defending Britain’s involvement in World War II.

In “Transposition,” Lewis uses the Christian spiritual phenomenon of glossolalia (speaking in tongues) to argue that spiritual experience is real and not reducible to natural phenomena.

“Is Theology Poetry?” explores the poetic dimension of Christian theology, suggesting that the imaginative appeal of Christianity is separate from its appeal to reason and logic.

“The Inner Ring” delineates the appeal of social cliques, concluding that the desire to belong to them is morally dangerous, though an inevitable part of society. This social critique continues in “Membership,” in which Lewis contrasts belonging to the church as the Body of Christ with the egalitarian “collectivism” and radical “individualism” of secular society. For Lewis, church membership embodies a truly human and fulfilling sense of belonging in which legitimate differences are affirmed.

“On Forgiveness” distinguishes the idea of forgiving sins from its counterfeit: finding excuses for them. Lewis argues that forgiveness is a two-way street and that only by acknowledging one’s faults and seeking true forgiveness can one experience God’s forgiveness in turn.

“A Slip of the Tongue” takes a personal anecdote as a springboard to discussing the nature of religious duties and the relationship between the temporal and the spiritual. Since God demands a person’s entire self, Lewis argues, people must overcome the tendency to hold back their time and attention from him and instead take a deep plunge into the spiritual life.