Learning in War-Time

I can hardly imagine what it would be like to live in an era like Lewis’s WWII. Continual press lines of death and the overhanging shadow of continual apprehension. As the student eases into his desk t this time and his head angles toward the professor, flashes of newspaper photographs of his brethren, and wave upon wave of human decimation explode in his mind. It causes both the student and all those around to question the validity of their quest for knowledge while such a travesty was marching across the world.
Lewis descends on this though process with calm precise logic, and the charisma of both a scholar and a teacher. He begins by approaching the issue by stepping back and broadening the horizon of perspective on the issue. As Christians, are we not constantly at war in this world of continual sin and desolation? So we not constantly find ourselves isolated in the trenches of a profane society, while the bullets of promiscuous sexuality and idolatry fly over our heads? It is our calling to spread the goodness of the gospel to this world, to “fight” against all its wickedness. Do we then cease in all our scholarly pursuits and predicate solely upon the distribution and duty of “planting seeds” in lost souls marching incredulously to the tune of “onward Christian soldiers”? Such a line of thinking would turn such individuals into what Lewis calls monomaniacs. Lewis allies himself with the apostle Paul in his rebuttal to such a line of thinking to exclusively religious believers or nationalist thinkers. Lewis and the apostle emphasize the calling of God to place individuals into virtually every occupation and area of life. Christianity of itself, as Lewis emphasizes, is or should be expanded into every aspect of our life. God places roads in our lives that lead us to him, one such road God gives to many is the road of intellectual pursuits, and if they are appointed to us by God must fulfill this appointment to His glory.
We must therefore analyze ourselves as well as our calling in this war torn sinful world. Whether we find our calling in the classroom or in the crosshairs, if we are on the road to Gods glory let us not stop. We must let the glory of God shine through our pursuits of knowledge. In the words of Lewis,” We can therefore pursue knowledge as such, and beauty, as such, in sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so.