a theological observation

[calimac]

(from a comment)

C.S. Lewis divided Christmas into three parts: 1) "a religious festival, important and obligatory for Christians, but of no interest to anyone else"; 2) "a popular holiday ... I much approve of merry-making, but I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends"; 3) "the commercial racket ... merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things."

He also wrote a hilarious pastiche of Herodotus describing a country (obviously the modern UK) which celebrates two simultaneous holidays, Christmas and "Exmas", the former a quiet religious celebration observed only by a few, and the latter a vast lunacy that nobody enjoys but everyone considers obligatory. That the two are actually the same, the writer considers not credible.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see that description - where can it be found?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

God in the Dock (Eerdmans, 1970), p. 301-3. Possibly in other posthumous Lewis theology collections, but when I looked it up I found someone had scarfed it here.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'd somehow missed that all these years!

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I've seen the three symbolized as Christmas, Xmas, and $mas.