We Are Moving Our Blog – Come Visit Us

We are officially moving our blog in-house to our cslewis.org website starting today!  So far, we’ve migrated our past posts and played around with the look of the site a bit.  If you visit, please let us know what you think of the look.  The URL is http://www.cslewis.org/blog

In addition, we are currently planning some improvements.  The current incarnation of the blog was our initial foray into the blogosphere.  Now that we’ve had some experience and done some research, we plan on adding posts regularly and from a variety of sources.  Look for the changes in the coming months!

Stewarding the Self: A Human Future for Humans?

We are pleased to post Nigel Cameron’s abstract of his upcoming Oxbridge 2008 lecture.” Please write in with your thoughts.

“Stewarding the Self: A Human Future for Humans”

The 21st century will bring into sharp focus the dilemmas raised by our dominion over the natural order when it includes ourselves. The barbaric eugenics that characterized the first part of the 20th century, and the furor over experimental laboratory manufacture and use of embryonic members of our species that has bridged into the 21st, set the pace for a future that seems certain to hold more subtle but perhaps more consequential challenges. A “kinder, gentler” eugenics is in the works; transhumanists press the case for the redesign of the species; and a planet increasingly concerned with the preservation of “nature” seems less interested in a future for human nature as we know it.

“On Losing and Saving the Self”

Given the thoughtful response to Bruce Herman’s Oxbridge 2008 lecture topic, we are pleased to post Wilfred McClay’s abstract of his Oxbridge 2008 lecture, “On Losing and Saving the Self.” Please write in with your thoughts.

“On Losing and Saving the Self”

By overthrowing all older sources of moral authority, modern culture has enthroned the individual as the sole valid source of meaning, and promoted the pursuit of happiness as the chief end of life. But if we accept this state of affairs, we make a dreadful mistake, one that places upon the self a greater burden than it can bear, and cuts us off from the very happiness we so avidly pursue.

But the Christian faith does not make this mistake. It envisions life as a steady parade of astounding reversals, in which the appearances are regularly turned on their heads: the first becomes last, the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone, and our weakness becomes our strength. So too, will the wounded and needy modern self find restoration and wholeness, not through its own introspective efforts, but by acknowledging that its chief source of meaning is something outside itself. The search for the self should lead us to what is beyond the self.

My title comes from words near the end of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, in which this : “The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.”

Oxbridge 2008 Travel Recommendations

Now that Oxbridge 2008 is just around the corner, we at the Foundation are excited to expand this blog to include a forum for travel recommendations. We hope that in addition to attending this unique and memorable conference, you will be able to make the most of your time in England, a country rich in culture, history, and natural beauty.

To that end, we ask those of you who have been to England to share your favorite restaurants, pubs, museums, places of interest, and other “must see” locations and “must do” experiences.

We look forward to hearing your recommendations and stories. See you at Oxbridge!

Oxbridge 2008 Discussion 1 – Bruce Herman Thesis

Christian artist and educator Bruce Herman, brings his faith, visual sensibility, and careful thinking about the influence of art and pop-culture on our sense of self to his Oxbridge 2008 lecture topic “Outgrowing the iSelf: Beauty, Personhood, and Pop-Culture – An Artist’s Perspective”

Thesis:
“The famous Apple ads showing a silhouetted figure dancing alone with her iPod against a brightly colored backdrop are fitting symbols of the imagined autonomy of the postmodern “constructed” self. This self-concept is actually more the sum of consumer choices than the wholesome identity one develops through a deep sense of belonging and accountability in community. And individualistic pursuit of self often results in isolation and anomie rather than meaning, belonging, and a sense of vocation.”

What is your reaction to this thesis? Do you agree/disagree? Why?