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 Eerdmans paperback edition (1965) | |
| Author | C.S. Lewis |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Essay Collection |
Publication date | 1949 |
The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses is a collection of essays and addresses onChristianity byC.S. Lewis. It was first published as a single transcribed sermon, "The Weight of Glory" in 1941, appearing in the British journal,Theology, then in pamphlet form in 1942 by Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London. It was published in book form in 1949, as a compilation of five addresses, in London by Geoffrey Bles under the titleTransposition and Other Addresses and in the U.S. byThe MacMillan Company under the titleThe Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. A revised and expanded edition featuring four additional essays and an Introduction byWalter Hooper was published byMacmillan Publishers in 1980.
In his Introduction to the work, Walter Hooper notes that he has arranged the addresses chronologically except for "The Weight of Glory," which Hooper considered "so magnificent that . . . I dare to consider it worthy of a place with some of the Church Fathers."[1] In that famous sermon Lewis explores the Christian concept ofheavenlyglory and argues that it consists of two qualities: (1) a welcoming acceptance and acknowledgment by God ("Well done, thou good and faithful servant") and (2) a brightness or luminosity of the glorified bodies of the saved.[2] The "weight" or burden of glory, according to Lewis, consists in the realization that the redeemed shall be approved by God and "delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son."[3]
The work is also notable for its critique of Christian pacifism, its defense of learning as a Christian vocation, its attack on materialistic reductionism, and its brief presentations of two of Lewis's most famous apologetical arguments, theargument from desire and theargument from reason.[citation needed]