The Year 1950 (182) Summary: In 1950, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of the Chronicles of Narnia, was published on October 16 in England and on November 7 in America. Jack was in the midst of writing the Chronicles, and Roger Lancelyn Green was reading them. Jack received his first letter from Joy Gresham on January 10. The Inklings were meeting regularly on Tuesdays, but no longer on Thursdays. Jack was receiving gifts of food, stationery, etc., during post-war rationing from Americans Edward Allen, Vera Mathews, Dr. Warfield Firor, and Mrs. Frank Jones (and perhaps Nathan Starr). Jack declined Firor’s invitation to come to America. On February 13, Jack debated Mr. Archibald Robertson of the Rationalist Press Association on “Grounds for Disbelief in God” at the Oxford Socratic Club. Anthony Flew spoke at the Socratic Club in May. In April, the Revd. Duff arrived to try to interest Jack in a home Mission called the Industrial Christian Fellowship, and Mrs. Moore was taken to a nursing home called Restholme. Jack began daily visits to see Mrs. Moore, which continued until her death in January 1951. Daphne Harwood contracted and then died from cancer. June (Jill) Flewett, one of the World War II evacuees who stayed at the Kilns, was married on September 4, which Warren attended. Grace Havard, wife of Humphrey Havard, died on September 10. The famous Firor Ham Feast took place at 7:30 p.m. at Jack’s rooms on September 19. In December Sheldon Vanauken began corresponding with Jack. Jack writes “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?” In this year Jack perhaps writes a poem on the shallowness of modern life, entitled “Finchley Avenue.” A second edition of Dymer is published in this year with a Preface by Jack. January 1950 January 1 Sunday. Jack writes a letter of recommendation for former student Frank Goodridge. January 3 Tuesday. Jack writes to George Hamilton. Presumably, the Inklings meet at the Eagle and Child at 11:30 a.m. in the morning. January 7 Saturday. Jack writes to Nathan Starr, who seems to have sent a gift. Jack spends the weekend at Malvern. January 9 Monday. Jack writes to his goddaughter Sarah Neylan about the many letters he has to answer after just returning from Malvern. Jack writes to Rhona Bodle about Charles Williams using the words “holy luck.” January 10 Tuesday. Hilary Term begins. Jack receives his first letter from Joy Davidman Gresham.1 The Inklings meet in the morning at the Eagle and Child at 11:30 a.m. and drink to Nathan Starr’s health. January 12 Thursday. Jack writes to Sister Penelope about her book rejections and a book he is planning to write with Tolkien.2 January 14 Saturday. Hilary Term begins.3 January 16 Monday. Maureen comes to the Kilns in the evening. 1 This is contradicted by a letter by Joy Davidman to Chad Walsh, dated June 21, 1949, in which she states she has sent a five-page letter of personal history to C. S. Lewis. Out of My Bone, 106. However, Warren writes that January 10 is the first date that he and Jack heard of her. This is from the entry for Monday, November 5, 1956, in Brothers & Friends. There are many explanations for the contradiction, including the possibility that Joy’s letter was lost in the mail. 2 Collected Letters, III, 5. 3 Collected Letters, III, 6. January 17 Tuesday. Presumably, the Inklings meet at the Eagle and Child at 11:30 a.m. in the morning. Jack meets Warren in the Cloister at Magdalen and tells him that their dog Bruce has died, but actually he has been euthanized.4 January 23 Monday. Presumably, the Inklings meet at the Eagle and Child at 11:30 a.m. in the morning. The Socratic Club meets in the evening at 8:15 p.m. in the J. C. R. of St. Hilda’s5 on “The Nature of Faith” with the Rev. J. P. Hickinbotham as speaker and Dr. E. L. Mascall as respondent. Hickinbotham discusses the authority on which the Christian faith is justified and whether this authority can be approached through reason, through religious experience, or through ethical values. Each brings out an element of New Testament faith, but the New Testament can’t by itself justify faith. He then discusses the Thomist approach through reason and the Reformed approach through Scripture. Mascall talks about fides caritatis formata as justifying faith, Luther on fides informata, which he says makes the Lutheran position intellectualist and impersonal, faith as a gift of God, faith as contrasted with natural powers of reason and with sight, and faith enabling us to act as though we saw God as in patria. Discussion follows, and Jack talks about two different techniques: to avoid errors and to pick up information. People who produce definitions of God, Jack says, may be in the latter category.6 January 24 Tuesday. Jack writes to Edward Allen about his recent gift and the current election campaign. Mrs. Frank Jones writes to Jack. January 27 Friday. Joy Davidman writes to Chad Walsh about having just received a letter from Lewis, which has not survived.7 January 30 Monday. Jack writes to Vera Mathews in California about weather and to Edward Dell about evil, and perhaps on this date he writes to Sister Mary Rose. January 31 Tuesday. Presumably, the Inklings meet at the Eagle and Child at 11:30 a.m. in the morning. February 1950 February 1 Wednesday. J. O. Reed goes with John Hullet and Charles to the Sheldonian Theatre to hear the Bishop of Bristol speak during a Christian mission to Oxford. Afterwards they go to Jack’s rooms for discussion. The Dean of Divinity and Canon Mitford also attend. The discussion ends at 11:30 p.m.8 In this month, Jack’s “The Pains of Animals: A Problem in Theology” appears in The Month.9 February 2 Thursday. Jack writes to Nicolas Zernov (1898-1980), an Orthodox Christian who emigrated from Russia, inviting him to dine on Thursday, March 9. The Bishop of Bristol speaks with Jack in attendance. Reed goes to Jack’s rooms at 9:50 p.m. to discuss that talk, which was on morality, with Jack, the Dean, the Canon, and at least a half-dozen undergraduates, ending around 12:20 a.m. The discussion includes pacifism, which Jack does not consider part of Christianity, sex, and the God-turned nature of Christianity.10 Warren gets a telegram from Parkin this morning to say that Father Mew died on January 5. 4 Collected Letters, III, 13. Jack writes to June that Minto has allowed Bruce to be euthanized. 5 The Stella Aldwinckle Papers, 9-406. 6 The Stella Aldwinckle Papers, 8-388. 7 A Love Observed, 70. Out of My Bone, 116. 8 Unpublished diary extracts of J. O. Reed. There appears to be a question whether this talk took place on February 1 or February 2. 9 Light on C. S. Lewis, 133. 10 Unpublished diary extracts of J. O. Reed. February 6 Monday. The Socratic Club meets in the evening at 8:15 p.m. in Lady Margaret Hall11 on the topic “Certainty,” with speaker Mr. L. A. Grint and C. D. Rollins as respondent. Grint talks about religious notions of precision and certainty, attacking the view that logical analysis is the be-all and end-all of philosophy. Philosophy raises as well as solves problems, is not unmotivated and undirected, and starts from assumptions. There is no abstract thinking without assumptions. Rollins comments on the statement “all analysis operates on assumptions.” There are many kinds of analysis. Analysis is an attempt to restate what past philosophers have said in a language we can all understand. Discussion follows about analysis in terms of sense data, A. J. Ayer, and preferring logical constructions to inferred entities. Jack comments that in noting reasons for liking a poem, aren’t we having a social pleasure and not talking about the poem. Rollins replies that aesthetic language is a different kind of language. Jack asks why this language is always trying to become public, and Grint says it comes from one’s urge to expand one’s experiences.12 February 7 Tuesday. Jack writes to Mrs. Frank Jones about her gift, her husband’s chapel, and in answer to some of her questions about religion. Presumably, the Inklings meet at the Eagle and Child at 11:30 a.m. in the morning. February 8 Wednesday. Jack writes to Mr. Lake about angels and gods. Probably at 10:00 a.m., Reed takes a tutorial with Lewis about his essay on the two plots in King Lear.13 February 13 Monday. This evening at 8:15 p.m. in Lady Margaret Hall Jack debates Mr. Archibald Robertson of the Rationalist Press Association at the Oxford Socratic Club on the topic, “Grounds for Disbelief in God,” with thirty-two in attendance.14 Robertson talks about the weakness of grounds for belief, the variety of views of God, pantheism vs. atheism, why believe in the God of the prophets rather than Zeus, and believing based on tradition or authority (the Bible of the Church). He says the argument from design deserves more attention, because it was used by both St. Paul and Paley. It was dealt with by Hume, but how can you have blind nature with a vivifying stream? He also talks about Charles Darwin, the evidence of the rocks and fossils, grounds for rejection, Barth’s view of God as revealed and known by faith, the moral argument of Immanuel Kant, man’s dependence on something greater than himself, and Christ as the projection of the Christian community.