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"Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right. But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons. … They propound theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss poetry while advancing on the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache; it is our nature."

As I said, I don't know which of Lewis's words the AOL employees received, but these would have been helpful. So would these: "If we thought we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul. … we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon."

Elesha Coffman is managing editor of Christian History magazine, a Christianity Today sister publication.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More Christian history, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

See David C. Downing's essay "Neither Patriot nor Pacifist, but 'Patient': Lewis on War and Peace."

"Learning in War-Time" appears in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (Eerdmans, 1965). Read a student overview of the book's contents.

Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture published in 1998 a headier article on Lewis's relevance in postmodernism: "C. S. Lewis Among the Postmodernists | How to be a perspectivalist without losing your foundations."

Christian History has covered C.S. Lewis in issue 7 and issue 65, where Lewis was profiled as one of "The 10 Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century."

If it's Lewis you're interested in, Into the Wardrobe should fill your every desire.

The Discovery Institute's C.S. Lewis and Public Life site is another wonderful resource of papers about and by Lewis.

Beliefnet also has a series of Lewis-centric articles, including a C.S. Lewis essay contest.

Still hungry for more? You'll probably never have the time to read everything linked at the C.S. Lewis Mega-Links page.

Previous Christianity Today articles on Lewis and his writings include:

Myth Matters | C. S. Lewis bequeathed us a method and a language for sharing the gospel with the modern and postmodern world. (April 17, 2001)

Spring in Purgatory: Dante, Botticelli, C. S. Lewis, and a Lost Masterpiece | For slightly over five hundred years, the most famous and popular illustration of Dante's Divine Comedy has remained effectively "lost." (Feb. 7, 2000)

Walking Where Lewis Walked | My reluctant entry into the world of pilgrimage. (Feb. 7, 2000)

C.S. Lewis on Christmas | Lewis summed up Christmas in one sentence: "The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God." (December 20, 1999)

Reflections | Clive Staples Lewis in his lifetime gave us many writings that explicate the Christian faith and walk. (Nov. 16, 1998)

Still Surprised by Lewis | Why this nonevangelical Oxford don has become our patron saint. (Sept. 7, 1998)

Jack Is Back | The search for the historical Lewis. (Feb. 3, 1997)

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

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October (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45