Learning in Wartime

Lewis is addressing a church largely made of university students during a war when he wrote this. He talks about how even though, they may be called to service they still need to continue their education until then. Lewis says if the world was all Christian then there would be no problem, but since it is not we need to be educated. How are we supposed to defend our positions if we don't have the logic to do so? He also talked about how the war shouldn't always be concentrated on. All the death is not something unthinkable. Wars don't cause more death, they only alter those peoples time of death. Everyone is going to die eventually. The war just speeds up that process. God also calls us to be soldiers of Christ. We are to take arms and go and fight the evils of sin. To do this though, we can't just drop our education and everything else. We need to be constantly learning as we continue on this life-long battle. To be ignorant is to let the enemy win. We must find solid ground on which to present our arguments.

He also talks about how being a Christian shouldn't entirely take up so much of your life that you can't ever go out to social events. You can't become a hermit and meditate on God's word your whole life without sharing it. God commands us to go into the world and be fishers of men. In his essay Lewis talks about how you can't exclude human activities. He says that St. Paul even tells us to go get jobs, attend weddings, and balls. That our Lord attended weddings and provided miraculous wine. To be a devoted Christian is a great thing, but you also need to get out into the world and share His love, and His story.