''The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses'' is a collection of essays and addresses on

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

. 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 title ''Transposition and Other Addresses'' and in the U.S. by

The MacMillan Company Macmillan Inc. is a defunct American book publishing company. Originally established as the American division of the British Macmillan Publishers, the two were later separated and acquired by other companies, with the remnants of the original A ...

under the title ''The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses''. A revised and expanded edition featuring four additional essays and an Introduction by Walter Hooper was published by

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publ ...

in 1980.

Chapter list and descriptions for 1980 edition

*Introduction by

Walter Hooper Walter McGehee Hooper (March 27, 1931December 7, 2020) was an American writer and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. He was a literary trustee for Owen Barfield from December 1997 to October 2006. Life Hooper was born in Reidsville, No ...

, Editor. *Preface to the original 1949 edition by C. S. Lewis: "This book contains a selection of the too numerous addresses which I was induced to give during the late war and the years that immediately followed it." # "The Weight of Glory" - First given at Oxford

University Church of St Mary the Virgin The University Church of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary's or SMV for short) is an Oxford church situated on the north side of the High Street. It is the centre from which the University of Oxford grew and its parish consists almost exclusively of u ...

, June 8, 1941. # "Learning in War-Time" - Given at Oxford University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, October 22, 1939. #"Why I Am Not a Pacifist" - Talk, "given to a pacifist society at Oxford sometime in 1940", from the Introduction. #"Transposition" - Given in the Chapel of Mansfield College, Oxford, May 28, 1944. # "Is Theology Poetry?" - Presented to the Oxford University Socratic Club, November 6, 1944. # "The Inner Ring" - This was the "Commemoration Oration" given at King's College, University of London, December 14, 1944. #"Membership" - Read to the Society of St. Alban and St. Sergius, Oxford, February 10, 1945. # "On Forgiveness" - Written for Father Patrick Kevin Irwin (1907–1965) and sent to him, August 28, 1947. First published in ''Fern-seed and Elephants and Other Essays on Christianity'' by C. S. Lewis (1975). # "A Slip of the Tongue" - Given at the Chapel of Magdalene College, Cambridge, January 29, 1956. This was the last sermon preached by Lewis.

Major Themes

In his Introduction, 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." In that famous sermon Lewis explores the Christian concept of heavenly glory 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. 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."Lewis, ''The Weight of Glory'', p. 39. 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, the

argument from desire The argument from desire is an argument for the existence of the immortality of the soul. The best-known defender of the argument is the Christian writer C. S. Lewis. Briefly and roughly, the argument states that humans’ natural desire for etern ...

and the

argument from reason The argument from reason is an argument against metaphysical naturalism and for the existence of God (or at least a supernatural being that is the source of human reason). The best-known defender of the argument is C. S. Lewis. Lewis first defen ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weight Of Glory Essay collections Books about Christianity Works by C. S. Lewis 1980 non-fiction books Macmillan Publishers books 1949 non-fiction books