Sheldon

Yes, I vaguely remember discussing with Carol Long that book, "A Severe Mercy," written by the British author Sheldon Vanauken in which he talks about his relationship with his wife, Davy, and how they met and married. They later met C.S. Lewis and under his influence came to study and accept Christianity. I do agree with Carol that there was something disturbingly weird about Sheldon's courtship and marriage to Davy. He expresses very little regret, even seems to excuse the fact that they did not wait until marriage when obviously that is not the right thing to do and real Christians who know better don't do that. It is also clear that Sheldon and his girlfriend were not Christians at the time so perhaps that is why they did not know any better and did not have any guidance of the Holy Spirit. Mr. Vanauken in his book purports to be an apologist for the Christian faith. In the sense that he is telling his story of transition or journey from being a pagan nothing to studying the Christian faith and becoming a Christian, I think that the book does have value for that kind of people who can sympathize with those who came to faith after being completely pagan in lifestyle and atheistic. Lots of people were not Christians when young and came to faith later in life so perhaps Vanauken has something to say to those kinds of people that people like me don't really need. We sort of understand his problem and enjoy his great writing style but we don't have that problem. The other weird and disturbing thing about their relationship is that they think they have to read each other's books in order to fully understand each other. That means that she had to read all the books that he had ever read in his past and vice verse. How ridiculous! It is no wonder that she died very young of cancer, because obviously reading all of his books was probably way too much to handle. I don't think it is necessary to read all your books. I have enough books rolling around in my head without adding all of your garbage, too. I just can't handle it.