Analyse this ...
It's a packed programme this week. C.S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud and Robert Mugabe are all on the agenda. We'll be reviewing the second cinematic instalment of the Chronicles of Narnia and debating the ethics of psychoanalysis: just how scientific is the movement that was inspired by Sigmund Freud's groundbreaking work -- and should psychoanalysis be offered on the NHS? We'll also have the latest from GAFCON, the so-called "Alternative Lambeth" conference meeting in Jerusalem, and explore the impact of the debate over sexuality in the Church of Ireland specifically. And the election that never was: the journalist Matthew Parris, who grew up in what was then called Rhodesia, gives his reaction to the week's events in Zimbabwe.
Now that I think of it: Can you imagine the conversation over dinner with C.S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud and Robert Mugabe at the table? Feel free to leave some snippets of possible table talk below.
Comment number 1.
At 28th Jun 2008, brianmcclinton wrote:C.S. LEWIS: "Perfect humility dispenses with modesty".
ROBERT MUGABE: "Indeed. Only God can remove me now".
SIGMUND FREUD: "But God is only an illusion. Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessites".
ROBERT MUGABE: "I am termed dictator because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists".
C.S. LEWIS: "Badness is only spoilt goodness. Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death. And when he shakes his mane, it will be spring again".
ROBERT MUGABE: "President Mugabe is like a lion 鈥 when he roars, he leaves some quotable quotes that linger in the mind for a very long time".
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 28th Jun 2008, Heliopolitan wrote:SIGMUND FREUD: Well, boys, so far, so homoerotic. But as it happens I know this very lovely psychiatrist...
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 28th Jun 2008, The Christian Hippy wrote:Robert Mugabe: "I say live to be the show"
Sigmund Freud: "We are brothers Robert and sons of the enlightenment of the old town claptrap united against the common enmy"
C.S. Lewis: "But my brothers worse than all that, we have what good Bishop Hall calls a stone of obstination in our hearts against God"
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 29th Jun 2008, petermorrow wrote:Mugabe: I am being cast in the role of tyrant - what am I to do?
Freud: Don鈥檛 fret my friend, it is not your fault, you have repressed a great trauma, come in, take a couch, lie down.
C.S. Lewis: That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 29th Jun 2008, Heliopolitan wrote:Which all goes to show that CS Lewis's intelligence was rather over-rated.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 29th Jun 2008, petermorrow wrote:Hi Heliopolitan
Is that all you have to say?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 29th Jun 2008, petermorrow wrote:And Helio
Maybe I should also say, "What and Freud was bright!"
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 29th Jun 2008, brianmcclinton wrote:C.S. LEWIS: "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell".
ROBERT MUGABE: 鈥淲hen I was a child my mother told me that God had chosen me to be a great leader鈥.
SIGMUND FREUD: "Where id goes, there shall ego go".
C.S. LEWIS: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else鈥.
SIGMUND FREUD: 鈥淚n the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable鈥.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)
Comment number 9.
At 29th Jun 2008, MarcusAureliusII wrote:Robert Mubabe; I am God's embodiment on earth. My will is God's will.
CS Lewis: You are under a delusion sir. Jesus thought he was God too and he was also mistaken.
Ziggy; You ah bosth Krazeeee. You bosth belonk in ze nut howze. You two ah a daynjah to zoz-eye-ateee. You need to be in an inzditution faw yaw own protectshun und zoz-eye-ateeze. (vut a bunch of krazeees. Evereeevun knows zat I am zee Got.)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)
Comment number 10.
At 29th Jun 2008, portwyne wrote:RM: The struggle for liberty continues - Britain and America still oppress the people of Africa- we will never cease to fight the colonial powers...
SF: Did you say 'colon' Mr Mugabe? Do you experience constipation frequently?
CSL: Not at table Sigmund! Pass the claret there's a good chap. I say, did you hear the one about the tower and the rosebud?
SF: Fascinating, Mr Lewis, tell me more...
Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)
Comment number 11.
At 30th Jun 2008, smasher-lagru wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)
Comment number 12.
At 30th Jun 2008, smasher-lagru wrote:i.e. it was funny.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)
Comment number 13.
At 30th Jun 2008, Dylan_Dog wrote:Smashy why not try again but moderate a bit?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 13)
Comment number 14.
At 30th Jun 2008, smasher-lagru wrote:I used a word beginning with F that rhymes with decking and the moderators deemed it offensive. I presume that was the reason since they don't actually tell you.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 14)
Comment number 15.
At 30th Jun 2008, Dylan_Dog wrote:What is wrong with flecking Smashy?
Some people hey!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 15)
Comment number 16.
At 30th Jun 2008, petermorrow wrote:I wonder would phecing be OK?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 16)
Comment number 17.
At 1st Jul 2008, Heliopolitan wrote:CSL: Peter Morrow makes a good point. Sigmund, you are highly over-rated too. In fact, if anything, we are, in Will's conversational suggestion, three self-important over-rated narcissistic wet hankies.
RM: Speak for yourself. If God wanted to remove me, he would.
SF: Which indicates what, precisely?
RM: God exists, and he wants me to be President.
CSL: Oh... theodicy. I never could grasp that concept. Bad stuff happens - it's our fault as miserable sinners. Good stuff happens - praise be to God. Sounds like God has a perfect excuse for anything. I'm out of my depth here, boys. Anyone catch the Spain/Germany game?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 17)
Comment number 18.
At 1st Jul 2008, petermorrow wrote:SF: Spain? Germany? Yes, I am told that the Spainards won the match 1 to zero. Then again, not having watched it, being reluctant to accept testimony and never having visited Spain or Germany, I see no reason to believe that this is true; nor indeed am I inclined to believe that either of the countries exist.
CSL: Yes theodicy. The problem of pain indeed. Mercy and justice and darkness...
...If only there was someone to redeem us.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 18)
Comment number 19.
At 1st Jul 2008, Heliopolitan wrote:Richard Dawkins (for it is he): You called?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 19)
Comment number 20.
At 1st Jul 2008, Dylan_Dog wrote::-)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 20)
Comment number 21.
At 1st Jul 2008, petermorrow wrote:CSL: Yes Dawkins. He is not a tame Richard.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 21)
Comment number 22.
At 3rd Jul 2008, gveale wrote:Aren't the moderators meant to e-mail us to explain why we have had comments removed?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 22)