Quoting under 300 words from a book is generally considered fair use and you don’t need copyright permission if you cite the source and are creating a “new product” for commentary or criticism. But what counts as fair use can be subjective.
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Quoting most of a book in 300 word snippets over the course of months would not be protected, though. Finding public domain sources, however, and using Lewis’s anthology as a guide is completely legit.
And a General Grip (that is NOT directed at Christy, but anyone who has tried to tell themselves “This is fair use, because I’m using it to educate people.”
Regarding “fair use” for educational purposes, this is the one I see most abused by people who, if they were honest with themselves, know better:
- Nonprofit educational uses: When teachers photocopy limited portions of written works for classroom use, this is normally acceptable. An English teacher would be permitted to copy a few pages of a book to show to the class as part of a lesson plan. (Note that she would not be permitted to photocopy the entire book).
I’ve heard claims that copying and pasting large parts of something onto one’s social media of choice is “educational” and protected. It is not. “Educational use” has careful definitions, and does not include “telling anyone who will listen to me” or “throwing it up on a digital or even physical bulletin board.”
Additionally, every copyright case is treated on its own merits or demerits. The rules (in the U.S.) look murky, because they deliberately are.
We all want people to handle our own intellectual property well and ethically. We need to do the same with other peoples’ work as well.
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And if you live in Canada (or near and could cross the border easily? ; - )…
https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Lewis,%20C.%20S.%20(Clive%20Staples)
I don’t think one can’t be in just a “normal” frame of mind and take in, much less receive these messages MacDonald gives, because they have in them much more demanding and exacting challenge than just your regular “come as your are … we love you as you are …” comforting messages that we would so much prefer to receive from others ourselves (and - at least at first - are so much more rewarding to dole out to others too.) We talked some in Sunday school this morning about how to find the balance between “You’re fine and lovable just the way you are…” and in stark contrast: “Seriously! - you need to do something about that habit of yours - because that is keeping you from being the best you, you can be.” MacDonald (in my impression) rarely if ever has any patience for the former message, and sees God as always pressing us in the latter sort of way. God will have us clean and perfect and every last scrap of sin desire cleansed away from us - with refining hell fires if necessary. Frankly - I think I prefer the more common watered-down western Christianity that has God just letting us off the hook and forgiving sins rather than forgiving sinners. It’s an easier and much less demanding religion. I get to sin and keep wanting things I shouldn’t want, and then repent, believe the right stuff, say the right creeds, and go my merry way - rinse and repeat, as I’ve heard said around here. But MacDonald will have none of that. No wonder he was put out as heretical among some mainliners of his own day. I’m not sure I would want him preaching in my church either … “Speak comfort to me please!” … “Comfort!? What comfort should I give you that wouldn’t but serve to extend your misery as you continue to chase your own desires instead of practicing obedience to Christ?”
Most of us American Christians have no patience for that kind of Christianity whatsoever. Way too demanding. Too Biblical. Too Christian.
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(3) Divine Burning
He will shake heaven and earth, that only the unshakeable may remain, ( verse 27): he is a consuming fire, that only that which cannot be consumed may stand forth eternal. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship. He will have purity. It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; but that the fire will burn us until we worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God.
As found here: Unspoken Sermons by George MacDonald: The Consuming Fire
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For real, Merv. Thank you for these, though. Thanks for included the expanded versions, too. I found the anthology and read some of it, but felt some of them lacked heart.
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Copyright is life plus 70 years. C.S.Lewis died the same day as JFK. So Nov. 22, 1963. So the copyright is at least until 2033. I do believe C.S. Lewis would be so please to have someone read his work in that it points always to Jesus and our Savior’s love and work for us. But that’s Lewis personally. The books were published through companies that reprint and design and hope to make a profit from so “lead us not into temptation.”
Thank you for pointing out the work. I will look for it in my public library.
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(4) The Beginning of Wisdom
Here was a nation at its lowest: could it receive anything but a partial revelation, a revelation of fear? How should the Hebrews be other than terrified at that which was opposed to all they knew of themselves, beings judging it good to honour a golden calf? Such as they were, they did well to be afraid. They were in a better condition, acknowledging if only a terror above them, flaming on that unknown mountain height, than stooping to worship the idol below them. Fear is nobler than sensuality. Fear is better than no God, better than a god made with hands. In that fear lay deep hidden the sense of the infinite. The worship of fear is true, although very low; and though not acceptable to God in itself, for only the worship of spirit and of truth is acceptable to him, yet even in his sight it is precious. For he regards men not as they are merely, but as they shall be; not as they shall be merely, but as they are now growing, or capable of growing, towards that image after which he made them that they might grow to it. Therefore a thousand stages, each in itself all but valueless, are of inestimable worth as the necessary and connected gradations of an infinite progress. A condition which of declension would indicate a devil, may of growth indicate a saint.
As found here: Unspoken Sermons by George MacDonald: The Consuming Fire
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I struggle with this one too. Because I see where fear can and does drive so many of us these days when we allow that as our animating passion and even pursuit. Perfect love drives out fear. I suppose the all-important difference to be made is to note what or rather - who it is that we’re fearing. And what I hear MacDonald saying is that even fear of God can be, and often is of the much lower sort (terror) - the sort that will be driven out in the end, when the worship of the Spirit of truth has finally come into its own. But meanwhile - even the lowlier fear has its necessary (“precious”) place to impel us in that direction.
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You mentioned the other day that we can’t really take in MacDonald’s messages in our “normal frame of mind.” And this is another example.
I am often too big for my breeches, and fancy I know better how God (as well as my boss) ought to do things or simply be. As unpopular as the idea of fearing the Lord is now, I don’t see any other way sometimes, for us to understand our position and need. But if “everything is fine” and there is no need to do or be different, then what do we care about God’s love? Aren’t we already experiencing “our best life” or standing in our own way of it?
We recognize in evolutionary psychology that there are natural fears that protect us from behaviors that lead to death. I don’t think it’s so far fetched to see fear of the Lord as something preserving, until the better work can be finished.
But it’s certainly not what we would desire.
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Reminds me of Coriakin in the Dawn Treader, wishing to rule the Dufflepuds by love and reason rather than by fear and rough magic.
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“Do you intend to show yourself to them?”
“Nay… I should frighten them out of their senses.
Hmm. ; - )
[Gently, through an unmistakable M.O. is good. It can still be startling however.]
That is an excellent literary parallel, Randy. The magician seemed to them like a frightening and dangerous “deity” of sorts, not because he was, but because that was all they, in their current state, could understand. BTW - it would have been interesting to hear again from the Dufflepuds at the very end (in the Last Battle) as they enter the new paradise - and I don’t doubt they would have been well represented there. But … would they suddenly have been much more intelligent? Would love cast out ignorance and “slowness” along with fear?
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TAKE anxious care for naught…
…the peace of God
The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? - JOHN 18: 11.
…a state of perfect peace
we shall necessarily be submissive and happy in all trials
Is there an incongruity? (As loving children, we should fear God as a loving Father, not wanting to displease him by being disrespectful or disobedient.)
In what sense do (or should) we ‘fear’ a loving human father? It seems to me that if that fear is ever any fear for my own physical safety or well-being, then there must be a significant rift of distrust in my relationship with my father. It would mean that I’ve decided (or very much ‘feel’) as if I can’t trust my dad to have my own best interests in mind. Whereas a perfect trust would rest in knowing that whatever your parent does, you need not fret about it because they lovingly have your best interests in mind even if it seems unpleasant at the moment. That never (I would insist) includes them beating on you or abusing you in any way. So any fear born of that is a fear very much … not from above.
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(So no incongruities with any of the citations, just my appended comment in the last reply. ; - )
The unbeliever or those who accept God’s existence but say “Maybe later, I want to have ‘fun’ first” or “I’ll take my chances”* are the ones who should fear. The loving child should fear disappointing or grieving their Father, and themselves grieve if they have.
*Remarkably, there are such, I understand.
- [Proverbs 9:10] “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
- The Hebrew word translated into ‘awe’ in the Bible is yirah (יראה, pronounced yir-ah). It often directly translates into fear, like “fear of the Lord,” but it can also mean respect, reverence, and worship. But, make no mistake about it, yirah is strongly connected to ‘trembling’. [Source: Hebrew Meaning of Yirah: What Connects Fear and Awe?]
- What Does It Mean To FEAR God? [5:07]
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I need to finally read the rest of Narnia. I understand there are a few more volumes after the first.
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