How To Be A Good Christian
Pipe Smoking
Also see: ARTICLE

I knew that would get your attention.

Seriously; here's one of the best poems on the subject. We are all familiar with it, but in this case, familiarity is only an indication of its excellent quality.

Johann Sebastian Bach - 1725

"Whene'er I take my pipe and stuff it
And smoke to pass the time away
My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,
Dwell on a picture sad and grey:
It teaches me that very like
Am I myself unto my pipe.

Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,
Is made of naught but earthen clay;
To earth I too shall be returning,
And cannot halt my slow decay.
My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,
Of mortal life is but a token.

No stain, the pipe's hue yet doth darken;
It remains white. Thus do I know
That when to death's call I must harken
My body, too, all pale will grow.
To black beneath the sod 'twill turn,
Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.

Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,
Behold then instantaneously,
The smoke off into thin air going,
'Til naught but ash is left to see.
Man's fame likewise away will burn
And unto dust his body turn.

How oft it happens when one's smoking,
The tamper's missing from it's shelf,
And one goes with one's finger poking
Into the bowl and burns oneself.
If in the pipe such pain doth dwell
How hot must be the pains of Hell!

Thus o'er my pipe in contemplation
Of such things - I can constantly
Indulge in fruitful meditation,
And so, puffing contentedly,
On land, at sea, at home, abroad,
I smoke my pipe and worship God."

What The Prof Is Reading Now
That Hideous Strength

Although this is the final book in Lewis' acclaimed Space Trilogy (Out Of The Silent Planet, & Perelandria), for a good bit of the book (in fact, all of it can be read alone) a totally new concept is introduced, along with a new cast of characters. While a review of this book might describe the dark forces which were repulsed in Out Of The Silent Planet, & Perelandria, a deeper Anglo-Celtic influence is felt in this account than in the first two.
For instance, word is on the wind that the mighty Wizard Merlin is back in the land of the living after many centuries of absence.
New Seers arise, given prophetic abilities and supernatural skills from times long-since forgotten. A sinister "technocratic" organisation is gaining power throughout Europe, and a mysterious fog is setting in, like the dawning of an eternal night.
There is much in this book that will appeal to lovers of History, Rhetoric, and the Classics (I mean here the Classic languages and dogmas). Lewis (in typical style) is not without dialectic humour (as Aristotle puts it: "good humour, the bloom on dialectic itself.") and a certain degree of British witicism.
There is much moral emphasis placed on the dilemmas in the book, and one must certainly come to grips with one's own presupposed ethical convictions after a good read.
The book is simultaneously spell-binding and intellectually stimulating. If it can be possible to give Mr. Lewis too much praise for this piece, may we be so guilty. He has constructed (certainly not for the first time) a Masterpiece to rival the greatest of the Classics.
Lewis leaves no stone unturned in his examination of morality and society. All facets of our lives are examined, from the moral implications of our worldviews, to the sexual inferences of our collective cultural bias.
Here you will find danger and intruigue, love and horror, mysticism and dark imagery, struggle and hate, man and God...here you will find the Summa: wherein lies the Answer to the Question.