S9E31 – “Season Finale”

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The “Last Call” bell tolls for Season 9…

 Click here to download audio for S9E31: “Season Finale”

Show Notes

Quote-of-the-Week

“I believe that many who find that “nothing happens” when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.” 

– C.S. Lewis, On the Reading of Old Books

Introduction

Welcome friends to Pints With Jack and welcome to the finale for Season 9! This season we’ve…

  • …been to 1980s Narnia…
  • …explored yet more Jack’s bookshelf…
  • …spent a month exploring the weird world of Charles Williams
  • …and, of course, worked through a dense work of philosophy, The Abolition of Man, which is why we opened with that quotation from Lewis’ essay, On The Reading of Old Books…

This is the episode where we look back and give thanks for a fun season, as well as look forward to the next season of Pints With Jack…

Chit Chat

We give thanks to David for all things!

Toast

We toasted our latest Patreon supporter, Samantha Current, as well as friend-of-the-show, Justin Wiggins, who recently graduated from The University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

Discussion

01. “Life Updates”

Q. What’s been happen with you both?

  • Andrew
  • Matt
    • Looking after his daughter, Sienna
    • Working hard at the new business, Wealth Architect
  • David
    • All the kids have had colds so sleep has been rare…
    • Work has been particularly busy
    • I’ve recorded a bunch more Half Pints
    • Reading books for next season
    • Hit my year anniversary in Duo Lingo so my Spanish is slowly coming along
    • Gave a talk at the Wade on Till We Have Faces

02. “Thoughts on Season 9”

Q. Any thoughts about this past season?

  • Matt
    • Intense
    • Doesn’t know how David does it
  • Andrew
    • Enjoyed the philosophical struggle
  • David
    • It was fun to kick things off with a live recording
    • Reading Day
    • It was good to go through The Abolition of Man slowly
    • Might record an essay I wrote several years ago about Abolition
    • Great to dig deeper into Williams, even if he is a strange and disturbing character
    • Thanks to Jack’s Bookshelf I’ve read some new books – Beowulf and The Idea of the Holy
    • Lively Slack activity
    • We’ve just passed 500 episodes!

03. “The Shape of Next Season”

  • David
    • So let’s talk through the shape of next season… 
    • Sidecar Day
    • I’d be good to have more Patreon events, particularly in the run up to the new Narnia movie.

04. “Messages & Reviews”

  • In these Season Finale episodes we like to share reviews on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible to encourage those of you who haven’t yet rated or reviewed us to do so! For example, we currently have 638 ratings on Apple podcasts with a score of 4.9 out of 5

My mom showed me this podcast for school as we are reading through Mere Christianity, and it is my favorite part of my week after reading the chapter. I love this podcast and it is making me want to read more Books by Jack.

Review by .^David^.

The format of a chapter by chapter discussion of the books of CS Lewis is wonderful. I appreciate the insights of the three contributors. Each one adds his own perspective from a difference background and temperament. I gave this rating 4 stars instead of 5 because I would like to have a way to “filter out” the distracting put-downs directed against Matt (who is delightful as a first-time reader of many of the books covered) from the other two hosts, especially from Andrew

Anonymous Review (“Virtual CS Lewis Book Club”)

My daughter remarked {we just finished chapter two’s podcast episodes} that she appreciates Matt’s frequent need for clarification! It helps her with processing the information as well. We note often how the different ways of interacting with the material the three of you have make for a very thorough interaction with the material! And, as ever, we love witnessing the friendship between you three.}

Slack Message from Loreal Barker-Brown

Agreed, his ignorance can be very helpful at times! Matt definitely brings something special to the show, as all of you do. And each of you bring out something in each other just like Lewis wrote about (I believe in The Four Loves) for himself, Charles Williams, and Tolkien.

Slack Message from Jack Kirk

hello,
I’m a big fan of the podcast. I am currently working my way through your series of the ransom trilogy, and I wanted to ask you about a theme that I’ve wondered about for many years. It seems like Lewis has a real interest with decisions and how they are made, or how they seem to pass us by before we realize we have already made them. The first mention of this in OSP is “Whatever the process of thought may have been, he found that the mental picture of himself calling at The Rise had assumed all the solidity of a thing determined upon.” If i remember correctly, this reflection on the will and subconscious decisions seems to be very prominent in THS, but I don’t remember ever coming across any commentary on it. What do you think of this?
sorry if you already discuss this in a later episode, I haven’t yet made it through the back catalogue
Thanks very much,
Joe

Email from Joe Gladwell

Dear David,
It’s been nearly a year since we last chatted via email, and I hoped you and the Pints with Jack team might enjoy seeing a pair of paintings I’ve just debuted for the Lenten and Easter Seasons. I know of no photographs of C.S. Lewis nor his friend J.R.R. Tolkien at their respective churches, so I have created these paintings in hopes of showing these scenes that were central to the lives and work of both men.

If you or your co-hosts enjoy the paintings, I’d be so glad for any help in sharing them in a spirit of ecumenism and encouragement. I have a full write-up of the details and symbolism in the paintings here on my blog: https://www.miriamellis.com/post/something-special-j-r-r-tolkien-at-st-aloysius-and-c-s-lewis-at-holy-trinity and can typically lend digital files gratis to speakers, presenters, and educators if you know of anyone who might need to borrow a file of either picture of both for their work. I felt inspired to create this as a Lenten devotion, and the research was a joy.

I’m hard at work on my second book – A Shire Walking-Party – which will be brought out by Uppsala Books later this year, and I just want to thank you and the other gentlemen again for your inspiring podcast. Wishing you a very good and contemplative Lent, David.

Kind Regards,
Miriam

Email from Miriam Ellis

Hello David, Matt, and Andrew!

First off, I want to thank all of you for the time you have all put into the Pints With Jack podcast. Although I have enjoyed C.S. Lewis for years, particularly Narnia, your podcast first introduced me to both The Great Divorce and Till We Have Faces. I also found your walkthrough of Till We Have Faces to be extremely helpful as I was definitely a bit confused after going through the book the first time. You guys have expanded the depth and breadth of my Lewis knowledge and, accordingly, helped shape my imagination into being more Christ-like. So truly, thank you!

On a different note, I wanted to send you guys a small gift of appreciation. About a year ago I developed an app called Daily Book Quotes which helps you remember the books you have read. I originally built the app just for myself as I found that I was reading books and then forgetting a lot of the content after a couple of years. I wanted a way to be reminded of the best quotes that convicted me or drew me closer to God. And after building a solution to that, I realized that others might enjoy it as well!

Within the app you can save your favorite book quotes and then receive a notification with a random one daily. You can also connect with friends and share your quotes with each other! I have unfortunately only built it for iOS, so if you have an Android I apologize. But I thought it might be something that you guys would enjoy! I also wanted to give you all promo codes so you can get the premium version of the app for free. To redeem them, simply go into the App Store, click on your profile picture, and click “Redeem Gift Card or Code.” Then enter the code, and the premium version will be yours! They do need to be redeemed within 28 days though, so if you don’t see this email for a bit and they don’t work just let me know and I can send you new ones.

Here’s a link to the app’s website which has a link to the app itself: https://dailybookquotes.com/.

Once again, thank you so much for faithfully putting episodes out year after year. They really have been a treat to listen to!

I hope you all have a blessed rest of your week!

Kind regards,
Caleb

Caleb Grieser

Wrap Up

Closing Thoughts

  • David
    • I’ll shortly be making the remaining Pints With Jack stoneware mugs available for purchase at cost, as well as possibly some new cold soft drink receptacles. If you’re interested in purchasing any, please make sure you’re on the Pints With Jack mailing list as I’ll be posting details there.
      https://www.pintswithjack.com/newsletter/
  • Matt
    • Busy launch Wealth Architect
  • Andrew
    • Get back to writing his Till We Have Faces book

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David

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After working as a Software Engineer in England for several years, David moved to the United States in 2008, where he settled in San Diego. Then, in 2020 he married his wife, Marie, and moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Together they have a son, Alexander, who is adamant that Narnia should be read publication order.

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