Speaking with Joy

Could a mother's love keep her out of heaven? Could a man's erotic desire draw him in?

Tune in to this week's episode to find out!

This week we meet a ghost who's self-centredness blinds her, making her incapable of self knowledge and of love. 

This week we meet Lewis' Virgil: George MacDonald. And we discover the core idea of the book, well summarized in this quote:

"Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened."

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

- Timothy Keller

This week we encounter a ghost who doesn't want to be seen, who reminds us that healing, learning, and growth must begin with vulnerability.

In chapter 6 and 7, we meet the man in a bowler hat and the hard bitten ghost and travel even further into heaven. Tune in for readings and discussions with Joy and Joel!

The Episcopalian ghost likes thinking about heaven so much that he'd rather not explore the actual place itself! Tune in for our third week of the summer book club on The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. (Chapters 6 & 7 next week).

Why is the heavenly world as hard as diamonds? Will the sun ever rise? Why are the ghosts so lonely... and what does Augustine have to do with it all? Listen in to find out!

William Blake, desire, the DMV... how do they all relate? Listen in to find out!

Hello, friends! After a short hiatus, I have an exciting announcement: I'll be hosting a summer book club on The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis! Listen in on this introductory episode to find out all about it! Find the show notes at joyclarkson.com

If you want to join in on the discussion, make sure to join either the Twitter Page ("Reading with Joy" @_readingwithjoy) or the Facebook page (Joy Clarkson).

How do you live in a world gone mad? How do you build a life of good things when it feels like an impossible task? Like the world might end? This is the question that many of the songwriters of the Sixties were dealing with, and it is the topic of this episode. Tune in for a magical old folk tune, Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, and the same image painted 62 times.

Get the shownotes at joyclarkson.com.