Week 1: "The Weight of Glory"

1.Lewis begins by challenging the popular idea that unselfishness — rather than love — is the highest virtue. Why does he think this distinction matters? Do you find his argument convincing?

2.Lewis argues that our deepest longings — the inconsolable desire awakened by a beautiful landscape, a piece of music, or a line of poetry — are not distractions from the spiritual life but are, in fact, a kind of spiritual homing signal. How does he develop this idea, and what do you make of it?

3.Lewis identifies five meanings of "glory" that Scripture seems to promise the redeemed. The one that strikes him most forcefully is the idea of being recognized and approved by God — of hearing, essentially, "Well done." Why does he find this both deeply attractive and almost frightening to admit? What does it reveal about human nature?

4.Lewis writes that "the load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it." What does he mean? How does this vision of every human being as a potential vessel of eternal glory change the way we ought to treat the people around us?

5.Lewis famously says there are no "ordinary people" — that we have never met a mere mortal, and that nations, cultures, and civilizations are mortal while every person we interact with is immortal. How seriously do you take this claim in practice? Where does your actual behavior contradict it?

6.Lewis distinguishes between the promise that we will "know" God and the promise that we will be "known" by God — and he suggests the latter is the deeper gift. Why might being known be more profound than knowing?

7.How does this essay connect to the gospel? Specifically, how does the promise of glory described here depend entirely on what Christ has done — and what does that do to the idea that desiring heaven is "mercenary"?