Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, November 20, 2023

“I’ve been thinking more about wartime and life therein. News of the attack, concurrent with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the looming threat of increased Chinese aggression against Taiwan, suggest to even the casual news reader that we are entering a period of significant global instability. What do wise people have to say about living in such periods?

On that question, there are few better places to begin than with C.S. Lewis’ addresses “Learning in War-Time.” This is a lecture he gave in 1939 to university students who were questioning why they should go about studying science or history or art in the midst of a looming world war.

Lewis began by channeling the students: “What is the use of beginning a task which we have so little chance of finishing? How can we continue to take an interest in these placid occupations when the lives of our friends and the liberties of Europe are in the balance? Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?”