Piper likes Lewis, too

On this blog, we recently looked at what people's favorite books are. While we had a wide range of answers, two authors in particular stood out. I suppose it was no surprise that the two were C. S. Lewis and John Piper. If we were tallying votes, Lewis would have been first, Piper second, and no one else within shouting distance.

This week I am reading Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life." I'm not sure why I have not yet read this book, but now that we are stateside and I have a bit more time to read, it seemed appropriate. I had not been reading this book for long when I discovered that Lewis is one of Piper's favorite authors. In fact, Lewis had a profound impact on Piper when he was young in the 1960's.

The following are some direct Piper quotes from "Don't Waste Your Life":

"Someone introduced me to Lewis my freshman year with the book 'Mere Christianity.' For the next five or six years I was almost never without a Lewis book near at hand. I think that without his influence I would not have lived my life with as much joy or usefulness as I have."

"He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice."

"He demonstrated for me and convinced me that rigorous, precise, penetrating logic is not opposed to deep, soul-stirring feeling and vivid, lively-even playful-imagination. He was a 'romantic rationalist.'"