Inklings Forever Volume 3 A Collection of Essays Presented at the Third Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Article 1 Friends

11-2001 Full Issue 2001 (Volume III)

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This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis & Friends at Pillars at Taylor University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Inklings Forever by an authorized editor of Pillars at Taylor University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INKLINGS FOREVER Volume III A Collection of Essays Presented at the Third FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM on C. S. Lewzs Ano FRzenos TayLoR UnzveJ

November I 6- I 8, 200 I Upland, Indtana

INKLINGS FOREVER Volume III 2001

INKLINGS FOREVER Volume III A Collection of Essays Presented at the Third FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM on • Lewzs Ano FRzenos TayLoR UnzveRSlTJ

November 16-18, 2001

Published by Taylor University's Lewis and Friends Committee November 2001

This volume is dedicated to Daryl Yost Senior Vice-President of Taylor University. As scholar, mentor, and friend, Dr. Yost has been a steadfast supporter of the Lewis and Friends Committee. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Lewis and Friends committee members who helped in all phases of the colloquium include Daryl Yost, Bill Ringenberg, Thorn Satterlee, Dave Neuhouser, Dan Bowell, Jennifer Rodeheaver, and Pam Jordan, Chair.

Thanks to Tenley Horner and Jan King for secretarial help; Steve Christensen for the colloquium logo; Nick Corduan for technical assistance, and Anderson Bindery for printing.

Special thanks to Kathryn McConnell, Ph.D. of Point Lorna Nazarene University for judging the undergraduate writing contest, and to Rachel Kellogg for layout and editorial assista

And deep appreciation yet again to Jay Kesler, Ron and Mary Calkins, Ed Brown, Dan Hamilton, and the Berens for their faithful support, moral and otherwise.

Rick Hill Editor and Program Chair November, 2001

All essays @ 2001 by the individual authors INKLINGS FOREVER Volume III A Collection of Essays Presented at the Third FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM on C.S. LEWIS AND FRIENDS 2001

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Deep Magic Robert Moore-Jumonville, Spring Arbor University ...... 1

Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships John Seland, Nazan University, Japan ...... 6

Imagining Heaven: Assessing Lewis's Romantic Revisions of Dante's Comedy Steven Jensen, Malone College ...... 15

The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path: C.S. Lewis's View of Hell in Screwtape and The Great Divorce Richard Hill, Point Lorna Nazarene University ...... 19

Taking an Untamed Lion to School: Sharing about C.S. Lewis and Asian in an Elementary School Classroom Richard James, First Christian Church, Burkesville, KY ...... 25

Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C.S. Lewis David N. Entwistle, Malone College ...... 30

The Night C.S. Lewis Lost a Debate Ted Dorman, Taylor University ...... 38

Male vs. Female as Good vs. Bad: Deconstructing Gender in C.S. Lewis's Theology Sam McBride, DeVry Institute of Technology ...... 46

All Shall Be Well: Redemption as a Subtext of C.S. Lewis's Prince Caspian Doug Jackson, Second Baptist Church, Corpus Christi, TX ...... 51 The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way Nathan Sytsma, Calvin College, First Place Student Essay Winner ...... 57

A Woman's Place: Valid Vocation for Women in the Writing of Dorothy L. Sayers Erin Sells, Westmont College, Second Place Student Essay Winner ...... 64

The Reasonable Faith: C.S. Lewis's Argument for Christianity from the Characteristics of Human Reason Sabrina Locklair, Concordia University (WI), Third Place Student Essay Winner ...... 69

Charles Williams: The Novel and Williams's Illustration of Humanity's Place in Creation as Found in The Place of the Lion Amy Wise, Cornerstone University ...... 77

Rejection of the Tao: Illustrations of the Chronicles ofNarnia Gabrielle Greggersen, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Sao Paulo, Brazil ...... 82

The Joys of Collecting Ed Brown ...... 95

George MacDonald on Hamlet Pam Jordan, Taylor University ...... 102 INKLINGS FOREVER Volume III

DEEP MAGIC Robert Moore-Jumonville

The recent uproar of Christian par­ but is also affected by the choices we hu­ ents over the good and evil wizardry de­ mans make each day. I submit that the pri­ scribed in the Harry Potter books makes one mary way you and I participate in this deep wonder whether the words "Christian magic today is by speaking a no to the magic" can be legitimately paired. Of world that God turns into a yes. course, G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis In his masterful chapter of Ortho­ would not have had a problem with the con­ doxy entitled Ethics of Eljland, Chesterton cept of Christian magic. As Lewis would argues against the materialist "man of sci­ say through the voice of Professor Kitke, ence who presupposes that the cosmos is an "Nothing is more probable." I think the rea­ impersonal machine operating according to son writers like Chesterton and Lewis had scientific "laws of nature" or according to no qualms about the notion of magic is be­ strict principles of cause and effect. The cause they were so fundamentally commit­ man of science assumes that this principle ted to a supernatural world view. If onere­ of cause and effect is a necessary principle; places the word magic with the word super­ Chesterton disagrees: "We must answer that natural or miracle, then no dilemma exists. it is magic." What causes apples to fall in­ Conversely, the reason we are so bothered stead of to float? We don't really know. by the idea of magic is because our world­ For all we know, the next one freed from its view-not the one we subscribe to in the­ limb may stay suspended in midair like a ory, but the one we practice daily-is so balloon. What is interesting for our pur­ thoroughly naturalistic. Think of it this poses is the way Chesterton connects the way: if we depict a character stepping onto idea of magic, with certain prohibitions a transporter beam platform, disintegrating, woven into the fabric of the world. and then reintegrating in another spot by a stunning feat of advanced technological en­ For the pleasure of pedantry I will gineering, we stand up and cheer. But if the call it the Doctrine of Conditional Joy .... same feat of disappearing and reappearing The note of fairy utterance always is, "You is produced by the wave of a go Iden wand, may live in a palace of gold and sapphire, if some of us begin asking uneasy questions you do not say the word 'cow'"; or "You about the occult. Christians claim they be­ may live happily with the King's daughter, if lieve in the supernatural, but mostly Jive as you do not show her an onion. " The vision though everyday choices produced results always hangs upon a veto. All the dizzy and only in the realm of natural causes and ef­ colossal things conceded depend upon one fects. Supernatural events or phenomena small thing withheld. All the wild and occur in a separate, nearly unconnected, whirling things that are let loose depend sphere from those in the mundane world. upon one thing that is forbidden. However, there is a different world view and logic at work in the works of Lewis and One can almost hear the echo of Moses' Chesterton, where "deep magic" is not only great last speech to Israel, "So choose life, woven into the very fabric of the universe, that you may Jive long in the land!" The Deep Magic by Robert Moore-Jumonville

part I want to point out is how human must learn, child, that what would be wrong choice in this case produces certain effects for you or for any of the common people is (either good or evil) in the world at large. not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The Everything that makes for human weight of the world is on our shoulders. happiness, then, depends upon our ability to We must be free from all rules." If we see comprehend the veto, the prohibition, and in this statement the choice of Eve and respond appropriately. Notice how Psalm 1, Adam taken to a hideous extreme, then it is the prologue to all Hebrew and Christian distressing to realize how often it is cur­ piety and prayer, begins with a prohibition: rently being parroted by postmodern adver­ "Happy are those who do not. ... " Human tising as an attitude we ought to personally happiness, or better, blessedness, depends adopt. One can almost hear Milton's Satan on the ability to "not." Eugene Peterson or Lewis's Screwtape promoting the slogan: suggests the obvious but profound truth that "Ignore the rules I" humans are the only creatures with the abil­ We must understand, however, that ity to say no. Can we somehow, then, better the answer, "No" often looks to us like the learn to practice this skill? We do not have positively wrong answer. Take Digory a very good track record if one examines again as an example. At the end of The history. Recall that the very fall of our race Magician's Nephew he is sent by Asian on into sin occurred through just such a failure an errand to fetch a "magic" apple. As he to say no. In Genesis 3, Eve knows the pro­ finally reaches the tree, Digory finds the hibition well enough; she repeats it to the witch waiting for him, hoping to tempt him serpent (v.3). But she allows herself to be into taking the apple for himself. This is convinced otherwise: "God knows that her first tactic: eat the apple and you will when you eat of it," cooed the serpent, live forever. Digory knows too well not to "your eyes will be opened, and you will be trust her. But then she turns to a kind of de­ like God, knowing good and evil." No ceit that hopes to make evil out of good. more prohibitions; no more question marks; "Why not take it for your sick mother, no more unknowns; no more noes. By eat­ fool," she urges. 'Think what she would ing the fruit, Eve was rejecting God as the feel, if she knew you had the chance to save one who decides what is good and evil, put­ her, but wouldn't!" The witch is hoping to ting herself in that role instead, grasping for set in motion the same sort of qualifications what was previously the prerogative of God and questions the serpent presented to Eve. alone. She somehow thinks herself an ex­ "Did God say you shall not eat from any ception to the rule. Isn't this frame of mind tree in the garden?" Satan tempted Jesus in the very essence of sin? It's the opposite of the wilderness using the same ploy. Each of Kant's categorical imperative. I want every­ the three temptations in Matthew chapter one else to abide by the rules; to stop at red four can be easily interpreted as an invita­ lights, and not steal my possessions; but I tion for Jesus to use his messianic status and am an exception. In C. S. Lewis's book, power for some good, although limited, hu­ The Magician's Nephew, Jadis, the Witch man result. According to this line of rea­ who calls herself Queen, tells Digory and soning, 'Turn these stones into bread" Polly how she destroyed all her people with means "Feed the hungry masses." 'Take the Deplorable Word. When Digory re­ for yourself all the power of the world's sponds with disgust, the Witch turns on him kingdoms" means "Bring peace and politi­ in anger and chides condescendingly: "You cal stability to Israel like no human king

2 Deep Magic by Robert Moore-Jwnonville

ever could." Just as with Eve, the tempta­ and peace, but it is actually by saying "No" tion is to think one knows how to run things to the world that real life is granted. First, better than God. One usurps God's role as saying "No" is an affirmation of boundaries. God. And as Chesterton recommends, boundaries The problem is this, if we follow the bring health, happiness, wholeness, and san­ serpent's line of reasoning, a kind of reason­ ity. On the one hand, we must adhere to ing that too often runs its circuit through our certain limits of logic. More importantly, brains, we suddenly work our way down a however, if we are to find happiness, we path of exceptions to the rule. Perhaps that must adhere to certain moral limits. But the is what the author of Psalm 1 also had in limits, the prohibitions, should not overbur­ mind. The Psalmist warns against the slip­ den us with what we cannot have, but in­ pery moral slope that begins with someone stead fill us with joy for what we do have: merely taking advice from the wicked (the "Keeping to one woman is a small price for level of listening to and entertaining wicked so much as seeing one woman," Chesterton thoughts); but which then proceeds quickly exclaims. "To complain that I could only onto the path that sinners tread (now actu­ be married once was like complaining that I ally putting the thoughts into action); and had only been born once." Chesterton's which finally ends up with the person sitting Doctrine of Conditional Joy states plainly: in the seat of scoffers (settling into a seden­ "You may live happily with the King's tary lifestyle of habitual sinning). It should daughter, if you do not show her an onion." be pointed out that neither level one nor We tend to notice only the prohibition, only level two (taking advice or treading the sin­ the one thing withheld, even as Eve focused ner's path) appear satisfying at the time one only on the tree of knowledge, ignoring the is pursuing them; one is irresistibly drawn rest of that great garden. But notice the toward level three, toward total immersion promise beyond the prohibition: happiness in sin and self. with the King's daughter! Most modern So what appears to be so life­ capitalist consumerism complains about affirming in the beginning ends up with to­ what is wanted but not yet owned. Much of tal self-destruction: those who try to cling Chesterton's writing could be portrayed in­ to their lives lose them. We think that say­ stead as a litany of praise for what we al­ ing "Yes" to the forbidden fruit is what will ready have. In Orthodoxy he describes bring joy, but it only brings wretchedness. Robinson Crusoe as and example of "the Asian explains to Digory that, although the poetry of limits." Chesterton insists "the witch ate one of the enchanted apples, and best thing in [Crusoe] is simply the list of so shall have "endless days like a goddess," things saved from the wreck." He goes on she has only won for herself "length of mis­ to compare the salvaged goods with all that ery." If Digory had given the fruit to his we see existing before us. mother, she would have revived only to live a life of misery and torment. "That is what That there are two sexes and one happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at sun, was like the fact that there were two the wrong time and in the wrong way," said guns and one axe. It was poignantly urgent Asian. "The fruit is good, but they loathe it that none should be lost; but somehow, it ever after." was rather fun that none could be added. We ordinarily think that saying The trees and the planets seemed like things "Yes" to the world will bring life and health saved from the wreck: and when I saw the

3 Deep Magic by Robert Moore-Jumonville

Matterhorn I was glad that it had not been our cross. But I wonder if these crosses that overlooked in the confusion. I felt economi­ we freely choose to carry are not part of the cal about the stars as if they were sap­ Deep Magic that holds the world together. phires .... I hoarded the hills. Somewhere near the end of Thomas Mer­ ton's autobiography, The Seven Storey So, we learn to appreciate limits and Mountain, he says that it is the prayers of boundaries, to be grateful for them, and we the monks that keeps our world from dis­ respond to God's gift of limited bounty with solving into utter chaos. I wonder. The self-restraint. "The proper form of thanks ... deep magic of Narnia, the "deeper magic is some form of humility and restraint: we from before the dawn of time," was set should thank God for beer and Burgundy by loose to work when Asian faced his "cross" not drinking too much of them." on the stone table. Don't you imagine that As a matter of fact, it is ascetics like when Christ was tempted the second time, St. Francis who may actually experience the in the garden ofGethsemane, the whole uni­ most joy and happiness in life, because by verse tilted and tottered on the brink of an­ freeing themselves from appetites like lust, nihilation? His question was, "Father, can gluttony, and greed they have become much this cup pass from me? Can I bail out?" more capable of enjoying things like plan­ What would have happened if he had an­ ets, stars, and sunsets. swered his own question with a "Yes" in­ Now, I would not want to insinuate stead of saying as he did, "Thy will be that saying "No" to the world is an easy done?" The cross is the deep magic that task. At the very least it requires a life of held our world together. In the garden of disciplined prayer. Saying "No" means we Gethsemane Christ reversed the chaos of sin first must learn to pray, to meditate on the and death that Eve and Adam had unleashed Ia w of the Lord day and night. It was the in their garden. As Asian explained, the law of the Lord (the Torah), after all, that witch did not know "the Table would crack Jesus used to dispel the temptations of Satan and Death itself would start working back­ in the wilderness. One also must learn to ward." It is Christ's deep magic that holds control one's thoughts, to stop them at the our world together. door, so they do not move us from taking Perhaps another part of the deep wicked advice, to taking the sinners path, magic that continues to hold our world to­ until finally we find ourselves sitting down gether is when we accept our crosses "for in the cynic's seat of sin. The Gospel calls His name's sake." Last spring a friend of us to watch, to be sober, alert, and vigilant. mine wrote me an email describing a spiri­ The promise of Psalm 1 is that we shall tual battle he was being dragged through. have help. We shall be planted by streams He had been reading Jeremiah-and identi­ of water, where our spiritual roots can fying with his plight. "I have been doing plunge downward and drink from the foun­ some of my own lamenting," he said; "I tain of God's life-giving spirit, and where don't particularly like the vocation God has our limbs can shoot upward in praise to him given me." He had been called into a pro­ whose name is above all names. phetic role which was becoming uncomfort­ And yet, as likely as not, saying able. So he began to complain to God (in "No" will take us well beyond merely de­ good biblical form). veloping disciplined lives of prayer and praise; saying "No" also means taking up

4 Deep Magic by Robert Moore-Jurnonville

Still I felt I was standing on good have no idea what one saint can do," main­ ground, following the likes of Jeremiah ... tains Thomas Merton; "for sanctity is and Jesus, who also struggled over his vo­ stronger than the whole of Hell." God turns cation, who desperately wanted out if there our "Noes" into "Yeses." were any way possible. And when I thought By saying "No" we unleash a power of Jesus, I knew I was done for. How could that participates in the undoing of Eve and I begin to compare my vocation with Jesus'? Adam's sin. More blessed trees are planted Yet there it was. For the redemption of the by streams of living water. In Eve's garden world, Jesus sweat and wept out his misgiv­ there were two trees planted by four rivers: ings, and went out to take up his cross. And one was the tree of know ledge, the other the as much as I would like to get out of it, God tree of life. Much later in time, that other seems to have given me a miniature little tree, the one that stood starkly on Go !gotha, cross or two. Much as I would like to walk began as a tree of death. On that tree Christ away from it, it seems God wants me to be died. But, as many medieval artists and part offinding a way to [be redemptive} for mystics depicted it, it became the arbor vi­ others.... That's my small piece in the re­ tae, the tree of life, the budding cross, signi­ demption of the world, I suspect. I don't fying to all the particularly joyous work this particularly like that calling. I'll trade it if second Adam had accomplished. Deep anybody out there is interested. And yet I magic. The choices await us. know I can't get out of it, anymore than Jeremiah could get out of his calling, or Je­ sus out of his.

What my friend did not add is the thought that of course Jeremiah, and Jesus, and my friend himself, could in fact get out of car­ rying their crosses. But they did not. They chose instead to stay true to God. And therein lies the deep magic. Think of what is at stake in the choices we make. Think of the effect our choices produce. Mary Mar­ garet Funk says "the desert wisdom had a sense of the unity of all persons and the im­ pact of each of our thoughts upon that unity." Saying "No" to the dirty business deal, saying "No" to the pornography on the internet, saying "No" to the anger felt against a spouse-what ramifications are generated? Surely, when someone chooses to stay in a difficult marriage, there are blessings that spread from the spouse, to the children, to the relatives, and much farther. But perhaps there are unseen spiritual con­ sequences as well-within our own lives, but also throughout the universe. "People

5 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships John Seland

As is well known, in 1925, Tolkien, enters it and is made welcome. The master along with E. V. Gordon, edited a version of of the castle suggests that Gawain rest there Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. [1] Con­ for three days, since the place of the Green sidering the fact that Tolkien was extremely Knight is not too far away. Also, a bargain well acquainted with Sir Gawain, one won­ is made: each day the host and Gawain will ders if there might be some connections be­ exchange whatever each receives during the tween the medieval poem and his novel, day. The Hobbit, published in 1937. In this es­ On the ftrst day, while the host is say, I would like to show that in several im­ hunting, his wife goes to Gawain's bed­ portant ways The Hobbit does bear a close chamber, surprising him by speaking words relationship to Sir Gawain, and most likely of love. But Gawain resists, just as he does was influenced by Tolkien's study of the when she asks him to accept a gift. All he earlier work. The two works show points of will accept is a kiss. That evening, when similarity in their structure, their genre, the the host offers Gawain some of the deer that way the heroes are characterized, and their he has killed, Gawain in turn offers him a religious concerns. Let us examine these kiss. On the second day, the wife comes points in greater detail, beginning with a again, this time tempting Gawain even more close look at Sir Gawain. severely. Gawain again resists, and again The plot of Sir Gawain is rather sim­ the lady kisses him, this time twice. In the ple. On Christmas Eve many knights and evening, the host shares some of the bounty, fair ladies gather in King Arthur's banquet the meat of a boar. The same pattern con­ hall in order to celebrate the holidays. Sud­ tinues on the third day; however, this time, denly a strange man, a giant all dressed in although Gawain remains chaste, he accepts green, enters the room, and issues a chal­ a girdle from the lady, since she claims it is lenge. If a knight would dare strike and cut magical and can defend him from all harm. off his head, then one year later, on New In addition, she kisses him three times. Year's morning, he must receive the same That night, when they are at supper, kind of stroke at the green giant's castle in a the host shares the day's catch with Gawain, distant land. Gawain decides to accept the the meat of a fox. As before, Gawain kisses challenge. However, when he strikes at the him, however, he says nothing about the visitor's neck, surprisingly, the man then girdle. On New Year's morning, Gawain picks up his head, gets on his horse, and rides to the Green Chapel and meets the rides from the hall, shouting back to Ga­ Green Knight. However, when the Knight wain to remember his promise. brings his ax down, Gawain moves a little The following autumn Gawain be­ to the side, with the result that the weapon gins his quest. Passing through wild lands doesn't touch his neck. On the second at­ in the north full of dragons, giants, fterce tempt it is the Knight who avoids cutting animals and evil men, he arrives in Wirral, a Gawain's neck. The blade does descend the wild, uncivilized region. Eventually, on third time, but only to skim Gawain's neck. Christmas Eve, he sees a great castle. He At that Gawain readies himself to ftght, but

6 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland

the Knight merely laughs. Then he tells Ga­ poem points in that direction. The giant's wain everything. challenge to the Arthur and his knights al­ He is the lord of the castle. Gawain lows the author to suggest that the court is escaped the first two blows, because for two not all that it is credited to be. In what days he was faithful to his promise. But seems a deficiency in courage, a virtue of because he failed to reveal the girdle-and which a good knight should be renowned, here he is guilty of cheating (Burton Raffel no one, for instance, accepts the giant's 25)-he received a slight cut on his neck. challenge, so that it is with a certain embar­ The whole escapade, says the Knight, was rassment that Arthur himself does. It is also an agreement with Morgan le Fay. She and apparent that the knights and ladies at court the Knight wanted to test the mettle of Ar­ are enjoying themselves rather festively, al­ thur's court, renowned for its courage and though a better way to prepare for Christ­ bravery. [2] mas would be a subdued mood of prayer Gawain resisted the Knight's wife's and meditation. Gawain's rather exces­ temptations; his only fault was to keep the sively modest way of persuading Arthur to girdle, for which the host forgives him. Ga­ let him accept the challenge also causes us wain did it in order to save his life, a factor to wonder whether he will be strong meriting mitigation. enough in one year's time to fulfill the chal­ Once back in Camelot, Gawain re­ lenge given by the green giant. veals his story and his shame. ("To be the Afterwards, when Gawain sets out victim of a trick is perhaps the worst blow on his quest, we enter more fully into the Gawain has to endure, because it deprives main action (Fits II, III, and IV). But even him of self esteem," A. C. Spearing 104). here, there is development. Gawain must However, to show their love for him, eve­ first battle all kinds of monsters, but even ryone decides to wear silk girdles. It be­ worse, he must contend with the freezing comes a traditional part of their costume as winter weather. Following this, he is Knights of the Round Table. [3] warmly welcomed at the castle. Then comes the lady's three temptations, balanced When ones turns to The Hobbit, one by the three hunts of the host. After resting finds certain striking similarities to Sir Ga­ sufficiently, Gawain travels to the Green wain. The first concerns the structure of Giant's cave, where he tries to fulfill the each work. At the very beginning of the covenant. At this point, after giving Ga­ poem (Fit 1), we are given a kind of pro­ wain a slight wound, the Giant reveals his logue that briefly traces the founding of identity as well as the purpose for the test­ Britain, from Brutus back to the fall of ing. Having learned this, Gawain returns Troy. King Arthur is then listed as one of home. However, here the author appends a most valiant kings to rule the country. The kind of corollary to the main story, showing author then proposes to relate "a wondrous the reactions of the court to Gawain's or­ adventure that fell out of his time." One deal. This section also serves to put Ga­ cannot help but imagine that the story to wain's deeds into a more comic perspective: follow will enumerate something relating to he takes his humiliation very seriously, the fall of Troy. Indeed, it may even be that while the court sees his behavior as worthy King Arthur's court, or someone in his of remembrance. In effect, the author bal­ court, will somehow be involved in a sort of ances the seriousness of the action and the "fall." Indeed, the next movement of the hero's mood with one that is more COITilC,

7 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland

the point being that although chivalry and Sir Gawain. In the poem the temptations of Christianity are not in harmony, this is sim­ the lady grow ever stronger. as she offers ply "a condition of life in an imperfect herself to Gawain, each time in a more per­ world" (Howard 56). "The poem is thus suasive way. (The severity of the tempta­ both a tragic romance with the sad moral tions are symbolized by the host's difficulty that perfection is beyond our grasp and an in hunting: the deer is relatively easy to unromantic comedy with the happy point hunt, less so is the boar; and hardest of all is that if a man aims high enough he can come the cunning fox.) Like Gawain, Bilbo must as near perfection as this world al­ confront many adversaries, each one incre­ lows" (Benson 30). mentally more dangerous than preceding These two sections of the poem, ones. Having overcome the relatively fool­ then, the scene depicting life at Arthur's ish trolls (who allow themselves to be court, and the return journey, act as a turned into stone by exposing themselves to kind of frame, enclosing the main action of sunlight), Bilbo must then contend with the the story, the temptation scenes and the more violent goblins. His next adversary, meeting with the giant before his cave. the degenerate but intelligent hobbit, Bilbo's adventures in The Hobbit Gollum, is even more dangerous. However, follow a similar pattern of "separation, ini­ Bilbo manages to escape from Gollum, tiation, and return" (Matthews 32). The thanks to his wit and to the good fortune of sudden appearance of Gandalf and the having found Gollum's magic ring. Follow­ dwarves serves as an introduction to the ing this-and having rejoined the dwarves­ main action; they give a motive for the jour­ he must then contend with Wargs (evil ney to Lonely Mountain: to retake the gems wolves), then spiders, then Wood-elves. stolen by the dragon Smaug many years However, his greatest tests occur from this previously. (Even the title of chapter one, point on. "An Unexpected Party," seems a reflection The first is with the dragon Smaug. of the beginning of Sir Gawain, when the Bilbo acts with great physical courage when giant surprises everyone by his sudden ap­ he descends alone into the dragon's tunnel, pearance.) The unexpected appearance of knowing full well that Smaug is there. His Gandalf and his subsequent challenge-to moral virtue is again seen when, rather than go on the adventure in order to retake the stealing a great amount of treasure, he set­ stolen jewels-also afford the reader an op­ ties for the Arkenstone. Shortly afterwards, portunity to gain insights into Bilbo's char­ realizing that Thorin intends to fight in acter: his excessive love of comfort, his im­ order to hoard the entire treasure, he bravely maturity, and his timidity-all elements goes to Bard and gives him the gem, hoping pointing to the fact that he is suffering from it can be used as a bargaining tool. After a depression (William Green). We also come final battle between the evil and good to realize that buried underneath all this lies forces, all ends happily when the good tri­ the "Took" side of his personality that he umphs. inherited from his mother: a wish to wear a At this point, similar to Sir Gawain, sword, and to go on adventures, to chal­ Tolkien adds a final section to the novel. lenge himself and lead a more daring life. Bilbo is not received as warmly as Gawain The next sections of the novel, from was at his return, indeed, he finds that Chapters II to XVII, give the main action of "dragon sickness," greed, has affected some the story. They also bear a resemblance to of his own townsmen, who, presuming he

8 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland has died, are busy auctioning off his prop­ Gollum, writes the cnt1c Jane Nitzsche, erty. However, this section allows Tolkien represents inordinate "love of self (sui to show further how greed corrupts. Also, amoris) specifically directed toward lower as in Sir Gawain, it serves to round out or bodily functions," just as Smaug is di­ Bilbo's adventures, thus fulfilling the rected to more "spiritual" evil, such as novel's subtitle, "There and Back Again." pride, envy, anger and covetousness Here, too, thematically, it resembles (Nitzsche 36). There are many other such Sir Gawain. The comic stance taken by the parallels. Smaug, for instance, is "a vast in­ Green Giant, who persuades Gawain not to carnation of the infantile state that Bilbo has take his humiliation too seriously, finds a been outgrowing throughout the parallel in the court's decision to honor Ga­ story" (Green 43 ). His dungeon is a mirror wain, a decision which, once again, gives of Bilbo's comfortable underground home in his adventure a more comic tone. The the Shire, that is filled with all sorts of car­ growth in Bilbo's character, and Gandalfs pets and paneled walls and pantries ("lots of approval of him likewise gives the story a these" 11 ), so that he can live as comforta­ decidedly lighter tone, which serves to com­ bly as possible. Many other caves are men­ pensate for the loss of Thorin's life. tioned in the course of the story. Each one Along with similarities of structure, is like a womb that Bilbo must pass through one finds in both works a great deal of bal­ to be reborn. He needs to go within, to face ance in symbolism, themes, and significant what lies within his unconscious self and actions, a stylistic honing that shows con­ come to terms with it in order to come to siderable skill. The prevalence of "twos" new life. and "threes" in the poem are especially Another focal point the two works noteworthy. "Things are arranged in share is a similarity of genre: both are ro­ pairs-there are two New Year's days, two mances, more specifically, romances based 'beheading' scenes, two courts, and two on a mixture of folklore and fairy tale, two confessions." [There is also] the juxtaposi­ literary forms replete with the magical. tion of the two symbols, the shield and the Thus Morgan le Fay, in an effort to give the girdle" (Howard 44). The two themes-the court a few pointers on the virtue of humil­ temptation of Gawain and the beheading ity, arranges the headcutting scene in the Challenge-also fit this pattern. We also early stages of the story. So, too, the magic see how Death, represented by the Green girdle Gawain wears "has powers of its Giant as well as winter, contrasts with Life, own ... magical properties to save the symbolized by the coming of Spring and wearer from being slain" (Howard 48). The Gawain's new lease on life. In other places magic ring in The Hobbit functions in much in the poem things are arranged in a pattern the same way, allowing Bilbo to escape of threes. Thus there are three temptations, several dangerous situations. The emphasis three hunts, three kisses, and three strokes on the importance of following advice or, in of the ax. negative terms, not to do what is prohib­ The same kind of stylistic and the­ ited-a staple idea in many fairy tales-is matic balancing is found throughout also given much attention in The Hobbit. [5] The Hobbit. Gollum, we come to see, is the Because the dwarves forget Beorn's advice alter-ego of Bilbo (Nitzsche 36), an exam­ and stray from the path, they are captured ple of what Bilbo could become were by the Wood-elves. Also, the wild creatures he to give in to his selfish impulses. [4] Gawain must deal with as he searches for

9 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland the Green Knight find a counterpart in is the way the characters are portrayed. Ga­ those whom Bilbo encounters. The crea­ wain and Bilbo are both untested at the be­ tures in the poem serve both as a kind of ginning, just as both experience severe trials preliminary test of Gawain's courage and a that serve to clarify for the reader their in­ sign of greater trials to come. In Bilbo's herent virtue. Here, however, the similarity case, too, such creatures as spiders and gob­ ends. Gawain's tests serve to show both his lins and Wood-elves act as preliminary tests own individual worth as well as that of the to later, more severe tests by greater foes. court. Bilbo's, however, are more for his We also find in each work realistic own personal growth, rather than that of his elements. In Sir Gawain, this can be seen in hobbit community. We also see that, the author's inclusion of place names, such although Gawain does experience individ­ as Wales, Anglesey, Holy Head, the River ual growth after completing his quest-at Dee, and Wirral Forest (698-701). In The least he grows in self-awareness-it is Hobbit, Tolkien includes real people, like not to the extent that Bilbo grows. Further­ Bard, the Master of Dale, and the men of more, Gawain's awareness comes, as it the lake-town. Also, because Tolkien is were, in a rush. The sudden revelation by more interested than the Gawain poet in the the Green Knight of the whole plot and why theme of maturation, he uses creatures like it took place comes to Gawain like a shock. goblins and spiders in a number of ways. Bilbo's maturation is a much more carefully They represent difficult experiences by constructed, deliberate! y protracted affair. which Bilbo's prowess and courage are Step by step he advances, "always gaining tested. They also symbolize the dangers in confidence, competence, and character­ prevalent in society itself. Great care, as all qualities that lead to self­ well as a good measure of self-awareness sufficiency" (Green 89). It is as ifTolkien are necessary to cope with the world. On a wrote the book with this specifically in psychological level, the creatures can also mind, as if he intended the story to clarify be seen as "externalizations of psychic phe­ the process of growing to maturity. We are nomena" (Matthews 32), that is, hidden as­ also aware that Gawain was not completely pects of Bilbo's own psyche. The trolls, for successful during the quest. He compro­ instance, symbolize "unrestrained libido ... mised, using "worldly means in the wrong the power, the numinous potency, of the way" (Howard 49), and depending on a complexes that reside in Bilbo's Uncon­ magic girdle rather than on God's grace to scious" (O'Neill 58-9) and which he must save his life. Thus he "falls short of the overcome if he is to attain individuation. ideal" (Marie Borroff 66). Bilbo, on the This, too, gives the novel a basis of reality. other hand, albeit with a great amount of In any event, the combination of romance help from Gandalf, is successful. Unlike and realism in each work serves as a way by Gawain, he resists the temptation to use which the respective authors are able to worldly things, such as the ring and the weave in their favorite themes, such as the treasure, in the wrong way. nature of heroism, the true virtues of the A further point of clarification con­ good Christian knight (particularly the cerns the outcome of their respective trials. need for "a humble and a contrite heart" (E. E. Talbot Donaldson writes about this. Talbot Donaldson 99), and the need for ma­ "Gawain's courtesy," he says, "fails him ... turity. in the sense that it involves him in a pro­ A further element both works share foundly embarrassing and dangerous situa-

10 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland

tion with the lady: it results in trouble in­ his enemies one by one. Thus, rather than stead of the serenity that courtesy, as the running for safety, Bilbo fights and kills diplomat's virtue, is supposed to procure. many of the spiders, again saving the Then the second of his great virtues, his dwarves' lives. When they are imprisoned martial prowess, is denied him by the by the Wood-elves, he devises a way to free promise he has made not to defend himself them, putting them in barrels so they can against the Green Knight's return escape the dungeon. He also passes a stroke" (99). In Bilbo's case, except for major test when, knowing the dragon is in­ his mistakes in dealing with the trolls in the side, he still decides to go there. "Going on early part of the story, there is no question from there," the narrator tells us, "was the of failure; he is consistently successful. He bravest thing he ever did" (184). After this, learns from each experience, just as he Bilbo still faces other temptations, but be­ learns from the example of Gandalf. cause of his moral maturity, he overcomes Though he is disappointed in the greed them. Rather than hoard the treasure he shown by so many, he is hardly shocked in finds in the tunnel, for example, he shares it. the way Gawain is by a sudden revelation of And rather than keep the Arkenstone for the truth. himself, he generously gives it to Bard, the A further distinction can be made in heroic man of Dale. the nature of the trials and the success with He also overcomes the temptation to which each hero faces them. Gawain ful­ hoard a large part of the treasure for him­ fills his promise to meet the Green Knight self. And, in what may actually be the at the appointed time. However, his failure greatest success of all, he refuses to be to reveal the girdle is a matter of rather seri­ puffed up by his successes. When Gandalf ous import, especially since the good knight teases him after their adventures have fin­ must be a man of courtesy. In not telling ished, "You are a very fine person, Mr. his host about the girdle, Gawain is being Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you discourteous. are only quite a little fellow in a wide world Bilbo's courage is also tested. But, after all!" he replies, laughing, "Thank unlike Gawain, in each case he passes the goodness!" (255). With that they both en­ test as he learns how to act with both ph ysi­ joy a good smoke. cal and moral courage. He is clumsy and a A final point concerns the religious bit foolish when he tries to pickpocket a concerns of both writers. Sir Gawain is troll, with the result that Gandalf must come "basically a Christian poem," writes Burton to the rescue. Later, when Gollum stands Raffel. "The description of the pentangle before the opening of the cave, Bilbo is star on Gawain's shield (619ff) shows a pas­ tempted to kill him. However, he doesn't, sionate Christianity and ... the whole test­ feeling that being invisible and having a ing tale which underlies the plot of the sword gives him an unfair advantage. Once poem has a deeply Christian frame­ again, he shows great moral strength. Not work" (28). Also, religion is dealt with long after this, Gandalf departs, knowing quite openly. Gawain prays to Mary, he that Bilbo has become capable of leading signs himself with the sign of the cross, and the dwarves. The trust invested in him he calls on Christ to help him. The theme proves true when, several times afterwards of life-in-death is also present. "Gawain Bilbo resists the temptation to escape to has almost lost his life, by seeking to keep safety by himself. Instead, he bravely faces it, and has found his life, by being willing to

II Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland

lose it" (Denton Fox 12). and yet not above using a trick himself in Tolkien's novel is also religious, but the order to save his life ... perhaps it was all religious elements are subtle and hidden, this that impressed Tolkien the most. In since, as with The Lord of the Rings, he did The Hobbit, Bilbo fares much better, once not want the book to be seen as an allegory. he overcomes his fears. But, as he himself An overt mention of Christian themes, he knows so well, much of his success comes felt, would detract from the mythological­ because of the help of Gandalf, or through fantasy aspects of the book. Nevertheless, luck (read: God's grace). That is why it is religion plays an important part in the story. so satisfying to see him agreeing so readily Evil finds personification in the wild crea­ with Gandalfs statement, "You are only tures, in Gollum, the dwarves, and the quite a little fellow in a wide world after greedy men of Esgaroth. So, too, as in Sir all!" When we think of it, so, too, was Ga­ Gawain, a great deal of emphasis is placed wain: just a little fellow in a wide world. on the theme of finding life by sacrificing it Bilbo and Gawain: they have a lot in com­ for others. Indeed, in doing this, Bilbo be­ mon. comes a kind of Christ-figure. Like Christ, he is a "burglar," stealing souls from the evil that threatens them. Considering the fact that the two works Notes give evidence of much different cultural and social values, and realizing that the purpose 1. A second edition appeared in 1967, re­ of the author of each work was unique, one vised and edited by Norman Davis (Oxford hesitates to say with conviction that there is UP), in a volume that incorporates much of a direct relationship between them. Never­ the recent scholarship on the poem, and theless, as we have seen, there do share "will presumably be accepted as the stan­ many points in common. Beyond this, one dard edition" (Denton Fox ll5). wonders: Is it not possible that Tolkien was especially moved by the example of Ga­ 2. The witch also wanted to frighten wain? Could it not be that Gawain's Guenevere out of her wits (because of an character and manners left a deep impres­ ancient jealousy between the queen and sion, one that he kept in mind when deline­ Morgana) (Raffel 27). ating the character of Bilbo? For, as we can see, Gawain was not such an ideal knight 3. Larry D. Benson comments: "This final after all. He was fallible; indeed, when put scene is only an extension of the recurrent to the severest test, he fell. Despite the alternation of romance and unromantic ele­ great fuss made over his membership in the ments that repeatedly undercuts the high Round Table, and despite all the outward seriousness of the narrative ... The Green trappings of armor, and all the boasting of Knight ... has an attitude of his own, unro­ Arthur and the court, Gawain was simply mantic rather than anti-romantic in its re­ human. At heart, he was more or less a man fusal to take romance seriously" (242). just like ourselves: anxious to prove his mettle, but in fact, very frightened before an 4. Nitzsche (Tolkien's Art: "A Mythology unknown giant; tempted by a woman for England," New York: St. offering her love but, when he learns of the Martin's, 1979) offers a very helpful plot, angry at her for trying to trick him- Jungian interpretation of The Hobbit, al-

12 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland

though she sees the novel as a more Works Cited Christian work than Tolkien intended. Other helpful sources elucidating Jung's in­ Benson, Larry D. "Art and Tradition in Sir fluence on Tolkien include: A Tolkien Gawain and the Green Knight," in Twenti­ Compass, a book of essays edited by Jared eth Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain Lobdell (La Salle: Open Court, 1975); and the Green Knight: A Collection of Criti­ Timothy R. O'Neill, The Individuated cal Essays, ed. Denton Fox. Englewood Hobbit: lung, Tolkien and the Archetypes of Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Middle-Earth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979); and William H. Green, The Hobbit: Borroff, Marie. "The Criticism of Style," in A Journey into Maturity (New York: Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir Twayne, 1995). Gawain and the Green Knight.

5. A riddle contest, in which a prisoner Donaldson, E. Talbot. "View Points," in gains his freedom by posing a problem Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir which in its nature is insolvable is also Gawain and the Green Knight. a well- known motif in fairy tale literature. (Christopher Tolkien, The Saga of King Fox, Denton. "Introduction," in Twentieth Heidrik the Wise (London: Thomas Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain and Nelson and Sons, 1960), xx. Dorothy Mat­ the Green Knight. thews also points out that "Folk motifs form the very warp and woof in the texture of the Green, William H. The Hobbit: A Journey tale [The Hobbit]" ("The Psychological into Maturity. New York: Twayne, 1995. Journey of Bilbo Baggins," in A Tolkien Compass, ed. Jared Lobdell (La Salle, IL: Howard, Donald R. "Structure and Symme­ Open Court, 1975), 28. William Green also try in Sir Gawain," in Twentieth Century In­ remarks about the prevalence of terpretations of Sir Gawain and the Green "prohibition" in many fairy tales. (The Knight. Hobbit: A Journey into Maturation, New York: Twayne, 1995) 86. John Speirs has Mathew, Gervase. "Ideals of Knighthood in some good information about the Green Late Fourteenth-Century England," m Knight as bearing a relationship to "the Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir Green Man-the Jack in the Green or the Gawain and the Green Knight. Wild Man of the village festivals of Eng­ land and Europe ("Sir Gawain and the Matthews, Dorothy. "The Psychological Green Knight," in Twentieth Century Inter­ Journey of Bilbo Baggins," in A Tolkien pretations of Sir Gawain and the Green Compass, ed. Jared Lobdell. La Salle, IL: Knight: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. 1975. Denton Fox, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice­ Hall, 1968), 83. Nitzsche, Jane. Tolkien's Art. New York: St. Martins, 1979.

O'Neill, Timothy R. The Individuated Hob­ bit: lung, Tolkien and the Archetypes of Middle-Earth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

13 Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships by John Seland

1979.

Raffel, Burton, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: New American Library, 1970.

Spearing, A.C. "View Points," in Twentieth Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Denton Fox. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.

Tolkien, J.R.R. and E. V. Gordon, eds. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 2nd ed. Ed. Norman Davis. Oxford, 1967.

14 Imagining Heaven: Assessing Lewis's Romantic Revisions of Dante's Comedy Steven Jensen

After his purifying ascent up the who was grateful for Lewis "ending one of mountain of Purgatory to the original his Chronicles of Narnia with a picture of earthly paradise of Adam and Eve, Dante Heaven not as the annihilation of this uni­ the Pilgrim suddenly finds himself disori­ verse but as its transformation--containing ented once again. His new guide Beatrice in their perfection all of the things of the explains to him that '"thou art not on earth world that we love" (101). Dante's more as­ as thou thinkest, but lightning flying from tronomical Heaven-at least in the short an­ its own place never ran so fast as thou re­ thology excerpts in which I initially encoun­ tumest to thine"' (Paradiso 23). Thus liber­ tered it-seemed comparatively cold, static, ated from earth, Dante will spend book and deficient in earthly beauty. Subsequent three of The Divine Comedy, the Paradiso, reading of Dante's work in its entirety has soaring upwards through the planetary corrected many of my oversimplified re­ spheres until he arrives beyond time and sponses to his rich and complex vision, but space in the Empyrean, the final resting for the most part Lewis's revisions still ren­ place of the saints. There, seated in spiritual der Heaven more attractive to my own sen­ hierarchy in a kind of giant floral amphi­ sibilities, and I suspect to those of most theater, the blessed spend their eternity in other modems as well. contemplation and adoration of the triune In The Discarded Image, Lewis con­ God. fesses that the medieval model of the cos­ C. S. Lewis's understanding of mos that he describes "delights me as I be­ Heaven is doubly indebted to that of Dante. lieve it delighted our ancestors" (216). First, the Divine Comedy serves as a direct Nonetheless, he takes issue theologically or literary influence on Lewis, whose novel aesthetically with the model at several key The Great Divorce, for instance, is really a points. For one, Lewis explains that Dante's self-conscious retelling of the Comedy. Sec­ passive characterization of God as "the love ond, and more indirectly, Lewis's imagina­ that moves the sun and the other stars" (485 tion was consistently nourished by his grasp Paradiso) derives primarily from Aristotle of the medieval cosmos, a cosmos he lu­ and is subtly "out of Harmony" (19) with a cidly characterizes in his critical work The Christian conception of a God whose active Discarded Image. For all the influences and grace seeks out the lost sheep. Dante him­ similarities between the ways Dante and self bridges this disharmony by making his Lewis imagined Heaven, however, the dif­ fallen main character the object of Bea­ ferences between their visions are perhaps trice's condescending grace, and she is ob­ even more significant. And if Lewis often viously the prototype for the heavenly spir­ succeeds in rendering Heaven intelligible its in The Great Divorce who condescend to and attractive to modem sensibilities, his extend God's love and grace to the visiting portrayals sometimes bump up against limi­ ghosts from Hell. But Asian in the Namia tations of their own. Chronicles models a much more active and My own reactions to Lewis's literary personal deity than is easily imaginable Heaven have mirrored those of Joyce Little, within the medieval model.

15 Imagining Heaven: Assessing Lewis's Romantic Revisions of Dante's Comedy by Steven Jensen

On an aesthetic level, Lewis sug­ make the act of will necessary to overcome gests that the medieval model is, "for those their sinful self-absorption and relinquish of us who have known Romanticism, a the self-consuming compensations of Hell shade too ordered. For all its vast spaces it for the self-transcending joys of Heaven. In might in the end afflict us with a kind of The Last Battle, each creature called to claustrophobia. Is there nowhere any vague­ judgment simp! y looks Asian in the face ness? No undiscovered byways? No twi­ and is judged by its visceral response. Thus light? Can we never really get out of the scholastic emphasis on intellect gives doors?" (121). In Lewis's Heavens, by con­ way to a more Romantic understanding of trast, the redeemed do not have prior knowl­ the locus of authentic faith. edge of what they will find when they move Lewis also reacts against the medie­ "further up and farther in," and their move­ val elevation of the contemplative over the ment toward God takes on the feeling of an active life, and his responses illuminate outdoor adventure. Dante's pilgrim takes points of difficulty both in Dante's vision only brief and passing notice of the natural and in Lewis's. For both of them, it is of beauty of earthly paradise at the summit of theological importance that the redeemed Purgatory, before departing Earth for heav­ maintain their individual earthly identities enly pleasures more cerebral and serene, in heaven. As Chesterton says, "No other and little connected to the sensory beauty of philosophy makes God actually rejoice in earthly nature. In Lewis's post-Romantic the separation of the universe into living Heaven, the sublimity of earthly nature is in souls. But according to orthodox Christian­ every way intensified in Heaven, which ity the separation between God and man is proves to be the reality of which all such au­ sacred, because this is eternal" (13). True, thentic beauty and longing is but a Dante's vigorous characters do retain their "shadow." And while Lewis elsewhere ac­ earthly identities in Heaven. Separation, knowledges that heaven is a "city" and a however, can be a relative concept. What "society," (Problem of Pain !50), the heav­ really remains of God's primary act of crea­ ens he imagines, including his Platonic con­ tive separation for characters whose exis­ ceptions of the "real" Narnia and England, tence culminates in a timeless eternity of are primarily experienced by the redeemed static contemplation? We are assured that as natural landscapes rather than as re­ Dante's redeemed are never bored in their deemed societies. eternal rapture, but it is easy to imagine, Other adjustments in Lewis's heav­ say, Asian becoming bored with creatures ens accommodate Romantic sensibilities as who manifest so little of the original unpre­ well. For instance, Dante's pilgrim, as he dictability and exuberance of their original approaches the Empyrean, spends three full creative separation. At least from a human cantos being catechized concerning his in­ perspective, the queen of Perelandra or the tellectual grasp of the Christian doctrines of first talking animals of Namia are more in­ faith, hope, and love, as he models the puri­ teresting than the souls of Dante's Empy­ fied intellect of the redeemed in the scholas­ rean, who seem to have sublimated many tic tradition. In The Great Divorce, the aspects of their earthly humanity in their heavenly spirits argue with the visiting eternal contemplation. ghosts, not so much to indoctrinate them as As M. H. Abrams has pointed out, to try to fan into flames the latent emotions "in Romantic as well as Neoplatonic and intuitions that might empower them to thought, division, separateness, externality,

16 Imagining Heaven: Assessing Lewis's Romantic Revisions of Dante's Comedy by Steven Jensen

isolation are equated with evil" (181), and and desire-memory of earthly history and life's journey tends to be imagined as a cir­ desire for God. The human story is com­ cuitous one back toward a lost primal unity pleted and there will be no new stories to with God, or at least with nature. Lewis re­ tell. sists this ideal of unity, in part, undoubt­ By contrast, Lewis ends his Chroni­ edly, because of his Christian orthodoxy, cles of Narnia with the rousing assertion but also, I believe, because of the particular that all his characters' "life in this world shape of his own Platonism. Lewis believed and all their adventures in Narnia had only that "the pleasures on Earth are reflections been the cover and the title page; now at last of those in Heaven" (Honda 9), that "the they were beginning Chapter One of the hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those Great Story . . . which goes on for­ you now experience not as a copy is to an ever" (184). The counter-example of original, nor as a substitute is to the genuine Lewis's heaven does raise the question for article, but as the flower to the root, or the Dante of whether we can really imagine a diamond to the coal" (Letters 123). This be­ glorified human existence, or a perfected lief that genuine earthly beauty and pleasure human community, beyond event and story, are intimations of heavenly reality led featuring Jove without acts of Jove or justice Lewis to create a much more earthly without acts of justice. Set alongside Heaven than Dante, and to include pleasures Lewis's heaven, Dante's sometimes bears of an active as well as contemplative nature. uncomfortable resemblance to the purpose­ As Lewis points out in Miracles, "these less underworld of his classical models, small and perishable bodies we now have where Achilles complains about "the ex­ were given to us a ponies are given to hausted dead." schoolboys," and imagines our glorified On the other hand, it is hard to imag­ heavenly bodies as valuable for "a gallop ine how Lewis's Heaven can sustain its own with the King" (169). And indeed, Heaven promise of endless narrative, as his charac­ in The Last Battle is mostly experienced ters continue "further up and farther in." side by side rather than face to face with Tellingly, while Dante takes his readers into Asian, who serves Jess as an object of con­ the very heart of Heaven, Lewis never at­ templation than as guide to God's country, a tempts to portray more than the first foot­ place where the redeemed enjoy not primar­ hills. But will his characters ever reach a ily the presence of God so much as the joy­ destination? Does their active life ever ful flexing of their own glorified humanity. draw to a final rest? Can narrative really be The activity of Lewis's Heaven sustained without evil, or danger, or adver­ raises another, related issue. Erich Auerbach sity? On Malacandra Lewis had Maleldil celebrates Dante for focusing attention on create the hnakra, presumably to furnish his the particularities of earthly existence, on creatures with narrative interest. In the "the narrow cleft of earthly human history, Narnia Chronicles, even the wasps are ex­ the span of a man's life on earth, in which cluded from Heaven. It is hard to see how the great and dramatic decision must fall," Lewis's Heaven could sustain anything like since in Dante's heaven "everything that the kind of narrative interest that drives the happens below the Earth or in the heavens previous adventures in Narnia. above relates to the human drama in this The usual Romantic approach to world" (132). In a Heaven without events, theodicy is to posit a symbiotic relationship all that remains to characters IS memory between good and evil. That approach

17 Imagining Heaven: Assessing Lewis's Romantic Revisions of Dante's Comedy by Steven Jensen

Lewis explicitly rejects, most directly in C. S. Lewis. New York: University Perelandra and in The Great Divorce. But Press of America, 2000. while Lewis is able to articulate the idea of an attractive and interesting narrative with­ Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image. New out evil or danger within his fiction, he York: Cambridge UP, 1964. never sustains such a narrative for long, and the difficulty of doing so may explain why ---. The Last Battle. New York, Macmillan, his narratives of Heaven, unlike Dante's, 1970. always end at the foothills. In many ways it is both easier and ---. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly On Prayer. less satisfying to articulate a doctrine of San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovano­ Heaven than it is to create a picture that ren­ vich, 1963. ders Heaven accessible to the imagination. Like Dante, Lewis is always cautious about ---.Miracles. New York: Macmillan, 1947. his visions, warning readers of the inherent limitations and impossibilities of his task. ---. The Problem of Pain. New Y ark: Mac­ Comparing his heaven with Dante's great millan, 1962. vision surely confirms the difficulty of imagining human existence beyond time, Little, Joyce. '"It is Not Good for God to Be beyond evil and danger, in a way that does Alone': Trinitarianism Versus Mo­ not reduce either Heaven or Earth to a mere nism." The Chesterton Review shadow of its intended glory, and that can XXVI.l-2 (2000), 95-116. somehow satisfy the longings and sensibili­ ties of people as different as what separates us from Dante's medieval world.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H. Natural Supernaturalism. New York: Norton, 1971.

Auerbach, Erich. Dante: Poet of the Secular World. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Chi­ cago, Chicago UP, 1974.

Chesterton, G. K. Orthodoxy. Qtd. in The Chesterton Review XXVI.l-2 (2000), 11-13.

Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy, III: Paradiso. Trans. John D. Sinclair. New York, Oxford UP, 1939.

Honda, Mineko. The Imaginative World of

18 The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path: C.S. Lewis's View of Hell in Screwtape and The Great Divorce Richard Hill

Writer William F. Buckley was once which they are of course unable to do, and asked why he spelled Hell with a capital H. so the grey town spreads out for millions of "Because," he said, "it's a real place, like miles as the inhabitants try to escape one Scarsdale [an affluent New York suburb]." another's company. And of course the C.S. Lewis also spelled Hell with a capital houses, being only imaginary, don't keep H and definitely thought it a real place. out the rain, or the relentless frustration and However, though Lewis was, by today's unpleasantness, or the fear of darkness com­ standards, a religious conservative like ing. Buckley, he did not see Hell as necessarily In The Screwtape Letters, Hell is a domain of fire and brimstone. Nonethe­ streamlined, well-lit, and meticulously man­ less, his visions of grim, rainy towns full of aged. It is a nightmare of bureaucracy, of relentless malcontents and modern bu­ which the worst police state, or even the reaucracies full of smiling cannibals are in N.I.C.E. abomination of That Hideous many ways more horrifying than the tradi­ Strength, is but a pale shadow. From "Our tional imagery of Hell, and his summation Father Below" on up, Screwtape' s Hell is a of the fate of the damned is at least as chill­ hive of resentful and envious backstabbers, ing. a Byzantine "lowerarchy" of treachery and Lewis saw the essence of Hell as separa­ deceit. It is a dog-eat-dog concern. both tion from God, arrived at voluntarily by a figuratively and literally, for devils who do process of self-deception and self­ not stay ahead of the game are absorbed­ centeredness. Taking a cue from Milton's eaten-by the ravenous devils they plotted Satan, denizens of Hell believe, either by to absorb themselves. Human souls are the arrogance or ignorance or both, that it is cattle upon which devils feed as they plot to better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. devour one another. But for everyone but Satan himself, this In Screwtape the young man is killed on choice means to hold on to self-deceptions, Earth, but saved from Hell when he repents growing ever more "shrunk up into oneself' at his death. In The Great Divorce, lost at the cost of eternal joy. One cannot be sent souls are given a chance to repent even after or taken to Hell: "you can only get there on they have been in Hell. If they do decide to your own steam." The doors to Hell may or repent, Hell has then been Purgatory for may not be locked from the outside, but them The free choice of whether or not to they are certainly locked from the inside. repent must exist, however-there must be Lewis offered two extended visions of a Hell for those who absolutely want to be Hell in his writing: the grey town in The separate from Joy. Of the final disposition Great Divorce and the modern corporate of­ of those who "only want to be left alone" by fice of The Screwtape Letters. In the for­ God, Lewis says, "Alas, I am afraid that is mer, Hell seems almost too easy-at first. what He does." Houses appear just by thinking of them, and For a deeper look at Lewis's view of no tormentors are in view. But the eternally Hell, I' II begin with a bit of literary back­ quarrelsome must live with each other, ground for those interested in sources and

19 The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path by Richard Hill inspirations. personal fame rather than edification of The first mention of what was to be­ Christians. The great success of The Screw­ come The Great Divorce dates from 1932, tape Letters and his BBC broadcasts during when Lewis's brother Warren wrote in his the war had made Lewis the most popular diary: "Jack has an idea for a religious "lay theologian" of the day, so as a famous work based on the opinion of some of the Christian apologist himself, he was aware Fathers that while punishment for the that one who points fingers must be pre­ damned is eternal, it is intermittent; he pro­ pared for fingers pointed back. But exam­ poses to do a sort of infernal day excursion ples of Lewis's Christian humility are nu­ to paradise." The diary date leads scholars merous in the biography. We see a good to believe that Lewis may have been in­ one later in Great Divorce, when George spired by a book of Jeremy Taylor's ser­ MacDonald cautions the narrator (who cer­ mons that his friend Arthur Greeves had tainly seems to be Lewis himself) against given him in 1931. In one of the sermons, becoming too much of an expert in the Taylor takes issue with a hymn by the apologist line when he says, "There have fourth century poet Purdentius Aurelius been men before now who got so interested Clemens who imagines the holiday from in proving the existence of God that they Hell idea. A major inspiration for the first came to care nothing for God Himself. ..." chapters of Great Divorce not cited often by When Lewis wonders aloud what people Lewis scholars is an eighteenth-century will think of him back on earth for suggest­ German book called Letters From Hell that ing that even mother-love can lead one to Lewis owned but didn't mention. In it are Hell, MacDonald replies that it might give many of the ideas that Lewis developed, in­ him some needed humility if he were mis­ cluding the grey town, the notion that understood and vilified. ghosts may wish for what they want but But for all his self-effacement, never enjoy it, the darkness of Hell, and the Lewis is still viewed as a Christian author­ glimpses of Paradise. In the Lewis men­ ity, by those who disagree as well as agree tions a fourth, less "literary" influence. He with him. In a college course on the Ink­ credits a science fiction writer whose name lings I team-taught a few years ago, a stu­ he has forgotten for the idea that Heaven is dent began to interrogate one of my co­ infinitely more solid than Earth or Hell. professors on Lewis's view of Bible iner­ So to his reflections on the writings rancy. The student followed up with a of a fourth century hymnist, and a seven­ question on whether Lewis agreed with teenth-century minister, and a 1930s pulp­ George MacDonald's Universalist view­ fiction hack, Lewis added an irritation with that everyone will be saved eventually. modern theology and his complete disagree­ Since I was teaching Lewis as my part of ment with mystic poet William Blake's no­ that course, the questions were referred to tion of evil evolving into good that Blake me. I answered as best I could. I said that postulated in "The Marriage of Heaven and for C.S. Lewis, debates on Bible inerrancy Hell." Lewis saw good and evil as abso­ and universalism were secondary to more lutely incompatible, hence the "Great Di­ crucial considerations, such as the impor­ vorce." tance of avoiding irritability with one's One of the most interesting charac­ family members. ters in the book is the apostate Anglican The student thought I was being fa­ bishop who write books on Christianity for cetious, but I wasn't. Or not too facetious,

20 The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path by Richard Hill anyway. Both The Great Divorce and benevolence, as well as some malice, in Screwtape, focus on the simple things that your patient's soul," admits Screwtape. are of the utmost importance in the Chris­ "The great thing is to direct the malice to tian life. True, Screwtape is an ambitious his immediate neighbors whom he meets and complex portrait of evil, and Great Di­ every day and to thrust his benevolence out vorce takes up great philosophical ques­ to the remote circumference, to people he tions. But for Lewis, the prime question does not know. The malice thus becomes was always how we are doing in THIS wholly real and the benevolence largely space and THIS time to give up the living imaginary ... There is no good at all in in­ Hell of our own self-centeredness and be­ flaming his hatred of Germans, if, at the come our real selves in God. same time, a pernicious habit of charity is The Screwtape Letters is perhaps a growing up between him and his mother, closer companion piece to Great Divorce his employer, and the man he meets in the than most Lewis scholars have noted, so I'll train." A modem example might be some­ spend a little time connecting the two. As one who votes for government largesse for those who have read it know, the time and the poor, but disdains to donate an hour to space setting for Screwtape is the Second the local soup kitchen because the inhabi­ World War, arguably the worst wholesale tants smell bad. human slaughter in recorded history. Many In short, the infernal strategy is to Christians at the time thought that Arma­ tum the Christian into a complacent, self­ geddon had arrived and that Hitler was the righteous fault-finder, full of self­ anti-Chris!. Lewis certain! y knew the hor­ justification for his own shortcomings and ror of war. He was wounded in combat in completely ignorant that he is walling him­ World War I, and one of his closest friends self off from God's grace. The safest road was killed. But in the book, Screwtape the to Hell-that is, the road most likely to lead senior devil spends much more time advis­ humans to damnation, is, says Screwtape, ing a junior tempter (named Wormwood) "the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft un­ how to poison a relationship between derfoot without sudden turnings, without mother and son than he does on exploiting mileposts, without signposts." Which leads the war for Hell's purposes. According to us to the main theme of The Great Divorce: Screwtape, nothing, not even the joy of hu­ the real horror of Hell is that the vast major­ mans blowing themselves to bits, should ity of its inhabitants have no idea how they distract the tempter from "the real business got there, but would rather stay there than of undermining faith and preventing the for­ go to Heaven. mation of virtues." "Nothing matters at The question naturally arises: why all." says Screwtape, "except the tendency would anyone choose Hell after realizing of a given state of mind in given circum­ there was a choice? Lewis provides some stances, to move a particular [person] at a answers. The Big Man in chapter four sees particular moment nearer to [God] or nearer his refusal as a matter of pride; he has been to us." a hard working, self-sufficient fellow and So rather than tempting their pa­ resents any suggestion that he should ask tients to huge sins and debaucheries, Screw­ for "bleeding charity." The apostate bishop tape advises his demons to use our little in chapter five sees the opportunity to actu­ vanities and even our little virtues as weap­ ally meet God face to face as a poor substi­ ons against us. "There is going to be some tute for endless speculation about the nature

21 The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path by Richard Hill of God. Other ghosts see being reborn as a tape: "Even in human life we have seen the heavenly creature as some sort of loss of passion to dominate, almost to digest self, and some of Hell's inhabitants are [another person]; to make his whole intel­ frankly more comfortable in their misery. lectual and emotional life merely an exten­ As Lewis explains in the preface to sion of one's own ... On earth this desire is Screwtape, "We must picture Hell as a state often called 'love."' The dwarf who would where ... everyone has a grievance, and continue the emotional blackmail of his where everyone lives the deadly serious wife even after death, the strong wife in passions of envy, self-importance, and re­ chapter ten who says, "I forgive him as a sentment." Passions, positive or negative, Christian, but there are some things one can are difficult to relinquish, and we are given never forget," and the loving mother in the free will to keep the destructive ones if chapter eleven says she believes "in a God we choose. By one rationalization or an­ of love"-all are entirely consumed by their other, most of the ghosts in Great Divorce own possessiveness. All would take the ob­ prove unwilling to let go of the deadly sins jects of their "love" with them to Hell rather of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, sloth, than give up their selfish sense of control. and envy--even when they know that But as Lewis illustrates, selfish love is not God's will is an alternative. MacDonald really love at all-it is merely selfishness. puts their dilemma in a nutshell in chapter Hell would seem to be FULL of nine. "There are only two kinds of people "minor" sinners-grumblers, whiners, self­ in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will pity artists, emotional blackmailers. All the be done,' and those to whom God says, in characters have a grievance, all feel that the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in they are getting less than they deserve. Hell, chose it. Without that self-choice, Their cases are airtight. They have "rights"; there could be no Hell." they deserve better treatment, and they can The second major theme of The prove it. They don't need Heaven on Great Divorce is also a main theme of Heaven's terms. So with a perverted Screwtape. That is, the so-called "small" pride-the sort of thing that Screwtape en­ sins, like pouting or secret sulking when courages-they stomp back to Hell in pa­ things don't go our way-the everyday acts thetic triumph. Thus too on earth: with lay­ of excluding God's grace and direction­ ers of self-justification for all our selfish­ THOSE are the sins we really need to worry ness of mind, body, and spirit, we slowly, about, especially if we are patting ourselves inexorably, and voluntarily shut ourselves on the back for being free of the "big" sins. off from God. Orual, the protagonist in Even the famous sinners who are mentioned Lewis's last novel, Till We Have Faces, in the book are trapped in their so-called finds the meaning of that title when she dis­ small sins. Napoleon is in self-exile in the covers that she has been a selfish, self­ outer space of Hell not for causing the pitying manipulator of others. Her epiphany deaths of hundreds of thousands in Europe, is that God is unable to communicate with but for his unwillingness to admit that any­ us "face to face" until we are able to be­ thing was his fault. All the damned either come honest enough with ourselves to see see their sins as virtues, or see themselves our own real "face." as innocent victims of others, including Another interesting facet of the book God. is its theology-but the theology is hard to Lewis says in the Preface to Screw- pigeonhole. Fine points of doctrine are

22 The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path by Richard Hill

brushed aside by the Heavenly Beings-the mentalist view of Hell. However, chapter bright spirit says to the apostate priest in two of Divorce intimates that a more classi­ chapter five, "We know nothing of religion cally biblical Hell may indeed loom ahead here." MacDonald tells the narrator that for the damned who finally chose to reject Catholics and Protestants are "both right, God. The ghosts are whispering on the bus, maybe." On the other hand, what is called fearful of "the darkness" and a mysterious "liberal theology" comes in for scathing sar­ THEY. "Who are 'They' and what are you casm. The Episcopal apostate ghost in chap­ afraid they' II do to you?" Lewis asks. The ter two may be modeled on E.W. Barnes, other passengers don't dare discuss the mat­ the bishop of Birmingham at the time Di­ ter, but clearly they know that something vorce was written. His book, Rise of Chris­ terrible is coming-Hell will not always be tianity, which was selling well then, at­ so mundane. For an inkling to what Lewis tempts to rationalize the supernatural pas­ may have had in mind, the reader might sages in the Bible. The apostate bishop per­ look to Screwtape's portrayal of Hell and sonifies Lewis's ongoing quarrel with those the way the senior devil speaks throughout who remain in the Church while denying its the book of human souls in terms of food. basic doctrines. In "Christian Apologetics," When Screwtape writes, "I could show you a paper he read to Anglican priests and a pretty cageful down here," one thinks un­ youth leaders of the church in 1945 (soon comfortably of animals waiting for the after he finished Great Divorce), Lewis ad­ slaughter. monishes those who do not believe in basic Yet another important theme in Christian dogma to do the right thing and Great Divorce is the firm denial that Hell leave the church. The angel in chapter five can hold Heaven hostage. Many a modem states flatly that God, the resurrection, and atheist echoes famous "freethinkers" like the master-subject relationship between Robert Ingersoll and Bertrand Russell in God and man are facts, not theories. saying, "I disdain to believe in a God that On the other hand again, Lewis's would create Hell, or even allow it to exist" scenario of the grey town and the opportu­ or as Lewis expresses it in chapter thirteen, nity to leave it would seem to be a conces­ "Some people say on Earth that the final sion to people like Bishop Barnes who want loss of one soul gives lie to all the joy of to take the "burning" out of Hell in order to those who are saved." But MacDonald appease humane skeptics. In the January counters that for the highest good in the uni­ 2000 issue of U.S. News and World Report, verse, joy must prevail. If misery is given the cover story titled "Hell Hath No Fury," the power to infect joy, if the selfish are al­ begins, in the typical sardonic modem news lowed to demand happiness on their own magazine style with the following blurb: terms, then evil will triumph. As the Lady "With fire and brimstone out of fashion, asks the Dwarf in chapter twelve, "Do you modern thinking says the netherworld isn't think joy was created to live always under so hot after all." Lewis and The Great Di­ that threat? Always defenseless against vorce are mentioned in the article as part of those who would rather be miserable than the modem movement to soft-pedal Hell have their self-will crossed?" It may seem and make it less fearsome. like a harsh doctrine, but for all the empha­ Certainly Lewis's notion that Hell is sis humanists have put on "free thinking," a a choice and that it is possible for sinners to universe which allows souls to have Hell if repent even from perdition is not the funda- they want it is granting those souls more

23 The Gently Sloping, Chosen Path by Richard Hill freedom than humanist philosophers seem willing to grant them. As I tell my students, the relatively short Divorce has enough material to last a whole semester, but the last theme I'll men­ tion is "The last shall be first and the first shall be last", another biblical passage pre­ sented vividly in Divorce. As the Spirit tells the Ghost Artist in chapter ten, no one is "distinguished" in Heaven. The learned Bishop, the famous artist, the professors and lecturers, the intelligent businessman, the "decent chap" the "loving mother"-all de­ cide to deny God in the end and all are lost in the tiny crack of Heaven wherein Hell lies. But the murderer who repents is in Heaven, the man hag-ridden by lust be­ comes a being of light, and the nondescript housewife who practiced God's love on earth is exalted by angels. The "Hard­ Bitten" ghost says the splendor of Heaven is a scheme by an amorphous "them." To the postmodern mind, this explanation of a meaningless universe bent on fooling us and stealing our selfhood is all too plausible. But as the man ridden by the lizard dis­ covers, if we become willing to surrender our lusts and selfish desires, to surrender our "best thinking," and even to surrender our selves, if we trust God and renounce the "marriage of Heaven and Hell," we will re­ alize our real selves and the real pleasures of the real Heaven.

24 Taking an Untamed Lion to School: Sharing about C. S. Lewis and Asian in an Elementary School Classroom Richard James

Like many of you who have a great and present a program on C. S. Lewis for interest in the life and works of C. S. Lewis, their own local schools. I tried to do my part three years ago in pro­ The actual one-hour presentation moting the celebration of the Lewis centen­ was given on Thursday and Friday, Novem­ ary back in November, 1998. It was my ber 19-20, 1998, and was entitled, "C. S. privilege to present a public lecture on his Lewis and The Lion, the Witch and the life, work, and influence at one of our Wardrobe." On Monday, Tuesday and nearby colleges as part of their Cultural Af­ Wednesday of that same week, by agree­ fairs program (see http://www.crlamppost_ ment with the librarian/audio-visual coordi­ org/LIFEWORK.HTM). Later that same nator and the four fifth grade classroom week I also was honored to present a two­ teachers, each of the four classes had seen evening multimedia program on Lewis for the three-part BBC video version of the our county arts council (see http://www. book. which had been shown on public tele­ crlamppost.orglpartl.htm and http:// vision a few years before. After my presen­ www.crlamppost.org/part2.htm). But the tation the teachers and their students then third, and probably the most meaningful, invited me back for a reception to review presentation that I made that month on and receive projects that they had done­ Lewis was given about two weeks later to such as posters, book covers, poems, letters, our four fifth grade classes at the Cumber­ etc.--on the week following my presenta- land County Elementary School in Burkes­ tion. ville, Kentucky. Before I actually go over the presen­ As both an encouragement and ex­ tation itself with you, I am assuming a cou­ ample to other non-professional educators ple of other things that are very important, who might also be interested in making a as well as foundational for a positive pres­ similar presentation in their own local pub­ entation and response, especially in a public lic schools, I want to share with you exactly school environment. First, you must some how this program came about, what I pre­ way have already established a positive and sented (see http://www.crlamppost.org/ personal relationship with the teachers of cslcces.htm) and the response to it (see the students to whom you are going to make h Up ://www .crlamppost-org/proj recep t. the presentation. The best presentation will htm). And just as C. S. Lewis would some­ never even reach its intended audience if times begin his essays by claiming that he you do not first have the trust of their teach­ had no expertise in theology, I want to make ers. In my specific situation, my youngest that same claim to lack of expertise in re­ son had had these same teachers some five gard to curriculum and educational method­ years before, plus I had also been the presi­ ology, especially at the elementary school dent of the PTA that year. In the fall of age level. And yet, I do hope that even those 1998 I also sometimes was in the school as who are somewhat fearful about making a substitute teacher, but had not yet taught sue h public presentations, even to children, the fifth grade. I had, though, been a substi­ will be encouraged by this article to prepare tute for the librarian just a few weeks before

25 Taking an Untamed Lion to School by Richard James the presentation. With this positive relation­ children's sermons over the years, I knew ship I therefore felt free, in the early fall, to that I needed to have a lot of props and also initiate the conversation with both the li­ needed to communicate with them at their brarian and the teachers about the possibil­ level, trying not to cover too much-yet ity of my presenting a program on Lewis at challenging them to share with me their the school. (Incidentally, I also contacted thoughts about what they had seen in the our middle school and high school language video. Therefore, I brought with me a large arts/English teachers, but the program did map of Namia (the Sylvia Smith version not seem to fit into any of their plans.) published by David C. Cook in 1978---other Second, you must also have demon­ maps are now available, but this one is out strated outside of the classroom that you of print), some pictures of Lewis and the were informed on the subject about which Pevensie children, a couple of juvenile bi­ you were sharing; for me this meant show­ ographies of Lewis, several of Lewis's ing that I was knowledgeable both about the books (including the Chronicles of Namia) life of C. S. Lewis and his book, The Lion, and of course, a large picture of a lion to the Witch and the Wardrobe. Fortunately, represent Asian. the book, The C. S. Lewis Readers' Ency­ Before I started my talk, I also made clopedia, had just been published, and I had sure that I had enough copies of the five­ been privileged to write a few of the articles page student handout which I would distrib­ in it. Some information about this had been ute during the presentation and to which published in our local newspaper in the late they could refer later to help them with their summer. Also, about a month before the projects. On the front of the handout I had presentation at the school, I had begun to copied a somewhat "homey" caricature of promote both the centenary lecture and the Lewis that had him sitting in a chair in front local arts council program that I mentioned of the wardrobe and beside his fireplace, as earlier. Furthermore, after speaking with he was smoking his pipe and reading a the teachers about the appropriateness of the book, surrounded by four cats - one of presentation for their classes and receiving a which is licking his shoe. As best as I can positive response from them, I then sent determine, this caricature was drawn by each of the teachers a letter and a packet of Robin Heller, the art director at Christian information basically sharing with them History Magazine, back in 1985, when their what I was going to do and suggesting to issue on C.S. Lewis was first published them some projects that the students might (Vol. IV, No. 3. p. 1). The second page has complete for class the week following my a listing of the chronological order of the presentation. Working on these projects Namian Chronicles with a copy of the plot then allowed the teachers to add their own outline of The Lion, the Witch and the input to both the video and my presentation. Wardrobe. On the third page I printed You have the information packet that I gave Lewis's response to a fifth grade student's to the teachers in your handout, but I have question about Asian, and since Lewis's an­ also put it on my internet web site (http:// swer itself referred to Jesus Christ and His crlamppost.org/teacherinfo.htm). incarnation, I also printed the texts of two Now, having proposed a program possible biblical allusions in the story and had its presentation accepted and a date (Isaiah 53:4-12 and 2 Corinthians 5:21). On set, I now had to prepare it and a handout the handout's next page I printed a list of for the students. Having presented several twelve suggested student projects. The last

26 Taking an Untamed Lion to School by Richard James page included portions of two of Lewis's of the story? Why? letters to children giving them advice on 5) What did Edmund do and do you how they could be better writers. Except for think it was wrong or was it the drawing on the first page, all of this in­ okay? and formation is available on my web site. 6) What happened at the Great (http://crlamppost.orglhandout.htm). Stone Table? As we now consider the presentation itself, I have provided you with a facsimile I tried to draw out as many different of the script that I used, including in it in answers from them as possible. Moving bold letters some directions that I made for deeper into the meaning I remarked to them myself. These directions are not on the al­ that in one sense the whole story, including ready mentioned internet version. I began what happened at the stone table, could be by introducing myself and welcoming them just a good adventure story with talking ani­ to my presentation on C.S. Lewis. I next mals and battles, without looking for other tried to identify with them by asking them meanings in it. But in 1960, a thirteen-year­ about nicknames, sharing mine and telling old girl wrote Jack Lewis a letter, asking them how the "C" in Lewis name stood for him to explain the meaning behind his Clive and the "S" stood Staples and that He story. I told them that Lewis explained to did not like either of these himself, and so her that the stone table reminds us of the he asked his family and friends to call him stone tablets on which God gave the Ten "Jack." I then told them a little about his Commandments to Moses, Edmund is like life, his occupation and his favorite hobby Judas, a greedy traitor, but unlike Judas he of spending time with his friends, quoting to repents and is forgiven and that the death them his own description of himself to some and resurrection of Asian for Edmund are other 5th grade students who had written to like the death and resurrection of Jesus him. Next I asked them to assist me by an­ Christ for each of us in our world (C.S. swering some questions about the video - Lewis Letters to Children. New York: Mac­ about Asian, the Pevensie children, and the millan, 1985. p. 93). I then asked them to wardrobe. I followed this by distributing the turn to their next sheet in their handout and handout and requesting that they turn to the read with me what Lewis wrote in 1954 to a second sheet and help me by volunteering 5'h grade class in Maryland ( CSLLC. 44-45). one at a time to read the plot outline on that At this point I also felt it appropriate to refer sheet from numbers one through seventeen. them to the biblical allusions from Isaiah 53 When we finished reviewing the and 2 Corinthians 5 that were also printed plot, I took some time to discuss the mean­ on that same page in their handout ing of the story with them, beginning with From this discussion of the meaning the fol!owing open-ended questions: of the story, I then asked the class to look at the next page on their handout where they 1) Who is your most favorite char­ could see a list of projects that they might acter? Why? do based on their own personal interests. 2) Who is your least favorite char­ The teachers, of course, had already seen acter? Why? these suggestions, but the students had not; 3) What was your most favorite so, I took some time to read over the list part of the story? Why? with them. I believe that these projects and 4) What is your least favorite part sharing the next sheet of the handout with

27 Taking an Untamed Lion to School by Richard James the students is one of the primary reasons understanding of what Lewis was trying to that helped make this whole presentation a communicate to them. Plus, I was also positive one for both the students and the blessed to be the recipient of several of teachers. We all know that Lewis was an these projects and am privileged to share excellent writer himself and this last page of some of them with you here and at my web the handout allowed to me share some of site. his advice on writing with them - advice Looking back at this project I am en­ that he had already given to young people couraged to do it over again, and, in fact, their own age. After sharing these sugges­ was invited to do so this past spring by one tions on good writing, I thanked them for of the teachers, but our schedules just did letting me come to share with them about not mesh together at that time. I hope the Lewis and his book, The Lion, the Witch readers, and especially those who are not and the Wardrobe, expressed my hope that professional educators, have also been en­ they had learned something about him and couraged to step out and do something simi­ his story, and encouraged them to read Jar. I trust that it has also been obvious that some of his other books as well. I closed by only an age-appropriate presentation which allowing them to ask any other questions includes both a handout for the students and and then turned them back now over to their suggested post-presentation projects will teachers. meet the needs of the both the students and Following the presentation several their teacher's educational goals. But even came up to look at the books, map and the more important I remind you to see the ne­ other items that I had brought with me. Sev­ cessity to develop in the specific situation a eral asked me questions. I also found out positive relationship with the teachers, so later from the librarian that all of the Lewis that your ultimate goal of presenting Lewis books had been checked immediately fol­ can be achieved and you will be welcomed lowing my presentation. But even more back again. Please contact me for both your positive feedback was to come. For, just a questions and suggestions at rvjames@kih. few days later, I was contacted by one of net. the teachers and asked if I would come visit I want to close by sharing with you the 5th graders and let them share with me one of my most precious Lewis treasures - a some of the projects that they had com­ poem project written by Coleman Hurt, one pleted following my program. We set a date of those fifth graders, on November 23, that would fit everyone's schedule; plus I 1998 and simply entitled, decided to take a camera with me to take their pictures and have their picture taken "a poem of ... The Lion, the Witch and the with me as well. (see http:/www. Wardrobe" crlamppost.org/projrecept.htm) I did not By Coleman Hurt realize that it was also to be a special sur­ prise cookies and punch reception for me. When two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve, Anyway, before the reception each of the Pass through the wardrobe, their world they [will] classes invited me to come in to hear and leave. When Lucy enters Narnia, she first sees a lamp post. see the projects that they had completed. Then after that, she meets sort of a host. Many did posters and book covers, a few He was kind and humble. not one bit mean, also wrote original poems and letters. I was Though he felt guilty for he had worked for the very impressed by both their talent and their queen. He let Lucy go though, and did not turn her in.

28 Taking an Untamed Lion to School by Richard James

If you asked the White Witch, she'd have called it a sin. _____. The Lion, the Witch and the The host's name was Mr. Tumnus, and yes, he is a faun. Wardrobe. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Though when the witch heard what he'd done, New York: Collier, 1950. 1970. She turned him into stone. Edmond betrayed the other three, _____. The Chronicles of Namia: For he was addicted to Turkish Delight. But later he realized what he'd done was wrong, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And against the White Witch he did fight. London: BBC and Wonderworks Video, Through the whole story, violence never did cease, 1988. But it slackened a little when Peter killed Morgan, Chief of secret police. Lindskoog, Kathryn. Journey Into Namia. Through many of these events, [a Lion] drew close [as] a man, Pasadena, CA: Hope Publishing House, A man who would save them, whose name was 1998. Asian. Asian, King of all Namia reigns, Sammons, Martha C. A Guide Through To defeat the White Witch he barely strains. Namia. Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publish­ He's strong and hwnble, ers, 1979. All who go against him practically crumble. If you ever knew him, his loyalty was clear. When the White Witch raised a knife above him, he showed no fear. He enjoyed having fun, but to his work he was sin­ cere, Those creatures in which the White Witch turned to stone, He could change back with no more than a breath of his own. He gave the glory to the foursome for he could not deceive, Two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve.

Bibliography

Christian History Magazine Volume IV, Number 3 (1985).

James, Richard. The Cumberland River Lamp Post (http://www.crlamppost.org)

Lewis, C.S. C. S. Lewis Letters To Children. ed. Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead. New York: Macmillan, 1985.

_____. Letters of C.S. Lewis. ed. with a memoir by W.H. Lewis. New York: Har­ court, Brace & World, 1966.

29 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis David N. Entwistle

Picture, if you will, a group of stu­ ercise in futility. While professorial skill dents sitting in an undergraduate course on and good pedagogical technique can supply the first day of class. As they tum the pages some enthusiasm for the task, it is also es­ of the syllabus, they are confronted with the sential that the textual material be engaging following description of some of the major and informative. Fortunately, several of the course requirements.[!] writings of C. S. Lewis lend themselves well to the topic at hand, especially Mira­ Philosophy of Integration Paper and cles and The Problem of Pain, as well as ex­ Core Issue Papers. A series of three cerpts from some of Lewis' other works. papers will be written during the Making use of these materials provides not course on: only engaging and informative texts, but a l> The nature of knowledge uniquely Christian viewpoint that itself sup­ (epistemology) ports the concept of faith learning integra­ l> The nature of the world tion. (cosmology) l> The nature of humanity C. S. Lewis and Epistemology (philosophical anthropology) These three papers will be turned in Epistemology is the "branch of phi­ at various points in the semester and losophy which is concerned with the nature given a preliminary grade. As a final and scope of know ledge, its presuppositions assignment, revisions of these three and basis, and the general reliability of papers will be combined into a state­ claims to knowledge."[2] As such, episte­ ment of the student's personal phi­ mology is concerned with how we can know losophy of integration in the follow­ anything about the world, by what means ing format: An introduction, the we can come to have knowledge, and the three revised papers, and a personal limitations and veracity of knowledge philosophy of integration thesis. claims. Epistemology clearly precedes metaphysical speculation and is thus foun­ One can easily imagine the glossy-eyed dational to further inquiry. Unfortunately, stares and the heightened level of anxiety in Lewis did not publish any works that exten­ the room. sively addressed epistemology, so students in the class do not have the benefit of pro­ The foregoing is a scenario played tracted engagement with Lewis regarding out each spring in a class offered by the cur­ episternic issues.[3] However, at the point rent author. The first challenge is to calm in the class when students are shifting their the anxiety of the students, followed swiftly attention from epistemology to the meta­ by the second challenge of getting them to physical issue of cosmology, they begin see the assignment as a provocative and in­ reading Miracles. By using Miracles as an teresting opportunity rather than an over­ introduction to cosmology, students are re­ whelming chore--or worse yet--a boring ex- minded at the outset of the importance of

30 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle the epistemic task. Lewis opened Miracles the metaphysical questions underlying the with a story about a woman who claimed to possibility of miracles, thus creating a segue have seen a ghost, but who nonetheless did between epistemology and metaphysics for not believe in the immortality of the soul. students in the class. Lewis concluded, "Seeing is not believing. For this reason, the question of whether C S. Lewis and Metaphysics miracles occur can never be answered sim­ ply by experience ... our senses are not in­ While psychology is defined as a fallible."[ 4] Without explicitly discussing science, psychologists cannot escape meta­ epistemology, Lewis implicitly noted the physical reflection, or at least making meta­ connection between the pursuit of knowl­ physical assumptions. Metaphysics "is edge-by whatever means-and the limita­ broader in scope than science" and "more tions inherent in the epistemic quest. By im­ fundamental, since it investigates questions plicitly bringing the topic of epistemology science does not address but the answers to to the question of miracles, a transition be­ which it presupposes." [7] Especially im­ tween epistemic considerations and cosmo­ portant among these metaphysical presup­ logical questions is created for students in positions are the nature of the world the class. (cosmology), and the nature of humanity (philosophical anthropology). As was previ­ While Lewis' purpose in Miracles was ously stated, students in the class are intro­ primarily cosmo logical, it contains gems of duced to these issues through discussion of considerable epistemic significance. For ex­ Miracles, leading to the consideration of the ample, Lewis highlighted an important epis­ following questions. What is the nature of temic principle about the impact that as­ the cosmos? How did the world come to sumptions have in shaping our conclusions: be? If the world was created, what is the "What we learn from experience depends nature of its Creator, and is the world then on the kind of philosophy we bring to ex­ open to input from the supernatural realm? perience."[S] Further, in the following pas­ Lewis' views on such cosmological Issues sage, Lewis noted that experiential knowl­ will now be addressed. edge is impossible without rational knowl­ edge, an observation that is of considerable C. S. Lewis and Cosmology importance to psychology as a scientific en­ terprise. Cosmology is a branch of philosophy that seeks to understand the ori­ It is Reason herself which teaches us gin and nature of the universe. In Miracles, not to rely on Reason only in this matter. Lewis proposed to develop a philosophical For Reason knows that she cannot work viewpoint from which one could assess the without materials. When it becomes clear reliability of historical accounts of miracles. that you cannot find out by reasoning [8] In Miracles, then, Lewis can be said to whether the cat is in the linen-cupboard. it have been engaged in cosmo logical reflec­ is Reason herself that whispers, "Go and tion. While the focus of his task was to look. This is not my job: it is a matter for demonstrate that miracles are possible, the senses." [6] Lewis approached this task philosophically, progressively arguing for the existence of Having thus clarified the epistemic frame­ the supernatural,[9] the supernatural as the work of the task, Lewis was free to discuss ultimate cause of the natural world, [10] the

31 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle

possibility of the supernatural intervening in can admit, and even insist," he wrote, "that the natural world, [ 11] and ultimately for Rational Thinking can be shown to be con­ the propriety of the Incarnation as the con­ ditioned in its exercise by a natural object summate and foundational Christian mira­ (the brain). It is temporarily impaired by al­ cle. [12] What remains to be demonstrated cohol or a blow on the head. It wanes as the is how Lewis' cosmological reflections are body decays and vanishes when the brain relevant to the task of engaging psychology ceases to function." [15] Lewis further em­ students in faith-learning integration. Every phasized the point as follows: discipline makes assumptions about the na­ ture of the world, and psychology is no ex­ The rational and moral element in ception. As Lewis pointed out in Miracles, each human mind is a point of force from the bedrock of all knowledge claims must the Supernatural working its way into Na­ be the reliability of Reason. Reason allows ture, exploiting at each point those condi­ us to think about the world and use logic to tions which Nature offers, repulsed where come to sound conclusions. Reason allows the conditions are hopeless and impeded us to evaluate the data of our senses, with­ when they are unfavourable. A man's Ra­ out which empiricism would be impossible. tional thinking is just so much of his share Deny the validity of Reason, and all disci­ of eternal Reason as the state of his brain plines-including psychology-crash into allows to become operative; it represents, futility. "Unless human reasoning is valid," so to speak, the bargain struck at the fron­ wrote Lewis, "no science can be true." [13] tier fixed between Reason and Nature .... It is conditioned by the apparatus but not Lewis argued persuasively that Rea­ determined by it. [16] son could only be understood or defended as something that originates outside of the This bargain of which Lewis spoke allows realm of mechanistic natural causation. "If for the Christian to recognize the divine ori­ [Reason] won't fit into Nature, we can't gins of the creation, while allowing him or help it," he wrote. "We will certainly not, her to study the mechanistic functioning of on that account, give it up. If we do, we the creation. For the Christian psychologist, should be giving up Nature too." [14] This the bargain allows him or her to believe in recognition is critical to a Christian under­ the immaterial soul while studying determi­ standing of psychology for at least two rea­ nistic conditions of physiology, environ­ sons. First of all, many psychologists (as ment, and so forth. well other scientists and philosophers) have argued that science is incompatible with su­ If Lewis' argument has been sound pernaturalism. Christian students of psy­ to this point, it has been established that the chology need to be able to rationally defend reasoning faculties of human beings are su­ their belief in the supernatural against such pernaturally derived but naturally ex­ criticism. Secondly, psychology--perhaps pressed. In Lewis' words, "Theology offers more than any other discipline--must con­ you a working arrangement, which leaves front the age-old problem of the relationship the scientist free to continue his experi­ of the material physical body and the imma­ ments, and the Christian to continue his terial mind or soul. Here, too, Lewis pro­ prayers." [17] The Christian psychologist is vided significant insight, even if he did not thus free to use experimentation and reason solve the mind-body problem entirely. "We to understand the natural determinants of

32 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle

behavior, while still believing in the super­ anced by the more visceral A Grief Ob­ natural. This freedom allows one to move served, several of his poems, and his own beyond the cosmological consideration of life story. Lewis' philosophical reflections the nature and origin of the world, to the help to make these existential issues acces­ more focused question of the nature and ori­ sible and interesting to students, while his gin of human beings. life story gives flesh and blood to the exis­ tential angst of suffering. C. S. Lewis and Philosophical Anthropol· ogy At the outset of The Problem of Pain, Lewis stipulated that "the only pur­ When one reflects on the origin and pose of the book is to solve the intellectual nature of human beings, one can be said to problem raised by suffering; for the far be engaged in philosophical anthropology. higher task of teaching fortitude or patience [18] In The Problem of Pain Lewis tackled I was never fool enough to suppose myself theodicy (which he chose to discuss under qualified ...." [20] Characteristically, the more colloquial term "the problem of however, Lewis proceeded to offer some pain"), defined as follows: "If God were sage advice: "[W]hen pain is to be borne, a good, He would wish to make His creatures little courage helps more than much knowl­ perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, edge, a little human sympathy more than He would be able to do what He wished. much courage, and the least tincture of the But the creatures are not happy. Therefore love of God more than all." [21] God lacks either goodness, or power, or both." [19] While in one sense theodicy is a In the first chapter of The Problem theological problem, in another sense it has of Pain, Lewis pointed out that Christianity significant implications for an understand­ "creates, rather than solves, the problem of ing of what it means to be human. In their pain." [22] If there is no God, there is no practice and in their theories, clinical psy­ problem. If God exists but is not good, we chologists are confronted with how to make have no problem. But if "side by side with sense of human pain. A woman is inexplica­ our daily experience of this painful world, bly fired from her job, and there is pain. we [have] received what we think a good New parents wake up to discover that their assurance that ultimate reality is righteous child has died of Sudden Infant Death Syn­ and loving," [23] then we have the problem drome, and there is anguish. A woman is of pain. diagnosed with rna jor depression or a young man is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Lewis' solution to theodicy was there is suffering and turmoil. In the midst multifaceted, but in part hinged on an argu­ of this pain, anguish, suffering, and turmoil, ment that the gift of free will intrinsically there is often the cry, "And where is God?" contains the possibility that free creatures Books written on this topic are numerous may misuse their freedom to cause pain to and varied in their solution to the problem: other creatures. God arranged the world in Rabbi Kushner's When Bad Things Happen such a way that certain natural laws exist. If to Good People, and Phillip Yancey's matter has a fixed nature and obeys constant Where Is God When It Hurts? come to laws, then humans with free will can use its mind. Lewis is an intriguing author on this laws for good or for evil. The hardness of a subject because his more philosophical re­ log may make it useful for making a timber- flections (The Problem of Pain) can be bal-

33 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle

framed home, but the same log can be used Lewis wrote A Grief Observed. Here is to as a weapon. When human beings thus use be found no mere intellectual response to a their freedom to damage or injure other philosophical problem, but the visceral creatures, we have the problem of pain. anguish of a grieving widower. Here Lewis then introduced the Christian doc­ students encounter not mere intellect, but trines of creation and fall as the backdrop the palpable pathos of Lewis' grief. At a from which to understand human suffering. memorable point in A Grief observed, Lewis turned his anger toward God: The problem, then, is not an absence of God's goodness but the reality of human Meanwhile, where is God? This is evil, and by extension, the results of living one of the most disquieting symptoms. When in a world fallen through the rebellion of its you are happy, so happy that you have no creatures. Lewis' answer to the theological sense of needing Him, so happy that you are problem of pain thus involved biblical an­ tempted to feel His claims upon you as an thropology. The resulting picture of human interruption, if you remember yourself and nature as created in the image of God but tum to Him with gratitude and praise, you suffering as sinful creatures in a fallen will be-or so it feels-welcomed with open world is quite relevant to the questions of arms. But go to Him when your need is psychology, and to students who struggle to desperate, when all other help is vain, and make sense out of suffering in the face of what do you find? A door slammed in your the claim that God is good. face, and a sound of bolting and double For those of us who suffer, or those bolting on the inside. After that, silence. of us who enter the suffering of others, the You may as well tum away. The longer you intellectual problem of suffering is dwarfed wait, the more emphatic the silence will by the existential experience of suffering. become. There are no lights in the windows. Too often we mistake the cry "Where is It might be an empty house. Was it ever God?" for an intellectual problem, when it inhabited? It seemed so once. And that is in fact a cry of emotional despair and seeming was as strong as this. What can anguish. It is at this juncture that students this mean? Why is He so present a need to move beyond intellectual commander in our time of prosperity and so engagement with the problem of pain to the very absent a help in time of trouble? [24] existential task of encountering the suffering souL In this context Lewis again Lewis' poetry also reflects the pa­ proves instructive, through his own life thos of his bereavement. In his poem Joys story and his reflections on his experience. That Sting, Lewis reflected on living with­ As a boy of ten Lewis lost his mother to out his beloved. cancer, and soon after lost his brother to boarding schooL Unable to grieve with his Oh doe not die, says Donne, for I father, Lewis seems to have become shall hate detached and inwardly focused. One of his All women so. How false the sen­ first true friends, Paddy Moore, was killed tence rings. in the bloody hostility of the First World Women? But in a life made desolate War. Marrying late in life, Lewis lived with It is the joys once shared that have his wife through her own fatal battle with the stings. cancer. It is out of his bereavement that To take the old walks alone, or not

34 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle

at all, in my face? The time when there is nothing To order one pint where I ordered at all in your soul except a cry for help may two, be just the time when God can't give it: you To think of, and then not to make, are like the drowning man who can't be the small helped because he clutches and grabs. Per­ Time-honored joke (senseless to all haps your own reiterated cries deafen you but you): to the voice you hoped to hear. On the other To laugh (oh, one'll laugh), to talk hand, 'Knock and it shall be opened.' But upon does knocking mean hammering and kicking Themes that we talked upon when the door like a maniac? And there's also you were there, 'To him that hath shall be given.' After all, To make some poor pretence of go­ you must have a capacity to receive, or even mgon, omnipotence can't give. Perhaps your own Be kind to one's old friends, and passion temporarily destroys the capacity. seem to care, [26] While no one (0 God) through the years will say Again, continuing his journey of The simplest, common word in just grief, Lewis eventually concluded that the your way. [25] intellectual solution to the problem of pain did not solve the existential problem of In his poetry, as in the pages of A Grief Ob­ pam. served the intellect of Lewis is maintained, but it is holistically coupled with emotion When I lay these questions before and experience. This is an important cou­ God I get no answer. But a rather special pling for students of psychology to observe, sort of 'No answer. ' It is not the locked since human beings too easily hide the door. It is more like a silent, certainly not depths of their emotions behind rationaliza­ uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook tion and intellectualization. His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, 'Peace, child; you don't un­ In confronting the suffering of C. S. derstand. ' Can a mortal ask questions Lewis, whether in A Grief Observed, his po­ which God finds unanswerable? Quite eas­ etry, a biography of his life, or in the film, ily, I should think. All nonsense questions Shadowlands, students learn that honesty in are unanswerable. How many hours are suffering before God is preferable to pat an­ there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? swers issued forth in emotional denial. To Probably half the questions we ask--half those of us who enter the suffering of oth­ our great theological and metaphysical ers, such honesty reminds us that we must problems--are like that. [27] allow the process of grieving to work itself through over time. It is this process that In the face of suffering, Lewis reminds the eventually allowed Lewis to arrive at the student of psychology that sometimes an­ following conclusion. swers are elusive or even empty, but yet God stands in the breach with outstretched I have gradually been coming to feel arms, ready to extend a peace that tran­ that the door is no longer shut and bolted. scends understanding. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it

35 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle

To the problem of pain, Lewis fi­ of C. S. Lewis that glossy-eyed stares have nally offered one more solution: the prom­ been transformed into the bright eyes of un­ ise of heaven. This promise of heaven is not derstanding and serious reflection. given to assuage our grief with the anticipa­ tion of a reunion with our departed loved Notes ones, but rather heaven is the promise that we will finally encounter our God and our­ 1 The author is grateful to Dr. Stephen K. selves fully, as never before. Moroney for critiquing an earlier version of this manuscript and to Dr. Shawn D. Floyd All the things that have ever deeply for helping to clarify philosophical termi­ possessed your soul have been but hints of nology. While their feedback was helpful, [your deepest desire ]-tantalising glimpses, any deficiencies in the manuscript are, of promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that course, the responsibility of the author. died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest--if there 2 "Epistemology, History of," Hamlyn, D. ever came an echo that did not die away but W., in Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia swelled into the sound itself--you would of Philosophy, 1967 ed., Vol. 3, p. 8-9 know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say "Here at last is the thing I was 3 One might argue that Lewis' 1947 The made for." .. . If we lose this, we lose all. Abolition of Man and his 1961 An Experi­ [28] ment in Criticism deal with epistemic is­ sues. The present author would agree that epistemology is at least implicitly dealt with It is at this point that the existential question in the books, and indeed in several of of suffering meets the teleological reality Lewis' other works. However, they contain, that we shall either encounter ourselves in at best, a restricted epistemology focused on heaven, or lose ourselves in hell. Lewis, like narrow subjects. They do not deal with the the apostle Paul, reminds the student, the broader issues inherent in the general search professor, and anyone who will listen, that for knowledge through diverse means such the sufferings of the present must be bal­ as rational inquiry, empiricism, appeals to anced against all of eternity. [29] authority, mysticism, etc. Even if the books did address the broader issues of epistemol­ Conclusion ogy proper, however, they are of somewhat limited appeal and accessibility to the aver­ At the end of the semester which be­ age undergraduate psychology student. gan with glossy-eyed stares and anxiety, students have usually come to see episte­ 4 Lewis, C. S., Miracles (1947; New York: mology and metaphysics as neither too Touchstone, 1996) 9. frightening to be grasped, nor as so ethereal as to be boring. Instead the students have 5 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 9-10. come to see these issues as embodying questions that are fundamental to the human 6 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 120. experience, and hence to the field of psy­ chology. It is in no small part due to the en­ 7 "Metaphysics," Butchvarov, Panayot, in gaging and overtly Christian deliberations Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Diction-

36 Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis by David N. Entwistle

ary of Philosophy. 1995 ed., p. 489. York: Harcourt Brace, 1992) 108.

8 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 9-11. 26 Lewis, C. S., Grief 58-59.

9 Roughly chapters 1 - 6 of Miracles. 27 Lewis, C. S., Grief 81-82.

10 See especially pages 44-47 of Miracles. 28 Lewis, C. S., Pain 131.

11 Roughly chapters 10- 11 of Miracles. 29 See Romans 8:18-22.

12 Roughly chapters 12- 14 of Miracles. Works Cited

13 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 23. Audi, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Diction­ ary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge 14 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 35. Univ. Press. 1995.

15 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 55. Edwards, Paul, ed. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Macmillan, 1967. 16 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 56, (Italics in original) Lewis, C. S. An Experiment in Criticism. 17 Lewis, C. S., Miracles 140. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 1961.

18 The author is indebted to Dr. Shawn D. Lewis, C. S. A Grief Observed. 1961. New Floyd for suggesting the term York: Harper and Row, 1989. "philosophical anthropology" to clarify this subdivision of metaphysics. Lewis, C. S. Miracles. 1947. New York: Touchstone, 1996. 19 Lewis, C. S., The Problem of Pain (1962; New York: Touchstone, 1996) 23. Lewis, C. S. Poems. 1964. Ed. W. Hooper. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1992. 20 Lewis, C. S., Pain 10, italics mine. Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man. New 21 Lewis, C. S., Pain 10. York: Macmillan, 194 7.

22 Lewis, C. S., Pain 21. Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. 1962. New York: Touchstone, 1996. 23 Lewis, C. S., Pain 21.

24 Lewis, C. S., A Grief Observed, (1961, Lewis, C. S. under the pseudonym, N.W. Clerk; New York: Harper and Row, 1989) 17-18.

25 Lewis, C. S., "Joys That Sting," Poems, C. S. Lewis, ed. W. Hooper, (1964; New

37 The Night C.S. Lewis Lost a Debate Ted Dorman

Introduction do, insists Lewis. Instead of attributing knowledge to "rational causes" (i.e., the ac­ The death of Gertrude Elizabeth tivity of a human mind which apprehends Margaret Anscombe on January 5, 2001 reality via sense perceptions), naturalism marked the passing of one of the twentieth teaches (in words of J. B. S. Haldane) that century's most noteworthy analytical phi­ "mental processes are detennined wholly by losophers. For those familiar with the writ­ the motions of atoms in my brain." Such a ings of C. S. Lewis, it also called to mind process is indeed a cause-effect relation­ one of the few times Lewis admitted defeat ship, but one which Lewis labels "irrational in a debate. Specifically, Anscombe's 1948 causes," since under this scenario our critique of chapter 3 of Lewis's book Mira­ thoughts are merely materialistic effects cles has become the stuff of literary legend. caused by atoms in the brain. If this be the [I] case, however, we have no reason to sup­ The following essay consists of pose that our beliefs are true. Rather, our three points and a conclusion. The first por­ beliefs simply are. But this in turn means tion summarizes Lewis's argument against "I have no reason for supposing my brain to philosophical naturalism found in chapter be composed of atoms" (p. 28f. ). The natu­ three of Miracles. [2] A summary of ralistic theory that all mental processes are Anscombe's objections to Lewis's argument that naturalism is an inadequate philosophy. comprises the second part. [3] Section three Lewis endeavors to do so by arguing that a takes note of Lewis's initial response to purely naturalistic worldview is ultimately Anscombe's objections, and how he later incoherent, in that it fails to explain how we revised his argument in light of her criti­ can know anything at all. [7] cisms. [4] A brief conclusion will evaluate Lewis begins by defining to what extent Anscombe's critique may "Naturalism" as "the doctrine that only Na­ have undermined Lewis's original case ture-the whole interlocked system­ against philosophical naturalism, or exists" and that therefore everything we ex­ strengthened his revised argument. perience can in principle "be explicable ... as a necessary product of the system" (p. I. The Self-Contradiction of the Natu­ 23). At the same time, however, it "is clear ralist that everything we know, beyond our own immediate sensations, is inferred from those Lewis's 1947 edition of Miracles sensations" (p. 25). Such inferences are may be viewed as a sequel to his earlier therefore not in themselves mere sensations, works The Abolition of Man [5] and That but a form of reasoning. "All possible Hideous Strength. [6] Whereas these two knowledge, then, depends upon the validity books were polemics against philosophical of reasoning .... no account of the universe naturalism, Miracles takes the next logical can be true unless that account leaves it pos­ step by seeking to make a case for philoso­ sible for our thinking to be real insight" (p. phical supernaturalism. To make such a 26).

!:lUI rms 1s wnar naruransm ooes nor 38 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman

But this is what naturalism does not that it does not necessarily follow that argu­ do, insists Lewis. Instead of attributing ments and conclusions based purely on a knowledge to "rational causes" (i.e., the ac­ materialistic view of human thought are in­ tivity of a human mind which apprehends valid. To the contrary: reality via sense perceptions), naturalism teaches (in words of J. B. S. Haldane) that Whether [the materialist's] conclu­ "mental processes are determined wholly by sions are rational or irrational is settled by the motions of atoms in my brain." Such a considering the chain of reasoning that he process is indeed a cause-effect relation­ gives and whether his conclusions follow ship, but one which Lewis labels "irrational from it. When we are giving a causal ac­ causes," since under this scenario our count of his thought, e.g. an account of the thoughts are merely materialistic effects physiological processes which issue in the caused by atoms in the brain. If this be the utterance of his reasoning, we are not con­ case, however, we have no reason to sup­ sidering his utterances from the point of pose that our beliefs are true. Rather, our view of evidence, reasoning, valid argu­ beliefs simply are. But this in turn means ment, truth, at all; we are considering them "I have no reason for supposing my brain to merely as events . ... Even though all hu­ be composed of atoms" (p. 28f.). The natu­ man activity, including the production of ralistic theory that all mental processes are opinions and arguments, were explained mere! y caused by the irrational movement naturalistically, that could have no bearing of atoms in our brain is therefore self­ on "the validity of reasoning" i.e. on the contradictory. question of whether a piece of reasoning is valid or not. Here I am speaking of 2. Anscombe's Critique of Lewis's "reason" in a non-psychological sense, in Objections of Naturalism which "a reason" is what proves a conclu­ sion. If we have before us a piece of writing The following year, in a meeting of which argues for an opinion, we can discuss the Socratic Club at Oxford University, the question: "Is it good reasoning?" with­ Elizabeth Anscombe responded to Lewis's out concerning ourselves with the circum­ argument that naturalism was self­ stances of its production at all. [9] contradictory in that it undermines the pos­ sibility of valid reasoning. Her reply was a This brings us to Anscombe's second carefully-crafted (though at times turgid) objection, namely, that Lewis had equated exercise in linguistic philosophy of the sort the term "irrational cause" with "non­ that was quickly becoming fashionable rational cause." In so doing, she replied, throughout Europe, [8] but was never em­ "you are led to imagine that if the naturalist braced by Lewis. hypothesis ... were true, human thought Anscombe set forth major bones of would all be explained away as invalid." contention against two terms used by The previous paragraph noted her critique Lewis: "validity" and "irrational causes." of Lewis's notions of validity and invalidity. In each case, she argued, Lewis's use of lan­ Now we turn to the heart of the matter: guage was ambiguous, thereby defeating the namely, that Lewis's arguments were seri­ force of his arguments. ously impaired because he tended to con­ With regard to Lewis's references to fuse "the concepts of cause and reason ... the "validity of reason" Anscombe argued because of the ambiguity of such expres-

39 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman sions as 'because' and 'explanation."' [10] She therefore concluded: "A causal expla­ A key element of her critique was to nation of a man's thought only reflects on its distinguish between two senses of the word validity as an indication, if we know that "because." This word can be used to refer opinions caused in that way are always or either to motives or to causa/laws. In the usually unreasonable." [14] former instance, says Anscombe, "I am not making a causal enquiry at all: I am asking 3. Lewis's Response to Anscombe's Cri­ for grounds, not causes." [11] To say tique "because" in the sense of explaining our Lewis's initial reply to Anscombe reasons ("grounds") for doing something is [15] conceded two of her points. First, not the same as saying "because" and in the Lewis stated that "valid was a bad word for scientific language of material "cause" and what I meant; veridical (or verific or verif­ effect. erous) would have been better." Second, he On the basis of her analysis of noted: "I also admit the cause and effect "because" as a ground or motive for behav­ relation between events and the ground and ior, and "because" as a cause of a material consequent relation between propositions effect, Anscombe noted: are distinct. Since English uses the word because of both, let us here use Because CE The naturalistic hypothesis is that causal for the cause and effect relation ... and Be­ laws could be discovered which could be cause GC for the ground and consequent successfully applied to all human behav­ relation." iour, including thought. If such laws were Lewis went on to state, however, discovered they would not shew that a that "the sharper this distinction [between tnan 's reasons were not his reasons; for a CE and GC] becomes the more my diffi­ man who is explaining his reasons is not culty [with Naturalism] increases." The giving a causal account at all. "Causes". "difficulty" is that the Naturalist's view of in the scientific sense in which this word is human thought allows "because CE" to sub­ used when we speak of causa/laws, is to be sume "because GC" so that the latter is explained in terms of observed regularities: merely a subset or function of the former: but the declaration of one's reasons or mo­ tives is not founded on observation of regu­ If an argument is to be verific the larities. "Reasons" or "motives" are what conclusion must be related to the premises is elicited from someone whom we ask to as consequent to ground, i.e. the conclusion explain himself [12] is there because GC certain other proposi­ tions are true. On the other hand, our On the basis of her observation that thinking the conclusion is an event and must "the declaration of one's reasons or motives be related to previous events as effect to is not founded on observation of regulari­ cause, i.e. this act of thinking must occur ties" (as opposed to scientific causes, which because CE previous events have occurred. are so founded), Anscombe continued: "It It would seem, therefore, that we never appears to me that if a man has reasons, and think the conclusion because GC it is the they are good reasons, and they are genu­ consequent of its grounds but only because inely his reasons, for thinking something­ CE certain previous events have happened. then his thought is rational, whatever causal If so, it does not seem that the GC sequence statements we may make about him." [13] makes us more likely to think the true con-

40 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman elusion than not. And this is very much sponse. But such reductionism does not ex­ what I meant by the difficulty in Naturalism. plain human knowledge. To the contrary,

This distinction between because The relation between response and GC and because CE became central to stimulus is utterly different from that be­ Lewis's revision of chapter 3 of Miracles. tween knowledge and the truth known .... Now entitled "The Cardinal Difficulty of [k}nowledge is achieved by experiments and Naturalism," [16] the revised argument was inferences from them, not by refinement of almost twice as long as the earlier version­ the response. It is not men with specially thirty-one paragraphs versus sixteen in the good eyes who know about light, but men original-and much more rigorously ana­ who have studied the relevant sciences. [18] lytical. In this regard Anscombe's critique served a constructive purpose. (Lewis did Now the Naturalist will agree that end up retaining the word "valid" to charac­ we reach truths via inferences. And in so terize reason and reasoning, however, his doing he will be right, Lewis affirms. But earlier reply to Anscombe notwithstanding.) the question is not whether Naturalists em­ Lewis's revised argument added a ploy inference, but whether their account of third element to the twofold distinction be­ the origins of human reason is consistent tween because CE and because GC. This with the fact that all people employ infer­ third element was nothing less than the hu­ ences to reach conclusions they deem to be man act of knowing anything. Specifically, true. Herein, says Lewis, lies the difference between the Naturalist and the S upematu­ An act of knowing must be deter­ ralist: mined, in a sense, solely by what is known; we must know it to be thus solely because it The difference I am submitting is is thus. That is what knowing means. You that [the Naturalist} gives, and I do not, a may call this a Cause and Effect because, history of the evolution of reason which is and call "being known" a mode of causation inconsistent with the claims the he and I if you like. But it is a unique mode. The act both have to make for inference as we actu­ of knowing has no doubt various conditions, ally practice it. For [the Naturalist's] his­ without which it could not occur . ... But its tory is, and from the nature of the case can positive character must be determined by only be, an account, in Cause and Effect the truth it knows. If it were totally explica­ terms, of how people came to think the way ble from other sources it would cease to be they do. And this of course leaves in the air knowledge .... Any thing which professes the quite different question of how they to explain our reasoning fully without intro­ could possibly be justified in so thinking. ducing an act of knowing thus solely deter­ This imposes on [the Naturalist] the very mined by what is known, is really a theory embarrassing task of trying to show how the that there is no reasoning. [17] evolutionary product which he has de­ scribed could also be a power of 'seeing' But this is precisely "what Natural­ truths. [ 19] ism is bound to do" by its very nature, Lewis went on to say. This is because But such a task is self-defeating and Naturalism reduces all events to a mecha­ thus "absurd," as Lewis puts it, since any nistic cause-effect nexus of stimulus and re- argument set forth by the Naturalist must by

41 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman

definition set forth inferences, which argue that something is true because GC. But the 4. Conclusion Naturalist's Cause and Effect worldview leaves room only for because CE. Such at­ Elizabeth Anscombe's critique of tempts to make "reason" the end product of C.S. Lewis's third chapter of Miracles fo­ a chain of Cause and Effect turns the human cused on his use of the word "valid" and his experience upside down, placing nature be­ discussion of causality. In each case fore reason and thus reducing inferences to Lewis's initial reply conceded her points. In mere products of nature. [20] section 3 of this essay we noted how The Theist, on the other hand, views Anscom be's linguistic analysis of the word reason-i.e., "the reason of God"-as "because" motivated Lewis to rewrite the "older than Nature" and the cause of the or­ third chapter of Miracles in a more rigor­ derliness of Nature, which in turn provides ously philosophical manner that included the foundation for all reasoning and know­ extensive discussion of the difference be­ mg. From this it follows that: tween a "cause" on the one hand and a "ground" on the other. This aspect of the Our acts of inference are prior to Lewis/ Anscombe debate is an exemplary our picture of Nature almost as the tele­ instance of peer review of scholarship at its phone is prior to the friend's voice we hear best. Lewis's original argument against by it. When we try to fit these acts into the Naturalism contained flaws (though I per­ picture of Nature we fail. The item which sonally believe it still inflicted serious dam­ we put into that picture and label 'Reason' age to the Naturalistic world view), [25] and always turns out to be somehow different Anscombe's critique helped make it from the reason we ourselves are enjoying stronger, if at points more complex for the and exercising while we put it in. [21] lay reader. On the other hand, it is worth repeat­ And if naturalists continue to insist ing that Lewis did not reject the words that our "imagined thinking" is merely an "valid" and "validity" in his rewrite of "evolutionary phenomenon," it is good to chapter 3 of Miracles. In retaining this remember that all such "imagined thinking" common and flexible word (as opposed to depends "on the thinking we are actually opting for the more ponderous "veridical," doing, not vice-versa." [22] To employ an "verific" or "veriferous"), Lewis clearly re­ old proverb, one cannot have one's cake and nounced his initial repentance over the use eat it too. of "valid." Lewis's final three sentences, which Nowhere in his revision of Miracles echo themes found in the last paragraph of chapter 3 does Lewis explain why here­ his The Abolition of Man, [23] underscore tained the word "valid." One can only the priority of Reason over Nature: guess at his reasons for so doing, so I shall conclude by venturing such a guess: This is the prime reality, on which namely, that upon further reflection Lewis the attribution of reality to anything else realized that he and Anscom be spoke of rests. If it won't fit into Nature, we can't "validity" in two somewhat different but help it. We will certainly not, on that ac­ equally valid(!) senses. count, give it up. If we do, we should be Specifically, Anscombe spoke of giving up Nature too. [24] "validity of reason" in a purely formal

42 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman

sense-i.e., arguments are "valid" in the losophical naturalism in both The Abolition sense of being internally coherent, no mat­ of Man [28] and chapter three of Miracles. ter what their source. For example, "A is A" is a "valid" statement, no matter how we Notes may have "really" arrived at it (whether by means of external referents or atoms in our brain). Anscombe, in the tradition of her 1 See e.g. John M. Dolan, "G. E. M. mentor Wittgenstein, engages in linguistic Anscombe: Living the Truth," First Things analysis. Her use of the word "reason" Number 113 (May 2001), 1lf., who opines would be clearer had she said "reasoning." that Anscombe "trounced" Lewis. On the That is, her use of "reason" is nominalistic. other hand, George Sayer notes that Lewis, on the other hand, spoke of Anscom be herself was not convinced she "the validity of reason," i.e., not merely had refuted Lewis's main argument in chap­ whether formal arguments are internally co­ ter 3 of Miracles. See Sayer, Jack: A Life herent, but whether our inferences from ofC.S. Lewis (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway sense perceptions (i.e., our "reason") dis­ Books, 1994), 307f. close objective referents outside of our heads. Lewis's use of "reason" could thus be termed realistic. 2 C. S. Lewis, Miracles. (New York: The One could express this contrast be­ Macmillan Company, 1947), chapter 3, tween Anscombe's and Lewis's respective "The Self-Contradiction of the Naturalist." uses of "validity" is yet another way: Is the brain all there is? Or do human beings pos­ 3 G. E. M. Anscombe, "A Reply to Mr. C. sess a rational mind as well? [26] But this S. Lewis' Argument That 'Naturalism' Is question cannot be answered descriptively Self-Refuting." Socratic Digest Number 4 purely from within the canons of formal (1948), 7-15. logic, any more than one can "picture in a picture how a picture a picture pictures what it pictures," to use the language of 4 C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York: Anscombe's philosophical mentor Ludwig HarperSanFrancisco, 1974), chapter 3, "The Wittgenstein. [27] Cardinal Difficulty of Naturalism." In like manner, one cannot state in a statement how a statement is related to that 5 C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New to which it refers. The fact that one cannot York: MacMillan, 1947). do so, however, does not deny the existence of objective referents external to statements we make on the basis of what our minds 6 C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (New perceive and conceive. For when we act York: Collier, 1946). upon the assumption that statements based upon our percepts and concepts have valid 7 One could view Miracles as both exposi­ counterparts in an external world, we find tion and implications of the final paragraph that this assumption makes sense of the of The Abolition of Man. world as we know it, and is not self­ contradictory in the way Lewis described the inherent epistemological flaw of phi- 8 Anscombe's close association with Ludwig Wittgenstein, many of whose works

43 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman she translated and edited, no doubt affected 22 Ibid. 34ff. the approach she used in her reply to Lewis. See e.g. Dolan, op. cit. above, note 1. 23 The Abolition of Man 91. The final paragraph reads: "But you cannot go on 9 Socratic Digest Number 4, 10f. 'explaining away' for ever: you will find you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things 10 Ibid 11. forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transpar­ 11 Ibid 12 ent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the gar­ den too? It is no use trying to 'see through' 12 Ibid 13 first principles. If you see through every­ thing, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible 13 Ibid. Anscombe expounds further on world. To 'see through' all things is the the various nuances of "cause" on page 14. same as not to see."

14 Ibid. 15 24 Miracles (1974), 36

15 Summarized in Socratic Digest Number 25 The person Lewis refers to as the 4, 15f. "Naturalist" is, in my judgment, in the same position as the moral relativist, at least in 16 See above note 4. one respect. To quote the late Edward John Carnell: "that which is indispensable to a given condition cannot meaningfully be re­ 17 "The Cardinal Difficulty of Natural­ pudiated by one who stands within the privi­ ism," Miracles (HarperSanFrancisco, 1974), leges of that condition." Christian Commit­ 26f. ment: An Apologetic (New York: Macrnil­ lan, 1957), 65; emphasis Carnell's. This is analogous to what Lewis is saying regard­ 18 Ibid. 28f. ing the philosophical naturalist: At one and the same time the naturalist denies the exis­ tence of the very conditions which make hu­ 19 Ibid. 31f. man reason an enterprise that can stand over against the rest of the cosmos and arrive at conclusions which are more than merely 20 Ibid 32ff. random physical effects upon our brains.

21 Ibid. 36 26 The question of whether humans pos­ sess a "mind" as well as a "brain" has

44 The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate by Ted Dorman

sparked lively debate in recent years. See e.g. Stanley Kurtz, "No Brainer" National Review Online June 25, 2001. See also Mi­ chael Polanyi's discussions of "mind" and "brain" in Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy (University of Chicago, 1958), cf. index references andes­ pecially chapter 8, 'The Logic of Affirma­ tion."

27 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico­ philosophicus (1922), 4.12f.

28 See note 23.

45 Male vs. Female as Good vs. Bad: Deconstructing Gender in C. S. Lewis's Theology Sam McBride

C. S. Lewis on several occasions ad­ few small phrases in a brief, perhaps even dresses the spiritual significance of gender. minor essay and passages that, when given In Perelandra he suggests that gender is a more than their due attention, reveal the spiritual truth that precedes biological em­ contradictory nature of Lewis's gender hier­ bodiment. As such, biology is not the reason archy. men are superior to women; rather, God The essay opens God in the Dock, created men that way, first spiritually and and is titled "Evil and God," first published then physically to reflect the spiritual truth. in 1941 in The Spectator. In this essay This viewpoint takes a practical tum in his Lewis responds to an earlier essay of the essay "Priestesses in the Church" (twice same title by C.E.M. Joad, in which that au­ cited as one of Lewis's most important writ­ thor argues against the worldviews he labels ings by Peter Kreeft in his keynote presenta­ "mechanism" and "emergent evolution" as tions for the 1999 Ewbank Colloquium). philosophically inadequate. Joad concludes Here Lewis argues that women simply can­ that thinkers are left with only two general not represent God to humanity as well as recourses: monotheism or dualism. Lewis men can. concurs, but good Christian apologist that Yet Lewis did not acquire this pre­ he is, he sets about to show why dualism is sumed truth on his conversion to Christian­ also philosophically inadequate when com­ ity. Rather, the belief that men are in gen­ pared with monotheism. eral, and in certain specific ways, superior Lewis expresses two arguments to women precedes his conversion. If any­ against dualism, one metaphysical and the thing, later in his life he may have become other moral. The metaphysical argument is less extreme in his position, owing to his less relevant to my analysis, so I will only experiences with women intellectuals, and summarize it briefly. Lewis argues that two his wife in particular. Yet Christianity pro­ completely opposite forces, good and evil, vided a convenient theological underpin­ can exist only contingently. Because they ning for Lewis's pre-existing assumptions are opposites, neither can be ultimate. Some regarding gender. more ultimate ground must have produced In "Priestesses in the Church" Lewis the situation of equally powerful opposites; consciously espouses a gender hierarchy. At or at the very least, that situation is itself other times, however, Lewis reveals this hi­ more ultimate than the two opposing forces. erarchy in ways of which he may have been Lewis notes we can only imagine the two much less conscious. He occasionally uses opposite forces inhabiting some shared gendered terms for evaluative purposes. space, and thus that space must be closer to Such instances show the importance of this the universal ultimate than are good and attitude to Lewis's thinking. Today I wish evil. to deconstruct one such occurrence that I The moral argument is based on the believe foregrounds and problematizes practical inability to maintain the terms Lewis's gender hierarchy. In true decon­ used for the two opposite forces. If good structive style, I will draw our attention to a and evil are equal, and if neither is in some

46 Male vs. Female as Good vs. Bad: Deconstructing Gender in C. S. Lewis's Theology by Sam McBride way derived out of the other, then how can "womanly" to an idea would be an insult. one determine which is evil, that is, which From this perspective one can look is morally undesirable? Under dualism, forward two decades to Lewis's A Grief Ob­ Lewis argues, one can no longer pass judg­ served, surely one of Lewis's most beautiful ments, since the label "good" would most books, and one that I presume (in contrast likely mean "that which we prefer." To as­ with assertions by some Lewis scholars) is sert a value, "good" must be more ultimate, biographical. On page 56 Lewis describes more original, than "evil," and "evil" must the depth of love and friendship he experi­ be essentially a perversion of "good." The enced with his wife. In an effort to commu­ true relationship between good and evil is nicate this depth to her, Lewis recounts, he parasitic rather than equal. With this argu­ "once praised her for her 'masculine vir­ ment, Lewis has prepared his reader for the tues.' But she soon put a stop to that by ask­ assertion that monotheistic belief systems, ing how I'd like to be praised for my femi­ such as Christianity, offer a fuller, more ac­ nine ones." Only when Joy confronted his curate view of reality than dualistic systems, assumption that "masculine" somehow though he also praises dualism as a far bet­ equates with "good" did he recognize his ter belief system than many of the new phi­ own unacknowledged assumption that to be losophies of his contemporaries. called "feminine" is an insult. In fact, if her Gender only enters the argument in masculine attributes make his wife superior a small way in the last paragraph when in his eyes to other women, then to be Lewis writes, "Dualism can be a manly called "feminine" must be an insult even to creed" (24 ). This is the phrase I wish to fo­ women. cus on. From the context, Lewis clearly in­ Thus these two terms, as Lewis uses tends this as high praise. Lewis shows more them, cannot be equally complimentary respect to a follower of dualism than, say, a within their own settings; one can no more follower of the subjectivism he criticizes in say that "womanly" is a compliment to The Abolition of Man. Yet the word woman than "evil" is a compliment to an "manly" itself can only have meaning as a evil person. Lewis's moral argument against compliment if its opposite term, dualism deconstructs claims that both "womanly," lacks the same complimentary "manly" and "womanly" are equally com­ power. If "womanly" can be a complimen­ plimentary within their own contexts. When tary term, why doesn't Lewis use it instead gender functions as a figure in Lewis's theo­ of "manly"? Just as "good" cannot mean logical writings, it betrays a moral under­ good if it is co-equal with "evil," neither standing of gender (which, of course, is can "man! y" carry its meaning if it is consistent with Lewis's actual relationships merely coequal with "womanly." with women). If "manly" connotes positive In the supposedly non-gendered value, whether applied to a man, an idea, a world of ideas, Lewis uses only the gen­ belief system, or even a woman, then there dered term "manly" as a compliment, never is no space left for "womanly" to connote the term "womanly." In fact, Lewis uses positively. Just as evil, parasitically derived terms such as "feminine" or "womanly" as from good, has less moral value than good, compliments only when referring to so too woman, or at least the feminine, women. His use of "manly" as a philosophi­ parasitically derived from man, is not only cal compliment, however, betrays a hidden authoritatively inferior to man, but also assumption that to apply a term such as morally inferior.

47 Male vs. Female as Good vs. Bad: Deconstructing Gender in C. S. Lewis's Theology by Sam McBride

To sum up my argument thus far: Yet Lewis, of course, associates for Lewis to use the term "manly" as a com­ masculinity and men. Being a man means pliment to the philosophy of dualism in one is to a large extent, and can be to a "Evil and God" is to use the term as a syno­ greater extent, masculine. Being a woman nym for "good." When Lewis says "dualism means one is not to a large extent, cannot be is a manly creed," he argues that, relatively to a great extent, and should not be very speaking, it is good, though not the best. much at all, masculine (which makes one Given that dualism pits good vs. evil, the wonder why Lewis praised his wife for her very arguments Lewis emp Joys to show that masculine virtues). That is, while men may good cannot be equal with evil apply in the be and act no holier than women, they are same way to "manly" vs. "womanly." For still more like God than women are. To be "good" to be "good," it must be morally su­ born male, therefore, is a special honor perior to evil; for "manly" to equate with (Lewis wonders if it might not actually be a "good," it must be morally superior to burden) to represent God to humanity in a "womanly." Lewis asserts, "badness is not way that women simply cannot do. even bad in the same way in which good­ Why specifically is it that women ness is good." (23) Similarly, "womanly" cannot represent God to humanity as must not be "womanly" in the same way priests? Well, Lewis replies, it's a mystery. that "manly" is "manly." That is, gender is God has decreed it in his infinite wisdom. not simply a difference; it's something com­ From man's perspective, Lewis acknowl­ parable to the major and minor leagues. edges, it is irrational. Yet having posited "Manly" is to "womanly" in the same way gender as preceding biology, Lewis is free that "mature" is to "childish." to use gendered adjectives once again in a This, in fact, is the very issue that revealing way. God must be represented to underlies Lewis's essay "Priestesses in the man by a man, Lewis says, because in rela­ Church," first published in Time and Tide in tionship to us, God is masculine. To state 1948, again in response to an earlier article this the other way around, in relationship to published therein, this time from Lady God, we are all feminine. That is, as indi­ Marjorie Nunburnhoime urging the Church viduals and as a church we are situated hier­ of England to accept female priests. While archically subordinate to, inferior to, and opposing Nunburnhoime, Lewis acknowl­ dependent upon Christ, who in turn, Lewis edges that woman is not "necessarily, or implies, is feminine to God the Father. The even probably, less holy or less charitable fundamental principle of femininity, it or stupider than a man." Lewis's response, seems, is subordination to masculinity. By ultimately, is that God decreed a male the way, this is precisely the principle priesthood, having created masculinity as Lewis did not experience from the two more representative of God than femininity. women who dominated his adult life. While men are not necessarily closer to God Lewis does not pursue other equally than women are, masculinity as a concept is logical conclusions of his formulation. If closer to God than femininity. Remember men are most like God due to their mascu­ again that for Lewis (and Toikien) gender is line superiority to women, and if Christ can a conceptual element of the universe which be seen as feminine in relation to God the precedes God's creation of biological life Father, women must have a special bond or forms. Masculinity, in other words, pre­ resemblance to Christ in his role as submit­ cedes actual men. ter to the Father. What does this special cor-

48 Male vs. Female as Good vs. Bad: Deconstructing Gender in C. S. Lewis's Theology by Sam McBride relation mean to humanity? In addition, if declined. Nothing about women's physiol­ even men are feminine in relationship to ogy should prevent her from functioning ap­ Christ, then shouldn't we men study women propriately as priest. Sayers does not accept humbly and carefully, since they more Lewis's argument that men were chosen by closely model Christ-like submission? This God to be placed hierarchically above them, is something Lewis claims to have never nor that they as a result more accurately re­ done. In the chapter on friendship in The flect God's nature. Four Loves, Lewis makes clear he has had In a sense, this entire disagreement or taken little opportunity to observe centers on diverging interpretations of women. "What were the women doing Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his meanwhile?," Lewis asks when discussing own image, in the image of God he created why men throughout history have enjoyed him; male and female he created them." To male camaraderie. "How should I know? I emphasize the first half is to see man cre­ am a man and never spied on the mysteries ated more in God's image than woman, as of the Bona Dea" (95) Yet shouldn't that Lewis seems to do; to emphasize the second mystery give us insight into our beloved half is to see man and woman equally re­ Christ, and into our own role in relationship flecting God's image, as Sayers seems to with him? Lewis's emphasis on perceiving do. God as masculine suggests that God's mas­ If nothing else, this disagreement culinity is more worthy of study than His between Lewis and Sayers should validate femininity. continued debate and disagreement on the So, what is the upshot of this discus­ nature of gender and theology among the sion? Is Lewis wrong in his views on Inklings, and among the fans of the Ink­ women as priests? Or in his hierarchical and lings. It is from this perspective that I hum­ non-biological view of gender? Let me bly, respectfully, and cheerfully disagree make clear, I'm not seeking to make such with Peter Kreeft, the distinguished keynote arguments. Rather than passing judgment speaker for the Second Biennial Ewbank on Lewis, I, in good deconstructive fashion, Colloquium, in his assertion that prefer instead to make a small point, rather "Priestesses in the Church" is among than a major argument. The point is simply Lewis's most important essays relevant to that gender carries with it moral value in our times. Lewis's writings. We should understand this when we read his work, whether we Works Cited agree with him on this matter or disagree with him. Lewis, C. S. "Evil and God." God in the We should also understand that his Dock: Essays on Theology and Eth­ viewpoint is more than just a reflection of ics. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rap­ Lewis's time. Lewis sought to engage Doro­ ids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, thy L. Sayers in his campaign against 1970. 21-24. women priests, and her response is instruc­ ---.A Grief Observed. New York: Seabury, tive. Sayers' main argument on gender, as 1961. expressed in two essays in her collection ---. Perelandra. New York: Macmillan, Unpopular Opinions, is that men and 1944. women are both equally human. When ---. "Priestesses in the Church." God in the Lewis asked her to back his viewpoint, she Dock: Essays on Theology and Eth-

49 Male vs. Female as Good vs. Bad: Deconstructing Gender in C. S. Lewis's Theology by Sam McBride

ics. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rap­ ids, Ml: William B. Eerdrnans, 1970. 234-239. Sayers, Dorothy L. Are Women Human? Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerd­ man's, 1971.

50 All Shall Be Well: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian By Doug Jackson

And always keep ahold of nurse I For fear lations of such an approach listed by Lewis offinding something worse. are the reviewer's iconoclastic intent, his - Hi/laire Bel/oc lack of information, and the intellectual dis­ The above line comes from Hillaire honesty of his circular argument As to the Belloc's poem, "Jim," subtitled, "Who ran first, Lewis comments, "One is not here free away from his nurse and was eaten by a from bias, for this procedure is almost en­ lion." Prince Caspian, the second of C. S. tirely confined to hostile reviewers. And Lewis's Narnia series, is the story of a boy now that I come to think of it, I have seldom who was torn away from his nurse and seen it practised on a dead author except by made into a king by a lion. Somewhere in a scholar who intended, in some measure, to between, perhaps, comes the story of Lewis debunk him." (Ibid.) himself, who lost his nurse and did, indeed, As to the second, Lewis chides that, find worse things, but also eventually found in addition to lacking a full psychoanalysis the "Lion," and brought him back to genera­ of the "patient's" subconscious, psychologi­ tions of readers. cal critics also lack data from the writer's conscious mind. "I am here concerned only Introduction: The (lm)personal Heresy with what the author can say about such re­ VIews solely because he is the au­ In 1939, Milton scholar E. M. W. thor." (Ibid.) Tillyard and Lewis published The Personal Finally, Lewis complains Heresy, a series of essays which debated the that Freudian critics spin theories which role of biography in literary criticism. cannot be falsified and therefore cannot be Tillyard maintained that Paradise Lost was affirmed. "By definition you are uncon­ ultimately about "the state of Milton's mind scious of the things he professes to dis­ when he wrote it" (Sayer, p.l58), while cover. Therefore the more loudly you dis­ Lewis believed the poet's business was to claim them, the more right he must be: transcend his own personality and that the though, oddly enough, if you admitted writing, not the writer, was the issue. them, that would prove him right George Sayer maintains that the longer the too." (Ibid.) One is reminded here of crea­ skirmish lasted the closer the two men's po­ tionist Philip E. Johnson's critique of Freu­ sitions became (Sayer, p.l58), and while dian psychology: "A psychoanalyst could this may be so, it is clear that Lewis disliked explain why a man would commit murder - pseudo-psychological snooping into the au­ or, with equal facility, why the same man thor's mysterious psyche as a substitute for would sacrifice his own life to save an­ hard reading of the author's plain page. other." (Johnson, p.l48) What psycho­ In his essay "On Criticism," Lewis analysis will under no circumstances at­ skewers the "amateur psychologist" who tempt is to predict in advance whether or "has a Freudian theory of literature and when a given man will do either of these claims to know all about your inhibi­ things. tions" (On Stories, p.l34). Among the limi-

51 All Shall Be Well: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian by Doug Jackson

All three kinds of culpability find write with an absolute admiration for glaring fulfillment in A. N. Wilson• s biog­ Lewis; far from "debunking" him, I wish to raphy of Lewis. Wilson clearly wields his cast one additional (if weak) ray on the pen with hostile intent against the memory glittering gem of his literary legacy. Sec­ of a dead author, and he conveniently ig­ ond, I will confine myself either to the au­ nores a good deal of the information which thor's own words or verifiable biographical Lewis himself supplied about the origin facts as the basis for any conclusions drawn. and meaning of his works. And, of course, Finally, because of a reliance on Lewis's Wilson selects (or creates) his data from a own writing, I hope to offer conclusions rich and varied life in such a way as to sup­ which can be either substantiated or dis­ port his preconceptions; he displays twenty­ missed with some certain! y by the reader, twenty hindsight as he gazes myopically into a fun-house version of a rear-view mir­ Seed and Shoot: Biographical Hints ror, While I have no wish to repeat Wil­ In Chapter Four of Prince Caspian, son's crimes, nor to anger the literary ghost ''The Dwarf Tells of Prince Caspian," we of Lewis, I think it might be possible, in a meet the young prince's nurse. Four as­ biographical safari through some of his pects about the youngster's relationship to writing, to gain a fresh view of the Lion this woman stand out: she is a story-teller, without unleashing the critical hyenas she awakens wonder in the child for whom Lewis battled so tirelessly. It is my conten­ she cares, she is exiled as a result of his un­ tion that C. S. Lewis wove a powerful child­ witting denunciation, and her departure pro­ hood tragedy into the tapestry of his second vides opportunity for the next necessary Namian novel, Prince Caspian, entwining phase in the youngster's development. its dark thread with brighter patterns of re­ She is, first of all, a story-teller. We demption. encounter her as "the person Caspian loved This is not to accuse Lewis, as the best," even better than his wonderful toys, Freudian critic does, of leaving undigested because of her enchanting tales of the old lumps of biography swimming in the broth days in Narnia when the beasts talked and of his fiction, like undercooked clots of strange creatures populated the land. From flour in a poorly made gravy. He carefully Nurse, Caspian absorbs a true, if limited, smelts the biographical facts, then, with theology, centered on Aslan "the great lion complete fidelity to both literary law and who comes from over the sea." Namian magic, redeems them. This re­ The second feature of Caspian's re­ demption is worth understanding, not for lationship to Nurse surfaces in the effect some tabloid thrill of peeking behind a these yams have on the young prince: they writer's psychic window-shades, but for the awaken his sense of wonder. What strikes blessing of understanding the redemption the reader is the completely Lewisian touch which Lewis depicts and holds out as a that Caspian likes this make-believe world hope for every subject of Aslan. much better than the real world he inhabits, This exegesis will be undertaken even though the latter holds, for him, a within a careful orthodoxy, and will avoid crown. Asked by his bewildered, and disap­ heresy by eschewing the three sins previ­ proving, uncle what he could desire more ously dictated by the Archbishop of Magda­ than the throne of Namia, Caspian stam­ len himself. First, far from hostile intent, I mers, "I wish-I wish-I wish I had lived

52 All Shall Be Well: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian by Doug Jackson

in the Old Days." One is reminded of Pud­ a sort of dwarfish dialectician. He sharpens dleglum's apologetic to the Witch in The Caspian's growing mind so that, to his emo­ Silver Chair: tional yearning for Nurse's fantasy, he adds intellectual discernment of the reality of I won't deny any of what you said. such a world. In asserting the veracity of But there's one thing more to be said. Sup­ Old Narnia, Cornelius offers himself, a half­ pose we have only dreamed, or made up all dwarf, as proof that the dwarves once ex­ those things-trees and grass and sun and isted, and from that fact argues the deduc­ moon and stars and Asian himself. Suppose tion that the other creatures of that fantastic we have. Then all I can say is that, in that time are historical as well. Ever the logical case, the made-up things seem a good deal thinker, the Doctor refuses to assert posi­ more important that the real ones. Suppose tively that such beings still exist. "I don't this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the know-I don't know," he laments in re­ only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty sponse to Caspian's questions along this poor one. And that's a funny thing, when line, and goes on to detail his wearisome you come to think of it. We're just babies search for proof and the slender evidence it making up a game, if you're right. But four has produced. Lewis himself, in the auto­ babies playing a game can make a play­ biographical Surprised By Joy, provides a world which licks your real world all hol­ striking germ for this fictional growth. As a low. (Silver Chair, p.l82) boy of eleven, Lewis attended the boarding school of Cherbourg. Here he met "Miss The third important feature C," (as he calls her in Joy) the school Ma­ of this relationship, Nurse's exile and Cas­ tron, identified by Sayer as Miss Cowie pian's culpability in it, emerges when King (Sayer, p.30). At this point, it is worth not­ Miraz interrogates the boy, discovers the ing that Lewis's own account of his life pre­ well-head of this stream of "nonsense" (he figures what later happens to Caspian. uses the word twice), and sends her right Miss C. was, like her fictional coun­ out of the story. "Next day Caspian found terpart, a storyteller whose themes were what a terrible thing he had done, for Nurse theological and who believed the stories had been sent away without even being al­ that she told. She was, Lewis says, lowed to say good-bye to him, and he was "floundering in the mazes of Theosophy, told he was to have a Tutor." Lewis Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism; the whole stresses the youthful naivete of Caspian Anglo-American Occultist tradition." (Joy, which absolves him of guilt, but not respon­ p.59) Matron quickly became Lewis's fa­ sibility, for the fiasco. "He was only a very vorite. Caspian is an orphan; Albert Lewis little boy at the time," we are told, and "if was living when young Jack encountered Caspian had been a very little older, the Miss C., but his mother was dead and he tone of his uncle's voice would have was both physically and emotionally distant warned him that it would be wiser to shut from his father. "We all loved her," Lewis up. But he babbled on." writes of Matron, "I, the orphan, espe­ This introduces the fourth point of cially." (Ibid.) comparison, the appearance of a mentor to Like Nurse, Matron's tales fired her take the growing boy on the next phase of young charge's imagination. It is to this, in his journey. Dr. Cornelius, the tutor who part, that Lewis attributes his apostasy from arrives after Nurse's departure, proves to be the Christian faith. He is careful to mute his

53 All Shall Be Well: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspwn by Doug Jackson

criticism, pointing out that his faith was ripe Have Faces, or the semi-comic tunnel­ for the fall, but he is honest in admitting VISIOn of MacPhee of That Hideous that Miss C.'s spiritualism emboldened his Strength. Still, certain likenesses persist, apostasy. However, her rich, imaginative and one could almost say that Cornelius heresies also opened for him the exciting draws many of his strengths from a magnifi­ possibility of a world inhabited by much cation of what, in Kirkpatrick, were incon­ more interesting beings than prosaic adults, sistencies and weaknesses. like his father and schoolmasters, on the one "I have said," Lewis writes of The hand, and the stem and distant God of his Great Knock, "that he was almost wholly orthodox upbringing on the other. logical; but not quite. He had been a Pres­ Finally, like Nurse, Matron met her byterian and was now an Atheist. He spent downfall through Lewis's innocent involve­ Sunday, as he spent most of his time on ment. While Lewis himself makes no men­ weekdays, working in his garden. But one tion of her dismissal form Cherbourg, Sayer curious trait from his Presbyterian youth states that she was fired for two indiscre­ survived. He always, on Sundays, gardened tions, both involving young Jack-being in a different, and slightly more respectable, caught holding the him in a maternal em­ suit. An Ulster Scot may come to disbe­ brace, and taking his part in a protest re­ lieve in God, but not to wear his weekday garding censorship of his mail. (Sayer, clothes on the Sabbath." (Joy, p.l38) p.30) The parallels are hard to ignore. An After Kirkpatrick's death, the still imaginative young boy in dull surroundings atheistic Lewis wrote to his father, finds a source of love and a wealth of imagination, but the effects are judged to be Yet, as you say, he is so indelibly detrimental by the authorities and the friend stamped on one's mind once known, so of­ suffers as a result, creating a sense of guilt ten present in thought, that he makes his in the child. It is important to realize that own acceptance of annihilation the more Lewis makes it clear that he regarded Miss unthinkable. I have seen death fairly often C. as a work in progress. She "was still in and never yet been able to find it anything her spiritual immaturity, still hunting, with but extraordinary and rather incredible. the eagerness of a soul that had a touch of The real person is so very real, so obviously angelic quality in it, for a truth and a way of living and different from what is left that life." (Joy, p.59) one cannot believe something has turned Ultimately, although not as a direct into nothing. It is not faith, it is not rea­ result of Miss C.'s dismissal, Lewis ended son-just a "feeling". "Feelings" are in up under the tutelage of W. T. Kirkpatrick, the long run a pretty good match for what "The Great Knock." Of course, Kirkpatrick we call our beliefs. (Letters, 4/23/21) cannot stand as an exact prototype of the dwarfish tutor. Cornelius is, after all, a ma­ These comments hint that gician, something the old materialist would Kirkpatrick's rationalism, far from cement­ have abhorred and, at bottom, a man of ing Lewis into his professed atheism, actu­ faith. There is not here, for instance, the ally had a counter-revolutionary, if unin­ curmudgeonly Socratic dialogue and Pla­ tended, effect. The force of the tutor's per­ tonic idealism of Professor Kirk in The sonality outweighed, in the end, the force of Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the his arguments. Indeed, one can see here a avuncular humanism of the Fox in Till We hint of the Fox, who "was ashamed of lov-

54 All Shall Be WeD: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian by Doug Jackson ing poetry." (Till We Have Faces, p.8) It eyes and saw the bright, hairy head of the recalls Basil Grant's comment about his lion staring into her face, she did not scream brother, Rupert, in G. K. Chesterton's Club or faint. She said, 'Oh, Asian! I knew it of Queer Trades, "His reasoning is particu­ was true."' Shortly after her miraculous re­ larly cold and clear, and invariably leads covery, the woman meets Caspian and they him wrong. But his poetry comes in fall into each other's arms; she is his old abruptly and leads him right." (The Club of nurse, and his past damage is forgiven and Queer Trades, p.ll5) This seed of weak­ repaired. ness in Kirkpatrick becomes the peculiar It could be argued that the parallel strength of Cornelius, who applies his for­ breaks down because Nurse, though holding midable intellect to the task of affirming the an unpopular theology, held a true one, emotional excitement raised in Caspian by while Miss C. embraced ideas which were nurse's stories. In Kirkpatrick, Lewis both unapproved and in fact heretical. But found, as his fictional prince would later remember Lewis's charitable description of find in Cornelius, the resources to discipline her as a soul in search of truth. This is a his spiritual yearnings into Christian truth major theme in the writing of Lewis: that without leeching them dry of their emo­ God rewards the sincere seeker by giving tional richness. him, not what he finds, but what he wanted to find. Thus Trumpkin, who disbelieves in Divergence: The Triumph of Truth over lions in general and the Great Lion in par­ Fact ticular, is immediately loved of Asian when they finally meet, and Emeth, servant of None of this should obscure the fact Tash, finds his way through the stable door that Prince Caspian is a work of fiction. and into Asian's Country in the end; the Any parallels to Lewis's own life are of in­ Fox meets Orual in the underworld and terest only as they enable us better to under­ apologizes for misleading her with his stand the story itself, and the effect it has, or Greek rationalism, and Screwtape com­ can have, on the reader. Lewis might just as plains to Wormwood in Letter Five that "He usefully have based certain aspects of Cas­ often makes prizes of humans who have pian• s adventures on the life of a friend or given their lives for causes He thinks bad on stranger, or on pure invention. His experi­ the monstrously sophistical ground that the ences at Cherbourg are important for my humans thought them good and were fol­ purposes only because of what Lewis did lowing the best they knew." Thus Lewis with them. rewrites the ending of his own story, but Caspian's story ends differently does not falsify, or even in any meaningful from Lewis's as far as the observable facts sense change it. He draws the logical line are concerned. What ultimately became of of progress for a soul sincerely seeking a Miss C. is unknown. What happened to sovereign God who has willed Himself to Caspian's nurse is described in delightful be found. detail in Chapter 14, "How All Were Very Busy". As Asian romps through Narnia, re­ All Shall Be Well: The Irrelevance of leasing it from Miraz's Telmarine bondage, Time in Light of Eternity he encounters an old woman on her death bed. She recognizes him at once. "She was The point here is not just that Asian at death's door, but when she opened her cleans up the mess made by young Caspian

55 All Shall Be WeD: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian by Doug Jackson

and his nurse. Rather, the mess becomes in cant) as that of Judas, released their grip and itself the vehicle of ultimate victory. Had lived to repent To Namians, while "what the nurse not planted the seed of the true might have happened" is forbidden knowl­ Namia in Caspian's imagination when he edge, what will happen, despite our faults was too young to reject it, he would have and failures, is a tale of joy in which child­ grown up as another dull Telmarine. In­ hood is never a false start, but always the stead, his plastic soul conforms itself to the necessary seed of the final flourishing. Namian mold, never to lose that shape agam. Had not Caspian unwittingly in­ dicted her before the King, she would have Works Cited remained his nurse until the birth of Miraz's son, at which point Caspian would have Prince Caspian, C. S. Lewis, Harper­ been assassinated to make room for the Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 1994 scion of the usurper on the throne. Instead, her departure opens the door for Dr. Corne­ The Silver Chair, C. S. Lewis, Harper­ lius who is otherworldly enough to be in Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 1994 love with Old Namia, and worldly enough to spirit the young prince away before his Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. Walter Hooper, execution is decreed. Redemption is the Harcourt, Brace & Company, Re­ theme; not just the redemption of our delib­ vised Harvest Edition, New York, erate sins or innocent errors, but the re­ NY 1993 demption of the very suffering which is later seen as necessary and, when known to On Stories, C. S. Lewis, Harcourt, Brace & be necessary, hardly seen as suffering at all. Company, New York, NY 1982 Lewis's friendship with Charles Williams is well known, as is the fondness Surprised By Joy - The Shape Of My Early of the former for the prayer of Juliana of Life, C. S. Lewis, Harcourt Brace Norwich, "All shall be well, and all shall be Jovanovich, New York, NY well, and every manner of thing shall be well," (see Letters, 6/2/40 to Owen Jack - C. S. Lewis And His Times, George Barfield) and the coda appended by the !at­ Sayer, Harper & Row Publishers, ter, "That which shall be well, is well al­ San Francisco, CA, 1988 ready." And perhaps this explains why, in addition to the practical mechanics of plot, The Club of Queer Trades, G. K. Chester­ Lewis makes Narnian time inconsequential ton, Dover Publications, Mineola, New in terms of our world. The seed of Cas­ York, 1987 pian's tribulations can die, germinate and produce the bloom of his joy between two Darwin on Trial, Philip E. Johnson, Inter­ ticks of the clock in an English railway sta­ Varsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1993 tion. Thus Lewis offers a healing touch to the raw memories of all those who tried to hold tight to Nurse but were pulled loose by stronger hands, and all those who, in a mo­ ment of betrayal as real (if not as signifi-

56 FIRST PlACE STUDENT ESSAY

The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way Nathan Sytsma

Fantasy. These three diminutive tian work in its treatment of, among other syllables have a tendency to provoke strong things, self-sacrifice and eschatology. reactions. "I love it'" proclaims one friend, The theme of selfless sacrifice in then proceeds to list the hack novels he has The Lord of the Rings is inescapable; it is read recently. Among academics, the word perhaps the book's most strikingly theologi­ seems to produce raised eyebrows and cal motif. Even when discussing the Chris­ pained re-adjustment of glasses. In Western tian's final joy, Tolkien writes, 'The Chris­ culture, "true fantasy" seems like an oxy­ tian has still to work, with mind as well as moron. Yet Ursula K. Le Guin writes, body, to suffer, hope, and die" (Hallett 287). "Fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, In this vein, Tolkien' s great work depicts but it is true" (Le Guin 34). Amidst the characters journeying, suffering, and above dan de lion-like growth of the genre in recent all, responding to the call to sacrifice them­ years, one easily forgets that 20th century selves for the good of others. According to fantasy's foremost contributor, J.R.R. Stratford Caldecott, "It is, at bottom, a Tolkien, was a Christian scholar who in­ Christian myth, in which 'the first will be tended his work to be serious and spiritual, last and the last will be first."' (Pearce 115). and to be true. The protagonists succeed and receive re­ Professor Tolkien was especially ward to the degree that they renounce per­ fascinated by myth, and he began to see sonal comfort and ambition. One could say "splinters of light"-splinters of divine that The Lord of the Rings, like Christianity, revelation and truth-in supposedly pagan is preoccupied with self-sacrifice. myths. Tolkien viewed myth as humanity's Tolkien develops the theme of self­ way to mumble God's truth, and so he less giving in each of the main characters, chose to write a myth-a fairy story or fan­ beginning with Gandalf. Joseph Pearce tasy work that would be true, if not factual. quotes from Paul Pfotenhauer' s article, In a sense, The Lord of the Rings is his "Christian Themes in Tolkien," which Christian myth. It generally avoids specific stresses "the recurring theme of the Suffer­ references to religion, "For the religious ele­ ing Servant who gives himself willingly, ment is absorbed into the story and the sym­ even unto death, that others might bolism" (Letters 288). As The J.R.R. live" (Pearce 109). The character of Gan­ Tolkien Handbook maintains, "The mean­ dalf, through his death in Moria, exempli­ ing, in fact, is implicit rather than explicit. fies the theme of selfless suffering. Known It is incarnate in the whole world of the as a wizard in The Lord of the Rings, he story" (Duriez 60). This does not mean, leads the fellowship of protagonists with his however, that the professor buried Christian wisdom and supernatural abilities. As the themes so deeply as to make them unreach­ fellowship flees from the caves of Moria able. How exactly did Tolkien ally Christi­ over a chasm-spanning bridge, however, he anity with fantasy, fairy story, and myth? literally meets his match, an evil spirit Tolkien's magnum opus, The Lord of the called a Balrog. "I must hold the narrow Rings, shows itself as a specifically Chris- way," he tells his companions, echoing the

57 The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way by Nathan Sytsma narrow way that Jesus preached, before he than this, that a man lay down his life for gives "even unto death" to fend off evil his friends' (John 15: 13) pairs love with the (Tolkien 321). The confrontation between willing self-sacrifice of death, and the god­ Gandalf and the Balrog is one of the few hero of Christendom would for Tolkien be times when we see a character explicitly ap­ the principal exemplar of self-sacrifice for peal to a Higher Authority. "You cannot love" (Obertino 231 ). Gandalf, like the pass," Gandalf declares to the evil spirit god-hero Jesus, relinquishes his personal (Tolkien 322). Yet he invokes neither his claims to greatness in order to defend his own powers, nor those of a companion, nor friends and, ultimately, to defend the mis­ even of "magic." Instead, the wizard as­ sion that defeats evil. Consequently, he is serts, "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, raised back to life. Each "wise man"­ wielder of the flame of Anor" (Tolkien Gandalf and Christ-returns radiant, his 322). He shows himself to be, as a Roman self-sacrifice justified. Perhaps the num­ centurion said to Jesus, "a man under au­ bered days of Gandalfs victorious return thority" (NIV, Matthew 7:8). The centurion are even analogous to Christ's brief time on understood Jesus' source of authority to be earth after His resurrection. Through Gan­ submission to his Father; Jesus sacrificed dalf, Tolkien develops the Christian theme his own interests to seek those of his Father. of self-sacrifice "even unto death," with res­ Tolkien depicts Gandalf in a similar posi­ urrection in store for the faithful servant. tion, powerful inasmuch as he sacrifices The hobbit Frodo, along with his personal benefit and serves a Higher Au­ servant Sam, lies at the heart of The Lord of thority. the Rings' Suffering Servant theme. During Despite this power, however, Gan­ the council at which the fate of the Ring­ dalf must still plunge deathward alongside potent with the Enemy's power-is decided, the Balrog; he must still "suffer, hope, and Frodo willingly takes on himself the burden die." As we discover later, Gandalf goes on of bearing the Ring. "'I will take the Ring,' to journey through a deep underworld, bat­ he said, 'though I do not know the tle on the heights, die, and be "sent back­ way'" (Tolkien 264). Frodo's words have for a brief time, until [his] task is in them the core of Jesus' words to Simon done" (Tolkien 491). Again, the phrasing is Peter: 'The spirit is willing, but the body is not that of the personal power that one weak" (NIV, Mark 14:38). The Ring, might expect from a fantasy wizard or though powerful, is no Sword-in-the-stone; mythic figure; he is "sent back" by some it is a bitter cup, full of temptation and cor­ Higher Power. In his underworld journey, ruption. And while Frodo, like Jesus, is hu­ Gandalf can be seen as a type of epic hero, manly incapable of carrying the cup of lam­ such as Odysseus, Aeneas, or Beowulf. entation, he is willing. How does Frodo's But, as James Obertino notes, Tolkien takes attitude relate to Christianity? Romans 5:7 the form beyond tradition, for Gandalf actu­ states, "Very rarely will anyone die for a ally dies, returning only for a specific time righteous man," yet Christ chose to die in and task. In this purposeful death and resur­ order to save the world that he loved. In the rection, Gandalf reflects not merely an epic movies and books of our culture, heroes and hero, but Christ. The incident's strands of heroines sacrifice themselves for romantic self-sacrifice, heroism and Christianity are love, for the hope of honor, or even for re­ tied together by Obertino, who writes, 'The venge. They will save the world for a lover, Christian precept 'Greater love hath no man for self, or for a memory. Rarely, however,

58 The Lord ofthe Rings and the Christian Way by Nathan Sytsma does a protagonist give "even unto death" humbled and whoever humbles himself will because it is his duty and joy to serve­ be exalted" (NIV, Matthew 23:11-12). because it is right. Yet To!kien paints pro­ Frodo and Sam choose continually to be tagonists who defeat the Enemy by giving "last," to be lesser so that others will be up their own agenda, confounding the En­ greater. "For you died, and your life is now emy, Sauron, with their selflessness. Unlike hidden with Christ in God," exhorts the the confident, often violent, heroes of the apostle Paul. "Put to death, therefore, what­ movie screen and much fantasy literature, ever belongs to your earthly nature" (NIV, the central characters are physically weak, Colossians 3:3,5). Along the lines of this though mentally and spiritually strong. Christian precept, Frodo and Sam put to Frodo takes upon himself the instru­ death their dreams both of a quiet hobbit ment of Darkness in order to destroy Dark­ life and of grandeur, instead journeying in ness, just as Jesus bore an instrument of secret, closer and closer to the heart of Evil. Death in order to destroy Death. As Joseph Time and again, they must face temptation Pearce emphasizes, Frodo "had not sought and choose rightly. In the Elvish land of the burden, but once it had been laid upon Lothlorien, Sam is confronted with the pros­ his reluctant shoulders he accepted it, and pect of destruction happening at home. the sacrifice it involved, becoming a suffer­ Still, he puts to death his desire to turn back. ing servant to a greater good" (Pearce 112). "No, I'll go home by the long road with Mr. That sacrifice involves plunging into Frodo, or not at all," he says, in a touching Sauron' s domain, becoming, like Jesus, "a display of courage and loyalty (Tolkien man of sorrows, and familiar with suffer­ 354). Frodo endures temptation on Amon ing" (NIV, Isaiah 53:3). It involves sacrific­ Hen, the hill of sight, when he wears the ing himself to win life for the many, just as Ring and sees the whole world spread out "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the before him. The Enemy's Eye nearly finds sins of many people" (NIV, Hebrews 9:28). him, and he must choose to resist its allure Theologian Colin Gunton sums up Frodo's by taking off the Ring. The scene is loosely theological significance when he writes, reminiscent of the temptation of Jesus, "Like Jesus, Frodo goes into the heart of the when Satan took him to a high place and enemy's realm in order to defeat him. And showed him the kingdoms of the earth. like him he is essentially weak and defence­ Both Frodo and Jesus reject selfishness and less in worldly terms, but finally strong and choose self-denial. On the very edge of invincible because he refuses to use the en­ Mordor-the Enemy's Hell into which emy's methods" (Pearce 118). Frodo and Sam must journey-Frodo ap­ At the same time, Frodo is not pears to die. Sam, taking up the Ring, must merely a type of the historical Christ; he choose either to continue the quest or to also typifies the Christian walk, the "dying claim the Ring for himself. Up to this point, to self' through which the living Christ be­ his actions have reflected the tradition of comes more and more a part of a believer's honorable English servants, but here life. Sam, as his follower, makes the type Tolkien demands from Sam even higher of a humble, growing, suffering Christian sacrifice. "Already the Ring tempted him, even more accessible, and draws into spe­ gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fanta­ cial focus Jesus' teaching. "The greatest sies arose in his mind," writes Tolkien among you will be a servant," declared Je­ (Tolkien 880). Yet Sam also puts that de­ sus, "For whoever exalts himself will be sire to death.

59 The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way by Nathan Sytsma

Frodo and Sam's self-sacrifice car­ With his concept of eucatastrophe, ries them into Mordor-a far more night­ applied in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien marish hell than that of Gandalf s trials­ explores Christian joy at the end of time. In where "the air was full of fumes; breathing his famous essay, "On Fairy-Stories," he was painful and difficu It; and a dizziness describes eucatastrophe as the opposite of came on them, so that they staggered and tragedy, or dyscatastrophe, and the highest often fell" (Tolkien 918). Ragged, ex­ function of any fairy story or myth like The hausted, famished, in pain, despairing­ Lord of the Rings. While facing the reality they press on. Sam sacrifices profoundly. of sorrow and failure, this joy "denies (in He staggers under the weight of Frodo, who the face of much evidence, if you will) uni­ is too weak to even walk, toiling through versal final defeat and in so far is evan­ Hell in hopes of somehow saving the world gelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, through such "foolishness." It is difficult to Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant find a less egotistical fantasy figure. Sam as grief' (Hallett 285). Tolkien goes on to gives up his rights-to a peaceful life in the outline his conviction that such unexpected, Shire, to the Ring, and even to his own body moving joy at the end of a fantasy story as he bears Frodo. Frodo and Sam, in their may be "a sudden glimpse of the underlying selfless brokenness, reveal an alternative to reality or truth," a "far-off gleam or echo of "temporary personal omnipotence" (Pearce evangelium in the real world" (Hallett 286). 114). Eventually, the two hobbits do reach What is this evangelium? To the Christian, the end of their quest, and through an un­ it is the victory of Christ's work on the usual turn of events the Ring is finally de­ cross infusing the world with healing and stroyed. In the cataclysm that follows, joy, God's redemption at work in the world. Frodo and Sam fall one last time, "worn "The Evangelium has not abrogated leg­ out, or choked with fumes and heat, or ends; it has hallowed them, especially the stricken down by despair at last, hiding their 'happy ending'," writes Tolkien (Hallett eyes from death" (Tolkien 930). At this 287). In effect, Tolkien says that Christians point, Frodo, like Christ, has finally given can claim the consolation of a fantasy, fairy the ultimate sacrifice, while he and Sam, story, or myth's "happy ending" as a cele­ like Christians, have reached the end of bratory echo of Jesus' victory. His triumph their journey, the utter extent of their self­ and resurrection also feed the hope of the sacrifice. They "die" for the last time, to Christian for a final "happy ending." They awaken as heroes. As Colin Duriez states, spur on the crying in which "[t]he Spirit and "In Tolkien's Middle-Earth, ultimately the the bride say, 'Come!"' to the One who will meek inherit the world" (Duriez 113). At make all things whole (NIV, Revelation long last, the last become first. 22;17). As such, eucatastrophe in stories is As much as the suffering and jour­ a prophetic hint of God's good working at ney themselves, the way in which the self­ present and to come in the world. The joy sacrificial quest comes to an end reflects induced by an unexpected ecstatic "turn" at Tolkien's Christianity. Eschatology in The a story's ending "looks forward ...to the Lord of the Rings-its approach to the end Great Eucatastrophe" (Hallett 287). In times-has a deep Christian resonance. The Christian understanding, this will be upon way in which Tolkien portrays Middle­ Jesus' return, when he throws down evil Earth's ultimate end similarly reflects his and reclaims paradise, when "our Lord God devout beliefs. Almighty reigns" and "the wedding of the

60 The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way by Nathan Sytsma

Lamb has come" (NIV, Revelation 19:6,7). cessitates a final renewal to come. Healing In The Lord of the Rings' final chap­ must grow through the slow budding of love ters, Tolkien puts to practical use the im­ and mercy. And though the final outcome agery of a victory, a reigning Lord, and a of the struggle between good and evil has wedding. If Christian eschatology is not a been determined, Middle-Earth will not heal specific accomplice to this "happy ending," entirely from evil's scars until the end of it is strongly implicated. First off, good de­ time. Frodo, weakened by the struggle, livers a decisive blow to evil. That Tolkien must pass on to the next world to await the portrays two sides-black and white in their completion of goodness in Middle-Earth. clarity-is crucial. In a world of increas­ Again, in his literal voyage to the West-to ingly relativistic values, the Christian faith Paradise-he models a Christian view of still affirms right and wrong, viewing his­ human mortality. Everyone--even those tory as a struggle between heaven and the who look forward with expectation to a re­ dragon, God and Satan. Tolkien, rather newed world-will leave this globe. Chris­ than depicting a personal or national vic­ tians hope, however, that they will be biding tory, shows the cosmic triumph of good­ time, healing and relating as they anticipate ness. Mordor' s Black Gate crumbles, the returning to a world made perfect. In such a men of the east and the south are defeated, view, both Frodo and the Christian pass on, and even the Eagles are involved with the but they do not give up on the world. victory. While the hobbits' original journey While Tolkien too passed on before from the Shire southward is fraught with completing his mythology, his work antici­ danger, their return is free from peril. This pates an ultimate end both to Middle-Earth victory decisively changes the whole of and to the struggle played out there. In Middle-Earth, anticipating the time when Tolkien' s world, evil will not continue for­ God's final victory will decisively change ever, waxing and waning in some dualist our world. "The hands of the King are dance with good. Tolkien writes in a letter, hands of healing," as the character Aragom "According to [the mythology] there was at claims his rightful place at the head of the first an actual Earthly Paradise ...." (Letters kingdom (Tolkien 935). The King sits on 237). Among other things, this included the his throne, pronouncing judgments and ush­ Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, which ering in a new reign. The humble hobbits lit the Blessed Realm with their golden and receive honor, and the land nearly bursts silvery lights glimmering in tum. Genesis 2 with singing and rejoicing. As if this was records a similar pair in the Garden of not enough, a long-awaited wedding finally Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the takes place. "And Aragom the King Elessar Knowledge of Good and Evil. In both Mid­ wedded Arwen Und6miel in the City of the dle-Earth and the Bible, a Fall destroys Kings upon the day of Midsummer, and the Paradise's perfection, introducing evil's cor­ tale of their long waiting and labours was ruption as the opponent of good. Tolkien's come to fulfillment" (Tolkien 951). With Two Trees-along with their descendants­ his diction growing formal and excessive, it wither, while the tree motif disappears for seems that even the author becomes caught most of the Old Testament. Yet in the final up in this joyous eucatastrophe. Still, the chapters of The Lord of the Rings, a sapling final chapters of The Lord of the Rings look "whose white petals shone like the sunlit forward to an even more complete ending. snow" reappears, a scion of Telperion to re­ The continuing presence of evil ne- place the barren tree in the King's city

61 The Lord ofthe Rings and the Christian Way by Nathan Sytsma

(Tolkien 950). ''The sign has been given," up, the Silmarils recovered, Earendil re­ says Aragorn, "and the day is not far turned to earth, the Two Trees rekindled in off' (Tolkien 951). In the story, the day of their original light and life-giving power, which he speaks is the day when his bride and the mountains of the Pelori leveled so will arrive. But seen in the context of a that the light should go out over all the "Christian myth," Aragorn's words evoke earth-yes, and the dead be raised and the the Christian's earnest expectation for the original purposes of Eru executed (Kilby imminent Great Wedding, when the King 64-65). and the Bride will be finally united. Here The Lord of the Rings points to the again, at the end of the biblical story, we core of Christian eschatology. It points to find the tree of life, whose leaves "are for God executing His original purposes, usher­ the healing of the nations" (NIV, Revelation ing in a new Heaven and a new Earth in the 22:2). ultimate eucatastrophe. The Christian eschatological hope­ Though Christian theology is foun­ the Christian desire for the ending of this dational to Tolkien's work, The Lord of the world-is that God will utterly defeat evil, Rings is subtle about voicing its Christian dealing with death and transforming the bent. One can read Tolkien's book without heavens and the earth into Paradise re­ coming face-to-face with overt Christian gained. Complete healing will replace the teaching. This does not mean that its horrors of war. Tolkien's picture of the cos­ "consonan[ce] with Christian thought and mos' conclusion is remarkably similar. His belief' is entirely unintentional, however, "Christian myth" is, as Colin Duriez relates, nor is it a product of Christian critics' in­ akin to the Norse myths from which the vention (Letters 355). In a 1958 letter, professor drew inspiration. But, as Duriez Tolkien asserts, "The Lord of the Rings is of also notes, ''Tolkien has, in place of the course a fundamentally religious and Catho­ Twilight of the gods, suggestions of a Last lic work; unconsciously so at first, but con­ Battle at the end of the ages ... that is full of sciously in the revision" (Letters 288). the Christian hope of the end of the Tolkien goes on in this letter to state that the world" (Duriez 59). Whether intentional or Christian element fits naturally into the not, Tolkien's vision of his world's end story as a product of his faith-filled upbring­ times resounds with the same renewal as the ing. As his life grew atop the bedrock of Christian story. C.S. Kilby, who worked faith, his writing could not help but rest on alongside Professor Tolkien to prepare his that same foundation. Ultimately, his work mythology for publication, concludes that speaks on Christian themes more power­ Tolkien, as a devout Christian, could not fully than Tolkien could speak directly, leave his world under the effects of the Fall which is exactly why he wrote a myth, or forever. fantasy story, rather than a series of essays There is evidence that, had his story about self-sacrifice, eschatology, and so on. continued to its full and concluding end the In Verlyn Flieger's words, "For Tolkien, ubiquitous evil of such as Morgoth and story is the most effective carrier of truth Sauron would have ceased. He intended a because it works with images rather than final glorious eventuality similar to the one concepts" (Flieger 11). In the story, in the described in the Book of Revelation with "inner consistency of reality" that his word­ the true Telperion reappearing, the earth re­ craft forges, one discerns a framework of made, the lands lying under the waves lifted truths. Those who freely give their lives

62 The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way by Nathan Sytsma

find them again. Those who humble them­ selves are honored. Those who endure hardship taste otherworldly joy. Those who hope for a renewed world experience heal­ ing. And yes, stories that are not factual can be true. Whether one calls it fantasy, fairy story, or myth, The Lord of the Rings is just such a story; it looks beyond itself. In Tolkien's own words, "It is about God," and it is about choosing the Creator's way over the world's way (Letters 243). To a pro­ found degree, it is about living the Christian way.

Works Cited

Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J. R.R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.

Duriez, Colin. The J.R.R. Tolkien Hand­ book. Grand Rapids: Baker Book Hous n Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998.

The NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zon­ dervanPublishingHouse, 1995.

Tolkien, J.R.R. "On Fairy-Stories." Folk & Fairy Tales. Ed. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1996.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. Lon­ don: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1995.

63 SECOND PLACE STUDENT ESSAY

A Woman's Place: Valid Vocation for Women in the Writing of Dorothy L. Sayers Erin Sells

In an essay titled with the striking Peter Wimsey and the brilliant woman he question "Are Women Human?" author and loves, Miss Harriet Vane. Miss Vane is the scholar Dorothy L. Sayers explains why she main figure in this particular novel, as she resists the popular title of "feminist." Origi­ struggles both internally and externally with nally given as an address to a women's so­ the subject of valid vocation for women. ciety in 1938, during the interwar period Miss Vane is an alumnus of the aptly named that was perhaps the most productive of Shrewsbury College at Oxford. The en­ Sayers's life, the piece advocates equality tirely female faculty, students, and staff are for individuals-individuals, male and fe­ constantly struggling through the debates, male, for whom sex is a part, but not the arguments, and prejudices surrounding the whole, of personal identity. Sayers's vision controversial subject of higher education for of equality for women is made of the same women. Shrewsbury has some of the most stuff of her vision of equality for men, and prominent female scholars in the world at for all people: "What we ask is to be human one of the world's most venerated-and individuals, however peculiar and unex­ mostly male-academic institutions. As pected," Sayers writes, and admonishes the Miss Vane, Lord Peter Wimsey, and the prevalent brand of feminism that insists members of the Senior Common Room upon women brandishing stethoscope and grapple with the mysterious poison-pen and gavel, sporting regalia and lab coat as they vandal who has targeted the female aca­ storm the doors of professions and occupa­ demic with violent hatred, the heat sur­ tions closed to those of their sex for centu­ rounding the controversy of women's ries ("Are Women Human?" 112). This in­ rights, identity, and vocation intensifies. sistence that women claim anything and The strange crimes committed in the name everything that once belonged only to men of hatred for the female scholar, and the prescribes a new set of limiting expectations pursuit of the perpetrator, almost fall to the for women, and denies them the freedom of background of the novel as Sayers sets up individuality that might naturally and the professional and personal struggles of rightly make any person, male or female, a Miss Vane and her fellow Shrewsburians as better parent than a pharmacist, or better multi-faceted examples of the complex is­ suited to nursing than to practicing law. In sues surrounding valid vocation for women. many of her essays, as well as her detective Miss Harriet Vane has returned to fiction, Sayers wrestles with the inherent her alma mater after many tumultuous obstacles surrounding the issue of valid vo­ years, ostensibly to investigate the recent cation in the lives of women, and challenges criminal activity at Shrewsbury. During her the "feminism" that takes away a woman's time being cloistered within the college's right to be a human being, and to be herself, walls, her search for her own identity, life's Valid vocation for women is an is­ work, and the possibility of a place for Lord sue at the center of one of Sayers's most no­ Peter Wimsey in her life rise to the surface. table novels, Gaudy Night, part of a series "'Suppose one is cursed with both a heart of mysteries featuring the charming Lord and a brain?"' Miss Vane asks a member of

64 A Woman's Place: Valid Vocation for Women in the Writing of Dorothy L. Sayers by Erin Sells the faculty and herself, and sums up the decide if loving the charismatic Lord Peter problem for so many women who are forced will mean an end to her increasing under­ to make the choice between family life and standing of herself and her calling in life, professional life (Gaudy Night 190). This and her freedom to pursue that calling wher­ difficult choice is one that is almost com­ ever it might take her. Rediscovering her pletely unique to women, Sayers is quick to aptitude and passion for writing, and the lib­ point out, as men are rarely required to erty it allows her for analysis and expres­ choose one in favor of the other: sion leads her to cherish that freedom even more, and makes her decision even more What woman really prefers a job to a home difficult. As she weighs the likelihood of and family? Very Jew, I admit. It is unfortu­ having to sacrifice some of her scholarly nate that they should so often have to make and literary pursuits to the calling of hus­ the choice. A man does not, as a rule, have band and family-one that has its own set to choose. He gets both ... Nevertheless, of attractive and equally valid qualities­ there have been women, such as Queen she must decide if love and career can co­ Elizabeth and Florence Nightingale, who exist. had the choice, and chose the job and made The plausibility of the harmonious a success of it. And there have been and are co-existence of love and career is almost an many men who have sacrificed their careers accepted fact in our present day and age, but for women-sometimes, like Antony or for the ladies of the Senior Common Room Parnell, very disastrously. When it comes to at Shrewsbury and their contemporaries, a choice, then every man or woman has to that is not the case. Mrs. Goodwin, a mem­ choose as an individual human being, and, ber of the Senior Common Room and "an like a human being, take the consequences excellent secretary," is the subject of a ("Are Women Human?" 110-111). heated discussion on the proper priority of career and family when the recently wid­ Regardless of the inherent unfairness of owed woman is called away from the sum­ such a decision being left for the most part mer term to nurse her young son, who has only to women, Sayers stands by her con­ become ill with the measles (Gaudy Night viction that the natural consequences of 249). While some side with Mrs. Good­ making such a choice, like the conse­ win's need to be with her ailing son, others quences that come of any choice, must be insist that "'if the domestic responsibility is faced by the individual. Just as equality is a to take precedence of the public responsibil­ matter of the individual, so are the responsi­ ity, then work should be handed over to bilities and challenges that come of the someone else to do "' (Gaudy Night 249). It unique decisions that a person makes in re­ is perhaps most reasonable to believe that sponse to a unique set of situations and cir­ however unfortunate might be the circum­ cumstances. stances that would require the making of Miss Harriet Vane, like all of the such a decision, Sayers would agree with women of Shrewsbury College, is con­ the latter opinion, when she writes else­ fronted with just such a set of unique situa­ where that "If they are going to adopt the tions and circumstances. Struggling to over­ very sound principle that the job should be come a painful and tragic past that has left done by the person who does it best, then her with emotional scars and a conflicted that rule must be applied universally" ("Are sense of personal identity, Miss Vane must Women Human?" 110). While Mrs. Good-

65 A Woman's Place: Valid Vocation for Women in the Writing of Dorothy L. Sayers by Erin Sells win and others like her find themselves in ceptance of one's choices and their natural undoubtedly difficult situations that require consequences. Where Miss Hillyard perhaps them to make undoubtedly difficult choices oversteps her bounds (and strays from the between career and family-situations and opinion of Sayers) is by insisting that every choices with which men are confronted far woman who has made the choice of career less frequently-Sayers stands by her belief over family should demand that every other that the individual must make his or her woman who is faced with such a choice own decisions, and face the consequences make the same decision as they. Although that result, however difficult. If women are the circumstances of Mrs. Goodwin are un­ to be considered on an equal plane with deniably dire, her choices are her own, and men, then the universal rule of giving the should be respected as such. job to whomever can best do it must always This forcing of a woman to fit a be applied, regardless of the extenuating cir­ mold of choices that are not of her own cumstances that might make the woman's making is the dilemma of another woman of absolute commitment to career or family a Shrewsbury, the young Miss Catterrnole, a more difficult choice to make. The diffi­ student at the college. The beneficiary of a culty of this choice is evident among the world class education that she does not women of the Senior Common Room, who want, she rebels against the rules of the in­ have chosen for themselves to put career stitution, the school's expectations, and the above family. The pain often involved in parents that have placed her there against making such a decision is unflinchingly her will. Miss Catterrnole has the particular brought to the surface of the debate over misfortune of being the daughter and Mrs. Goodwin by the acerbic Miss Hillyard: "sacrificial victim" of her parents' social idealism and ambition (Gaudy Night 169). 'The fact is, though you will never admit it, '"I don't want to be here; I never did. Only that everybody in this place has an inferior­ my parents were so keen,"' she explains to ity complex about married women and chil­ Miss Vane after recovering from a hangover dren. For all your talk about careers and she acquired while crashing a party at one independence, you all believe in your hearts of the men's colleges and then being un­ that we ought to abase ourselves before any ceremoniously dumped inside the Shrews­ woman who has fulfilled her animal func­ bury walls well after curfew (Gaudy Night tions ... I shouldn't mind if you said openly 169). Her rebellions against the school's that intellectual interests were only a sec­ strictly enforced rules began after her long­ ond-best; but you pretend to put them first standing engagement with another Oxford in theory and are ashamed of them in prac­ student was broken and she suddenly found tice' (Gaudy Night 249-250). herself without a reason for "'bothering with all of this dead-and-gone His­ The loneliness and discomfort of the career tory"' (Gaudy Night 169). Her real desire is woman, or any person who has made the to be either a nurse or a cook, two profes­ choice to give career priority over family, is sions forbidden to her because '"those are a cold reality, and the same that must be two of the things Mother's always trying to faced by any person, male or female, who get people out of the way of thinking makes a similar decision for their lives. women's sphere ought to be restricted What Miss Hillyard (and to some degree, to'" (Gaudy Night 170). This philosophy, Sayers) advocates is a resignation and ac- combined with her parents' desire for her to

66 A Woman's Place: Valid Vocation for Women in the Writing of Dorothy L. Sayers by Erin Sells

"make the right kinds of friends" at Oxford The "feminism" against which or Cambridge and make an "educational ad­ Sayers is so ardently opposed is the same as vance" force Miss Cattermole into a world any categorization that imposes limits on where opportunities abound for a life that who people can be and the choices that they she does not want (Gaudy Night 170). Her can make concerning their lives. "All cate­ parents' commitment to freeing their daugh­ gories, if they are insisted upon beyond the ter from the constraints that society has immediate purpose which they serve, breed placed upon women's aspirations has effec­ class antagonism and disruption in the state, tively enslaved her to a different set of lim­ and that is why they are dangerous," Sayers iting expectations. writes, and sums up her explanation of how Miss Vane reacts angrily to the the most prevalent forms of feminism, like knowledge of how the fight for women's any kind of categorization, deny the human­ rights has only resulted in a waste--of a ity of those categorized ("Are Women Hu­ young woman's energy, dreams, and ambi­ man?" 114-115). tion, and of a place at Shrewsbury that Although the structures of society could be filled by another young woman are such that many women find themselves who thirsts for the kind of education and confronted with difficult choices to make know ledge that Oxford has to offer a pre­ concerning their most valid vocation in cious few. '"Why do they send these people life--<:hoices with which men are far less here?'" she asks the Dean in a rage. often confronted-being able to make those "'Making themselves miserable and taking decisions for oneself with the resolve and up the place of people who would enjoy Ox­ courage to face the resulting consequences ford. We haven't got room for women who is a sign of a person treated as an equal, an aren't and never will be scholars,"' Miss individual, a human being. The real crux of Vane argues, and points out that the all the the struggle for equal rights for women lies effort to free women from the restrictions not in the forcing of all women into yet an­ placed upon them is wasted when they are other restrictive mold of expectations that restricted to vocations to which they aren't requires that they find their calling and truly called or committed (Gaudy Night identity in disciplines and professions here­ 171). In order to prove themselves as right­ tofore closed to them, but rather in the fully deserving a place as equals in the emancipation from any kind of expectation academy and elsewhere in the professional that society might want to place on them. In world, women scholars cannot afford to risk her writing Sayers makes plain the idea that the ridicule and disregard that might come as hard as women must fight for their right­ from critics of higher education for women ful places in the upper echelons of the aca­ should they find indifferent and disinter­ demic and professional worlds dominated ested women scholars to hold up as exam­ by men, a "woman's place" should be wher­ ples of female incompetence. If Sayers' uni­ ever she wants to be, whether it be behind a versal rule that the job should belong to the stove or a podium. person who can do it best is applied, then women cannot be forced into lifestyles that are not of their own choosing, for the result will only be a waste of time, and energy, and a job done poorly for lack of the pas­ sion to do it truly well.

67 A Woman's Place: Valid Vocation for Women in the Writing of Dorothy L. Sayers by Erin Sells

Works Cited

Sayers, Dorothy L. "Are Women Human?." Unpopular Opinions. London: Vic­ tor Gollancz Ltd., 1946 (out of print)

. Gaudy Night. New York: Harper, 1995

68 THIRD PLACE STUDENT ESSAY

The Reasonable Faith: C. S. Lewis's Argument for Christianity from the Characteristics of Human Reason Sabrina Locklair

C. S. Lewis regarded his task as a truths are things that we "see ... 'must' be Christian apologist to be one of praeparatio so" (Miracles 30-31). If we are to trust that evangelica, which literally means such truths are valid, we must be able to "preparation for the gospel" (Heck 235). justify human rationality by something apart Many people, both in Lewis's time and our from reason. As Lewis wrote, "If the value own, casually dismiss Christianity because of our reasoning is in doubt, you cannot try they believe other world views can better ex­ to establish it by reasoning" (Miracles 33). plain reality. Not only did Lewis disagree A reasonable argument aimed at proving with this view, but he was also able tore­ that reason does come to truth is question­ move such intellectual barriers to the Chris­ begging. tian faith ("Christian Apologetics" 99). One To avoid this circular argument, of the strongest arguments that Lewis gave Lewis pointed out that reason must be justi­ against this belief was that secular world­ fied by something above reason: namely, a views could not explain certain aspects of worldview. Wor!dviews are simply systems human reason. As was his custom, Lewis of faith that determine how we interpret the first exposed this problem and then offered world around us, thereby determining the his readers a solution. Through many of his way we use our reason. "What we Jearn writings, C. S. Lewis prepared his readers to from experience," Lewis noted, "depends listen to the gospel by showing that modern­ on the kind of philosophy we bring to ex­ ism-the dominant world view of his life­ perience" (Miracles 2). To accurately inter­ time-and the ideas that would grow into pret any of our experiences in life, our rea­ postmodernism could not account for im­ son must be able to discover truth. The na­ portant characteristics of human reason, and ture of faith makes it impossible for it to be that the justification for our reason is found rationally justified, as faith, in the general in Christianity. sense, "is the art of holding on to things Lewis began his argument by estab­ your reason has once accepted, in spite of lishing that in order for any of our thoughts your changing moods" (Lewis, Mere Chris­ to be rational, we must have a foundation tianity 125). Faith cannot be rationally justi­ for our ability to reason. Reason is what al­ fied because it allows us to defend our rea­ lows us to recognize truth, and the most out­ son. However, the fact that no system of standing characteristic of human reason is faith can be rationally justified provides its ability to recognize necessary truth. world views with the opportunity to justify Logically necessary truths are those which our use of reason. For an adequate justifica­ do not depend on the natural order of the tion of human reason, a world view must world, have no time when they "began" to provide reason with a goal and the motiva­ be true, and do not alter with age. Lewis il­ tion to reach that goal. To use one of lustrated this concept when he said that his Lewis's analogies, it is as if all people were belief in the principles of mathematics was members of an orchestra (Mere Christianity not "based on the fact" that he had never 71). Reason allows us to play our instru­ seen them violated. Rather, mathematical ments, yet reason alone cannot tell us what

69 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair piece to play or why we should play at all. reason to argue against modernism from a Lewis held that any coherent world view Christian view of the world, however, as he would account for the existence and charac­ pointed out that modernists cannot support teristics of rational thought, and it would the truth of their own world view. apply reason to life in a meaningful way. The dilemma of modernism is this: As secular modernism was the con­ science, the modernists' foundation for trolling world view in Lewis's England, he truth, depends on the reliability of reason, devoted much of his writings to exposing its but it cannot explain how human reason flaws. C. S. Lewis had a gift for cutting di­ could ever reach any truth. Trapped inside rectly to the heart of a matter, and therefore modernism, science is forced to explain rea­ his argument was directed against the foun­ son-and everything else-according to dation of secular modernist thinking: natu­ natural processes. Thoughts-rational or ralism. The naturalist, Lewis defined, is one otherwise-are therefore reduced to the who views nature as a closed system of "by-product of the movement of at- natural processes which "is going on of its oms" (Lewis, "Answers" 52). After all, one own accord" (Miracles 8). Therefore, the could perform scientific experiments on the modernist's view of the universe has no chemical processes in the human brain; one room for a Supernatural Creator who works could not do the same for thoughts. Mod­ in His creation. As illustrated by Lewis in ernists agree that nature has no plans or pur­ his Space Trilogy, those who hold to a natu­ poses, and therefore the chemical processes ralistic view of the universe will accept we call "rational thought" must simply be even the most unlikely naturalistic explana­ the impulses that proved to be beneficial to tions instead of believing that anything su­ survival and were therefore preserved and pernatural is at work in the universe (Out of developed by natural selection (Lewis, the Silent Planet 126-127). In short, secular Miracles 28). modernists believe that the natural world This is a definite problem for mod­ can offer a sufficient explanation for every ernists, because natural selection is not gov­ happening in the world. erned by anything rational. Lewis pointed As modernists have no God in out that people do not "attach any signifi­ whom to place their faith, they trust in the cance" to thoughts with irrational sources, ability of human reason to discover all truth "but if naturalism were true then all by means of science. Lewis noted that mod­ thoughts ... would be wholly the result of ernists have faith that nature is a closed sys­ irrational causes. Therefore, all thoughts tem, and therefore they believe that all ob­ would be equally worthless" (Lewis, jective truth comes from strict reasoning or "Dogma" 137). For thought to be rational, it scientific discoveries (Veith 368). By "den must come to logically necessary truth. As [ying] the reality of the supernatural and see stated before, logically necessary truths are [ing] humans as a part of nature," modern­ truths such as the laws of mathematics ism teaches that people are "subject only to which are not dependent on the natural the laws ... that [the] scientific method dis­ world. The fact that two plus two equals covers" (Musacchio 222). Secular modern­ four is valid even if neither group of two ists regard Christianity as unscientific and represents any real entity. Modernists are in consequently irrational; therefore, they do a bind because thought has been used to de­ not readily accept arguments from velop the naturalistic theory, yet that theory "religious" perspectives. Lewis found no excludes the possibility of any logically

70 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair necessary truth. Modernism is at a loss to the good of the human race," as any condi­ explain how anything could be necessarily tion the human race finds itself in is just as true, because the natural order of the world "good" any other condition (Miracles 57). is not necessary. Nature exists, but nothing Although secular modernism was developed in nature must exist. We cannot justify logi­ by people wanting to scientifically improve cally necessary truths by anything in the the human race, it cannot tell us what im­ natural world, because, as Lewis illustrated, provement is. the fact that light does affect our eyes in a Just as modernism provides no goal certain way in no way implies that it must for human reason, it also fails to provide act upon our eyes in that manner (Miracles reason with any guidance. Lewis noted that 28-29). When a naturalistic view of the science itself only tells us what can be done; world is held we can only know that things it does not tell us what should be done exist, we cannot know that anything must be ("Progress" 312). With scientific advances true. Therefore, we cannot know that natu­ we can both prolong life and end it ralism is true. "If naturalism is true," Lewis painlessly, but the mere fact that we can do stated, "we can know no truths" ("Dogma" something does not mean that we should do 137). Lewis's insistence on this point was it. Furthermore, secular modernism destroys undoubtedly enough to make many secular the only thing that can guide our progress in modernists take another look at their world­ science and every other area of life: the view. moral law. This is what allows people to say Lewis was not one to end any argu­ that certain behaviors are "wrong," because ment until he had dealt with all aspects of it, Lewis firmly believed that all people know so he continued to argue against modernism that "Right is a real thing" (Mere Chn'stian­ by pointing out that this world view could ity 19). The moral law is reason's standard, not justify its goal for human reason. Mod­ and without it reason has " 'nothing to ernists are very concerned with "progress," tell...of good and bad'" (Lewis, Pilgrim's by which they mean improving human exis­ Regress 58). As modernism must explain tence by means of science. However, natu­ everything according to contingent natural ral processes-the ultimate reality for mod­ processes, morality, which claims to be nec­ ernists--in a closed natural system can have essary, must be an "illusion" (Miracles 57). no purposes, as there would be nothing out­ After all, morality deals with how one side of nature able to grant them a purpose. should and should not behave, and it im­ Nature simply exists without interference; plies that there is a universal standard for therefore science cannot tell us why we behavior that is separate from the natural should work for progress. In fact, the mod­ order of the world. ernist view of the world makes "progress" a Modernism ends up divorcing rea­ meaningless word. To "progress" means son from morality and goals, thus causing that one is moving closer to doing things the life to become fragmented. If morality is in­ way they ought to be done, yet the natural deed an illusion, we cannot understand our­ world provides no standard for determining selves. For as Lewis said, in spite of any­ the way things ought to be. Naturalists, thing "we say we shall continue [to make Lewis noted, have "no ground for criticiz­ moral judgments]" (Miracles 60). In the ing" the state of any society (Abolition 59). deepest part of our reason, we know that it Therefore, secular modernism supplies no is better to calm! y discuss differences of reason for modernists to "live and die for opinion than to murder people who do not

71 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair

share our views. Secular modernism cannot worldview. The rejection of objective truth justify morality or the main components of is a serious barrier to the Christian faith, for, human reason, however, although modern­ as Lewis wrote, Christianity claims to be ists attempt to disguise their flawed world­ objectively true and if this claim is true view under a cloak of "reasonableness." Christianity is "of infinite importance" (qt. There are many who have seen beyond this in Veith 373-374). Lewis knew that it disguise, however. As Lewis was well ac­ would be the postmodernists' wish to be quainted with the hopelessness of modern­ free from the abuses of reason to pursue ism, he was able to predict the basic tenets their goals. In his books, Lewis often of postmodernism: a world view that has showed his readers the result of postmod­ seen how modernism cannot sufficiently ex­ ernism, and his cone lusion was that the plain reality (Veith 368-369). Postmodern­ postmodern way of thinking would not free ists have discovered that modernism ends people from the abuse of reason. Reason is up in pieces, but instead of seeking some part of what make humans human, and it other way to reconcile reason with goals cannot be banished from life. Lewis argued and morality, they embrace the pieces and for Plato's idea that humans are comprised attempt to rid life of the cloak of reason. of a "head" (reason), a "belly" (desires), and Although postmodernism was not a "chest" (properly trained emotions). Ac­ fully developed in C. S. Lewis's lifetime, he cording to Lewis, humans are meant to pointed out flaws in the ideas that would function with "[t]he head rul[ing] the belly grow into this worldview. Lewis argued through the chest" (Abolition 35). As post­ against the core of postmodernism: the be­ modernism makes morality subjective, rea­ lief that objective truth does not exist, so son has no means with which to restrain de­ human beings can decide for themselves sires. Therefore, desires rule over reason in what is "true" (Veith 368). As reason de­ the postmodernist view of life. As Lewis pends on objective truth, postmodernism re­ would show, however, reason cannot be jects the validity of human reason by reject­ driven out of life and postmodernism would ing objective truth. Lewis illustrated this not be able to account for the characteristics situation in his novel The Great Divorce, as of human reason upon which it depends. one of his characters could not accept the One characteristic of human reason idea of "some sort of static, ready-made re­ is the ability to discover objective truth, and ality which is, so to speak 'there' "(45). Lewis showed in many different ways one Without objective truth to seek after, this cannot deny all objective truth. The first dif­ character's "thirst of Reason is ... ficulty for postmodernism is that while it dead ... " (Lewis, Great Divorce 45). For if insists that no absolute, objective truth ex­ everything is "merely subjective," Lewis ists, that very statement is held to be an ab­ wrote, there "is no reason for supposing that solute. As Lewis wrote, "a proof that there [logic] yields truth" (qt. in Veith 370-371). are no proofs is nonsensical..." and so also The difficulty of arguing against the post­ one cannot say that it is an objective fact modernist position, as Lewis predicted, is that there are no objective facts (Miracles that postmodernists do not believe that rea­ 33). Furthermore, there are certain objective sonable arguments can lead to objective standards that must be obeyed if human so­ truth. ciety is to exist. It is impossible to imagine Lewis, however, did not let this hin­ that a culture could survive if all the people der him from exposing the flaws of this in it would feel "proud of double-crossing

72 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair all the people who had been kindest to if desires are not restrained by reason, and [them]" (Lewis, Mere Christianity 19). A reason by the standard of morality, people society cannot exist without an objective would be ruled by their strongest impulse standard of behavior. Continuing Lewis's (The Abolition of Man 76). Without a stan­ example, if telling the truth was not re­ dard of morality, we cannot say that an im­ quired in a culture, then people would not pulse to betray one's country, "[o]r to print trust what others said to them. Without lies as serious research," or to kill someone trust, people would not be able to come to can be wrong (Lewis, Perelandra 95). This any agreements about the running of their is the appalling result of denying objective society. A society such as this could not last truth. very long. For a culture to survive it must Exposing the flaws of modernism demand that its members tell the truth; there and postmodernism was only half of is simply no way to deny this fact. Lewis Lewis's defense of Christianity. After he saw that postmodem thinking was flawed demonstrated how modernism and the foun­ from the very start, as objective truth does dational ideas of postmodernism could not indeed exist. sufficiently explain human rationality, he Human reason not only recognizes showed how faith in the God of Christianity objective truth; it is also directed towards a explains why our reason is what it is. Lewis goal. The standard of truth telling, for ex­ made it clear that Christian faith is not like ample, exists for the purpose of maintaining other kinds of faith. Where modernists have a society. A world view that attempts to rid faith that reason and science are the only life of objective truth cannot have any true ways to discover objective truth, and post­ goals for human existence. When Lewis's modernists have faith that objective truth character in The Great Divorce states that does not exist, Christian faith is based on "to travel hopefully is better than to arrive," the commitment to trust God. Lewis wrote he is immediately faced with the response, that "[t]o trust [God] means, of course, try­ "If that were true, and known to be true, ing to do all that He says. There would be how could one travel hopefully? There no sense in saying that you trusted a person would be nothing to hope for" (44). If there if you would not take his advice" (Mere is no objective truth to "arrive" at, there Christianity 130-131 ). God has defined the cannot be any truly meaningful goal in life. proper role for reason in the life of His crea­ Along with postmodemism's Jack of tures, and Christians are committed to trust­ goals, it is also Jacking guidelines for reason ing that His way is the correct way. Lewis to follow. Postmodemist thinking cannot showed that this faith is not a blind faith be­ provide anything to restrain the use of rea­ cause it justifies our use of reason, and that son, as reason is simply used to work to­ following God's restrictions and goals for wards desires. However, "[t]elling someone reason allow us to use our reason to its fuJI­ to follow their instinct is like telling them to est potential. follow 'people,' " Lewis recorded. "People Christianity has often been ridiculed say different things; so do in- as an unreasonable faith because belief in stincts" (Abolition 49). This raises more God is not strictly rational. Lewis did not difficulties, and Lewis was quick to observe deny this charge, because faith in any sense that if desires were allowed to rule over life, is beyond the realm of reason. He simply there would be no rational way to decide pointed out that if we try, as modernists do, which desire to follow. As Lewis predicted, to reduce everything to the level of human

73 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair reason, we would no longer be able to call we were reading a book. Our reason is no our thoughts rational. Christianity promises, more a part of nature than a reader is part of among other things, to justify our ability to a book. We are able to examine nature's discover truth through reason. In order to do story in detail, or to think of it in terms of this, the Christian worldview must be out­ the overarching plot. The fact that we are side the realm of human reason. Otherwise, able to study nature is evidence that our the argument would be circular; for trying thoughts are not simply natural processes, to justify faith by reason destroys both faith for, as Lewis wrote, "the know ledge of a and reason. thing is not one ofthe thing's parts. Far from destroying human reason, [Because we have knowledge of Nature as a belief and trust in God lays the foundation whole] something beyond Nature operates for our rationality. According to the biblical whenever we reason" (Miracles 37-38). world view held by C. S. Lewis, God has While Christianity explains how we created human reason. Lewis saw this fact are able to discover truth, it also provides as the key to understanding our reason. As reason with a goal for acquiring truth: to God is not part ofthe world He has created, serve God by serving others. Perhaps the He had the power to create our reason as best illustration of this is not any of Lewis's something distinct from the natural order of analogies, but rather the kind of books he the world. Lewis describes God as " 'the wrote. Being a highly intelligent and well­ Eternal Fact, the Father of all other fac­ educated man, Lewis could have spent his thood' "(Great Divorce 45). Christianity life writing for people on his intellectual explains how logically necessary truth ex­ level. Indeed, many scholars wished he ists, and therefore it provides a foundation would have written more " 'important for our reason that cannot be supplied by books in literary history [such as the either secular modernism or postmodern­ "Allegory of Love"] instead of that other ism. We recognize necessary and objective stuff!' " (qt. in Walsh 120). However, Lewis truths because they come from a God who demonstrated true humility by using his rea­ has always existed and is not a part of His son to write books that common people creation. could understand, and writing in a manner While our reason is something sepa­ that everyone could grasp did not limit rate from nature, we are still able to dis­ Lewis's need for reason. In fact, expressing cover truths about nature. Lewis explained Christian truths in the language of ordinary that according to the Christian worldview, people increased Lewis's need to think "reason-the reason of God-is older than clearly and logically. "I have come to the Nature, and from it the orderliness of Na­ conviction that if you cannot translate your ture, which alone enables us to know her, is thoughts into uneducated language," Lewis derived" (Miracles 34). Because our reason said, "then your thoughts were con- is a copy of God's perfect rationality, and fused" ("Christian Apologetics" 98). By God's reason has created the world, people submitting his reason to God's plan for his are able to understand (in part) the order of life, Lewis was able to expose flawed argu­ the natural world. Lewis illustrated this con­ ments against Christianity while he im­ cept by stating that Christians believe "God proved his ability to write clearly. As 'made [the world] up out of His head' as a Lewis's life displays, when the goal of our man makes up a story" (Mere Christianity reason is to serve God, we discover what 45). When we study nature, we do so as if our reason is truly capable of achieving.

74 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair

However, simply having a goal for one is to follow. For example, Christianity reason to work towards is useless if there is explains that we know we ought to respect no motivation for reason to reach that goal. the dignity of each human being because all Christianity motivated Lewis to use his rea­ people are created in the image of God. son to serve his neighbors in two distinct Thus, our idea about the value of human life ways. First, Lewis wrote that Christians is justified, and we can restrain our reason should be willing to serve others because all from doing anything that would devalue people have been created in the image of life. God, and thus they possess an immortal Throughout this argument, Lewis soul. "There are no ordinary people" Lewis demonstrated that Christianity was the solu­ stated. "You have never talked to a mere tion to the difficulties that secular world­ mortal" (qt. in Jolley 95). People are going views face in explaining human reason. The to live forever in either Hell or Heaven, and remarkable thing about Lewis's form of this fact leads to Lewis's second source of apologetics is that he began his arguments motivation: the fact that Christ died for all strictly from the non-Christian's point of people to save them from their sins. Lewis view, and showed that, along with failing to stated that "Christianity ... has nothing (as explain the most pronounced characteristics far as I know) to say to people ... who do of human reason, neither modernism nor the not feel that they need any forgive- infant form of postmodernism could give ness" (Mere Christianity 38). Well aware of people what they were seeking. Modernists his own sins, Lewis was motivated out of wish to perfect human society by their own gratitude towards the sacrifice Christ had reason, but modernism does not give them made for him, and he responded to God's any standard of perfection or foundation for love by serving others. Lewis knew that his rational thought. Both of these things, work as an apologist could not save anyone, Lewis demonstrated, are found in Christian­ but he also knew that his arguments would ity alone. Likewise, postmodernists simply prepare people to listen to the saving mes­ want to follow their desires, yet their world­ sage of the gospel (Musacchio 213). view gives them no ability to rationally de­ Along with motivating people to use cide which desires to follow. The mora! law their reason, Lewis argued that Christianity is on] y valid if God is its source. While is the only world view that provides reason Lewis knew that no one would be converted with sufficient guidelines. Christianity al­ simply by recognizing that Christianity can lows reason to rule desires because reason adequately explain human reason, it was his has an objective standard of morality to fol­ hope that, after seeing how Christianity ac­ low. Human beings have been designed by curately interpreted reality, people would be God to function in a specific way, and prepared to listen to the gospel message. Lewis wrote that "moral rules are [the ob­ jective] directions for running the human Notes machine" (Mere Christianity 69). These guidelines do not hinder reason, because our Secular modernism is the branch of reason recognizes that we must obey them. modernism that believes everything can be This fact, Lewis wrote, is evidenced by our explained in terms of the natural world. It is idea of things we should and should not do. not to be confused with other forms of mod­ To say that one ought to do something is to ernism that accept the supernatural, for say that there is a standard of behavior that these sorts of modernism can give a more

75 The Reasonable Faith by Sabrina Locklair convincing account of human reason than ---. Miracles. New York: HarperCollins, secular modernists can. The "modernism" 2001. that I shall refer to in this paper is secular modernism. ---.Out of the Silent Planet. New York: Lewis did not expect modernists to Simon & Schuster, 1996. have a ready answer to every question, but he did hold that if modernism were correct ---. Perelandra. New York: Simon & the natural world would be able to explain Schuster, 1996. every happening (Miracles 17). C. S. Lewis died in 1963 just days ---.The Pilgrim's Regress. Grand Rapids: before his sixty-fifth birthday, and the rise Eerdmans, 2000. of postmodernism did not take place until after this event (Veith 368). ---. "Religion without Dogma?" God in the Dock. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. 129-146. Works Cited Menuge, Angus J. L., ed. C. S. Lewis: Heck, Joel D. "Praeparatio Evangelica." Lightbearer in the Shadowlands. Wheaton: Menuge 235-257. Crossway Books, 1997.

Jolley, Reed. "Apostle to Generation X: C. Musacchio, George. "Exorcising the Zeit­ S. Lewis and the Future of Evangelism." geist: C. S. Lewis as Evangelist to the Mod­ Menuge 79-102. ernists." Menuge 213-234.

Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man. New Veith, Gene Edward. "A Vision, Within a York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Dream, Within the Truth: C. S. Lewis as Evangelist to the Postmodernists." Menuge ---. "Answers to Questions on Christianity." 367-387. God in the Dock. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. 48-62. Walsh, Chad. Afterword to C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed. New York: Bantam Books, ---. "Christian Apologetics." God in the 1976. Dock. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. 89-103.

---.The Great Divorce. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

---. "Is Progress Possible?" God in the Dock. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. 311-316.

---.Mere Christianity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

76 STUDENT ESSAY

Charles Williams: The Novel & Williams's Illustration of Humanity's Place in Creation as Found in The Place of the Lion Amy Wise

The fantastic story that puts ordinary of interdependence as co-inherence and ex­ people in extraordinary circumstances at­ change. tracts all sorts of readers. When it includes In a co-inherent world, a person's thought-provoking philosophical ideas that every deed is related to the rest of humanity. make the audience stop and examine their People cannot act independently or without spiritual lives, we know the book will be affecting and being affected by everyone worthwhile. Charles Williams wrote seven else. "We may not live for others, but like it such inspiring novels. In each one we dis­ or not, we do live from others. It is an ulti­ cover elements unique to Williams's style; mate prerequisite for life ... self-sufficiency, supernatural events ignite a presentation of the absence of co-inherent exchange, is an Christianity and an explanation of human­ outright impossibility for any sort of ity's necessary response to the rest of crea­ life" (Shideler 47). Exchange occurs when tion. people communicate and interact with each Williams places ordinary characters other. This principle is central to Williams's in everyday settings and then inserts ele­ theology, because it is the basis of love and ments of the supernatural realm to create purpose in life (131 ). All seven of his nov­ excitement and tension. Glen Cavaliero ex­ els deal with the co-inherent exchange be­ plains, "In each novel the characters are pre­ tween characters. sented with an unexpected supernatural in­ In his novel The Place of the Lion, vasion which threatens the existing ele­ Williams incorporates the supernatural and ments" (61). These invasions provide the theological themes characteristic of his fic­ action in Williams's stories. ''The underly­ tion. Williams uses his characters' re­ ing theme of all his novels is the quest for sponses to supernatural invasions to present some symbol of supernatural his theology. Here the characters face a su­ power" (Heath-Stubbs 28). pernatural problem-archetypal Platonic Christian themes characterize forms (Fiiegar 77). Plato's Ideals, immate­ Charles Williams's novels. Donna Beales rial perfections that he claimed were true notes: ''That Williams was paramountly a reality, invade the earth as the result of Mr. Christian is evident in the scope of his writ­ Berringer's occultist experiment. Williams ing, which is either directly related to the calls these invaders Angelicals. They are the church or has strong threads of Christianity absolute qualities of people's personali­ woven throughout." Williams's theology ties-traits such as strength, subtlety, and deals with the interaction between people beauty. Each takes the form of the animal and each other, God, and nature (Heath­ that most resembles that quality. For exam­ Stubbs 26). He maintains that God made ple, the Lion is strength, the serpent sub­ each part of his creation dependent on the tlety, and the butterfly beauty. other parts: "Each living thing derives its One of Williams's characters, Mr. being from all other things, and in its turn Foster, explains how the archetypes relate to supports the lives of others" (Filmer-Davies humans: 105). Williams identifies these components

77 Charles Williams's The Place ofthe Lion by Amy Wise

This world is created, and all men and cal destroys his humanness and annihilates women are created, by the entrance of cer­ his soul. "Immense pressure enclosed and tain great pn'nciples into aboriginal matter. crushed him; in a dreadful pain he ceased We call them by cold names; wisdom and to be" (Williams 178). courage and angels and archangels of Characters like Anthony Durrant which the Christian Church talks ... and contrast ones like Mr. Foster. Rather than when That which is behind them intends to striving to advance himself, Anthony wants put a new soul into matter it disposes them to restore the world to its natural co­ as it will, and by a peculiar mingling of inherence. When confronted with the power them a child is born ... and by this gentle of the Angelicals, "He did not fight with introduction of them, every time in a new this awful opposition but poised himself and just proportion, mankind is maintained. within and above it. 'If this is in me I reach (Williams 53) beyond it,' he cried to himself again, and felt a new-come freedom answer his With the archetypes loose in the natural cry" (Williams 67 -68). Like the rest of hu­ world, earth is in danger of being separated manity, Anthony possesses some of the into the different archetypical parts of the Angelicals' characteristics. Instead of giv­ supernatural realm (Williams 54). The nor­ ing himself up to them, however, he rises mal patterns of creation fall apart as every­ above and discovers his true position given thing turns to incoherence. "[The Angeli­ to man: "to control ... to accept that au­ cals] absorb into themselves all kindred thority that had been given to Adam over all types and even those human beings in manner of beasts ... and to exercise that au­ whom they are the dominating ele­ thority over the giants and gods which were ment" (Cavaliero 73). Individual Angelicals threatening the world. 'Well, I am as much pull apart the complex patterns of individu­ a child of Adam as any ... Let's go and als. One principle dominates, leading peo­ walk in the garden among the beasts of the ple to abandon all other parts of life and field which the Lord God hath made ... let seek out that one trait in the Angelicals. me take the dominion over This loss of balance provides tension them'" (Williams 75). When Anthony real­ between the bad characters' lives of separa­ izes that his rightful place in God's creation tion and chaos caused by the supernatural is above the animals and not in subjection to in vas ion and the good characters' attempt to them, he fulfills man's role in the exchange uphold interaction and exchange. among creation. The world's balance is re­ The "bad" characters in The Place of stored once again to co-inherency. the Lion want to follow after the idea most Through the character of Damaris like themselves-to develop one part of Tighe, Williams shows us what happens their personalities as completely as possible when his ideas of co-inherence and ex­ (Cavaliero 61). Exchange---communication change are rejected. "He who will not ac­ with other people-is not their goal. Mr. cept dependence cannot learn nor love, and Foster is one such character. He follows the in the end he cannot live" (Shideler 47). Lion, the archetype of strength, because he Damaris rejects interdependence and at­ wants to possess all the strength of the uni­ tempts to live self-sufficiently. She spends verse. His desire for power is so great that all of her time alone, writing her disserta­ he loses interest in everything else. He does tion for a doctoral degree in philosophy. not realize that giving himself to the Angeli- Preferring complete solitude, Damaris con-

78 Charles Williams's The Place of the Lion by Amy Wise siders most conversation a waste of time substitution in The Place of the Lion. When that could be spent researching (Williams Damaris chooses to deny interdependence, 26-27). Co-inherence and exchange are for­ Anthony takes the agony of her choice upon eign to her; thus her life is void of love. himself. "His energy sank within, carrying Damaris is about to die from the cor­ her ... agonizing for her" (Williams 106). ruption of her lov~less soul. She has spent He mentally and spiritually puts himself in her life rejecting interdependence with oth­ her place out of the necessity of love. ers, and her life of self-sufficiency is killing Williams's most complete illustra­ her. "Self-sufficiency destroys the life of tion of his philosophy is in his portrayal of co-inherence and [man] with it" (Shideler salvation. Anthony becomes an image of 152). Christ, and when he rescues Damaris from Williams's theology gives a way for death, he portrays Christ's gift of salva­ people like Damaris to change. "The door to tion-the perfect union of co-inherence, ex­ love opens when the lover receives illumi­ change, voluntary choice of necessity, and nation and joy from another, and when he substitution. "His eyes ... full of love and recognizes his dependence upon that other loving laughter, rested on hers. She as a source of joy" (Shideler 127). When received with joy both love and laughter; confronted with the result of her lack of co­ there went out from him ... a knowledge of inherence, Damaris is terrified and instinc­ safety would she but take it, and freely and tively reaches out for others. "For the first humbly she let it enter her body" (Williams time in her life she wanted somebody very 134). This interaction between Anthony and badly, somebody ... to break this awful lone­ Damaris illustrates the greatest interaction liness" (Williams 130). Damaris chooses to of Christ and those who accept his gift of depend on another; she is no longer self­ salvation. The saved co-inhere with the Sav­ sufficient. "All bonds of habit broken, mad ior, created with Creator, just as He origi­ and fearful of madness, she screamed out nally intended. and flung herself down the stairs. 'Father!' Once she chooses to be a part of ex­ she cried. 'Father!"' (Williams 130). change and co-inherence, Damaris also Co-inherence and exchange include practices substitution for the necessity of what Williams calls "substitution" and love. Anthony's friend Quentin is trying to "voluntary choice of necessity." Each is an flee the power of the Angelicals and is in important part of interdependence. Volun­ need of being saved. "If Damaris felt it to tary choice of necessity refers to people per­ be her duty, a necessity of her new life, she forming acts of love, no matter how sacrifi­ had better go" (Williams 156). She chooses cial, simply because someone else needs to go and find Quentin, and to save his life them. This is the absolute form of love she offers her own in substitution. When (Shideler 108). Bernadette Bosky explains Mr. Foster poises to attack Quentin and kill that substitution is a demonstration of love him, Damaris covers his body with her own arising out of necessity. "We are to love to protect him. Even in danger of death, she each other as [Christ] did, laying down our shows love through substitution. Because of lives as he did, that this love may be her effort, both she and Quentin survive perfected. We are to love each other, that is, (Williams 176). by acts of substitution. We are to be substi­ George Scheper finds that through­ tuted and to bear substitution" (65). out The Place of the Lion, naming is the Williams illustrates necessity and way characters practice exchange and com-

79 Charles Williams's The Place ofthe Lion by Amy Wise municate love. Interaction with others be­ Works Cited gins with caiiing people by their names. The characters in The Place of the Lion illustrate Beales, Donna. "On Charles Williams." 24 this principle. "[Damaris] begins to be May 1996. Online posting. saved by the feeble and broken effort of People. ne.mediaone. net/davisfamily/db_cw. simply cailing Anthony's name: 'An ... html. 11 Mar. 2000. An ... A ... A ... A .. .'-thereby to a de­ gree at last acknowledging her interdepend­ Bosky, Bernadette Lynn. "The Inner Lives ence with another. Later, emerged from her of Characters and Readers: Affective near-fatal self-preoccupation, Damaris caiis Stylistics in Charles Williams's Fiction." out Quentin's name in an effort to come to The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles his aid" (139). She "called him by both his Williams. Eds. Charles A. Huttar and Peter names: 'Quentin! Quentin! Mr. Sabot! J. Schake!. Lewisburg: Buckneii University Quentin"" Quentin hears his name, stops Press, 1996. 59-72. his terrified running, and aiiows her to save him" (Williams 174 ). Cavaliero, Glen. Charles Williams, Poet of Naming provides the final solution Theology. Grand Rapids: William B. to the supernatural problem in The Place of Eerdmans, 1983. the Lion. Anthony restores the world's bal­ ance when he names the archetypes as Filmer-Davies, Cath. "Charles Williams, a Adam did in the Garden of Eden. "At each Prophet for Postmodernism: Skepticism word that he cried, new life gathered, and and Belief in The Place of the Lion." The still the litany of invocation and commands Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Wil­ went on. By the names that were the Ideas liams. Eds. Charles A. Huttar and Peter J. he cailed them, and the Ideas who are the Schake!. Lewisburg: Buckneii University Principles of everlasting creation heard Press, 1996. 103-112. him" (Williams 202). Anthony, as a descen­ dant of Adam, takes dominion over the Flieger, Verlyn. "Time in the Stone of beasts, and like Adam, he caiis each by Suleiman." The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays name. In naming them he exercises power on Charles Williams. Eds. Charles A. Huttar over them. In this final act of exchanged and Peter J. Schake!. Lewisburg: Bucknell love, the Images respond, and order is re­ University Press, 1996. 75-89. stored. Creation returns to its normal pat­ terns (Williams 204-205). Heath-Stubbs, John. Charles Williams. Lon­ Charles Williams's novels entertain don: Longmans, Green & Co., 1955. readers with their bizarre supernatural con­ flicts. But beneath his fantastic tales lies the Huttar, Charles A. and Peter J. Schake!. The purpose behind ail of his work--to present Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles his theological ideas to his audience. Co­ Williams. Lewisburg: Bucknell University inherence, exchange, necessity and substitu­ Press, 1996. tion form the framework of Williams's ar­ gument for mankind's intended function as Scheper, George L. "All Hallow's Eve: The a member of God's creation. Cessation of Rhetoric and the Redemption of Language." The Rhetoric of Vision: Es­ says on Charles Williams. Eds. Charles A.

80 Charles Williams's The Place ofthe Lion by Amy Wise

Huttar and Peter J. Schake!. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996. 132-161.

Shideler, Mary McDermott. The Theology of Romantic Love: A Study in the Writings of Charles Williams. Grand Rapids: Wil­ liam B. Eerdmans, 1962.

81 Rejection of the Tao: Illustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia Gabriele Greggersen

Introduction: The sense of Tao cause there is a God who created it (the op­ posite case of that cited by Sartre-there is The Tao, or the Rational Law, is one no meaning in life, because there is no God of the key ideas that may be found practi­ to conceive it). So, the search for meaning cally throughout all Lewis's writings, espe­ in the world and in life is, after all, the same cially through illustrations of its good use sense of longing for the ultimate meaning of and the lack of it. In The Abolition of Man, life or the search for the true reality, as con­ where C. S. Lewis is more explicit in using ceived by the Creator, and also for the best that term, he is not referring to the Chinese of all virtues and perfections, for our true Tao, but to a larger concept of objective, selves, and ultimately for our lost horne in universal values that are correct, as opposed Heaven. to others that are not. According to Lewis, these values, that are preserved by the arts 1. The Tao and Ethics Education and by education, are multicultural and tran­ scend time and space. The main conse­ Written ten years after World War II, The quence of such a concept is that nobody is Abolition of Man is considered Lewis's capable of "inventing" or "creating" totally most important educational book. After his new moral laws. In Mere Christianity, defense of the objectivity of moral values, Lewis called it the "Natural Law", perceiv­ the Tao, he prophetically foresees the criti­ able by everyone, especially when one is cal future of humankind. In his view, those the injured party or the first victim of some­ universal parameters keep on being re­ body who has broken that law. The same jected, due to their paradoxical and complex happens with some people's consciousness nature, by most societies-especially by the of death. It only seems to be real, when they schools, which generally miss the essential are right in front of it. Lewis also stresses point in human ethics, as he explained else­ the fact that, through all of humanity, no­ where: body suspected that there was no such com­ mon-sense values, except for modern men. . .. the ideal is a paradox. Most of us ... were Modern men often ignore that; without that taught in our youth that a bully is always a kind of sense, there would be no possibility coward. Our first week at school refuted of meaningful reasoning or talking at all. this lie, along with its corollary that a truly In Studies in Words, Lewis offers us brave man is always gentle. It is a perni­ profound analyses of some essential con­ cious lie because it misses the real novelty cepts like this sense. Its meaning goes from and originality of the medieval demand bare perception, to the real, transcendental upon human nature. Worse still, it repre­ meaning of life, which could only be sensed sents as a natural fact something which is in his supreme quality, his perfection, his really a human ideal, nowhere fully at­ virtue, through images, metaphors, thus tained, and nowhere attained at all without through imagination. And there is such a hard discipline. [1] meaning in the words and also in life, be-

82 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

This immediately reminds us of Ro­ Thus, the second consequence of re­ mans 7: 18b "For I have the desire to do jecting the Tao, after missing the main trace what is good, but I cannot carry it out." (As of human nature and consequently of mor­ we know through letters and other sources, als, which would be the same as to ignore Lewis had a special admiration for Romans, envy, is even to stimulate the lack of disci­ as well as for the Psalms. ) pline, in favor of a apparently "democratic" But the best example of this twofold values, due to a complete inability of the characteristic of human ethics can be found teachers: in Arthurian legend, if we observe the two sides of Lance lot's character. To combine The kind of "democratic" education which both sides is not a product of nature, Lewis is already looming ahead is bad because it says, but of art, the art of discipline and the endeavours to propitiate evil passions, to art of our Creator, if we let Him do his per­ appease envy. There are two reasons for not fecting work. But nowadays, there are few attempting this. In the first place, you will who are in fact willing to do that. They are not succeed. Envy is insatiable. The more all far too occupied in wasting their time you concede to it the more it will demand. with such "triflings". Apparently the his­ No attitude of humility which you can toric tendencies to ignore human nature, and possibly adopt will propitiate a man with na therefore also moral standards, are still with inferiority complex. In the second place, us, as we may see in the daily news. The you are trying to introduce equality where moral and ethical crisis in Lewis's society is equality isfatal... [3] visibly growing in all countries until today. Due to Lewis's serious considera­ Afterwards, Lewis shows us how, in tion of this topic (detailing all its conse­ this sense, the real values of equality, quences and offering consistent and hopeful beauty and even truth, which always have to yet not overly optimistic answers) and since be best, excellent or the best valued of all, the problems are even worse nowadays, are hardly democratic. In this sense he con­ Lewis's take is still considered relevant. siders that ethics have to be "aristocratic," But, as a matter of fact, there are or exclusively destined for the best of all few who really read his books, especially people. If all humans follow the false egali­ outside of American and British circles, as tarianism of the "I am as good as you" phi­ school is increasingly becoming an Ersatz losophy, real democracy will certainly have (substitute) for the reading of classics and a fatal ending, loosing all its absolute refer­ for family education. And the first persons ences and all essential choices in life, will who are generally charged for this moral be left then to be decided by subjective crisis, the educators, are not only considered emotions. socially responsible to ''teach" ethics, in so In The Abolition of Man, Lewis criti­ far as that is possible, including those as­ cizes the lessons of Gaius and Titius that are pects that were used to be specially attrib­ present in one of the first ethical treatises in uted to the family, but at the same time, history, The Green Book, due to the very teachers have lost their main tools of learn­ fault of having missed one important aspect ing. [2] So they are put in an extremely dif­ of human nature: that, when faced with es­ ficult situations, asking themselves how to sential questions of life "The little human teach something that has lost its content and animal will not at frrst have the right re­ also its teaching methods. sponses. It must be trained to feel pleasure,

83 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen liking, disgust, and hatred at those things son officers between cerebral man and vis­ which really are pleasant, likeable, disgust­ ceral man. It may even be said that it is by ing, and hateful." [4] this middle element that man is man: for by The first step to learning ethics, his intellect he is mere spirit and by his ap­ then, is to recognize a paradoxical human petite mere animal. [6] condition and the fact that there is a hierar­ chy of values which follows a universal So the instincts are the presupposi­ structure, like the one which myths and tion of all actions, and the Tao, which is fairytales have. The structure can only be their necessary-but not sufficient­ learned with difficulty. If there is to be any counterpart, will work only if we go beyond good and evil at all, as presumed by all the law, towards something that goes be­ myths and fairytales, there must also be yond mere satisfaction: towards real joy and something that goes beyond all those rela­ happiness. Without that chest, the instinct­ tive values, which are merely based on sub­ Tao paradox will lead Men to self­ jective feelings. This "something" includes destruction. all Best Values of the world's wisdom, and To choose the golden way means to challenges all humans, Chinese, English, agree with the old wise men all over the Brazilian or any other persons in the world, world, who are ultimately concerned with to make a rejoinder. "how to conform the soul to reality ... ", and Thus the Rational Law is not suffi­ they all come to the same conclusion that cient to avoid the Abolition of Man and pro­ "the solution had been knowledge, self­ mote an ethical life because, "For those discipline, and virtue." [7] within (the Tao), the task is to train in the Due to the simple fact that ultimate pupil those responses which are in them­ reality, as the German philosopher Martin selves appropriate, whether anyone is mak­ Buber [8] argued so well in his own time, ing them or not, and in making that which cannot immediately or directly be perceived the very nature of man consists .... " [5] as a whole, we depend on the world outside On the other hand, those who are us-we depend on breaking reality into outside the Tao, who follow merely the law parts in order to catch the whole. In order of instinct, which Lewis called Natural not to loose the reference to the whole, we Moral, are also lost, as they are obliged to need to gather those parts we are incapable eliminate all emotions and intuitions. In its of seeing, but that others are able to see place, they put some kind of substitute, (including our true selves). We are depend­ (satisfaction of basic necessities, material ent on each other and ultimately, on our first realizations, etc.), which is always highly Other, on Thou. We are only able to recog­ self-destructive. As a solution for the di­ nize evil as really bad and good as really lemma, Lewis proposes a golden way, a good, because there is something and Some­ type of self-management training program, one greater out there. As Lewis so well il­ which works like this: lustrated in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the most illustrative of all The head rules the belly through the chest­ chronicles, there is a "deeper Magic" behind the seat ... of Magnanimity, of emotions or­ all deep magics, and our task is not to con­ ganized by trained habits into stable senti­ found figure and background, but to in­ ments. The Chest-Magnanimity­ creasingly approach that luminous back­ Sentiment-these are the indispensable liai- ground of reality, the true reality. Only

84 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen from that standpoint, we may recognize Chronicles that it is quite impossible to list that: them all. Secondly, we have to note that C.S. Lewis is not a moralist or someone ... we all live between the 'fell, incensed who did not understand the relativity of points' of Michael and Satan. The differ­ mere common consents. He says that very ence between the Christian and the Dualist clearly in the introduction of his Tao: is that the Christian thinks one stage further and sees that if Michael is really in the right The list makes no pretence of completeness. and Satan really in the wrong this must It will be noticed that writers such as Locke mean that they stand in two different rela­ and Hooker, who wrote within the Christian tions to somebody or something far further tradition, are quoted side by side with the back, to the ultimate ground of reality itself New Testament. This would, of course, be [9] absurd if I were trying to collect independ­ ent testimonies to the Tao. But (I) I am not According to Aquinas, the natural trying to prove its validity by the argument inclination of the human heart is to the true from common consent. Its validity cannot be reality, which transcends even the logic of deduced. For those who do not perceive its the Fall, although it started the process of rationality, even universal consent could rejecting the Tao, thus getting into a conflict not prove it. (2) The idea of collecting inde­ with the first law. If we let the second ten­ pendent testimonies presupposes that dency have precedence over the first, then 'civilizations' have arisen in the world inde­ the consequence will sooner or later be the pendently of one another; or even that hu­ abolition, or complete destruction of man. manity has had several independent emer­ gences on this planet .... It is at least argu­ 2. The Tao in the Chronicles of Namia able that every civilization we find has been derived from another civilization and, in the In the Chronicles of Namia, Lewis last resort, from a single center-'carried' uses the best illustrations and metaphors to like an infectious disease or like the Aposto­ depict the dilemma in human behavior re­ lical succession. [10] sulting from the conflict between the two tendencies, the Tao and the instincts. At the As long as no human being is able to end of The Abolition of Man, we find some completely respect the Tao, or even the keys to identifying and understanding some greatest part of it, we are always faced with of the universal values of the Tao, in the a dilemma. We are always challenged to form of comparative proverbs of the Greek, identify and discern the good from the bad Nordic, Oriental and Christian traditions. decisions in life. We made a first tentative We intend, in the next few pages, to system­ approach to the illustrations, with no pre­ atically identify those universal values, or tence of completeness or exhaustion, indi­ the consequences of the lack of them, in the cating also some consequences of the rejec­ Chronicles of Narnia, as a suggestion of an tion of the Tao in the Chronicles of Narnia, exercise that could be made for effective which are even more relevant, if we con­ Christian ethics learning. sider Lewis's paradox ethical structure. First of all, however, it must be noted that there are so many positive illus­ trations of those values in the Namian

85 Rejection of the Tao: lllustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.1 The Magician's Nephew

1.1.1. Positive examples of the Tao

General Beneficence The Cabman, although in his special way, and Sarah, the housemaid, who will be the first king and queen of Narnia.

Special Beneficence Digory to Polly and vice versa. Fledge helping the children to get to their magic apple.

Duties to parents, elders, an- Digory and Polly to his mother. cestors

Duties to children and Pos- The cabman and the maiden show respect to the children terity throughout the story.

Law of justice Digory's mother was cured by the apple he brought her.

Faith and veracity Digory' s certainty that all bad magic will be punished in the end.

Mercy Sarah, the housemaid, who understand the feelings even of Jadis.

Magnanimity Polly going side by side with Digory into strange and danger­ ous worlds in order to save his mother. 2.1.2 Consequences of the Rejection of the Tao General Beneficence Uncle Andrew is not exactly educated through all history, and has to face the consequences. Special Beneficence Uncle Andrew could not hear the talking animals, as a result of his badness. Duties to parents, elders, an- Aunt Letty's insubordination in front of Jadis. cestors Duties to children and Pos­ Uncle Andrew, using the children as animals for his experi­ terity ments.

Law of justice Uncle Andrew sending Pole to the other world. The witch in­ vading other worlds in order to conquer them. Faith and veracity First Digory did not believe in magic, until he experiences it. Mercy Jadis's treatment of Uncle Andrew.

Magnanimity Jadis is the prototype of selfishness, egotism and pride, throughout the story.

86 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 2.2.1 Positive Examples

General Beneficence Mr. Turnnus is very educated. The Beavers are always very polite. Special Beneficence Lucy convinces her brothers to help Turnnus. The Beavers, guiding the children to the stone table.

Duties to parents, elders, an- Peter and Susan to the professor and their parents. cestors

Duties to children and Pos- The professor and the Beavers to the children. terity

Law of justice Peter recognizes his part of guilt in the treachery of Edmund.

Faith and veracity Lucy's behavior is a prototype of this virtue. The beavers show also a great confidence in Asian and the prophecies.

Mercy The children in relation to Edmund, after he repented.

Magnanimity Edmund facing the witch.

2.2.2. Consequences of the rejection of the Tao

General Beneficence The wolf is perhaps the least educated of all the charac­ ters.

Special Beneficence When Susan doesn't want to help Turnnus.

Duties to children and Posterity The Witch is not interested in preserving the children's rights.

Law of justice When Edmund betrays Lucy and his brothers.

87 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.3. The Horse and his Boy 2.3.1 Positive Examples

General Beneficence The horse, Bree, is, in my opinion, the most educated of all characters. Special Beneficence Bree helped Shasta through all the story.

Duties to parents, elders, an- Shasta and Aravis in front of the Hermit. Shasta in relation to cestors his father.

Duties to children and Pos- The words of Shasta's father to Tarkaan: "Natural affection is terity stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbun­ cles". [II] Law of justice Asian tearing the shoulders of Shasta. Rabatasha is trans­ formed in a monkey in the end. Faith and veracity The immediate friendship between Lucy and Aravis.

Mercy Edmund suggesting the absolution of Rabatacha at the end of the story. Magnanimity The Hermit is a prototype of this virtue, but Bree also shows magnanimity, if we consider that he is the lost one of the two sons of King Lune.

2.3.2 Consequences of the rejection of the Tao

General Beneficence The Calormen in general are not very much concerned with good deeds or education.

Special Beneficence Rabatacha was promoted most part of the sufferings and destruction.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors The son of the Tisroc only simulates his respect to his father. That was also a lack of veracity.

Duties to children and Prosperity Shasta's father's bad-tempered treatment of his son. Shasta's father letting him go with the Tarkaan.

Faith and veracity The son of Tisroc making truth in lies when he plans the kidnapping of Aravis ..

Mercy The Calormen always talk about their "hearts", but seems not to know what that means.

Magnanimity The Calormen are also not particularly concerned with self-sacrifice.

88 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Namia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.4 Prince Caspian 2.4.1 Positive Examples General Beneficence Reepicheep is the prototype of chivalry and courtesy. But most ofthe speaking Namian beasts are also very polite and good to Caspian and the children.

Special Beneficence Dr. Cornelius is always helping Caspian out. The N amians also do their part.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors Caspian in front of Dr. Cornelius. The N amians in front of the four children.

Duties to children and Posterity Dr. Cornelius towards Caspian.

Law of justice The restitution of Reepicheep' s tail. Restitution of the Kingdom to Prince Caspian.

Faith and veracity Caspian's belief in Namia and Asian, even before know­ ing them personally.

Mercy Trufflehunter, in not letting Caspian be murdered. He is the kindest of all Narnians.

Magnanimity Lucy going with her brothers, even when she knows about the danger. 2.4.2 Consequences of the rejection of the Tao

General Beneficence The King is more interested in defending his personal honor than his people's.

Duties to children and Posterity Caspian's uncle, when he intends to murder his nephew.

Law of justice The king hunting Caspian and trying to kill him.

Faith and veracity Trump kin did not believe in Asian and N amia, until he saw them with his own eyes.

Mercy Caspian's uncle wants to murder him.

89 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.5 The Silver Chair 2.5.1 Positive examples General Beneficence Prince Rilian, after his disenchantment.

Special Beneficence The owls and Puddleglum are always helping the chil­ dren out.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors Prince Rilian to Caspian. Eustace and Jill in relation to Puddleglum.

Duties to children and Posterity Prince Rilian to the children. Puddleglum in relation to Eustace and Jill.

Law of justice The task given to Jill, due to her approach to the border of the hill, making Eustace fall in the abyss.

Faith and veracity Jill's confidence in the lion.

Mercy Caspian to his best friend, who let Prince Rilian vanish.

Magnanimity Eustace trying to catch Jill at the hill. Jill passes all the night trying to remember the signs. Puddleglum putting his hand in the fire. Eustace facing the dragon.

2.5.2 Consequences of the rejection of the Tao

General Beneficence Rilian, when he was enchanted. The giant's behavior.

Duties to children and Posterity The bad treatment given to the children in school.

Law of justice Eustace and Jill being hunted by their fellow-students. The giants wanting to devour the children after the chil­ dren lie to them. The Green Lady murdering Rilian' s mother and enchanting him.

Mercy The cruelty of the Green Lady and her subordinates.

90 Rejection of the Tao: Dlustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.6 The Voyage of The "Dawn Treader'' 2.6.1. Positive Examples

General Beneficence The prototype of the gentleman is, once more, Reepicheep.

Special Beneficence Prince Caspian rescuing the children from slavery.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors Prince Caspian giving reverence to his father's memory.

Duties to children and Posterity The lost lords in front of Caspian.

Law of justice Eustace is turned into a dragon.

Faith and veracity Lucy deduces that only Asian could have sent them to help Caspian.

Mercy Reepicheep and the children deciding to go and search for Eustace.

Magnanimity Lucy offering to go into the house to read the magic book. Reepicheep offering himself to go to the end of the world.

2.6.2 Consequences of the rejection of the Tao

General Beneficence Bureaucracy and social chaos in the Lonely Islands.

Special Beneficence Eustace pulling Reepicheep's tail.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors Eustace laughing at his older cousins.

Law of justice The children are sold as slaves. High taxes, slavery and social injustice in the Lonely Islands. Eustace trying to rub water in the night.

Faith and veracity Eustace did not believe in his cousin's stories about Narnia.

Magnanimity Eustace, before becoming a dragon, is a prototype for egotism, pride and arrogance.

91 Rejection of the Tao: lllustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

2.7 The Last Battle 2.7.1. Positive Examples

General Beneficence Roonwit the Centaur is perhaps the best example.

Special Beneficence Jewel, the unicorn, is always at the side of King Tirian.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors The centaur, in front of the King.

Duties to children and Posterity The king shows respect to the children.

Law of justice The talking animals who denied Asian, lost their tongues. The apparently tragic ending of the story being merely the beginning of the true one.

Faith and veracity When Jewel looks forward to a dinner with Asian.

Mercy Lucy tries to make friends with the dwarves. The Emeth becomes forgiveness.

Magnanimity The Emeth going into the stable.

2.7.2 Consequences of the rejection of the Tao

General Beneficence There are really few good examples and many bad ex­ amples of this virtue in The Last Battle-to begin with, the ape's and the dwarfs behavior.

Duties to parents, elders, ancestors Griffie and the dwarf show respect neither to the King nor to As Ian.

Law of justice The treachery and general behavior ofthe ape, in rela­ tion to all Narnians.

Faith and veracity The Griffie best expressed the lack of faith, giving credit to the ape in spite of the King. The ape convincing the bear that he is a man. The dwarfs prefer not to believe in the King rather than give up their power over Narnia.

Magnanimity The Ape is perhaps the best example of cowardice and selfishness.

92 Rejection of the Tao: lllustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia hy Gabriele Greggersen

There are certainly many more illus­ quences over nature in general and espe­ trations that could be mentioned. But those cially over human nature. seem to be sufficient for our purpose, which Still, although good is depicted in all is to show the richness of a more systematic of the Chronicles as really good, and bad as study of the Chronicles for more effective mifully bad-not because of its power over learning in ethics, using the tools offered by good, but because of the damage caused C.S. Lewis in his main educational reflec­ against nature-there is always an open tions. Besides the above exercise, there are possibility for those who are willing to re­ also many other alternative strategies we pent and radically change their behavior. could suggest; for example, to use other It may be true that nobody is able to moral values as the cardinal and theological respect all principles of the Tao. That kind virtues (as per The Four Loves), a selection of universal standard is still meaningful and of Proverbs, biblical principles, main char­ useful, however, as it potentially opens acters, etc. doors for our transformation into real hu­ But, the greatest example of all of man beings, when the universal principles these values is surely given by Asian him­ are effectively expressed, transmitted and self, as he is the synthesis of all virtues. The cultivated through tradition, education and further up we get in reaching his patterns, imagination. That was at least the eager the further in we reach the way to becoming hope of men like C.S. Lewis, who were al­ who we really are, and into the grounds of ways engaged in fighting against the conse­ real joy. And that will be an even more in­ quences of the rejection of the Tao and teresting journey: trying to discover the mo­ therefore ultimately against the "abolition of tives of virtue in the stories on our own, or man.'' even by observing those around us, as we experience a living story, being written by our Creator, all the time. Notes

Conclusion: 1 C.S. Lewis. "The Necessity of Chiv­ alry" Although the examples of virtues are much more present in The Chronicles of 2 See to this regard an interesting essay N arnia, the bad examples are worse, not be­ from Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Lost cause they have an opposite value to the Tools of Learning," accessible at http:// good (as the dualists and Manicheans be­ www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html . lieve), but due to the consequences of re­ jecting the Tao, which always end in de­ 3 C.S. Lewis. "Democratic Education." struction, death and despair. That is why the bad examples are more and more devastat­ 4 C.S. Lewis. The Abolition of Man. ingly present in the last stories. But we will always find goodness behind the scenes. 5 Ibid., p. 31. There is no conceivable symmetry between goodness and badness. Good is always very, 6 Ibid. very good and evil is disastrous. The bad examples could be measured by the badness 7 Ibid., p. 88 of the unavoidably destructive conse-

93 Rejection of the Tao: lllustrations of the Chronicles of Narnia by Gabriele Greggersen

8 Martin Buber. Eclipse of God: Studies millan, 1951. in the Relation Between Religion __, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. and Philosophy. New York: Macmillan, 1952. __. The Silver Chair. New York: Mac­ 9 C.S. Lewis. "Evil and God," from God millan, 1953. in the Dock. __. The Magician's Nephew. New York: Macmillan, 1955. 10 C.S. Lewis. The Abolition of Man, pp. __. The Last Battle. New York: Mac­ 95-96. millan, 1956. __. Mere Christianity. Rev. ed. New York: Macmillan, 1952. __. Studies in Words. 2"d ed. Cambridge: Bibliography Cambridge Univ. Press, 1967. Sayers, Dorothy "The lost tools of learn­ Buber Martin. Eclipse of God: Studies in ing", electronic publication, accessible the Relation Between Religion and Phi­ at , last update 11 May 1998. 1957. Duriez, Colin. The C.S. Lewis Handbook. Grand Rapids (Ml): Baker, 1990. Ford, Paul F. Companion to Narnia. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994. Hinten, Marvin, Parallels and Allusions in the Chronicles of Narnia, Doctoral Dissertation, Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University, 1996. Manlove, Colin, The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993 Lewis, C.S. ''The Necessity of Chivalry" in Present Concerns, 2"d edition, Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace, 1987. __. "Democratic Education " in Present Concerns, 2"d edition, Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace, 1987. __. The Abolition of Man, New York: Macmillan, 6'h edition, 1955, p. 27. __. "Evil and God", in God in the Dock, 2"d edition, Grand Rapids (Ml): Eerd­ mans, 1996, p. 24. __. The Horse and his Boy, New York: Harper Collins (HarperTrophy ed.), 1994. __. The Lion, the Witch, and the Ward­ robe. New York: Macmillan, 1950. Prince Caspian. New York: Mac-

94 The Joys of Book-Collecting Edwin W. Brown

I've been asked to speak not about I'm often asked what prompted me Lewis himself, but about the pleasures de­ to begin collecting the works of C. S. rived from collecting his works, as well as Lewis. It was, in fact, the direct result of an those of these other authors. Before getting interest in something that was, until a cer­ into the subject, however, I feel compelled tain fateful day in Oxford, totally unrelated to preface it with a warning from the Sur­ to books. That something was the English geon General that book-collecting can be pub. hazardous to your health-and that it's caused by a virus for which there is no I was first acquainted with that re­ known cure. markable institution, the English pub, dur­ mg a guided tour of London on my first I will always remember a lecture by visit to England some thirty-five years ago. Michael Green, one of England's great Of all the charming bits of architecture and evangelical clergy and himself a writer of interior decor I first saw in that country, some note, in which he said about C. S. none caught my fancy quite as much as that Lewis, "God took that mighty intellect and of the pubs, with their dark wood, shining directed it to His own purpose." brassware, and often stained glass windows.

And what a purpose that has been! The English pub--which is short for It would be impossible, I suppose to docu­ public house-is unlike anything we know ment the number of persons whose eternal in this country. It's more of a local social destiny is directly the result of reading Mere club for families-including the children, Christianity, for example-to say nothing especially in the villages, where the only of the myriad more of us whose faith has other gathering place might be the church­ been developed and strengthened through and most churches in England, at least in the writings of Lewis and these other areat the recent past, have not been known much authors. Given the enormous influence" of as gathering places, except on Sunday and those writings, I was led to assemble every­ for funerals. thing I could get my hands on over the past twenty years of original copies of books, Not all English pubs are as attractive letters, manuscripts, or whatever, in the as I've described, and there are many in hope that the collection would someday be which you wouldn't want to set foot. But in a place where it would introduce others the choice ones are many, and not only are to these authors. they physically attractive, but in recent years many have become the best place to Having seen the role that Taylor get a good meal at a reasonable price. Al­ University played in the life of our daugh­ though I've enjoyed many fine meals in ter, my wife and I could think of no better English homes, most English restaurants place for the collection--and we are deeply don't get rave notices in the guide books­ grateful to those who made it possible. and you may have heard what someone

95 The Joys of Book-Collecting by Edwin W. Brown once irreverently said in defining one of the now have what may be the world's greatest differences between Heaven and Hell. collection of beer mats-and would wel­ come any suggestions for what one does In Heaven, this heartless jokester with such. said, the policemen are English, the admin­ istrators are German, and the cooks are Ital­ In those days one could find these ian. In Hell, on the other hand, the Ger­ old pub items in junk shops. It seems that mans are the policemen, the Italians are the the breweries, which own most of the pubs, administrators, and the English are the chose to modernize many of the non­ cooks. historic pubs soon after the war, and the old bits and pieces ended up in second-hand Lest I be accused of vilifying Eng­ shops throughout England. Today, it's a lish cuisine, I hasten to add that I delight in different story, however. Much of that bric­ the "full English breakfast" served in the a-brac was brought back by the pub owners bed-and-breakfast establishments in which when they realized that modernization was we stay in that delightful country. And if a mistake, and the rest of it seems to have you're wondering what this has to do with gone all over the world into the clones of the subject I'm supposed to be addressing, English pubs that one can now find in virtu­ that's just one of the joys of book collect­ ally every major city in the world-from ing! On the other hand, I have to ask my­ Milwaukee to Moscow. self why the "full English breakfast" of eggs, bacon, sausage, fried toast, and baked When we moved into our present beans is so hea vii y promoted to American home some twenty-five years ago, I com­ tourists when my English friends tell me pleted my basement pub-and was then that they indulge only rare] y in such dietary faced with the problem of what to call it. abandon. One jaundiced observer, who Most intriguing about English pubs is their claims that the English are not particularly names and the pictures on their signs-"The fond of Americans, has suggested that the Bear and Ragged Staff," "The Duke of Wel­ "full English breakfast" is a plot to kill us lington," "The Lamb and Flag," for exam­ off. ple. Many of these are taken from English literature and mythology. But getting back to pubs: So enam­ ored was I of pub decor that I began collect­ On my next trip to England, which ing bits and pieces of pubs during my early was my first visit to Oxford, I found my travels in England-pump handles, adver­ pub. Until that point in time, I knew virtu­ tising mirrors, brass fittings, pewter mugs, ally nothing about C. S. Lewis except for etc.-which eventually resulted in a replica the relatively few books of his that I had of an English pub as our basement rec read-and thoroughly enjoyed. And then I room. wandered into "The Eagle and Child" in Oxford, where the first thing that caught my I should perhaps add that I didn't eye was a wooden plaque on the wall, collect these items in the way that some which read: C. S. Lewis, his brother W. H. folks collect hotel towels-although I must Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, confess to pocketing those absorbent card­ and other friends met every Tuesday morn­ board advertising mats that they put under ing between the years 1939 and 1962 in this beverage glasses whenever I was in a pub. I their favon"te pub. These men, popularly

96 The Joys of Book-Collecting by Edwin W. Brown

known as "The Inklings," met here to drink Little did I realize the implications of that beer and to discuss, among other things, the decision! books they were writing. Soon thereafter, Pat and I were to The name of the pub is taken from join some friends in London for a trip to the mythology, and the sign depicts a great ea­ Middle East. Having never been to Ireland, gle carrying the infant Ganymede on its we decided to stop in Dublin en route. I had back-hence the name by which it is more little hope of finding Lewis first editions commonly known in Oxford: The Bird and there, however, assuming that those Catho­ the Baby. lics had never heard of him. To my ques­ tion, "Might you have any first editions of I informed the landlord (as the C. S. Lewis?" the answer received in the owner or manager of a pub is called) of my first three shops I entered was the same: interest in C. S. Lewis and the other Ink­ "Sorry, but he's so popular that they go out lings, and that I would like to get a color as fast as we get them in!" photo of his sign to grace my basement pub. He then suggested that I would be more On our last day in Dublin, while Pat pleased with the sign that had been on the was on a shopping tour, I decided to take an pub in Lewis's day, which the brewery had early train to Belfast to see what was going replaced some years ago with a newer and on in that troubled city. Soon tiring of hav­ Jess attractive sign, in his opinion. That ing to go through body checks at almost sign, he said, had been given to Father Wal­ every tum, I sought out the only antiquarian ter Hooper, secretary to Lewis shortly be­ bookshop listed in the yellow pages that fore his death. was located a short taxi ride from the center. Unfortunately, I found only a pile of rubble I then tracked down Father Hooper, at the address given for the shop. It had an American and an Anglican priest, who been blown up by IRA terrorists only two had Jived in Oxford since Lewis's death. days earlier in an effort to destroy a police Those of you familiar with Lewis's writings station next door. However, I was directed will have seen his name as editor of the to the home of the owner, Jack Gamble, many Lewis books published since Lewis's about a mile up the road, who received me death in 1963. I took a colored photo of the warmly. pub sign, then displayed in Hooper's apart­ ment, gave it to a shop in London, which He told me how they had kidnapped specialized in reproducing old pub signs, him from his home while holding his family and now had a proper English pub in my hostage, and forced him to open his shop so basement. that they could plant the bomb - which also destroyed some 50,000 volumes of old Then the thought occurred to me: books. He did, however, have a number of "Visitors may ask how I chose that name Lewis first editions among the stock in his for it, so perhaps I should have a little shelf home, and thus began my collection. of Lewis' books on display." Most of his titles were available only in paperback, It was also there that I learned about however, and since such a display might Lewis's love for the writings of George seem a bit tacky, I thought it might be nice MacDonald. One of the first editions was to go for his first editions in hard covers. Lewis's anthology of George MacDonald,

97 The Joys of Book-Collecting by Edwin W. Brown

and my new friend presented it to me as a could bring as much as $1000. The next gift, with the comment: "If you're going to printing, although done only a week or two collect Lewis, you 'II surely want to collect later, can be had for as little as $25. MacDonald." Having never heard of George MacDonald before, I could only With only a few expectations, all of mumble, "Why, yes, I certainly shall." Lewis's books were also printed in the United States-and most American first Looking for first editions is much like Je­ editions are harder to find than English first sus' parable of the pearl merchant who fi­ editions. Nonetheless, because collectors nally found the finest pearl of all and sold prefer those printed in the author's own everything he had to obtain it. In my wife's country, American firsts cost far Jess than real estate circles, they like to say that the English firsts. There is, however, one nota­ three most important factors determining ble exception. the value of a house are location, location, and location. With first editions those three The first Lewis book to be published most important factors are condition, condi­ in this country was his second book, Dymer, tion, and condition. also a narrative poem and also published under the pseudonym of Clive Hamilton. The most important factor, however, Given the fact that he was an unknown au­ is the condition of the dust jacket-the thor, and that it was a book of poetry, it sold decorative paper cover that publishers put poorly in England and, presumably, even on books, not to protect them from dust, more poorly in America. however, but to help sell them. Much more fragile than the book, the dust jacket is eas­ I found my first copy of the Ameri­ ily damaged and often discarded by the can first edition of Dymer about twenty original owner. The relative rarity of dust years ago. A few years later I saw another jackets thus makes them more valuable than copy, in very poor condition, in another the books themselves. A nice first English shop in Washington, D.C. I never saw an­ edition of The Lion, the Witch and the other copy for sale until two years ago, Wardrobe without a dust jacket could cost when one turned up in the catalog of an as much as $500 these days. In a very good English dealer, from whom I bought it. dust jacket, the price might be $3000. As you can see, it's a bit shabby­ The difference between the first edi­ and as you probably can't see, the binding is tion of a book and the next printing of the mostly paper on heavy cardboard, with only same book is like night and day. A classic a strip of cloth around the spine. Having example is The Screwtape Letters, pub­ continually upgraded the Lewis collection lished in 1942 at the height of World War over the years, I had dust jackets on all but II, when the rationing of paper in England three volumes. One was his first books, no severely limited the amount a publisher copies of which, to my know ledge, have could get at any one time. The first printing been available in a dust jacket for the past of the first edition was early in February­ twenty years. Another was his fourth book, and sold out so quickly that the book was my copy of which was that of his publisher reprinted twice more that month, and eight and probably never had a dust jacket, hav­ times by the end of the year. A fine copy in ing been taken directly off the press and re­ a dust jacket, stating "First printed in 1942" viewed for typographical errors. The third

98 The Joys of Book-Collecting by Edwin W. Brown

was my first American Dymer. Even greater than the pleasure of finding a fine first edition, however, is the I finally began to catalog the collec­ serendipity of finding an additional and un­ tion about two years ago, carefully describ­ expected treasure therein-and it's all the mg every aspect of each book. Having more exciting when it's not recognized until never seen a first American edition of Dy­ sometime later. My first such experience mer m a dust jacket, I had concluded that occurred while on a sabbatical in En<>land0 being bound in paper rather than cloth, i; twelve years ago, when I at last came across was probably not issued in a dust jacket. a copy of Lewis's first book, Spirits in To confirm that conclusion I Bondage, which I had been seeking for checked with the two libraries I kne~ to many years. It was, however, a flawed have a copy of the book, the Wade Center at copy-the owner had defaced the title pa<>e Wheaton College and the Lilly Rare Book by writing in ink, in an almost illegible Library at Indiana University. Neither had hand, not only his name but his address as a dust jacket. I therefore concluded my de­ well. I silently denounced his thoughtful­ scnptmn of the book with the authoritative ness, but paid what was then a horrendous statement: ''This book is presumed not to price for the book, hoping I might someday have been issued in a dust jacket." fmd an unmarred copy.

Scarcely two weeks later, I received Later that summer, while reading a a phone call from a collector friend in North book of letters from Lewis to his boyhood Carolina: "Guess what, Ed! I just found a friend Arthur Greeves in Belfast, I came copy of Dymer in a dust jacket." And in­ across a reference to Lewis's uncle in Scot­ deed he had, in the shop of a local dealer land, who had moved there from Northern who obviously had no idea of the author's Ireland in the 1880s to go into business. A identity and sold it to my friend for $65. So footnote by the editor noted that the uncle's much for my diligent research! name was Richard Lewis, and that his home was at West Dene in Helensburgh. Sud­ Some weeks after that, he called me denly a light flickered in my brain, and I again to tell me that, as much as he would grabbed Spirits in Bondage from the book­ like to keep the book, he felt that it be­ shelf. Now that crude inscription stood out longed in my collection. Needless to say, like a shooting star-it was the copy Lewis this caught my attention. Moreover, rather had given to his uncle. than selling it to me, he would be pleased to trade it for surplus first editions of mine (of More recently, I was again reading which I had many as the result of upgrading some of the letters to Arthur Greeves in the collection over the years) which he which Lewis thanks him for sending a num­ needed for his collection. We discussed its ber of George MacDonald books that Ar­ possible real value, and given its obvious thur had finished reading. In a letter dated rarity, we agreed that it could be worth as December 24, 1930, he tells Arthur that much as $4000-which is what I gave him only the day before he had picked up a copy in trade! You will understand, I'm sure, if of MacDonald's novel, Alec Forbes, in those having keys to the collection over three volumes, from a second-hand dealer in there in the library may be reluctant to let Oxford for four shillings and sixpence. anyone handle that particular volume. Again I dashed to my bookshelves. I had that title, in three volumes, and had been

99 The Joys of Book-Collecting by Edwin W. Brown

told that it came from Lewis's own li­ in the display available to anyone wishing brary-but how to prove it? There on the to see the entire collection in the Faculty flyleaf was the price penciled by the dealer lounge of the university library. sixty years ago and never erased-four shil­ lings and sixpence. The first of those two idiosyncrasies is the one I've already mentioned-tearing An important aspect of any collec­ manuscript sheets in half and writing on the tion is manuscript material of the author­ back sides. The second is his habit of re­ anything in his own handwriting, but espe­ trieving such pieces of paper from the waste cially the so-called "fair copy" of a hand­ basket when the back side was filled with written manuscript submitted for publica­ notes no longer required. He would then tion-in other words, the final draft. Al­ fold the piece of paper into a "stick," light though Lewis wrote some forty books and the end with a match, and then use it to published many essays, lectures, poems, reach into the gas heater in his study to light and similar material, relatively few of his it. This fragment of manuscript has been manuscripts exist. The reason is very sim­ thus used, as evidenced by its many folds ple-when he received a manuscript back and being charred along its left edge. from the publisher after a book was printed, he saw no reason to waste all that good pa­ What is very special about this par­ per that was written on one side only, so he ticular fragment, aside from the fact that no would tear the sheets in two and use the other such burned fragments are known to back of the torn sheet for "scratch paper". exist, is the nature of the penciled notes on the other side. They are, in fact, what is It was my good fortune to be able to probably the first draft of the notes for his obtain the two Lewis manuscripts in this next book, Beyond Personality. collection-one a well-known but unpub­ lished work that he shared with his closest This book was the third of a series friend, Owen Barfield, and the other an un­ of talks, which Lewis gave on BBC radio known manuscript of a short story which during the war-which were later combined had been sent to some publisher, was not and added to in one of his best-known published, and was not returned to him. It books, Mere Christianity. In the first page turned up fifty years later among some mis­ of Beyond Personality, he writes: In a way cellaneous papers acquired by an obscure I quite understand why some people are put dealer in London, who sold it to another off by Theology. I remember once when l' d dealer, from whom my primary dealer been giving a talk to the R.A.F. [the Royal bought it and offered it to me. Needless to Air Force], an old, hard-bitten officer got say, the price escalated rapidly as it moved up and said, "I've no use for all that stuff from one dealer to another! But, mind you, I'm a religious man too. I know there's a God. I've felt Him: out Only two years ago, however, an­ alone in the desert at night: the tremendous other interesting piece of manuscript mate­ mystery. And that's why I don't believe all rial turned up-the result of two of Lewis's your little dogmas and formulas about Him. idiosyncrasies. It's only the bottom half of To anyone who's met the real thing they all one sheet of the manuscript of his book, seem petty and pedantic and unreal. " Christian Behavior, but it's very special, as you will be able to see during the next hour In the next two paragraphs, he com-

100 The Joys of Book-Collecting by Edwin W. Brown

pares Theology to a map: Doctrines aren't basement-although I must admit that the God; they're only a kind of map. But that highlight of the year for me was when map's based on the experiences of hundreds David Neuhauser brought a group of stu­ of people who were in touch with God. dents to my home each year to see the col­ lection and let me ramble on for an hour or In the penciled notes on this frag­ so about it. ment, he identifies this officer as Wing Commander Snooks and notes that he was Perhaps I can best describe the thrill quite right in thinking his experience more I'm experiencing in seeing this collection "real". But only a map, based on innumer­ housed at Taylor as the ultimate serendipity. able real experiences and necessary for It's great to be here today, thank you all for sailing (for getting where one wants to go). coming and making it a great day, and may God richly bless this great institution. The dealer from whom I bought this fragment told me that it had been for many years in the possession of a distant relative of the dealer. This relative had at one time been a part-time maid for the Lewis broth­ ers, and had retrieved it from a wastebasket as a souvenir. The dealer had no idea of the significance of the penciled notes on the back-nor did I until I returned from Eng­ land at that time and began studying them more carefully. Even then they meant noth­ ing to me-l hadn't the foggiest idea who Wing Commander Snooks might be-until I started reading Christian Behavior again to find the location of the text on the manu­ script fragment. And there it was-right on the first page-described only as an old, hard-bitten R.A.F. officer who didn't think much of theology, having known God from personal experience. Now that's serendip­ ity of the highest order-acquiring some­ thing that's obviously a treasure, only to find later that hidden within it is an even greater treasure.

When it first became known that I might be selling my collection, friends asked if I could really bear to part with something to which I had devoted so much time and effort over the past 20 years or so. I really didn't think it would be difficult for it could be far greater benefit to others at a place like Taylor University than in my

101 George MacDonald on Hamlet

Most George MacDonald scholars are aware that MacDonald lectured on Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It has been the good fortune of Taylor University to come into possession of MacDonald's annotated copy of the play. This manuscript is apparently the one MacDonald used to lecture from and is a preliminary of The Tragedie of Hamlet, which was published in 1885. MacDonald took a copy of the play found in the 1623 edition of Shakespeare and had it rebound with flyleaves inserted between the pages. On these flyleaves he wrote copious notes about the play. On the opening flyleaves he reminds himself to give the audience "a short account of the two quartos and folio." The title page of the play is inscribed to his daughter Lilia and dated 1881. MacDonald's notes and marginalia reveal much about MacDonald as a scholar, critic, linguist, dramatist, lover of Shakespeare, and man of religious feeling. He carefully analyzes the first quarto and folio editions comparing them with the second quarto. He studied other printed versions of Hamlet and in this one expounds what he felt were proper reiterations and word choice. He comments often on lines that should be omitted and lines that should be kept in order to clarify meaning. Frequently, he pauses on a single word to trace its possible meanings. He indicates where the play should be divided into acts. Not surprisingly, MacDonald's notes also provide insight into character interpretation, particularly that of Hamlet. These notes are some of the richest and most telling in the manuscript. MacDonald includes advice for actors and comments on how certain lines should be delivered. Revealing that he was widely read and a student of Shakespeare, the manuscript also contains commentary on other critical remarks and interpretations of the play. MacDonald often disagrees with other critics. Finally, as one would expect, MacDonald's theology and personal faith are evident in his marginal notes and commentary.

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> •' :': .·:· .· The 2001 Frances White Ewbank Saturday, Nov. 17 (continued) 10:45-1 I :45 Concurrent Sessions/Papers Session 5, Room CC-205 on Friday, November 16 (continued) "Rejection of the Tao: Illustrations of the Chronicles of Namia" Gabrielle Greggersen, Session 2, Room CC-205 Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Sao Paulo, Brazil • Lewzs "Imagining Heaven: Assessing Lewis's Romantic "All Shall be Well: Redemption as a Subtext of C. S. t\no FRtenos Revisions of Dante's Comedy" Lewis's Prince Caspian" Doug Jackson, Ta.yl o• Um•·c•m.Y Stephen Jensen, Malone College Second Baptist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

"The Gentl y Sloping, Chosen Path: C. S. Lewis's Session 6, Room CC-222, Student Papers View of Hell in Screwtape and Great Divone" "The Lord of the Rings and the Christian Way" Rick Hill, Point Lorna Nazarene University First Place Essay Nathan E. Sytsma, Calvin College "The Lewis Brothers' Correspondence with Jill "A Woman's Place: Validity and Vocation for Women in Flewett Freud" David Neuhauser, Taylor University The Writings of Dorothy L. Sayers" Second Place Essay Erin Sells, Westmont College PROGRAM SCHEDULE Session 3, Room CC-222, "The Reasonable Faith: C. S. Lewis's Argument for Christianity from the Characteristics of Human Reason" Friday, November 16 "Taking an Untamed Lion to School: A Classroom Third Place Essay: Sabrina Locklair, Concordia U of WI Presentation" 9:00-10:00 am Rupp Communication Center Richard James, First Christian Church, 11 :45 Lunch Registration Burkesville, Kentucky 1-1 :45 pm Carruth Recital Hall 10:00-11:00 Rediger ChapeVAuditorium 4:30-5:30 Zondervan Library "The Mysteries of Dorothy L. Sayers" Terry Lindvall :Chapel Address Visit to the Edwin W. Brown Collection Maureen Collins 6:00 Dinner I I :00-1 1: 15 Orientation 2:00-3:00 Mitchell Theater "Experiencing Joy" 8: 15 Mitchell Theater 11 :15 Lunch Break A dramatic presentation by Jennifer Pletcher Hamlet 3:00-3:30 Refreshments I :00-2:00 pm Carruth Recital Hall Rolland Hein: 'W hat the Heart's Dear Saturday, November 17 4:00-5:00 Concurrent Sessions/Papers Imagination Dares': the Mythic Vision of Session 7, Room CC-203 George MacDonald" 9:00-9:30 am Mitchell Theater Devotions, Jay Kesler Panel on Teaching Courses on Lewis and Related Authors: 2:15-2:45 Carruth Recital Hall Rick Hill, Point Lorna Nazarene U; Ed Brown ,"The Joys of Collecting" 9:30-10:30 Mitchell Theater Joe Ricke, Roger Phillips and Pam Jordan, Taylor U 3:15-4:15 Concurrent Sessions/ Papers "Laughing With God or the Devil: An Hi storical, Theological, and Physiological Apologetic for Session 8, Room CC-205 Student Papers Session 1, Room CC-203 Christians and Laughter" Terry Lindvall "Charles Williams: The Novel & William's I illustration of "Sir Gawain and Bilbo: Interrelationships" I 0:45-11 :45 Concurrent Sessions I Papers John Seland, Nazan University, Japan Humanity's Place in Creation as Found in 71re Place of tile Session 4, Room CC-203 Lion" Honorable Mention Essay, Amy Wi se, Cornerstone U 'Deep Magic: Chesterton, Lewis, and the "Epistemology and Metaphysics a Ia C. S. Lewis" "The Distinctive Verse in J. R. R. Tolkien's Tile Fellowship Supernatural World View" David Entwhistle, Malone College Robert Moore-Jumonville, Spring Arbor Coll ege of the Ring" Angela Weston, Asbury College "The Night C. S. Lewis Lost a Debate" The Hamlet Manuscript" Pam Jordan, Taylor U Ted Dorman, Taylor University Other student papers TBA The Saturday, Nov. 17 (continued) SPECIAL GUESTS 2001 7:00 Hodson Dining Commons Frances White Ewbank Banquet Terry Lindvall (Regent University, author of "Creating a Tolkien Inspired Ballet" SUiprised by Laughter) will speak in chapel on Colloquium Ellen Denham Friday. On Saturday, he will present "Laughing with On 9:30 Student Union Coffee House God or the Devil: An Historical, Theological, and Students' creative presentations Physiological Apologetic for Christians and Laughter."

Sunday, Nov. 18 Maureen Collins (Specialist in Detective Fiction) Lewzs 8-9 am Smith-Hermanson Music Center Continental Breakfast & Fellowship will investigate "The Mysteries of Dorothy L. Ano Ftnenos Sayers." Tayto~< Umve~

Rolland Hein (Wheaton College, author of November 16-18, 2001 George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker and The Harmony Within: The Spiritual Vision of George Taylor U Diversity MacDonalc[) will speak on George MacDonald. Upland, Indiana • Lewzs Jay Kesler (Chancellor of Taylor University), Author of numerous books and di stinguished speaker, will lead the Saturday Morning Devotions. PROGRAM SCHEDULE

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