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

1997 Full Issue 1997 (Volume 1)

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Recommended Citation (1997) "Full Issue 1997 (Volume 1)," Inklings Forever: Vol. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever/vol1/iss1/1

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 A Collection of Essays Presented at tlte First FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM on C.S. LEWIS AND FRIENDS

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November 13-15, 1997 Taylor University Upland, Indiana ~'...... - ·

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,. 1' !. ' INKLINGS FOREVER A Collection of Essays Presented at the Fh"St FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQliTUM on C.S. LEWIS AND FRIENDS

Novem.ber 13-15, 1997

Published by Taylor University's

Lewis and J1nends Committee

July1998

This collection is dedicated to Francis White Ewbank Lewis scholar, professor, and friend to students for over fifty years

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

David Neuhauser, Professor Emeritus at Taylor and Chair of the Lewis and Friends Committee, had the vision, initiative, and fortitude to take the colloquium from dream to reality. Other committee members who helped in all phases of the colloquium include Faye Chechowich, David Dickey, Bonnie Houser, Dwight Jessup, Pam Jordan, Art White, and Daryl Yost.

Thanks to Teil Buroker for secretarial and computer work, Alex Lutz for proofreading, Don Wilson for the colloquium logo, Taylor University Press for copying, and Prinit Press for binding.

And special thanks to Daryl Yost, Jay Kesler, Ron and Mary Calkins, Ed Brown, and the Borens for their support, moral and otherwise.

Rick Hill Program Chair and Editor

All essays © 1997, 1998 by the the individual authors

INKLINGS FOREVER A Collection of Essays Presented at the First FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUllJM on C.S. LEWIS AND FRIENDS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

C. S. Lewis and Christian Scholarship Bruce Edwards, Bowling Green State University

C. S. Lewis: Lightbearer in the Angus Menuge, Concordia University 8

Praeparatio EvangeUca Joel Heck, Concordia University 16

Shadows That Fall: The Immanence of in the Fiction of Lewis and MacDonald David Manley, Western University, British Columbia, Canada 22

The Friendship of Lewis and Tolkien John Seland, Nanzan University, Japan 29

Till Poems Have Faces Lou Olson, Student, Taylor University . 37

Myth Made Truth: Origins of the Chronicles ofNamia Mark Bane, Student, Taylor University 44

C. S. Lewis: Past Watchful Dragons Stephanie Jones, Student, Taylor University ...... 49

Old Poet Remembered: The Case for the Poetry of C. S. Lewis David Landrum, Cornerstone College ...... 54

Human Destiny in Wilfred Martens, Fresno Pacific U . 62 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect Roger Phillips, Taylor University ...... 68

TiU We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective on the Condition of Man Joan Alexander ...... 81 The Question of Biblical AUegory in TiU We Have Faces David Bedsole, Huntingdon College ...... 86

The Abolition of Man: First Principles an·d Pre-Evangelism (or "What C.S. Lewis Taught My Brother) Ted Dorman, Taylor University ...... 89

George MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crises of Pamela Jordan, Taylor University ...... 93

The Speaking Elephant: Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Tales Darren Hotrnire, Trinity School ...... 99

George MacDonald and Medicine Darrel Hotrnire, M.D . . 105

Cliffhangers and Extracts From Fact and Fantasy Dan Hamilton ...... 108

Unto the End of the World: Point in C. S. Lewis and Pierre Teilbard de Chardin Chris Smith ...... I IS

Wordsmiths as Warriors: The Intellectual Honesty of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis Daryl Charles, Taylor University ...... 121

The Apologetics of Chesterton and Lewis in a World Marked by Disbelief Michael R. Smith, Taylor University ...... 130

Some Shattering Simplicity: Suffering, Love, and Faith in the Thought of C. S. Lewis Jennifer Woodruff ...... 134

Perspectives in Strength: Four Women in the Writings of Lewis and Tolkien Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall ...... 142

Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately Mrujorie Lamp Mead, Wheaton College ...... 154 C. S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar by Bruce L. Edwards

All our merely natural activities will be accepted if they are offered to , even the humblest. and all of them, even the noblest. will be sinful if they are not. -C. S. Lewis, "Learning in War Time"

Ardent readers of C. S Lewis's fiction and not as with him, that this is also the apologetics often find themselves reflecting "other Lewis," the writer of learned treatises upon an elusive quality they detect in his texts on Medieval and Renaissance topics and the across all eras of his life, a feature they grope vagaries of literary history, theory, and to label and to explain to amiable agnostics by practice. such terms as wholeness or symmetry, The same experiences as await enthusiasts guilelessness or unpretentiousness. The effect of his fiction and apologetics await the student of reading his work, they would testifY, is the of his scholarly books. They can be anticipated sensation of entering into a new order of not only in his imaginative and theological experience or level of insight, whatever the works, but illso in his literary scholarship in genre-and yet an effect achieved without general. apparent contrivance or arduous effort on either the writer's or the reader's part. It is a Naming the phenomenon winsomeness that draws one into a journey with a companion or into a conversation with Two men well acquainted with Lewis's life a gracious host whose salutary presence by and work, one who knew him intimately all of turns instructs, delights, challenges, and, his adult life, the other immersed in the gritty always, intrigues. details of his texts and biography for more This is the Lewis who created Narnia, than four decades, can help articulate this Malacandra, and Glome, who defended the phenomenon I seek to name. credibility of New Testament , articulated the of , Owen Barfield, Lewis's longtime friend and took us on a tour of Heaven and . But and lifetime intellectual combatant, once I would also like to suggest to those who are declared that "Somehow what Lewis thought

I C.S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar • Bruce L. Edwards about everything was secretly present in what discovered as indigenous within every text he he said about anything." Likewise, Walter crafted. This "thoroughly converted man" Hooper, the principal bibliographer and offered the academic and the Christian world well-known expositor of Lewis, has referred to a scholarship that incarnates the ancient faith him as the "most thoroughly converted man I in the most disarming yet natural ways. have ever known." What then might we call this pervasive Moving the World quality most of his intimates and many mere readers of Lewis have experienced in their Indeed, Lewis's consummate rhetorical encounters with him? I would put it this way: skill, requisite boldness, perspicacious grasp of in Lewis we find a profound sense of time and culture, prodigious memory, bracing integration: an imagination baptized and wit and humor, these are all present in equal married to reason and transformed by the doses without calculation or hidden agenda in revelation of the person of Christ. every genre of prose and poetry he attempted. My reflection on Lewis's literary career, Between "the Christian World of C. S. Lewis" and my submersion in his literary scholarship, and "the Scholarly World of C. S. Lewis," reveal to me a man who refused to there can be no distinction. compartmentalize his faith or his vocation. Both were undergirded by diligent prayer Lewis's devotion to Christ and his full embrace and devotion daily by encounter with the word of the supernaturalism of Biblical faith leaks of God. In short, the ethos that Lewis, as out into his prose whether he is writing Christian scholar, presented in his texts, all his children's fantasy, or etymologies of obscure texts, is that of a confident but unassuming Norse words, or framing the cultural milieu of man who, in Archimedean terrns, has found a allegory in the fourteenth century. place to stand, a man who is ready, albeit with The scholarly Lewis is also the Christian all due deference to his readers' own apologist who gives blithe radio talks aspirations and circumstances, to move the explaining the Trinity; the philologist Lewis is world closer to the truth. also the science- fiction writer who resituates To elucidate Lewis's integrative faith and the plot of Genesis on a planet far, far away; scholarship is to discover what animated him the brilliant social critic and urbane essayist is at his very being; we who wish to emulate him also the scrupulously kind and indefatigable as a Christian academic or lay Ieamer must correspondent who answers any and all discover, as he did, that revealed truth is inquiries from the high and the lowly. central to fiuitful scholarly inquiry. By And yet the point I wish to stress is that "scholarship" I refer to that endeavor within Lewis's Christian witness is not a the academic vocation in which the inquirer "value-added" aspect of his scholarly work. It marshals evidence in the pursuit of hypotheses is not ladled on artificially and sanctimoniously or theses and expresses her or his discoveries like thick gravy on gristle to cover its in the forums of their peers in their disciplines. tastelessness, nor is it not an isolatable Such inquiry is predicated on the effective "component" of his work. use of those tools, verbal or instrumental, available to the scholar; shaped by the It is something naturally imbued and perspectives and values he or she consciously

2 C.S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar • Bruce L. Edwards or unconsciously brings to the task; and judged debate, and apprehend the truth. by the cogency of its argument and its impact on both the practitioners of the discipline and "Under Pontius Pilate he suffered": the death wider commerce of ideas in the culture at and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a public, large. historical event, and reports of it must be By these standards, Lewis indeed is a believed or doubted on the basis of rational, towering scholarly figure in the world of 20th historical grounds. Lewis could not Century letters, that is, the world of literary conscientiously conduct his scholarship on a criticism and history, and thus an apt choice different basis from that which informed his for such an investigation. Between 193 I and fiction or his apologetics. Truth is one, and 1961, he published an astonishing number of Lewis's preparation, conviction, and scholarly works, countless articles and more determination equipped him to speak than five major, seminal works of influence authoritatively and faithfully whether he was and provocation in literary studies-beginning writing literary history, commenting on trends with the early book that was arguably his in British education, or championing the magnum opus, , virtues of a pagan poet. published in 193 6, whose sweeping and The epigraph to this essay well exemplifies meticulous account of the social, cultural, Lewis's personal take on the scholarly literary, and linguistic milieu of Chaucer and vocation and its role in the discipleship of a Spenser's Europe remains today a work of believer. Drawn from a sermon Lewis impeccable grace and continuing explanatory preached in October, 1939, in the dark, earliest power. days of World War II, "Learning in War Time," these remarks address the question, Public and Private Lewis "with the world falling down about me, why should I even think about engaging further in How is it that this Lewis, who in addition an education or any scholarly pursuit?" to this literary scholarship mastered the In effect, Lewis's answer is an extended imaginative and theological genres with which homily on St. Paul's exhortation to the we more naturally associate him, could Colossians, "Whatever ye eat or drink or accomplish these multiple achievements and whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." honors? My simple answer to the question is Whatever one has been gifted to do, even if it that the public Lewis was the private Lewis; is skulking about old libraries and illuminating the believing Lewis was the scholarly Lewis the forgotten world views of Anglo-Saxons and vice-versa. and their kin, this too could bring glory to For, in Lewis's mind, what is true can God-if done with proper humility and with never be essentially or only the product of full-hearted effort. For God is the Author of private contemplation and certainly can never the World's story and in it there are no be relegated to the merely personal; rather, miscellaneous facts, minor characters, or truth is derived as conviction specifically from unresolved plot lines. participation in the public square, the Lewis continued in that address to amplify dynamism of a public world where men and how the life of the Christian scholar can and women may meet and can legitimately share, should unfold under the discipleship of Christ,

3 C.S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar • Bruce L. Edwards and herein one finds Lewis's most sustained magic about it, but because we cannot statement of the value and nobility of the study the future, and yet need vocation of scholar. In it he articulates three something to set against the present, to characteristic features of his scholarship: (1) remind us that the basic assumptions allegiance to a transcendent order that shapes have been quite different in different our witness to the discovery of truth; (2) periods and that much which seems recognition of opposing propositions and an certain to the uneducated is merely anticipation of engagement with its clashing temporary fashion. A man who has viewpoints; (3) evocation of historical lived in many places is not likely to be perspective whose panoptic vistas save one deceived by the local errors of his from local errors: native village; the scholar has lived in many times, and is therefore in some There is no question of a compromise degree immune from the great cataract between the claims of God and the of nonsense that pours from the press claims of culture, or politics, or and the microphone of his own age. anything else. God's claim is infinite and inexorable. There is no middle Thus, Lewis the public scholar was way. Yet in spite of this it is clear that equipped by Lewis the Christian scholar to Christianity does not exclude any of face the paradigms of literary study illuminated the ordinary human activities .... by his vast historical perspective, his intimate There is no essential quarrel between acquaintance with the thought forms of the the spiritual life and human activities as present and its vocabulary, and his knowledge such. Thus the omnipresence of of eternity. As one can tell, he saw nothing obedience to God in a Christian's life limiting in his vocation that would prevent him is, in a way, analogous to the from speaking the truth in love as a practicing omnipresence of God in space .... Christian. Indeed, he found something quite To be ignorant and simple now-not liberating in being able to speak about the faith to be able to meet the enemies on their from the vantage point of the scholar who own ground-would be to throw "knew his stuff." Who can forget the great down our weapons, and to betray our lines published in his 1959 address on uneducated brethren who have, under "Modem and Biblical Criticism," God, no defense but us against the wherein Lewis, defending the historicity of the intellectual attacks of the heathen," New Testament accounts of Christ's miracles, critiques the [M]an who has spent his youth Lewis continued, and manhood in the minute study of NT texts and of other people's studies of them, whose Good philosophy must exist, if for no literary experiences of those texts lacks any other reason, because bad philosophy standard of comparison such as can only grow needs to be answered .... Most of all, from a wide and deep and genial experience of perhaps, we need intimate knowledge literature in general. (Such a man] is, I should of the past. Not that the past has any think, very likely to miss the obvious things

4 C.S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar • Bruce L. Edwards about them. If he tells me that something in a The Church's intellectual schizophrenia at gospel is legend or romance, I want to know the end of the 20th Century, well explored by how many legends and romances he has read, writers such as Mark Noll and George how well his palate is trained in detecting them Marsden, makes even more prescient Lewis's by the flavour; not how many years he has mid-century prophecy of the coming spent on that gospel. impotence of the West to speak meaningfully This is the declaration of a man whose of universals, as does the Lewis who wrote principled scholarship allows him both the The Abolition ofMan. courage and the freedom to speak directly and Lewis would not be surprised that unapologetically to a topic in which he is an Christians would be increasingly relegated to expert, though it was outside his professional the sphere of the private and the personal, a discipline. As a lover of the truth, he could sphere that seems to shrink daily and by have no qualms about letting the integration of default prohibit as bad taste any public, heart and mind, and , work and faith meaningful expression of faith, especially in manifest itself in this, and indeed any occasion. one's vocational setting. Many North How far we are from sharing Lewis's American, Christians and -Christians alike, notions or motives-or St. Paul's for that in fact, appear quite nervous about any sort of matter-is revealed in the punch line of a public faith, about any open alignment of one's recent political joke captures well the scholarship with conviction, purpose, destiny, challenge, perhaps ambivalence most of us that would draw attention to themselves. face of living out our Christian convictions in Pulled, pushed, and pressured on all sides, the public square of academic scholarship: we learn too well that we are expected to hide, Have you heard about the politician whose disguise, or confine our faith to more and morals were so private he didn't even impose more private settings. And even then the them on himself? Church itself is expected somehow to tone Yes, that embodies it: in fin-de-siecle down its voice and remain placid and tranquil Western culture, convictions of any sort, in the midst of attack and disenfranchisement. especially about religion, may be held but not In short, we become accustomed to open! y practiced, alluded to but not nakedly accommodation, to seeking a place where our declared; for any hint of actual commitment to faith may rest or fit comfortably-where, real principle implies some sort of standard perhaps, it will neither disturb others nor risk and where standards are, expectations--and embarrassing questions for ourselves. Lewis measuring rods--follow. The private world of saw the chief casualty of the destruction of "values" must not impinge the public world of objective value as the death of the public, that "facts." realm in which men and women of good will Better to avoid the charge of imposing might indeed investigate, probe, and debate the values on others, keeping faith meek and mild, foundations of what was once called the good properly private, if you will, than to publicly life or "civilization." champion one's and risk the inevitable What was most indispensable about the charge of hypocrisy, or, worse, hegemony. Western tradition for Lewis was its evocation of a public ground for the training of the The Impotent West young and the managing of responsible

5 C.S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar • Bruce L. Edwards cultural change in a society of equals. Through Access to truth, to the real world, as its invention and promotion of alphabetic opposed to , is the birthright of all. literacy, the West had given birth to a public To resist this dilemma, we must follow Lewis world where texts may serve as the landscape in refusing to divorce our personal faith from where we can objectively wrestle with and our public behavior. We must live the faith in resolve matters of mutual importance. The and out of our cloisters. We must not retreat public world, a world available, present, from the public square. negotiable by human beings, is assumed in the While the privatization of faith is literature Lewis loved best. something that Lewis, perhaps our century's greatest convert from unbelief, would find The Role of Civilization antithetical to true faith, one doubts that he would cower or cringe at our new century's In his criticism as in his imaginative fiction challenges to Biblical orthodoxy. Rather, and apologetics, Lewis vehemently denied that Lewis would see opportunity -opportunity facts and values could rest on personal for Christians to serve, as he put it, as both epistemology, an autistic world of "specimens," and as antidotes to chaos, that ethno-gender specific truths. The role of these times provide. civilization in general, and Christian If we agree that Lewis's life and career civilization in particular, he would tell us, is to exemplify the virtue of rejecting the split help make public men of private persons. It is between the sacred and the secular, the public to lift men and women out of their and the private that haunts and inhibits so provinciality and narrowness into a more many of us, we can then find courage in expansive realm of transchronological persons, sharing his obedience to St. Paul's admonition ideas, and ideals, into an arena in which to "be not conformed to this age, but be ye character is built, affirmed, and celebrated as a transformed by the renewing of your mind" public good which promotes the health of the (Romans 12: I, 2). Lewis pointed his listeners society at large. Everywhere he abhors and his readers, his students and his friends, to coercive ideology, the inner ring, the occultic a stance that-integrates faith and life, vocation creed-the making private of the public, or the and confession. imposing of the private upon the public while keeping it private. Life before Pilate Thus, one of the greatest things Lewis has to teach us as we enter a new millennium thus If I were to describe Lewis myself in a these credo: single phrase, it would be this: Lewis was a man who lived his life before Pilate. That is to To know the truth I need not be part of an say, I believe Lewis carried out his daily tasks elite or intelligentsia, I need only to be as teacher, citizen, and believer as one who human. In the West the foundation of all knew he was always before a skeptical free thought and inquiry is the unique inquisitor, one who too often hides from the personhood and humanity of man: I am truth and masks his fear of knowing the truth human, therefore I may know the truth. behind indifference or the pretense of being on the search-as Pilate in the presence of Our

6 C.S. Lewis: Public Christian and Scholar • Bruce L. Edwards

Lord revealed (John 18:37). This being the case, Lewis looms as a model for us in any walk of life who must find The quotes from C.S. Lewis are taken from integration and application of our faith in Lewis's "Learning in War Time" in The concrete terms. Lewis tried neither to hide nor Weight of Glory, edited by Walter Hooper foreground his faith in his work, yet whatever (Macmillan, 1965) and "Modern Theology else Lewis was, he was a man of faith willing and Biblical Criticism" in Christian to pay the price for his public confession that Reflections, edited by Walter Hooper Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. Deplored (Eerdmans, 1967). and despised by colleagues jealous of his scholarly prowess and shamed by his open association with popular literature and "mere" Christianity, Lewis was denied a professorship at Oxford at the peak of his literary scholarship. As Christopher Derrick, a former pupil and friend of Lewis, has judiciously observed, Lewis was a man willing to "challenge the entrenched priesthood of the intelligentsia." And to do so from within the cloister, at the cost of being thought a traitor by many of his peers, one finds in Lewis an uncommonly valiant and articulate skeptic of the modem era, one forthrightly opposed to the "chronological snobbery" of our times that assumes truth is a function of the calendar and that the latest word is the truest one. Those who try to read through the entire Lewis corpus confess that they receive an education in history, philology, sociology, philosophy, and theology so extensive and exhilarating that others seem thin and frivolous in comparison. While Lewis caricatured himself as a dinosaur, the last of the Old Western Men, many today see him as a forerunner of what may still be the triumph of men and women of Biblical faith in an age that derides the pursuit of truth and righteousness. In the year of his centennial, we can offer him no better tribute than to try to walk in the steps of one who earnestly followed the steps of his Lord.

7 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis By Angus J.L. Menuge

l. Introduction be. Today' s talk is only an outline of the book. It is a survey of some treasure chests, Anyone familiar with Lewis's works with occasional glimpses of the riches within, knows that evangelism was a strand of central but the real gems are in those chests, not this significance. Lewis himself said that "( m]ost of paper. my books are evangelistic, addressed to tous In my overall design for the book, I was exo [those outside]."' Nor was this an determined to avoid some deficiencies to incidental characteristic of his writings: Lewis which collections of essays are typically prone: thought that the salvation of human was while there may be individually excellent the Christian's highest calling, "the real contributions, they are not organized into business of life. "2 Yet it seemed to me that distinct categories and, aside from the major Lewis's contributions to evangelism had never topic, there are no explicit, overarching themes been given the focused, in-depth study which to bind the work into a coherent unity. they deserved. This was a major motivation Therefore at the very outset of the project, I for the new work I edited, C.S. Lewis identified four main areas of research, and Lightbearer in the Shadow lands. 3 Incredible as (coincidentally) four unifying themes, which it may seem, the upcoming Centenary acted as top-down constraints on the various celebrations were not a factor. I had no contributions. inkling of these events when the project began, and when I first heard of them, could not 2. Main Areas of the Book understand why the term "centenary" was used for someone who had died in 1963, wholly 2.1 The Motivation: The influence and unaware that it signified his birth! But God's Potential of Lewis's Evangelism. wisdom is wiser than man's and it is hard to ignore the providential timing of the It no doubt seems obvious that Lewis's life publication all the same. My hope is that and works have had, and continue to have, a others find the work as worthy a testament to powerful evangelistic influence. Perhaps for Lewis and the Gospel as I firmly believe it to that very reason, the evidence for the nature

8 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge and extent of that influence has seldom been mother died when he was nine, and who documented. Yet without such evidence there served in the front lines in the First World seems little point in a book on Lewis's War, was a man whose life has been insulated contributions to evangelism. The many from pain. Above all, the movie is fatally explanations of Lewis's evangelistic appeal ambiguous and evasive about Lewis's faith. ring hollow if we cannot first substantiate what As Bruce Edwards memorably put it, "A that appeal was and is. Thus the first section movie about Jack and Joy that downplays or of the book motivates all the rest by analyzing ignores the centrality of Christ to their lives is the influence and potential of Lewis's analogous to scripting the life of Michael evangelism. Jordan with little reference to basketball."' It is well known that the Attenborough From this perspective it is easy to see why movie Shadow/ands prompted a resurgence of Wayne Martindale entitled his chapter interest in Lewis's life and increased sales of "Shadow/ands: Inadvertent Evangelism": God books by and about Lewis. But did the movie has used a most unlikely instrument to bring actually lead to serious contemplation of people to His kingdom. And yet, how Christianity, spiritual recovery or even characteristic this is of God. Lewis compared conversion? And, if it sometimes had such h is own aptness for evangelism with that of good effects, were there also harmful Balaam's donkey. God delights in using the consequences of viewing the movie without weak and the flawed as· instruments of His independent study of the literature? In a grace so that we do not forget who is painstaking and balanced study, Wayne responsible for the increase. It is often said Martindale sets about answering these that "countless" people have been brought to questions. He provides substantial evidence Christ by the example and works of Lewis, but that Shadowlands has had a powerful and difficult as it is to quantify matters which can largely beneficial influence. Many have been only be certain for God, this is a poor excuse brought closer to Christ by this film. And for not documenting the evidence that is , Lewis's stepson, and the humanly available. Philip Ryken has done a only living witness of many of the real events remarkable job of pulling together various the film is based on, has emphasized the film's sources of evidence which not only give us a emotional accuracy. clearer picture of the extent of Lewis's These facts are remarkable when placed influence, but also correct misconceptions we side by side with several negative features of may have had about the types of influence. the production. The film's director, Bill The Lewis who emerges from Ryken's Nicholson, is an ex-atheist, now agnostic. The analysis was a strikingly humble man, keenly actor who portrayed Lewis, Anthony Hopkins, aware of the limitations of his own gifts. He did not do significant research on Lewis or was largely incapable of the highly personal, seriously attempt to capture his emotions, emotional approach of the stereotypical commitments and character, because, "[a]cting evangelist of revivalist cast, nor did he is being yourself, really .. .I just learn the lines consider himself a preacher of the Gospel. Yet and show up."4 The film is full of factual all the same he found some niches which other inaccuracies, one of the most outrageous of Christians, and even clergy, were not which is the insinuation that Lewis, whose adequately defending. As Joel Heck rightly

9 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge emphasizes in a later chapter, one of Lewis's island of integrity and authenticity. Lewis was main aims was to prepare his hearers for the equipped with the clarity of thought and Gospel by undermining their resistance and logical skill to make his case to those still convicting them of the reality of their . amenable to reason, yet could also Lewis was best at removing stumbling blocks, communicate truth through symbolic helping people along the way to faith through narratives for those who reject "logocentric" his books and personal correspondence. For thinking as a mask for oppressive power. example, a number of contributors document This latter ability of Lewis is pursued in Lewis's role in the conversion of such notable greater depth by Gene Edward Veith in a figures as Charles Colson, C.E.M. Joad, Os chapter which shows how Lewis anticipated Guinness, Elton Trueblood and Sheldon and employed literary styles which are now Vanauken. While Lewis may have found the deemed "postmodern" in his imaginative personal approach impossible face-to-face, he presentation of the Gospel. Much is now was able to build an extraordinary intimacy made of "levels of fictionality," "artistic with his readers, through the strikingly honest defamiliarization" and "magical realism." and engaging style of his writing, using his Lewis may not have used these terms but he own experience of overcoming obstacles to knew how to implement the techniques in his faith, and exposing his own vulnerabilities, to writing. A striking case in point is Lewis's help others in similar plight. Yet surprisingly, , which employs a vision Ryken makes a good case that Lewis's within a dream, within a dream, within yet greatest influence was not in the conversion of another layer, Truth, the nemesis of non-Christians, significant through that role the postmodern relativist wrapped up in was, but in helping those who are already postmodern clothing! Christian to remain faithful. Lewis was a great 2.2 The Explanation: Why Was Lewis "external" evangelist, defending the fold from Such an Effective Evangelist? corrupt versions of Christianity and the ever present temptations of the Zeitgeist. Having established the power of Lewis's Yet Ryken's excellent study is largely evangelism, the next section seeks to explain historical, and some might say that Lewis's the source of this power, insofar as it is works are no longer relevant in the era of humanly ascertainable. The first task is to postmodernism. Does Lewis's work continue understand Lewis the man. What sort of to have potential for a society floundering in influences affected this pilgrim's regress to his moral relativism? A society distrustful of lost faith? And what was it about that journey authority, and uncertain not only about what that prepared him so well to be an "apostle to the meaning of life might be, but about the skeptics," as he was dubbed by Chad whether life has a meaning at all? Walsh? Corbin Carnell gives a beautiful Reed Jolley shows that Lewis's answer to the first question, emphasizing the unmistakable genuineness and honesty cut central significance of three strands which through the modernism/postmodernism divide. were only woven together by Lewis's Generation Xers are tired of the hypocritical conversion to Christianity: reason, longing and and evasive behavior of many in their parents' the Moral Law. I address the second question generation and find Lewis to be a welcome by way of an extended comparison between

10 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge

Lewis and St. Paul. I argue that even the most Although Lewis certainly had some firm, unfortunate things which happened to Lewis as denominationally specific views, his public a child and as an atheistic young man were a presentation of Christianity emphasized the preparation for his role as evangelist. His core doctrines on which orthodox Christians grief, his snobbery, his pessimism, his largely agree. This was not a bland intellectual objections to Christianity, all ecumenicism, a superficial unity obtained by helped him identity with the lost and the evacuating Christianity of all real content. Nor Christian of weak faith, much as the seemingly was it supposed to be yet another insuperable obstacles to Paul's conversion denomination. Rather Lewis was following made him all the more effective an evangelist the great church tradition of formulating a by when he became a Christian. no means insipid core of creedal statements (as The second task is to understand the in the Nicene creed), robust enough to exclude appeal of Lewis's presentation of the Gospel heresy and the various accomodationist to those outside the fold. Part of this appeal dilutions of Christianity, yet central enough to stems from Lewis's profound grasp of the build consensus among orthodox believers. incarnational use of language. Spiritual and Lewis never suggested that Christianity should emotional truths are only feebly conveyed by be diluted to avoid disagreement, or that the explicitly spiritual and emotional various denominations should abandon their language-hence the insipid appeal of some confessional positions, but he did think that devotional writing. A more effective approach doctrinal arguments should be pursued only is to use concrete images as vessels for those between Christians and were obstacles to the truths. It is less effective to say that a man is effective presentation of the gospel to those on sad than to say that a single tear fell from the the outside. bleak expanse of his staring eyes. It is less The motivation for a "mere Christianity" effective to describe Heaven as better than was Lewis's sense of the urgency of earth, than to compare these shadowlands with evangelism in a world of eternal beings whose a world so solid we cannot bear to walk on the eternal destiny is influenced by our every grass and which makes us seem like vaporous action. He also saw the need to fight the ghosts. Recall that at the funeral of Princess inevitable tendency of the "inner sanctum" to Diana, the point at which many felt their grief become "an inner ring," an institution which most acutely was when Elton John used the does not merely exclude (as orthodox image of a candle in the wind to symbolize Christianity does) but which derives its whole Diana's significance and appeal. Lewis also meaning and purpose from doing so. These knew that the direct approach to evangelism matters are pursued by Patrick Ferry, a church was often less effective than indirect methods, historian and the new President of Concordia that instead of inviting people to "Come to University Wisconsin. Jesus," it is more powerful to reveal through At the same time, Lewis was very concrete images how He has already come to perceptive about the nature of his audience. us. These profoundly important matters are He was not so naive as to think that pursued by Michael Ward. unbelievers are a homogeneous group so that Another aspect of Lewis's broad appeal only one approach to evangelism would be was his focus on "mere Christianity." effective for all of them. It was often claimed

II The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge in Lewis's day that society had become worldview to Enlightenment reason, basically pagan. Lewis, by contrast, thought empiricism, scientism, and that it was not pagan enough, for he viewed life-force philosophy. Musacchio's is a pagans as amenable to spiritual reality and brilliant piece of stage-setting which explains imminently convertible to Christ. But most exactly why Lewis pursued the approach he "modems" were in the much worse condition did. of"post-Christian'' materialism, in fundamental Second, how did Lewis communicate with denial of the supernatural and hence altogether such an audience? As Joel Heck argues, Lewis lacking a sense of holiness. responded to the modernist evasion of sin with Since Lewis's day there has been a Praeparatio Evangelica. For, as Lewis resurgence of via realized, "[i]t would have been inept to preach and (I will add) various accomodationist forgiveness and a Saviour to those who did versions of Christianity whose practitioners not know they were in need of either."6 Before seem either unaware of, or unrepentant about, a sheep will welcome the shepherd, he must be the paganism implicit in the multiculturalist convinced he is lost and cannot find his way and radical feminist thought which they have alone. In this, as Heck points out, Lewis is uncritically embraced. Yet there are still many following the method of John the Baptist, who who remain in the post-Christian elements. prepared the way for the Gospel, making The greatness of Lewis is that his corpus "straight in the wilderness a highway for our includes works which address the concerns of God" (Isaiah 40: 3). both groups, the supreme example being his Third, what were the methods which Lewis masterpiece, . This claim used to translate theology, and to which is carefully substantiated by Jon Balsbaugh. doctrines did he apply them? Francis Rossow provides a systematic answer showing doctrine 2.3. The Technique: Making Christianity by doctrine how Lewis applied his art, and Plausible. arguing for the potency of the approach. Steven Mueller follows up with a highly As quite a few commentators on Lewis focused study, drawn from his forthcoming have noted, Lewis's greatest strength was as a Ph.D. dissertation, of Lewis's use of translator of theology, someone who could theological translation to present take the abstract creeds, confessions and Christological truths.2.4 1he Argument: doctrines of Christianity and convey them Defending the effectively through concrete images. Several Faith. questions focus on this method. First, why did he employ it? What was it about his audience Translation is such a subtle and non­ which made a direct presentation of the Gospel combative approach to evangelism that one less effective than it had been in the past? To might get the impression that Lewis was a answer this question, George Musacchio mild-mannered evangelist. This would be to undertakes a careful analysis of the modernist grasp only a part of the truth. Like his own worldview which held Lewis's audience in its creation, Asian, Lewis was capable of both a enchanting embrace. Musacchio examines the gentle and playful aspect, and a stem, war-like transition that led from the medieval countenance. He often claimed that he had

12 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge failed to acquire the usual social graces: purpose was to hear and answer the true perhaps this was another way of saying that he objections of intellectual atheists and agnostics was not a tame man! When James Como first of the highest caliber. Lewis, the club's heard of Lewis's militant apologetics, he president, was relied upon to give the Christian asked, "Could it be?" Could a man who so case, and had to face the risk, and sometimes unashamedly expressed his Christian beliefs the reality, of being worsted in public. not be laughed at as a fool, scorned as a Christopher Mitchell, the current Director of zealot, or patronized as an eccentric? Could the Wade Center, examines this neglected area he not only be taken seriously but also, of Lewis's work. Amongst other jewels, there without apology, put the enemy to flight from is a balanced re-assessment of the real the very center of his own strength, the significance of the Lewis-Anscombe debate, university?"7 The answer, of course, was which reveals deeper issues than have hitherto "Yes." Lewis not only took on the anti­ been brought to light. Christian influences of his own time, but also In Lewis's own pilgrimage to faith, the foresaw the final unfolding of the ideas of was one of the dragons he Nietzsche, Freud, the Marxists and many other found hardest to slay, and he continued to "debunkers" in postmodem skepticism. struggle with it as a Christian. Lewis was Among the most important of Lewis's aware that a fundamental obstacle to apologetic weapons was his "Argument from Christianity was the tendency of humans to Desire," an argument in the tradition of evade a confrontation with their own evil, a Ecclesiastes, Augustine and Pascal, that human tendency exacerbated by moral relativism. The beings contain an absence, an incompleteness, logical conclusion is people who see a thirst for something other and outer, that no themselves as the measure of all things, who earthly object can satisfY, and which therefore view themselves as the final judge, and who points beyond this world to another. Lewis put . Root explores how called this longing "joy," or less misleadingly, Lewis approaches this problem, disarmingly "sehnsucht, " and used it to appeal to the admitting that he, Lewis, is a part of the romantic side of our nature. Drawing on his problem, and leading the reader to see his or Th.D. thesis, Douglas Hyatt examines the her own complicity in sin. Root also explores origin of this argument in Lewis's own Lewis's in , and conversion and his formulation of it in various shows a Lewis who is reasonable, works. The argument takes a rationalist compassionate, and very much a fellow atheist off his guard by revealing a sufferer. vulnerability that all humans have, and by Even more disturbing than a denial of evil showing the poverty of this-worldly attempts is the postmodem repudiation of truth itself, to heal it. something that Lewis could see on the Although his written apologetics are better horizon. Lewis's apologetics include several known, it would be wrong to suppose that arguments for the existence of truth, and The Lewis lacked the courage to present the Abolition ofMan can be read as a preemptive Christian case in public debate. Week after refutation of many of the tenets of week, he would brave the lion's den of the postmodemism, especially its subjectivism Oxford Socratic Club, a club whose express about judgments and its cultural relativism.

13 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge

Yet Lewis knew that logical argument would borrow a phase ofRossow's, itself a variation be useless for those who rejected reason, and on biblical parable, Lewis took the old wine of who believed only in irrational persuasion and the Gospel and clothed it in a startling variety the exertion of power. For many people, of new and attractive wineskins. Lewis sensed, conventional apologetics were less effective than a sort of symbolic narrative 3.2 Integrity. which brought ideas to life and revealed, rather than argued, their reality. As already noted, Walter Hooper described Lewis as one of Lewis's approach to such "narrative the most thoroughly converted people he had evangelism" itself employed many of the ever known. When Lewis became a Christian, literary techniques now termed postmodem. it was not a phase or a character trait but a The irony is that Lewis himself learned many transformation of every aspect of his life and of these techniques from writers like Dante work. It is not just in his popular apologetics, and Spenser: what most undermines the but in his scholarly works, that one sees the chronological snobbery implicit in the very Christian influence. And his private acts of term "post-modem," is that so many of the charity and correspondence confirm the same prized techniques of postmodem literature are authentic transformation. Despite all this, pre-modem! I remember a professor of Lewis liked to remind himself that it pleased ancient philosophy once told me that what was God to use a donkey to convert the prophet. most disarming about Plato was that whenever one thought one had fought ones way through 3. 3 Prophecy. the philosophical jungle into uncharted territory, there was Plato, waiting for you. A Lewis had an uncanny ability to know similar sentiment applies to Lewis, a veritable where ideas would lead, foreseeing obstacles hound ofHeaven, and the seemingly relentless to Christianity which only materialized or attempts of postmodemists to run away from became acute after his death, in particular the the truth. varieties of contemporary relativism. And yet part of what makes Lewis so prophetic is his grasp of timeless truths, which do not 3. Unifying Themes fundamentally change but are merely manifested in superficially different ways, Certain key themes recur throughout the deceiving and gratifYing the chronological book. Let me conclude with a word about snob in us all until we unmask the familiar each of these. enduring issue.

3.1 Diversity. 3. 4 Timelessness. Lewis appealed and still does appeal, to a remarkably wide audience, and, as the It is a remarkable thing that works by C. S. contributors show, this was because he Lewis written during or just after the Second communicated at various levels (from child to World War continue to make a powerful and academic expert) and in many genres. To direct appeal to students born at least a decade

14 The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis • Angus J. L. Menuge after Lewis's death. It is not that Lewis's Table and Other Reminiscences. Second idiom is consonant with contemporary slang. Edition. New York: Harcourt Brace & Lewis wins no prized for political correctness Company, 1992. (thank God). Rather, like many of the truly great writers he had veritably devoured, Lewis managed to focus on themes of enduring significance for the human condition. And chief among these were our complicity in sin, our need for salvation, and the truth of the Gospel.

Notes

'Lewis, "Rejoinder to Dr. Pittenger," 181. 2Lewis, "Christianity and Culture," 14. 3Menuge, Angus J.L. ed., C.S. Lewis Lightbearer in the Shadowlands: The Evangelistic Vision of C.S. Lewis (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997). 4Hopk:ins quoted in Martindale, "Shadawlands: Inadvertent Evangelism," 46. 'Edwards quoted in Martindale, "Shadowlands: Inadvertent Evangelism," 45. 6Lewis, "Rejoinder to Dr. Pittenger," 181. 7Como, "Introduction: Within the Realm of Plenitude," xxii.

References

Lewis, C.S. "Christianity and Culture." In Christian Reflections. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1967, 12-36 Lewis, C. S. "Rejoinder to Dr. Pittenger." In God in the Dock. Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970, 177- 183. Menuge, Angus J.L., ed. C.S. Lewis Lightbearer in the Shadowlands: The Evangelistic Vision of C.S. Lewis. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997. Como, James T. C.S. Lewis at the Breakfast

15 Praeparatio Evangelica by Joel D. Heck

C. S. Lewis used the Latin term have thought that the best, perhaps the only, praeparatio evangelica, "preparation for the service I could do for my unbelieving Gospel," to describe his role in the cause of neighbours was to explain and defend the evangelism. The term suggests that he did belief that has been common to nearly all not see his role as that of an evangelist. He Christians at all times. "2 Particularly when his was the John the Baptist, the forerunner, apologetics included the central message of preparing the way for those who would the Christian faith, the suffering, death, and proclaim the Gospel-the priests and vicars resurrection of Jesus Christ, he was and curates, in short, the evangelists. apologist, pre-evangelist, and evangelist. As such, he downplayed his role in evangelism, stating about his BBC talks, I. The Goal: The Unwelcome Diagnosis "Mine are praeparatio evange/ica rather than evangelism, an attempt to convince people In a letter to the BBC prior to his first that there is a moral law, that we disobey it, series of Broadcast Talks, Lewis wrote, "I and that the existence of a Lawgiver is at think what I mainly want to talk about is the least very probable and also (unless you add Law of Nature, or objective right and wrong. the Christian doctrine of the Atonement) that It seems to me that the New Testament, by this imparts despair rather than comfort."' His preaching repentance and forgiveness, always role was to convince the atheists and skeptics assumes an audience who already believe in that there was a moral law and that the the Law of Nature and know they have existence of the moral law testified to the disobeyed it. In modem England we cannot . at present assume this, and therefore most Lewis did praeparatio evangelica, but I apologetic begins a stage too far on. The first still contend that he was an evangelist in step is to create, or recover, the sense of some sense. He himself described some of his guilt. 113 work as evangelism, not pre-evangelism, People need to know they have sinned, writing, "Ever since I became a Christian I since human nature wants to avoid facing

16 that realization. Until they know they have That Asian must tear the dragon skin sinned, they will see no need for forgiveness. from him, after several unsuccessful attempts Writes Lewis, "The greatest barrier I have by Eustace himself, suggests the inability of met is the almost total absence from the human beings to change their nature and the minds of my audience of any sense of sin. "4 power of God in Christ to change us as He Elsewhere he states, "We have to convince forgives us our sinse· 9 A careful reading of our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis The Chronicles of Namia will uncover a before we can expect them to welcome the similar confrontation of the individual with news of the remedy. "5 That's why Mother his or her own sin in each book. Dimble did not approach Jane, in That In summary, Lewis wrote, "Christianity Hideous Strength, with a testimony of her simply does not make sense until you have faith. But still, "Jane found Mother Dimble an faced the sort of facts I have been describing embarrassing person to share a room with ... . It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) because she said prayers. One didn't know to say to people who do not know they have where to look. "6 Mother Dimble's prayers done anything to repent of and who do not caused Jane to think about her own feel that they need any forgiveness. "10 relationship to God. IT. The Strategy: Not Overt Evangelism We see echoes of this same understanding in other works of Lewis. For Secondly, Lewis avoided overt forms of example, during the opening chapter of The evangelism. George Sayer writes of the Pilgrim's Regress, when John is learning Narnian chronicles: about religion, we read, "Knowledge of His idea, as he once explained to me, broken law precedes all other religious was to make it easier for children to experiences."' In The Voyage of the "Dawn accept Christianity when they met it Treader, " Eustace, acted very beastly later in life. He hoped that they would towards his friends, not seeing his selfishness, be vaguely reminded of the somewhat his greed, and his loneliness, until he literally similar stories that they had read and became a dragon. enjoyed years before. 'I am aiming at He could get even with Caspian and a sort of pre-baptism of the child's Edmund now ... But the moment he imagination."" thought this he realized that he didn't want to. He wanted to be friends. He These stories, Lewis hoped, would wanted to get back among humans awaken the Law of Nature in both children and talk and laugh and share things. and adults. In his book A Severe Mercy, He realized that he was a monster cut Sheldon Vanauken credits Lewis' space off from the whole human race. An trilogy as a factor in his conversion. Those appalling loneliness came over him. books didn't actually convert him; they He began to see the others had not merely removed one of the major stumbling really been fiends at all . He began to blocks to a serious consideration of the wonder if he himself had been such a Christian faith. Vanauken had said that the ruce person as he had always Christian God was too small. After reading supposed.8 , , and That Hideous Strength, he thought "that the

17 Praeparatio Evangelica • Joel D. Beck

Christian God might, after all, be quite big the public."15 Stories use images accessible to enough for the whole galaxy." 12 the modem secular mind, but they often leave Writing to a correspondent, Lewis wrote the spiritual meaning hidden. But that on 9 July 1939, "What set me about writing meaning often germinates under the surface the book was the discovery that a pupil of until it bursts into life and meaning some time mine took all that dream of interplanetary later. Because the parable and story lend colonization quite seriously, and the themselves to clarity of expression, Lewis, realization that thousands of people in one following the example of Jesus, had chosen way and another depend on some hope of the vehicle most likely to enable him to perpetuating and improving the human race communicate well. for the whole meaning of the univer.se--that a A letter to Arthur Greeves shortly after 'scientific' hope of defeating death is a real his conversion indicated his intention. "I rival to Christianity. . . . You will be both aim, 11 he wrote to Greeves, "chiefly at being grieved and amused to hear that out of about idiomatic and racy, basing myself on Mallory, 60 reviews only 2 showed any knowledge Bunyan, and Morris, tho' without archaisms: that my idea of the fall of the Bent One was and would usually prefer to use ten words, anything but an invention of my own. If there provided they are honest native words and was only someone with a richer talent and idiomatically ordered, than one 'literary more leisure I think that this great ignorance word.' To put the thing in a nutshell you want might be a help to the evangelization of 'The man of whom I told you' and I want England; any amount of theology can now be 'The man I told you of 1116 smuggled into people's minds under cover of Lewis also wrote, "The man who wishes romance without their knowing it". 13 to speak to the uneducated in English must learn their language. "17 In other words, Lewis ill. The Style: Contemporary Parables took an incamational. approach to evangelism and pre-evangelism. Just as God Thirdly, in order to communicate the Law did not expect the human race to achieve a of Nature and smuggle certain level of spirituality or education undercover, Lewis wrote without using before reaching out to us, so also Lewis did technical, theological jargon. His BBC not expect the uneducated English to become broadcasts were an attempt "to explain and educated, to study theology, or to learn a defend Christianity in laymen's language to theological language before becoming worthy millions of people who had lost their of the Gospel. moorings. 14 He was trying to reach people who had little or no knowledge of the Bible, IV. The Technique: Storytelling many of them uneducated. Lewis had to learn to write with power, Fourthly, the most important aspect of simplicity, and clarity. Lyle Dorsett says, "He praeparatio evangelica was Lewis's use of likewise made a concerted effort . to the story to reach people's imaginations. One communicate the Christian story to a post­ of the most famous phrases in the writings of Christian culture by dropping the stained­ C. S. Lewis is his comment about the glass language of a bygone era and using in influence of George MacDonald's book its place earthy illustrations easily grasped by Phantasies. Lewis once wrote, "What it

18 Praeparatio Evangelica • Joel D. Heck actually did to me was to convert, even to "One of the central threads of his baptize ... my imagination. "18 Lewis meant 'Romantic theology' is a belief that certain that his imagination had previously only been images may act as temporary vessels of God, used to imagine, but now he could use his filling human beings with a longing, or imagination for loftier purposes. Imagination Sehnsucht, for heaven. 1121 Those images, does not merely daydream; it processes and Lewis felt, appear in the minds of other composes truth. Lewis could see that people people and can be massaged by a good story, arrive at truth not only through the intellect, just as MacDonald had done for him. They but also through the imagination. can do the praeparatio evange/ica at which The idea of baptizing imaginations so that Lewis aimed, but this longing needs to be they recognize Christian truths later in life educated. was not original with Lewis. He first This Romantic theology, Lewis felt, can recognized it in himself and then saw it in be conveyed especially well through the fairy others before putting it to work in his own tale. Wrote Lewis, "It would be much truer writings. Of Rider Haggard's writings, for to say that the fairy land arouses a longing example, he states, "[P]eople had first met in for he knows not what. It stirs and troubles Haggard's romances elements which they him (to his life-long enrichment) with the dim would meet again in religious experience if sense of something beyond his reach and, far they ever came to have any. "19 from dulling or emptying the actual world, Next, Lewis applied the idea to his own gives it a new dimension of depth. "22 writings for children. He said, Narnia, Malacandra, and Perelandra create other worlds within which Lewis can I thought I saw how stories of this convey meaning. "Good stories often kind could steal past a certain introduce the marvelous or supernatural.. "23 inhibition which had paralyzed much Good stories provide "a mythology [that] of my own religion in childhood. Why may serve as a guide, explaining conduct and did one find it so hard to feel as one regulating ethics on both material and was told one ought to feel about God spiritual planes. 1124 Lewis's fantasy books fill or about the sufferings of Christ? An this role. The structure of all of the mythical obligation to feel can freeze feelings. plots of these books is "the problem of And reverence itself did harm. The human behavior. "25 whole subject was associated with Lewis wrote, "Shall I be thought lowered voices; almost as if it were whimsical if, in conclusion, I suggest that this something medical. But supposing internal tension in the heart of every story that by casting all these things into an between the theme and the plot constitutes, imaginary world, stripping them of after all, its chief resemblance to life?" 26 Story their stained-glass and Sunday school gives us a plot, a direction, something that associations, one could make them life does not always seem to have. People are for the first time appear in their real drawn to story and imagine themselves in the potency? Could one not thus steal story, stepping outside of their world. They past those watchful dragons? I see themselves, their behavior, and the thought one could. 20 behavior of others. The Chronicles of Namia, then, perhaps

19 Praeparatio Evangelica • Joel D. Heck best illustrate the value of story for New York: & Schuster, 1985. evangelism. In The Voyage of the Dawn Ford, Paul F. Companion to Namia. New Treader, Lewis unveils one of the major York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994. reasons why he wrote The Chronicles of Friad, Kimon, and John Malcolm Brinnin, Namia. At the end of that book Asian tells Modem Poetry, New York: Appleton­ Lucy about another name which he has in our Century-Crofts, 1951. world. He further tells her that the reason she Green, Roger Lancelyn, and Walter Hooper. and the others were brought into Namia was C. S. Lewis: A Biography London: so that they might later recognize him by his Collins, 1974. earthly name.27 We are left to surmise that Hooper, Walter. Past Watchful Dragons. the name is Jesus, for just pages. before a New York: Collier Books/Macmillan, white Lamb had morphed into the golden 1979. maned Asian after serving them a meal of fish Lindskoog, Kathryn. The Lion of Judah in (see John 21:12-13). Letters to eleven-year­ Never-Never Land. Grand Rapids: old Hila21 and thirteen-year-old Patricia make Eerdmans, 1973. this more explicit. 29 Lewis, C.S. "Christianity and Culture." In C. S. Lewis, the Story-teller, especially Christian Reflections, edited by Walter aimed for children and for good reasons. "He Hooper, 12-36. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, simply believed that the evil could be more 1967. readily isolated, was less hidden beneath long ___. "Fern-seed and Elephants." In Fern­ constructed trappings of adult rationality and seed and Elephants, edited by Walter evasion, and therefore might be more readily Hooper, 104-125. Glasgow: Fount removed. He felt too that children's Paperbacks, 1975. 30 consciences were more acute." --. "God in the Dock." In God in the Though they might be more difficult to Dock, edited by Walter Hooper, 240-244. reach, Lewis had the same hope for adults, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. for he writes, "The inhibitions which I hoped __.. New York: my stories would overcome in a child's mind Macmillan, 1954. may exist in a grown-up's mind too, and may __Mere Christianity. New York: perhaps be overcome by the same means." 31 Macmillan Publishing Co., 1952 . Pre-evangelist and evangelist, proponent . "Modem Translations of the Bible." In of the natural Law, smuggler of theology, God in the Dock, edited by Walter author and apologist, storyteller and baptizer Hooper, 229-233. Grand Rapids: of imaginations, twentieth-century Elijah and Eerdmans, 1970 preparer for the Gospel, Incamationist. That __. "Myth Became Fact." In God in the was C.S. Lewis. Dock, edited by Walter Hooper, 63-67. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. Bibliography __. "On Stories," in Of Other Worlds: Dorsett, Lyle W., ed. The Essential C.S. Essays and Stories, edited by Walter Lewis. New York: Collier Books Hooper, 3 -2 1. New York: Harcourt (Macmillan), 1988. Brace & Company, 1966. Dorsett, Lyle W., and Marjorie Lamp Mead, eds. C.S. Lewis: Letters to Children.

20 Praeparatio Evangelica • Joel D. Heck

. "On Three Ways of Writing for 7Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress, 28. 8 Children." In Of Other Worlds: Essays ' Lewis, The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader, and Stories, edited by Walter Hooper, 75-76. 22-34. New York: Harcourt Brace & 9Ibid., 90. Company, 1966. 1'1.-ewis, Mere Christianity, 1.5. __. The Pilgrim's Regress. London: Fount usayer, Jack: A Life ofC.S. Lewis, 318. Paperbacks, 1977. 12Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, 83-84. __."Rejoinder to Dr Pittenger." In God in 13Lewis, Letters ofC.S. Lewis, 166-167. the Dock, edited by Walter Hooper, 177- 14Dorsett, 10. 183. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970. 1sDorsett, 15 . __. The Screw tape Letters & Screw tape 16Green, 129. A letter written on 4 December Proposes a Toast. New York: Macmillan, 1932. 1961 . 17Lewis, "God in the Dock," 242. __. "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say 18MacDonald, Phantasies, xi. Best What's To Be Said." In Of Other 1 ~ewis , "On Stories," 16. Worlds: Essays and Stories, edited by 2'1.-ewis, "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Walter Hooper, 35-38. New York: Best What's To Be Said," 37. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1966. 21 Manlove, The Chronicles ofNamia, p. 6. __. That Hideous Strength. New York: 22Lewis, "On Stories," 29. Macmillan, 1946. 23Ibid., 13. __. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. 24Friad and Brinnin, Modem Poetry, 421-22. New York: Macmillan, 1952. 2sLindskoog, 87. __. Lewis, Warren. Letters ofC.S. Lewis. 26Lewis, "On Stories," 20. London: Fount Paperbacks, 1966. 27Ford, Companion to Namia, 6 1. __.MacDonald , George. Phantasies. 28Dorsett and Mead, C. S. Lewis: Letters to Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981 . Children, 32. Manlove, C.N. The Chronicles of Namia. 29Ibid., 93 . And "by knowing me here for a New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. little, you may know me better there" (216, .C . S. Lewis: His Literary The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader") . Achievement. New York: St. Martin's 30Manlove, . C. S. Lewis: His Literary Press, 1987. Achievement, 121 . Sayer, George. Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis. 31 Lewis, "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, Best What's To Be Said," 38. 1988. Vanauken, Sheldon. A Severe Mercy . San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980. Notes 1Dorsett, The Essential C.S. Lewis, 11 . 2Lewis, Mere Christianity, 6. 3Green and Hooper, C.S. Lewis: A Biography, 202. 4Lewis, "God in the Dock," 243 . 51bid., 244. 6Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 50.

21 Shadows tllat Fall: The Immanence ofHeaven in the Fiction ofC.S. Lewis and George MacDonald by David Manley

Our life is no dream; but it ought to become one, and perhaps will. -Navalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg).1

Solids whose shadow lay Across time, here (All subteifuge dispelled) Show hard and clear. -C.S. Lewis. From "Emendation for the end of Goethe's Faust."2

C. S. Lewis's impressions of heaven, Lewis, the greatest earthly joys were merely including the distinctive notions of intimations of another world where beauty, in Shadowlands and Sehnsucht, were shaped by Gerald Manley Hopkins's words, is with George MacDonald's fiction. 3 The vision of "finer, fonder/ A care kept" (56). He was heaven shared by these writers is central to repeatedly "," overcome with their stories because it constitutes the telos of flashes of Sehnsucht during which he felt he their main characters; for example, the quest had "tasted Heaven" (Surprised 135). For for heaven is fundamental to both Lewis's Lewis, as in one of his poems, "heaven The Pilgrim's Regress and MacDonald's "The remembering throws/ Sweet influence still on Golden Key." Throughout their fiction, both earth" (from "The Naked Seed" Poems p. writers reveal a world haunted by heaven and 131 ). This "sweet influence" is a desire, not relate rapturous human longing after the satisfaction, or in his words, a "hunger better source of earthly glimpses; both show that than any other fullness" ("Preface" from the highest function of art is to initiate these Pilgrim 7). In the "Weight of Glory" he visions of heaven; and both describe a heaven describes this experience as the yearning to be that swallows up Earth in its all-embracing "united with the beauty ... to bathe in it, to finality. become part of it .... We cannot mingle with The play Shadawlands is aptly named; for the pleasures we see," he writes. "But all the

22 Shadows That Fall • David Manley leaves of the New Testament are rustling dead. The term is over: the holidays have with the rumour that it will not always be so. begun. The dream is ended: this is the Some day, God willing, we shall get in" (3 7). morning" (Battle 228). In Unspoken Sermons, George Robin, "The Man Born Blind" in Lewis's MacDonald writes of the concealed beauty short story by that name, is a symbol of this reflected by our world: "The and the intense desire to find the source or form of earth are around us that it may be possible for beauty, a beauty he calls "light." He is not us to speak of the unseen by the seen; for the content to see things by means of light but outermost husk of creation has yearns to see it, the light, and to "mingle" correspondence with the deepest things of the with it. In desperation he casts himself into a Creator" (from Selections 33). This concept shining, mist-filled ravine in an effort to spills into his fiction. In What's Mine's Mine, embrace the "light, solid light, that you could for example, Ian speaks of experiencing all the drink in a cup or bathe in!" (103). Robin's things of nature "only for the sake of what death illustrates that attempting to grasp the they say to us. As our sense of smell brings us source of Sehnsucht is futile in this world. As news of fields far off, so those fields, or even Lewis notes in an early poem, if one gropes the smell only that comes from them, tell us of in the darkness, "fretted by desire," one things, meanings, thoughts, intentions beyond comes "still no nearer to the Light" (from "In them, and embodied in them" (211 ). Like Praise of Solid People" in Poems 199-200). Lewis's Robin, blind Tibbie in Alec Forbes of Nevertheless, innate desires always have Howglen perceives that "light" has a source. objects, and thus, as Lewis argues clearly in She argues that she knows better even than his non-fiction and tacitly in his fiction, there Annie what light is: "Ye canna ken what must be a fitting object to Sehnsucht beyond blin'ness is; but I doobt ye ken what the Iicht this world. If we therefore perceive shadows is" ( 195). For true light is not a thing of the we may conclude that they are thrown from eyes only, but a metaphor for a higher beauty: somewhere.• In , Lord Digory "Syne ye hae the Iicht in yersel-in yer ain describes why the old Narnia resembled the hert; an' ye maun ken what it is. Ye canna new: "[It] was only a shadow or a copy of mistak' it" (! 93). the real Namia which has always been here David Neuhauser in his essay "George and always will be here .... And of course it MacDonald and C.S. Lewis" notes some is different: as different as a real thing is from passages in MacDonald's novel Robert a shadow or as waking life is from a dream" Falconer that resemble Lewis's "far-travell'd (212). As Digory notes, the idea is not really gleams" from heaven (from "Sweet Desire" new-it is "all in Plato." In The Allegory of Poems 128). Robert experiences "a strange Love Lewis further elucidates the Platonic longing after something 'he knew not nor concept of perfect Forms reflected could name"' (Robert 123). In discussing this imperfectly on Earth: "the material world is indefinite desire, the narrator concludes, in a the copy of an invisible world [;] it is we who fashion similar to Lewis's argument for the are the allegory" Allegory 44-45). 1 Asian source of Sehnsucht, that "there must be a himself assures the children: "You are-as glory in those heavens that depends not upon you used to call it in the Shadow-lands- our imagination .... Some spirit must move in

23 Shadows That Fall • David Manley that wind that haunts us with a kind of human human soul is the foundation for Till We Have sorrow" (123). Yet the clearest image in Faces, perhaps the most thorough exploration MacDonald's fiction of how earth whispers of of religious experience in fiction. When heaven is probably the source for Lewis's Psyche claims that she lives in a palace and "Shadow Lands." In "The Golden Key," has a divine husband who only visits her at Tangle and Mossy travel together and grow night, Orual tries to call her back from this old in a valley filled with "a sea of shadows," imaginary lover and his "horrible, new shadows thrown by a place inhabited by happiness" only to discover that he is a god elegant creatures and graced with beautiful after all. Boreas, the West-wind, comes to foliage invisible to their sight ( 193). The two Psyche in darkness in order to conceal his friends weep in that empty valley because splendour (292). Eventually this god, "the they can only see the "unspeakable beauty" in only dread and beauty there is," grants profile; they long after the "country whence forgiveness to Orual (307). Psyche's child-like the shadows fell" (195). When they finally acceptance of the Wind's goodness was come to the threshold of their destination, rewarded by his nightly visits, but when she they know they are approaching the source betrayed his trust, both she and Orual had to of those shadows of beauty; they know they pass through trials before they could see him will soon "see face to face." face to face. The original moments of rapture Concerning the notion of Sehnsucht that without sight, when the soul was mysteriously is so pivotal to Lewis's works, his friend swept away, given an invisible palace, and Sheldon Vanauken argues that "secretly we made love to by night, represent that ecstasy are all perhaps the Questing Knight. And yet, of religious experience-those moments of whatever the object of our quest, we learn Sehnsucht that declare the existence of an when we find it that it does not ever contain unseen god and palace. Sensing that the soul the joy that broke our heart with longing.... has experienced something beyond this world, This, I think," Vanauken continues, "is what one can either with Orual deny its goodness C. S. Lewis' life and writings are about" and even existence, or with Psyche look ahead (Severe 207-208). Sehnsucht, or "Joy" for to the day when the West-wind reveals Lewis awakens an "inconsolable longing" for himself. 6 palpable beauty. Joy cries, "It is not I. I am In MacDonald there is a precedent for a only a reminder. Look! Look! What do I Christ-figure who sweeps away a soul and remind you of?" (Surprised 176). It is the gives her a taste of heaven: the North Wind. longing to one day "enter in" to that which is She is similarly mysterious, and, like Psyche, beautiful: "That is why the poets tell us such the boy Diamond responds to the divine wind lovely falsehoods," Lewis writes in "The or inspiration with absolute trust, sensing the Weight of Glory." "They talk as if the west depth of the beauty he sees in her. For both wind could really sweep into a human soul: writers the use of the wind image is telling, but it can't. They tell us that 'beauty born of especially in the Greek context of Psyche's murmuring sound' will pass into a human story and the double meaning of the word face; but it won't. Or not yet" ("Glory" 37). pneuma. Like the West-wind, who is called More than a reference to Shelley, that the Shadow-brute by ignorant villagers, North analogy of the west wind sweeping into the Wind is called "Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil

24 Shadows That Fall • David Manley

Chance, sometimes Ruin" (North 364). But that seemed so to point beyond itself that it the child Diamond has faith that her actions could not be remembered, but "ever since that are all good, even as Psyche trusts that day what Lucy means by a good story is a Boreas has a reason for hiding himself. story which reminds her of the forgotten story Diamond must pass through the North Wind in the Magician's Book" ( 131 ). in order to reach her Back; the way is painful One possible antecedent for the Magician's (North 112) and the story suggests that Book is in Phantasies where Anodes reads North Wind takes Diamond once more to her the fairy-books which "glowed and flashed the Back when he dies. Orual goes through trials thoughts upon the soul, with such a power and arrives at last at the palace before her that the medium disappeared from the death, and when she dies there is little doubt consciousness" (146). Like Lucy, he "carried that her soul has finally been swept away by away in [his] soul some of the exhalations of the West-wind. their undying leaves" ( 179). The precise role The highest function of art for Lewis is to of art for MacDonald, though, is more clearly reflect true beauty and inspire Sehnsucht. The described in his short story "The Shadows." best example he offers of this type of art is Ralph Rinkelmann that he has seen a Phantasies itself, which, as he recounts in true vision; "for instead of making common Surprised by Joy, he read at a young age, things look commonplace, as a false vision discovering a catalyst for the most poignant would have done, it had made common things moments of Joy in his life. He saw a "bright disclose the wonderful that was in them. 'The shadow coming out of the book into the real same applies to all art as well,' thought Ralph world and resting there, transforming all Rinkelmann" (114). This brings to mind common things and yet itself unchanged"; his Lewis's experience with Phantasies, that it "imagination was baptised" (146). This image transformed "all common things" Surprised of the bright shadow is a reversal of Anodes's 146). The artist helps us see heaven while on shadow of self that steals the fantastical from earth. things it falls upon. In illuminating the Lewis argues that heaven, as the final closeness of the "world beyond,'' Phantasies reality, embraces the past into itself, making shaped Lewis' notion of"glimpses of heaven" all of life heaven for those who reach it. In by sheer example: it was a conductor of The Great Divorce. Lewis has MacDonald Sehnsucht in itself and thus fulfilled the say, in describing the nature of heaven, "The perfect aim of art. True art lifts us to the good man's past begins to change so that his highest peaks of beauty on Earth, peaks from forgiven and remembered sorrows take which one may behold far-off heaven. As the on the quality of Heaven .... And that is why, Unicorn explains in The Last Battle upon at the end of all things ... the Blessed will say reaching the New Narnia: "The reason why "We have never lived anywhere except in we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes Heaven", and the Lost, 'We were always in looked a little like this" (213 ). That which Hell.' And both will speak truly" (62). The truly inspires a vision of beauty is necessarily eternity of humanity's final condition has a a shadow of heaven, where final Beauty reciprocal effect that transforms the entire waits. In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, journey into the "foothills" of heaven. In fact, Lucy reads a story in the Magician's Book even hell is a "state of mind" and located

25 Shadows That Fall • David Manley under a blade of grass in heaven, for "Heaven "How can [the ] meet us face to face till is reality itself (63). Orual's mentor the Fox we have faces?" (294). Since Lewis noted in looks forward to a "far distant day when the the Preface to his MacDonald anthology that gods become wholly beautiful, or we at last he has never written a book without quoting are shown how beautiful they always were," his "master," we can only assume that this is a time when "this age of ours will ... be the the hidden quotation from MacDonald in Till distant past. And the Divine Nature can We Have Faces. change the past. Nothing is yet in its true George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis both form" (Faces 305). For the children of the wrote about the world as purposefully filled N arnia tales, all their life in the with catalysts of Sehnsucht, pockets of beauty "Shadowlands" and "all their adventures in designed to lift up the eyes of the beholder. Narrua had only been the cover and the title These experiences of true beauty are visions page: now at last they were beginning of heaven in disguise, and the most noble Chapter One of the Great Story which no one purpose of art is to provoke them. If we will on earth has read" (The Last Battle 228). Or, have "eyes to see" it, heaven is beneath the as Lewis puts it in the poem "Wormwood," husk of nature: "We are summoned to pass in "All that seemed earth is Hell, or Heaven" through nature, beyond her, into that (Poems 101, line 12). splendour which she fitfully reflects" ("Glory" Again we can see precedents for this 37). In , when Vane awakes from his notion in MacDonald's symbolism. In Lilith, sleep, Mara defines the idea of a heaven that is for example, when Mr. Vane sees the present on Earth: "I told you, brother, all predicament of the skeletons who seem to be would be weii!-When next you would in purgatorial suffering, he is confused comfort, say, 'What will be well, is even now because so many other elements of this land we II.' She gave a little sigh, and I thought it are good. He cries out: "These are too meant, 'But they will not believe you!"' (250, wretched for any world, and this cannot be emphasis added). MacDonald was committed hell, for the Little Ones are in it, and the to revealing glimpses of heaven to those who sleepers too! What can it all mean? Can do not see heaven in their lives. His writings, things ever come right for the skeletons?" and those of Lewis, are true art if they can (95). He gets a characteristically cryptic reply make their readers taste something unearthly from Mr. Raven, who in some ways for a moment, something that suggests that resembles the guiding figure of MacDonald in "all shall be well.'' The Great Divorce: "There are words too big for you and me: all is one of them, and ever Notes is another . . .. You are not in hell. . 1 Neither am I in hell. But those skeletons are This quotation appears frequently in Mac­ in hell! "(96). Raven speaks of the skeletons Donald's works. 2 In Poems, p. 150. slowly growing able to love and says they 3 will "by and by develop faces" (96). This In order to offset other comparisons that formation of identity through suffering is a consider the entire scope of MacDonald's necessary part of their growth. Similarly, influence on Lewis (see Sayer 1988, Durie considering her past ordeals, Orual asks: 1990, Neuhouser 1996), I have narrowed my

26 Shadows That Fall • David Manley discussion to the idea of heaven and how it made-up things seem a good deal more is illuminated by their fiction. To uncover the important than the real ones .... Four babies substance of the literary debt to his "master" playing a game can make a play-world which that Lewis felt so strongly will require further licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm study of particular symbolic antecedents in going to stand by the play world" (!55). MacDonald's stories that take new form in Lewis's works. Bibliography 4 and others have called this "C.S. Lewis's Argument from Desire." See Durie, Catherine. "George MacDonald and Peter Kreeft, Heaven: The Heart's Deepest C.S. Lewis" in The Gold Thread. Longing (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989), Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1990. p.201 ff Hopkins, Gerard Manley. "The Leaden Echo 'For an insightful discussion of Plato, and the Golden Echo" in The Works of MacDonald, and Lewis, see Frank Riga's Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ware: "The Platonic Imagery of George Wordsworth Editions, 1994. MacDonald and C.S. Lewis" in Roderick Kreeft, Peter. Heaven: The Hea,:t's Deepest McGillis, ed. For the Childlike (Metuchen: Longing. ChLA, 1992) pp. 111-132. 6 Like Orual, San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989 many will deny flat-out the authenticity of Lewis, C.S. The Allegory of Love: A study in intuitions of the transcendent and claim that Medieval Tradition. New York: Oxford believers in heaven simply exaggerate earthly UP, 1958. qualities to people an imaginary celestial __. The Great Divorce. Glasgow: Collins, world. Lewis answers forcefully that the 1980. situation could just as easily be reversed­ . The Last Battle. New York: that earthly beauties derive themselves from HarperCollins, 1994. Platonic Ideas. An excellent analogy of this . "The Man Born Blind" in The Dark can be found in The Saver Chair. The Queen Tower and Other Stories. New York: of the Underworld, trying to convince the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977. children and Puddleglum that there is no __.The Pilgrim's Regress. Glasgow: Overworld or Narnia, mocks them: "You Collins, 1977. have seen lamps, and so you imagined a __. Poems. London: HarperCollins, 1994, bigger and better lamp and called it the sun. 199-200 You've seen cats, and now you want a bigger __. "Preface" in Lewis, C.S., ed. George and better cat, and it's to so be called a lion MacDonald, An Anthology. London: ... Look how you can put nothing into your Collins, 1983 . make-believe without copying it from the real . . New York: world, this world of mine, which is the only Macmillian, 1986. world" (152). But of course the very __. Surprised by Joy. London: Collins, situation Lewis puts this argument into 1972. refutes it-the reader is aware that the lamp __. Till We Have Faces. Orlando: Harvest, is a copy of the sun and not vice-versa. 1984. Puddleglum responds, "In that case, the __. "The Weight of Glory" in The Weight of

27 Shadows That Fall • David Manley

Glory and Other Addresses. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. MacDonald, George. . Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1995. __. At the Back of the North Wind. Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1993. __. "The Golden Key" in and Other Fairy Tales. Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1993. __.Lilith. Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1994. __. Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1994 . . "The Shadows" in The Portent and Other Stories. Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1994 . . What's Mine's Mine. Whitethorn: Johannesen, 1991. Neuhauser, David L. "George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis" Wingfold. Summer 1996. #15. __.George MacDonald: Selections from his Greatest Works. Toronto: Victor, 1990. Sayer, George. "C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald" The Canadian C S Lewis JournaL Spring 1997. # 91. pp. 24-33. Vanauken, Sheldon. A Severe Mercy. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977.

28 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by John Seland

I would like to talk about the friendship of week." They read and criticized each other's C.S. Lewis and John Tolkien. How did it poems, and talked about English school begin? How did they influence one another? politics, theology or "the state of the nation" What caused the friendship to cease? (Hooper, C.S. Lewis, 16). 1 They had much in common. Both had One of their mutual interests was taken their degrees at Oxford; both had their mythology. In May 1927, Tolkien invited education interrupted by service in World War Lewis to join the Coalbiters, a discussion I; and both were medievalists. Both also group he had founded at Oxford to translate began their teaching careers at Oxford in the and share ideas about Icelandic sagas. This same year, 1926 (Richard West, 3). Lewis interest in myth led to something that bound describes their initial encounter at a Faculty them even closer together: their faith. On Meeting in Oxford, May II, 1926: September 19, 193 I, after a long discussion "[Our meeting] marked the breakdown of with Tolkien and Hugo Dyson, Lewis was led old prejudices. At my first coming into the to faith in God. They told him that "the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to account of Jesus' death and resurrection was trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the a myth, like the pagan myths that he responded English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a to emotionally, but one that was also philologist. Tolkien was both (Surprised by historically true" (Joe R. Christopher, "Who Joy, 204-5). Were ?" 114; Letters of C.S. He also wrote in his diary: "He [Tolkien] Lewis, 421, 427-8; Wilson, 126-7). "The lines is a smooth, pale, fluent little chap. Thinks the of myth and history cross with Jesus." language is the real thing in the school. .. No (Christopher, 48) The influence of his friends harm in him: only needs a smack or so" was decisive. On 21 December, 1941, Lewis (Green and Hooper, 88). wrote to his friend Bede Griffiths: "What I "By 1929, they were meeting on a weekly owe to them (the Inklings) is incalculable. basis in Lewis's rooms in Magadalen, where Dyson and T olkien were the immediate cause Tolkien often brought along some of the of my conversion" (Letters of C. S. Lewis, manuscripts which were to make up The 196). 2 Silmarillton." (Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkten. A One reason for their friendship was Biography, 178) In a letter to Warnie, dated literary. They had been writing, mainly poetry, November 22, 1931, Lewis described one such since their childhood. What each wanted was meeting as "one of the pleasant spots in the someone with whom he could share his ideas.

29 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland

Their meetings gave them opportunities to this. In the heart of each person, there is an read their works to each other and to give and innate longing for another, higher world. His receive encouragement. fiction would address itself to this longing' Lewis and Tolkien were also drawn closer Lewis began to work immediately, and in to one another through the Inklings. This was 1938 published Out of the Silent Planet. a group of friends who met from about 1930- Tolkien began The Lost Road, a time-travel 1963 to talk and read aloud their story about a land called Numenor, his version compositions. (Hooper, C.S. Lewis, 16) The ofthe Atlantis myth. (Carpenter, 361) Tolkien members met on Thursday evening in Lewis's never finished the story. Nor did he finish room in Magdalen. On Tuesday, some also another, later attempt to express his ideas met for lunch at the Eagle and Child pub in St. about the interconnection of different time Giles. Friendship was one of the main reasons periods, a story entitled "The Notion Club" for the Inklings, and the force that drew Papers, modeled on the Inklings, with Oxford everyone together was Lewis. "He was the as its setting. (Flieger, 19, 125-9) But the link who bound us together," said Dr. Havard, ideas lingered in his mind and became the his personal physician. "He gave one a underpinning for The Lord of the Rings. warmth of friendship which I have never met There was, then, a definite purpose about anywhere else." (Como, 218) their friendship. They had a plan, as it The conversations shared by Lewis and were-Charles Williams would become a part Tolkien resulted in certain ideas and plans that of it several years later-to challenge the strongly influenced their fiction. Somewhere literature they saw being written and were not around the year 1936, they spoke of their pleased with. Instead, they would write desire to write the kind of stories they liked, "romance," the kind of imaginative literature "stories that looked over the edge of reality, that would, Lewis, hoped "at least hint of that took imaginative and philosophical risks." another world." (They Stand Together, 451- (Flieger, 235) Lewis was to write about space 52) travel; Tolkien about time travel. <'l Tolkien Meanwhile, the readings continued. called his stories "sub-creations." The writer "Beginning in 1937 the Inklings began would invent "Secondary Worlds," imaginative listening to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. creations independent of the real Primary Charles Williams read All Hallows' Eve. And world in which we live. (Downing, 47; over the years the Inklings read and criticized Glover, 17,25,30) The stories would be ways Out of the Silent Planet, The Problem ofPain by which history could be bridged; past with (1940), and many other present, and the present with time in the ofLewis's works." (Hooper, C.S. Lewis, 18) future. (Flieger, 235) In this way-and in Encouragement is a key word. Tolkien showing that there were other worlds beyond once admitted: "But for the encouragement of the one we live in-the fantasies would serve C.S. Lewis, I do not think that I should ever to fulfill man's sense of longing for a higher, have completed or offered for publication The better world, and thus instill joy in his heart. Lord of the Rings." (Letters of J.R.R. (Tree and Leaf, 25,36, 45, 64) Lewis's own Tolkien, 303-362) In Lewis's case there were idea of Joy, a concept he had been thinking other influences, like Owen Barfield and about since he was a child, relates directly to Charles Williams, but Tolkien's friendship

30 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland seems to have been the most important. A.N. The Problem of Pain from me. I wished Wilson writes that it "released in Lewis wells very much that we could have had you of creativity . . ."(117-8) There were with us. (Letters of C.S. Lewis, 170-71) problems, however, and from around 1940, the two men drew further apart. A cordial atmosphere continued during the In , Lewis writes: "True war, but gradually Tolkien's friendship with Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two Lewis and with other members of the Inklings friends delight to be joined by a third, and became strained. Dyson, for example, became three by a fourth." (59) Lewis was the living very critical ofTolkien's reading of The Lord embodiment of this idea. But Tolkien wasn't. of the Rings. (Carpenter, The Inklings, 212) George Sayer remarks, "the two had different In 1949, the Thursday meetings of the Inklings concepts offriendship. Tolkien wanted to be came to an end. (Hooper, C.S. Lewis, 732) the first among Lewis's friends. Lewis may "The Tuesday morning meetings continued, have loved Tolkien as much, but he wanted and Tolkien and Lewis still saw one another him to be one among several friends." fairly often, but it was never the same." ("Recollection of J.R.R. Tolkien," 25) (Hooper, C.S. Lewis, 732) In 1950, Lewis read When Lewis met Williams, in 1936, he was part of The Lion, The Witch and The immediately captivated by his personality. Wardrobe to Tolkien, but Tolkien disliked the (Carpenter, 99, 101) "Our friendship," he book, as he came to dislike the others. Joe R. wrote, "grew inward to the bone." (Hooper, Christopher writes that it was on account of C.S. Lewis, 17, 22; Sayer 179) Then, when their softening of mythology: "if Lucy met a Williams came to Oxford in 193 9, Tolkien had faun-that is, a satyr-the result would have to put up with something like hero worship on been a rape, not a tea party. (C.S. Lewis, !lO­ Lewis's part. (Carpenter, 120, 123) For nearly ll) Clearly, the original enthusiasm of the 10 years-since the late 1920's-Tolkien and group was dying out. When Lewis moved to Lewis had talked and drank beer together, but Cambridge in 1954, it was just a matter of time now Williams made a third. Also, the until the Inkling meetings ended altogether. conversation became more literary than Another problem was Lewis's marriage. Tolkien cared for. He wasn't widely read after Tolkien felt hurt when Lewis did not tell him Chaucer, while Williams and Lewis were. All about it. (Carpenter, 242; Letters of J.R.R. in all, Tolkien was somewhat jealous. He even Tolkien, 341; Hooper, C.S. Lewis, 83) felt betrayed. Tolkien told Christopher Bretherton: "CSL After Williams came to Oxford, he became was my closest friend from about 1927-1940, an important member of the Inklings. In a and remained very dear to me .... But in fact letter dated November II, 1939, Lewis wrote we saw less and less of one another after he to his brother Warnie: came under the dominant influence of Charles Williams, and still after his very strange On Thursday we had a meeting of the marriage." (Letters of J.R.R. To/kien, 349) Inklings ... the bill of fare consisted of a Perhaps Lewis was silent because previously section of the new Hobbit book from they had disagreed about divorce. Tolkien Tolkien, a nativity play by Charles called it "abominable," while Lewis favored Williams ... and a chapter of the book on allowing it in certain cases. (Hooper, C.S.

31 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland

Lewis, 84; Letters of JR.R. Tolkien, 60-I; "Recollections of J.R.R. Tolkien, 352) Lewis Carpenter, 242) also used allegory in the stories, which was at There were other causes for friction. variation with Tolkien's propensity to avoid it Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic; Lewis as much as possible. He may also have been was an Ulster Protestant. Not surprisingly, jealous of Lewis's speed-the seven Namia their thinking about religion often differed: novels were written in 8 years (between 1949 Lewis was critical of Franco, Tolkien was and 1956)-while he had worked 17 on The more supportive; Lewis accepted cremation, Lord of the Rings. Tolkien did not; Lewis saw the Eucharist as There is still one more item. On October one of several other important elements of 20, 1965, Tolkien wrote a letter to Clyde S. worship; to Tolkien it was of supreme value. Kilby saying that many of those who write (Brian Rosebury, 131) Lewis's apologetic about Lewis "all miss one of the essential writings and his wartime BBC broadcasts also points of temperament. Barfield who knew caused friction. (Tolkien-again, perhaps him longest-gets nearest to the central somewhat jealous-once referred to him as point." (Letters of JR.R. Tolkien, 363)6 "Everyman's Theologian.") The focus of their Previously, Barfield had written: "Was there writings also differed. "Lewis," says Sister something ... which ... somehow ... was Pauline, CSM, "wrote with a set purpose volu? ... some touch of a more than merely firmly in mind while Tolkien simply told a tale ad hoc pastiche"? On the one hand, Lewis which had no purpose but to entertain." ''l shows a "distinctive ... intellectual. .. maturity Tolkien was a perfectionist, as can be seen in [and) moral energy [but also) . . . a certain the precisely detailed scenes of The Lord of psychic or spiritual immaturity." (Letters of The Rings. This also caused him-unfairly, JR.R. Tolkien, footnote, 451-2) Perhaps one feels-to be critical of Lewis's Namia Tolkien was referring to this-"a certain stories, where such precision is glossed over, psychic or spiritual immaturity"-when he in favor of the story and what happens in the wrote about "the central point" of Lewis's story, and where different things-myth, fairy character. tale, and Christian themes-are mingled Several critics-Humphrey Carpenter, together. Tolkien may also have been upset Donald Glover, and Colin Manlove-have because of the way Lewis connects the world pointed out Lewis's fondness for going back of N arnia with the real world, even to the to childhood experiences. It was as if one part extent of sometimes addressing the reader as of him had not fully matured. Perhaps related "You." Tolkien always stressed the to this is the fact that after a certain time in his independence of his created worlds. He does life-sometime in the 1930's-he did not like not want the reader to connect his world with to think too deeply about himself Barfield also the real world. Lewis, on the other hand, writes about this. "At a certain stage in his always shows the interpenetration of his life, he deliberately ceased to take an interest secondary worlds with our primary world. His in himself" (Como, xxxiii; Jocelyn Gobb, xvi) "strategy" is to make readers sense that his If this is true, it may have been that Lewis felt fantasy world is more real than they might that, except for examining himself for his faults have supposed-and that their "real world" is and weaknesses, introspection was merely a more filled with the fantastic than they might form of selfish pride. 7 The central point have supposed. (Downing, 47; Sayer, Tolkien wrote about may have a relationship

32 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland to this. Had Lewis thought more deeply of the (Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, 341) Part of the matter, for example, perhaps he would have "great debt," I believe refers to the many realized that turning his attention so abruptly themes and ideas they shared and were able to from Tolkien to Charles Williams hurt Tolkien clarifY as a result of their friendship-time deeply. Or perhaps with little more reflection, (temporary and eternal}, death, immortality, he would have realized that listening to longing, escape, joy-all these seen from a Tolkien speak about family troubles would Christian perspective. Largely as a result of have been comforting to Tolkien. A certain their friendship-particularly for the first 14 amount of reflection might have helped him to years, when they enjoyed a close, loving realize that by telling Tolkien beforehand of his relationship-they were able to expand on marriage, he would have avoided hurting these themes and deal with them with greater Tolkien' s feelings. clarity and depth. Lewis and Tolkien had different temperaments. Tolkien had a good sense of Notes humor, but he was basically a serious person, and rather pessimistic about life. Lewis was I. Their fondness for reading each other's more buoyant and "sunny." (Hooper, C.S writings embellished their friendship. Besides Lewis, 16; Wilson, 119} I think Tolkien reading sections of what would later become especially liked this. He saw in Lewis part of The Silmaril/ion, sometime during the someone like himself: a dedicated Christian year 1929 Lewis read Tolkien's poem and scholar with whom he could share ideas "Tinuviel" and offered some suggestions that and feeling. This meant very much to him Tolkien accepted. Two years later, in 1931, when he was working out his ideas for writing Tolkien wrote "Mythopoeia," a poem that and also in his personal life. When he speaks of Lewis's conversion to Christianity. experienced difficulties with is wife, Edith, for Two years after this, Lewis wrote to Arthur example, he wrote: "Friendship with Lewis Greeves that he's been reading The Hobbit compensates for much." (Carpenter, 32; (They Stand Together, 449} This process Wilson, 119} continued both privately and in their Inkling They were "almost" ideal companions. I meetings, usually with Tolkien reading and say this because not all went well between Lewis listening and commenting. When them. Mythic literature and faith in God Tolkien published The Hobbit in 193 7, and brought them together. But religion-they later, The Lord of the Rings, in 1954 and each had their own prejudices-certain 1955, Lewis wrote very praiseworthy reviews. character faults, and poor judgments separated 2. Lewis's journey to faith, of course, was them' much more complex. His early reading and A few years after Lewis's death, Tolkien love for mythology and romance helped him to wrote a letter to his son Michael. "We owed accept the myths of the Christian religion each a great debt to the other, and that tie with about which Tolkien and Dyson spoke. (See the deep affection that it begot, remains. He R.J. Reilly, I 00) was a great man of whom the cold-blooded 3. Both writers, particularly Lewis, were official obituaries only scraped the surface ..." critical of much of modem literature.

33 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland

Frequently in his letters, Lewis wrote about books became rather deliberately, if not writers that he did not like: Edith Sitwell, Ezra allegories, then at least deliberate expositions Pound, T. S. Eliot, and W.H. Auden. He did of the great articles of the Christian faith ... " not like vers libre, nor was he fond of writers Lewis's purpose was didactic. "Narnia is like D.H. Lawrence, who favored the theories essentially Christian and Middle-earth of Freud. essentially pagan." (The Precincts ofFelicity: The Augustinian City of the Oxford Christians 4. In his essay, "On Fairy Stories," Tolkien (Gainesville: U ofFlorida, 1966) 60-61.) wrote about sub-creation, and about his idea of joy, which he called "eucatastophe." It 6. According to Barfield, some time after his referred to the good tum at the end of the fairy conversion, Lewis changed. It seems that he tale. Tolkien' s essay had a great influence on decided that, except for helping to see his Lewis, and fit in closely with his own ideas faults and weaknesses, introspection was not about joy. His term for joy was Sehnsucht. It necessary. Indeed, introspection-thinking was an "inconsolable longing" that is in itself too much about one's self-could be a sign of felt as a delight (Swprised by Joy, 72, 165) It pride. (This ties in with his idea that literature seems always to be a longing for something should focus on the work, not on the author. not given in experience, coming as a by­ As he argued in , he was product of focusing attention and desire on against the idea that poetry was the expression something else. (Gilbert Meilaender, 14). of the poet's feelings.) One feels, however, In his essay, Tolkien called for the writer that here Lewis was making a mistake. Had he to make a Secondary World with its own laws. reflected a bit more, for example, perhaps he Once the mind of the reader enters this world, could have seen that he was neglecting Tolkien what he relates is "true": it accords with the when Charles Williams came to Oxford. Or he laws of that world. "You therefore believe it could have seen that listening more while you are, as it were, inside. The moment sympathetically when Tolkien told him about disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, his problems with Edith could have greatly or rather art, has failed. You are then out in helped Tolkien. In any event, his reluctance to the Primary World again, looking at the little look more into his heart seems to have been a abortive Secondary World from outside. (Tree blind spot in his character. (See Light on C.S. and Leqf, 36-37) In his Defense ofPoetry, Sir Lewis. See also VII, Vol. 2, 7 4.) Philip Sidney said that the poet brought forth 7. George Sayer points out the influence on a golden world, in contrast to the real world of Lewis of Samuel Alexander's work, Space, brass (section 3). (For more information on Time, and , and how "it increased his Tolkien' s idea of sub-creation, see Letters of distrust of introspection." (Jack: C.S. Lewis C.S. Lewis, 271, and Christopher, C.S. Lewis, and His Times, 13 I) 118) Although most of the writers included in 5. Pauline, Sister, CSM. "Secondary Worlds: James Como's book, C.S. Lewis at the Lewis and Tolkien." The Bulletin of the New Brealifast Table give very high praise to Lewis York C. S. Lewis Society, 12, May 1981,3-8. both for his scholarship an his personal traits, Charles S. Moorman writes that "The seven there are some dissenting voices. Leo Baker

34 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland makes the following remarks. "He lived in an Catholics made Protestants suffer.] Henry Vlll enclosed world with rigid walls built by his dealt the death blow to medieval England. In logic and intelligence, and trespassers would his book, English Literature in the Sixteenth be persecuted. . . The lesson was that to Century (1954), Lewis downgrades or escape from personal suffering he must hedge overlooks Catholic authors of this period, himself round, keep apart from emotional while favoring Protestants. For example, he contacts, and live the life of a very private man strongly favors Tyndale rather than More, and ... [At a boarding school in England] he was John Foxe and John Jewel over Thomas driven inward and became his own society. So Harding and Robert Persons who refuted them in Oxford. He was determined not to suffer and whose prose, Milward claims, deserves his there as he had done in those previous praise. In short, Lewis, a scholar in this societies. Hence the secrecy and privacy. period, shows unusual ignorance of the Roman Mixing was not for him. He was ambitious for Catholic side of very importance religious scholarship and poetry; therefore he must controversies that occurred between 1570 and concentrate. But of course some companion 1590. Milward notes that Tolkien was very was inevitable ... (Como, 4, 5, 6) critical of Lewis's book. "It's one-sidedly John Wain writes about his inability to Protestant, while doing less than justice to the share his inner life, as seen in Surprised by Joy. Catholic side" (91 ). (70) He writes about Lewis: "one simply never got near him. There was a heavily protected WORKS CITED inner self that no one ever saw." A Grief Carpenter, Humphrey. The Inklings: C. S. Observed is "just as impersonal, as Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, nonintimate, as anything signed by Lewis ... " and Their Friends. London" Allen and (71) "His impersonality in human contacts, his Unwin. 1978. construction of a vast system of intellectual outworks to protect the deeply hidden core of __.J.R.R. Tolkien. A Biography. London his personality." (72) Allen and Unwin, 1977. __.Christopher, Joe. R. C.S. Lewis. 8. In his book, A Challenge to C.S. Lewis, Boston" Twayne, 1987. Peter Milward points out several of Lewis's prejudices. He claims that Lewis made very ."Who Were the Inklings?"Tolkien little claim for allegory, both in literature and Journal(Mythlore), 1972. 15, 5. for his own writings, especially the later ones. Como, James T., ed. C.S. Lewis at the Milward says this shows a prejudice against Breakfast Table Other Reminiscences. Catholic literature in the Middle Ages and in New York: Macmillian, 1979. the Renaissance. Shakespeare, for example, relied on the allegory of the Morality Plays. Downing, David C. Planets in Peril. Lewis also glosses over the Reformation. Amhurst: U ofMassachusetts, P, 1992. Milward says this is because Lewis doesn't Flieger, Verlyn. A Question of Time: J.RR want to admit that Protestants made Catholics Tolkien 's Road to Faerie. Kent, Ohio: suffer a lot. [No mention is made of how Kent State, 1997.

35 The Friendship Between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • John Seland

Lewis and Tolkien," The Bulletin of the Gibb, Jocelyn, ed. Light on C.S. Lewis. New York C.S. Lewis Society, Vol. 12, No London: Geoffrey Bles, 1965. 7, May 1981,3, 4. Glover, Donald E. C.S. Lewis. The Art of Enchantment.Athens, Ohio: Ohio UP, Reilly, R.J. Romantic Religion: A Study of 1981. Barfield, Lewis, Williams, and To/kien. Athens: U of Georgis, 1971. Green, Roger Lancelyn, and Walter Hooper. Rosebury, Brian. To/kien: ACritica/ C.S. Lewis: A Biography. New York: Assessment. New York: St. Martin's Harcourt, 1974. ' 1992. Hooper, Walter. C.S. Lewis, A Companion Sayer, George. Jack: A Life ofC.S. Lewis. and Guide. London: Harper Collins, 1996. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1988. __.Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times. San __.Ed. They Stand Together: The Letters Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988. of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves, 1914- 1963. London: Collins, 1979. __."Recollections of J.R.R. Tolkien," Proceedings of the J.R.R. Tolkien Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves. London: Centenary Conference, 1992, Myth/ore, Geoffrey Bles, 1960. 80. __.Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Tolkien, John R.R. Tree and Leaf London: Early Life. (London: Geoffrey Bles, Grafton, 1964. 1955.) West, Richard C. "Tolkien in the Letters of Lewis, Warren H., ed. The Letters of C.S. C.S. Lewis," Orcrist, October 30, Lewis. New York: Harcourt, 1966. 1966, I, 3. Manlove, Colin. : The Patterning of a Fantastic World. New York: Twayne, 1993. Meilaender, Gilbert. The Taste for the Other: The Social and Ethical Thought of C.S. Lewis. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1978. Milward, Peter. A Challenge to C.S. Lewis. Madison, WI: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1995. Moorman, Charles. Precincts ofFelicity: The Augustinian City ofthe Oxford Christians. U of Florida, 1966. Pauline, Sister, CSM. "Secondary Worlds:

36 Till Poems Have Faces by Lou Olson

. .An angel has no nerves. Far richer they! I know the sense's witchery Guards us, like air, from heavens too big to see; Imminent death to man that barb 'd sublimity And dazzling edge of beauty unsheathed would be. Yet here, within this tiny, charm 'd interior, This parlor of the brain, their Maker shares With living men some secrets in a privacy Forever ours, not theirs (Poems 35). -an excerpt from "On Being Human"

Who of us has never wished that we discovers what it is to be human: that it means could be like angels-to understand that which learning who God is and trusting Him, learning is beyond human comprehension, to live beyond what love really is-and what it isn't, learning all pain and suffering, to be party to the mind of what it means to finally have a face--and to let God, for angels are closer to God than we, the old self die. aren't they? But C.S. Lewis proposes another idea. In his book Till We Have Faces and in his If we could speak to her ... poetry he suggests that perhaps there is And told her, "Not that wcry! something in being human that means even All, all in vain more than not having to live "in the flesh". You weary out your wings and Being like the angels really isn't the issue for bruise your head " ... have we not been set just a little lower than Might she not answer, buzzing God? Being human offers infinite joy and at the pane, infinite possibilities to know God better and this "Let queens and mystics and is what the main character of the book, Orual, religious bees learns. She begins her book by accusing the Talk ofsuch inconceivables as gods and ends with knowing them. She is able glass" . .. to see herself as she really is, with no veils, and is able to say what she really means. So, she

37 Till Poems Have Faces • Lou Olson

We catch her in a handkerchief .. the gods are real, and viler than the vilest (who knows men"(~ 71). This is how she sees them­ only as objects to fear and hate. And of What rage she feels, what course, much of that hate lies in the fact that terror, what despair?) she doesn't understand them. And why not, And shake her out ... when all that she has understood ofUngit and But left to her own will the gods is that they want what is dearest to She would have died upon the her, to take it from her? All she has seen has window sill (127). been shrouded in mystery and shadow and - excerpt from Sonnet blood. She sees Ungit as a more powerful version of people like her busybody old The book begins as Orual's book, nursemaid Batta, whose love was inconsistent, written in order to accuse the gods. She sees capricious, conditional. Later on in the story, them, particularly Ungit, the main of much later when she has been the Queen of Glome, as her enemies and the cause of the Glome for years, she has had a new statue of worst pain that has existed in her life. Her Ungit made for the temple. It is beautiful and response to the gods is much like the response has helped to dispel some of the fear and the bee caught in a handkerchief might have darkness that has been associated with the had-rage, terror, and despair. Yet for her, it goddess before. As she looks at the old figure seems that her views cannot be otherwise; from of Ungit, covered in blood, she thinks, the very beginning her associations with the gods have been only fear, scorn, disgust, and In the little clots and chains of it I superstition. For Orual, Ungit means blood and made out a face . . . A face such as jealousy and death, darkness and uncleanness. you might see on a loaf, swollen, Ironically enough, Ungit is supposedly the same brooding, infinitely female. It was a as the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Little wonder little like Batta as I remembered her in that Orual is confused, for within the worship certain moods. Balta . . . had her of Ungit there is so much apparent loving moods, even to me. I have run inconsistency. Orual's beloved half-sister, out into the garden to get free - and Psyche, is doomed to be sacrificed to Ungit and to get, as it were, freshened and it is Ungit's priest who has decreed it, yet she is cleansed-from her huge, hot, strong also to be food for the Shadowbrute (the god of yet flabby-soft embraces, the the mountain), who is also simultaneously smothering, engulfing tenacity of her supposed to be Ungit's son and husband; (270) however, it is also said that she is to be the bride of a god. What is one to believe? Why What is it that she is running from? Perhaps should one believe at all? As Orual says she thinks it is the embrace itself, but really it toPPsyche the night before she is to be is the fakeness that she perceives Batta and sacrificed, "Do you and I need to flatter gods therefore Ungit's love to be. She wants no lies anymore? They're tearing us apart ... oh, how or pretensions; she just wants the gods to shall I bear it? ... and what worse can they do? admit once and for all that they don't love

38 Till Poems Have Faces • Lou Olson men; that they are no better than men, only was something the gods did in order to save more powerful. And of course, her view of the her from herself How often has God had to gods is also colored by the Fox, her Greek allow us to experience pain in order to save us enlightened tutor who does not believe in gods from ourselves? at all. She vacillates between superstition and . In that way, she is often like the Pity hides in the wood . .. bee who doesn't believe in such "inconceivables Lapping against their walls, as glass." But, the bee was mistaken, and so Mining, sapping, was Orual. We can sympathize with her, for the Patiently eating awtry ways of the gods were not always easy to The strong foundations understand. But, there was still evidence. Even Of the towers ofpain, rising Psyche caught glimpses of the truth. As she An inch in an hour . .. (Poems 39) says in response to Orual, "Or else ... they are real gods but don't really do these things. Or - an excerpt from "The Saboteuse" even-mightn't it be-they do these things and the things are not what they seem to be?"(71 ). One of the unmistakable aspects of She has stumbled onto a great truth-that Orual is the love she bears for the three people things are not always what they seem, who have been given her in her life - for especially to men who have such limited sight. Bardia, Fox, and Psyche. They are absorbingly Orual's sight seemed especially limited-she important to her and she would easily die for could not see the castle of which Psyche spoke, them. In fact, this is one of the greatest in which Psyche claimed she lived. But even reasons that she feels cheated by the gods. She worse, she did not believe even when she could loves them all with such fierceness, but that see it, even when the gods granted her a love is not returned in kind. She had always moment of seeing it clearly, though no other been in love with Bardia, her counselor, but he mortal could. She refused to believe because was married and cared deeply for his wife. The she didn't want to. She didn't want to believe Fox had always yearned for the life and family that Psyche truly was the bride of a god and he had left behind in Greece, and Psyche had lived in a gorgeous palace with a man she been taken from her forever, as dead or loved. She didn't want to believe that Psyche forever disappeared. How could the gods do wouldn't be coming back to her. And how such things when she loved these people so much we are like Orual. How often is it that we much and they were all she had? How could refuse to believe in something we cannot see or they take them while she was left nothing in comprehend, like glass to a bumblebee? And return as a lonely, ugly, unlovable woman? It how often do we even refuse to believe that wasn't fair. But, that was the heart of the which we are granted to see, because we don't problem. She wanted fairness, love in return want to have to change because of it? Indeed, for her love, feeling in return for her feeling. when Orual finally makes her accusation to the What she did not realize was that is not what gods themselves she is answered by silence. It the nature of love is at all. Love is not based is then that she sees that there always was a upon the fact that it is returned; love asks for glass window there and that the pain she had to nothing in return. Orual's love was more akin go through while being "in the handkerchief' to selfishness and self-pity than to true agape

39 Till Poems Have Faces • Lou Olson love. With Bardia she claimed she loved him, make her see things I couldn't but her love for him was hungry for requital. see . . . The girl was mine. Bardia' s wife spoke truly when she said, What right had you to steal her "Queen Orual, I begin to think you know away into your dreadful nothing of love ... Yours is a Queen's love, heights? You' II say I was not commoners'. Perhaps you who spring from jealous. Jealous of Psyche? the gods love like the gods. Like the Not while she was mine (290). Shadowbrute. They say the loving and the devouring are all one, don't they?"(Faces 265). Orual' s love was conditional. As long as And that is exactly it. Orual's love devoured Psyche was with her or was dead and out of others and devoured herself She expected so everyone else's reach, she could accept her much in return for her love, that one's debt to great beauty and giftedness. But, once Psyche her could never be paid back. And when it was taken away to be the wife of a god, once wasn't, she pitied herself Perhaps it was the she was raised above other mortals and made pity that did the greatest harm. For any strength almost a goddess herself, she could not stand that might have grown up in her from the pain it. It was jealousy, for Psyche had everything that did exist in her life was "eaten away" by and now she had nothing. Not even Psyche. Pity, a self-pity that hid in the woods and And so she convinced herself that she had to lapped against the walls of the tower of pain. save her from whatever it was she was living Bardia died, broken and used up by a Queen with and forced her, using Psyche's love as a whose appetite could never be satiated. And the weapon against her, to question the life she Fox stayed behind, when he could have left to had been given with a god and to therefore finally go home to Greece, in order to help pay throw it away. Her love really did more harm back the debt oflove he owed her. But perhaps than good. And she comes to realize this when the worst was how her love devoured Psyche, she asks, "Did we really do these things to she whom Orual claimed to love the most. But her?' 'Yes. All here's true." The Fox answers, again, we know what her love really was. It "And we said we loved her. And we did. She was a way of being loved back- and Psyche had no more dangerous enemies than was the one who rejected that love the most. us"(304). Orual learns that she had become When Orual is presenting her case before the that which she always thought she hated about gods, she is finally being truthful: Ungit; she had been "gorged with other men's lives-women's too." And that brings us to You know I never really began another person she had destroyed with her to hate you until Psyche began love, her other sister Redival. For before the talking of her palace and her Fox and Psyche had come, each had only the lover and her husband. Why did other. But, with a love like Orual's there is you lie to me? You said a brute only so much to go around and after they had would devour her. Well, why come there was no room left for Redival in her didn't it? I'd have wept for her heart. So she was thrown out of it and and buried what was left of her replaced and from then on could bear only and built her a tomb .... But, to resentment for those who had usurped her steal her love from me! ... to place in Orual' s heart. Indeed, it was due to

40 Till Poems Have Faces • Lou Olson her that Psyche was doomed to be sacrificed in her. Interesting, for it is then when she really the first place. So devouring begets devouring. begins to hide from herself; it is then that she And it causes us to look at the "love" we say begins to bury herself into oblivion and, she we bear for others. For, though someone means hopes, nonexistence. One can perhaps a lot to us, there are so many who still expect understand why she wanted no more of much in return. But that is not love, it is our herself-she was tired of being ugly, unloved own selfish desire to be loved and when we do Orual, whose heart had been broken by losing that we use love as weapon or means to be the one she thought she most loved. But she loved. It is not for its own sake. It is self­ wore the veil from then on. "I now determined seeking. And we can look around us at that I would always go veiled. I have kept this examples of true, self-sacrificing love and rule ... ever since. It is a sort of treaty made compare it and see that, in reality, it does not with my ugliness .. ."(Faces 180). She did it even deserve the name. Psyche is looking at it to hide her ugliness from the rest of the world, when Orual has tried to force her into doing but also from herself - her inner ugliness. what she asks. "You are indeed teaching me And so, for years and years after she is the about kinds of love I did not know. It is like veiled Queen about whom there are many looking into a deep pit. I am not sure whether stories. Some said she was so beautiful that I like your kind better than hatred"(165). She she had to cover herself up from men; some has hit upon the truth: it is really no different said she was so ugly that all would be afraid if from hatred. And it is when Orual is freed from they saw her. And some believed that she had this feeling she has always termed "love" that no face left. Perhaps they were all right in a she is free to love unconditionally. way. But she doesn't unveil herself until the day that she resolves to commit suicide. That ... Now the mask you call day she is stopped by the voice of a god, but A Face has blotted out the what had caused her to desire to die was that ambient hemisphere's embrace she had had a dream. In the dream she had ... For a dome of severance, been forced by her father to look into a mirror A helmet, a dark, rigid box of and what she saw there was not herself, but bone, has overwhelmed Ungit. She was Ungit. As we have already .. . crushed in a brain (Poems 8) seen, her love was the same as she had - excerpt from "The Magician perceived Ungit's to be. And it was this and the " knowledge that had caused her to wish she could be dead so she takes the veil off What The last thing Orual learns is what it does she have left to hide from, after all? But means to truly "have a face." In the poem the it isn't until the veil is taken off and she is face is a mask of sorts that is used to cover up completely uncovered before the gods that the who the dryad really is-but in the story it whole truth is revealed to her. For it is at this means something wholly different. In fact, that time that she makes her accusation to the gods is what this book Till We Have Faces is all and it is then, unveiled, naked before them, about. In the story Orual first begins to wear a that she could say what she really meant. And, veil that covers her face when she goes on her as she says, " [T]o say the very thing you errand to force Psyche into coming home with really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or

41 Till Poems Have Faces • Lou Olson less than what you really mean; that's the whole concedes to die to being a seed and is then art and joy ofwords"(294). And so it is. And able to grow to an oak tree. that explains why she could never have faced the gods otherwise. "Till that word can be dug If thou think for me what I out of us, why should they hear the babble that cannot think, if thou we think we mean? How can they meet us face Desire for me what I to face till we have faces?"(294) She had not Cannot desire, my soul's interior allowed herself to have a face before, perhaps Form, though now she was afraid of what she would see but she Deep-buried, will not die, had covered it up and pretended it no longer No more than the insensible existed. However, in doing so, she had hid from dropp 'd seed which grows her real self and the truth. So, no wonder she Through winter ripe for birth could not understand or see the gods before. (Poems 117). She could not meet them "until she had a face." -Excerpt from And after finally having a face, it was no longer "The Naked Seed" the face of Ungit that she had. After seeing the truth Orual goes to a pool and looks into it and With such words there is little left to sees ... Psyche as her own reflection. And she say. Obviously, there is so much that we can hears "You, too, are Psyche." And it is then learn from C.S. Lewis's work, especially his that she learns that she had helped all those poetry and Till We Have Faces. From him we years to bear Psyche's pain that she had to can learn to see how much more God knows undergo in order to be with her husband. But, than us; how much He is trying to help us seeing her sister's reflection instead of her own when all we see is pain. From him we see that is also symbolic. For the first time, she sees love is not love which expects anything in beauty as her reflection. For the first time, she return, it is something that is more akin to sees herself, her inner self, as beautiful. She hate, and something that will devour those could not have become so without the suffering around it and itself And we learn that only that she had undergone-that of seeing, when we are completely honest with ourselves unveiled, the evil that existed within her. In a can we truly have a face, can we meet God way, the old Orual, the one who had to hold so face to face. Orual' s life is seen through a tightly onto love-who had to grab for it­ microscope for us, and we can see how her who had to hide from herself, had to die. And true self was finally awakened when she let the this is the final truth that we must understand. walls fall between herself and Him. Hopefully, Orual had to die to herself in order to truly live, we will come to understand this as well as she. in order to find herself So then must we let go Hopefully, we will come to see what it means of our old selves, and the sin that we hold onto to be human, the creation of God. So, we end and holds us, and let that part die. But, here is with one more poem, a poem I perceive as the clincher-when we do so, our true selves, Orual' s life. the one God sees, becomes who we really are. We give Him us: sinful, rebellious, accusatory, As the Ruin Falls and He gives us a self that is new, forgiven, All this is flashy rhetoric about a wakened. We are like a seed that finally loving you.

42 Till Poems Have Faces • Lou Olson

I never had a selfless thought BffiLIOGRAPHY since I was born. I am mercenary and Lewis, Clive Staples. Poems. New self-seeking through and through; York: Harcourt Brace & I want God, you, all friends, Company, 1992. merely to serve my turn. ___. Till We Have Faces. New Peace, reassurance, pleasure, York: Harcourt Brace & are the gods I seek, Company, 1984. I cannot crawl an inch outside my proper skin:

I talk of love-a scholar's parrot may talk Greek- But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack. I see the chasm. And everything you are was making My heart into a bridge by which I might get back From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking. For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains You give me are more precious than all other gains (Poems I 09).

43 Myth Made Truth: The Origins of the Chronicles of Narnia by Mark Bane

In the process of wntmg the senses as they challenge and stir the soul. Chronicles ofNarnia, C. S Lewis gradually To understand the above statement, it expanded the breadth and scope of his is necessary to examine the circumstances literary ambitions. What was foreseen from under which these books were written. the outset as a collection of stories for During the Second World War, Lewis children developed into a complex took in a number of children who had been depiction of an entire moral universe. As evacuated from their homes due to the the seven books progress, Lewis unfolds Nazi air raids on London. Having no the whole Divine plan for this universe children of his own, he decided that the from its creation to its apocalypse. best way that he could entertain his young However, the uniqueness of Lewis' literary guests would be to tell them stories. A achievement stems from the fact that very short fragment of one such story Lewis manages to do two things at once. survives. In it, four children (two girls and That is, he remains faithful to his original two boys) are evacuated from their home, intention to write stories for children while separated from their parents, and sent to adding in subtle moral and spiritual live with a strange old professor. Not only complexities. These complexities do not is this fragment nearly identical to the seem like authorial intrusions or opening passages of The Lion, the Witch editorializing. They are instead woven into and the Wardrobe, but also it is a the very fabric of Lewis's creative predicament very similar to the one universe. Thus, the Chronicles of Narnia Lewis's own real-life houseguests faced. are a series of books that can delight the After all, Lewis himself was (by the

44 Origins of the Chronicles of Narnia • Mark Bane children's standards) a "very old to the minutiae of N ami an life reveals that professor," and no doubt, a bit intimidating Lewis was not just intending to write a to his young lodgers. Given that the author children's story anymore; he was also sought to make art imitate real life in this participating in that powerful magic that fashion, it is highly possible that Lewis's Professor Tolkien calls "sub-creation." original intention in writing the Chronicles One of the most distinctive details of was to entertain these young evacuees the young Lewis's world of was its with a fantasized version of their own inhabitants. Many of the most illustrious stories. Boxonians were, in fact, walking, talking For whatever reason, C.S. Lewis chose "dressed animals." These to begin his tale in rural England, at the anthropomorphized beasts quickly found house of the aforementioned old professor. their way into Narnia in the form of such But what was to happen next? This was to memorable characters as the be a children's story, so Lewis drew on the swordwielding mouse-at-arms Reepicheep, sort of things that delighted him as a child. the skeptical horse Bree, and of course, He had an enduring love of "fairy stories," the great Lion, Asian. However, the use of so that particular genre immediately. Also, animals as main characters was not just a it was a perfect format for a children's continuation of Lewis's boyhood fantasies. book- it requires no romance, nor does It was a deliberate, calculated decision on it need much authorial intrusion. the author's part. By using animals, Lewis Thus, it was decided that his book could communicate very subtle shades of would be a tale of magic and fantastic human personality without taxing his adventure. But what sort of magical young audience's level of comprehension ad ventures could be had in the musty old or interest. What better way to show royal house of an equally old and musty majesty and glory than by making Asian professor? Not many - which is why "the King of the Beasts?" Lewis found it necessary to expand his It was always Lewis's intention to setting. From his earliest childhood days, write the sort of books that he himself he had been occupied with the creation of would want to read. In fact, he wrote his his own imaginary country: Animal-land, celebrated space trilogy because there which was later assumed into the larger were not enough science fiction stories of state ofBoxen. Lewis's young imagination the kind he wanted to read being written. was meticulously detailed - he even Therefore, Namia became a place where plotted out his nation's steamship routes Lewis could showcase some of his own and railway timetables. Though no literary interests. He had always enjoyed steamships or railways exist in Narnia, that ancient mythology, so he added to his country beyond the wardrobe reflects the kingdom of talking animals many same great imaginative detail present in the characters from the classical tradition, author's earlier creations. Soon Lewis's including fauns, satyrs, centaurs, , developed its own history, , and many other mythical creatures. geography, myths, legends, and Even Bacchus, the Roman god of wine prophecies. The loving care he addressed made a special appearance. From the

45 Origins of the Chronicles of Narnia • Mark Bane

Norse mythologies, Lewis incorporated visited for a number of nights with dreams giants and dwarves and the World Ash of lions. These haunting pictures came to Tree. him from an unknown source, but many of Next to classical mythology, the them all but demanded to be voiced in his medieval tradition of chivalry and knights stories. An interesting parallel to this in armor was dearest to Lewis's heart. phenomenon occurs in the third book, The N ami a developed into a realm where Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Here, a courtly ideals flourished under its stately picture of a ship at sea grows and expands kings and queens. There was knighthood until it actually becomes a ship at sea, and to be won on the field ofbattle, and a strict a doorway into Namia. It is a fine code of honor one breached at his own illustration of Lewis's own intention to peril. Lewis even added a form of make his inner pictures come alive and act "Saracens" for his Narnian knights to as windows opening in on his created contend with: the Persian-like Calormenes world of imagination. under their vulture-god Tash. Also, Lewis Up to this point, little has been said borrowed the medieval ideas of the belle about the spiritual, the religious, well why dame sans merci and the Arthurian not say it: the Christian element of the in creating his own Narnia books. This is because that element villainesses: the White Witch Jadis, and the was not present at the birth of the Lady of the Green Kirtle. narrative. Lewis has emphatically denied C.S. Lewis borrowed these elements that he sat down to write a series of stories because they were things he enjoyed and that were encoded depictions of Christian identified with himself He sought to truth, or moral lessons sugarcoated to communicate his love for the heroic tales appeal to children. Nevertheless, the of antiquity, and perhaps to cultivate that Christian element of the Narnian mythos is same love in a new generation of readers. unmistakable. So how did this element find Against this backdrop, in this newly­ its way into the stories? Well, in a sub­ imagined world of Narnia, Lewis would creative fashion, Lewis saw his handiwork write the stories themselves. He did this in - the Lion Asian, and he saw that it was a unique way, relying on pictures that he good. Immediately the author recognized would see in his mind. Certain pictures, he the potential of his character. A lion had said, would organize themselves together come "bounding" into the story, and He as a story. It was then the author's job to was obviously one of great importance. "fill in the gaps," so to speak. One picture, Lewis quickly noted the numinous awe in a faun with an umbrella, resolved itself into which the other characters held him. Also, Mr. Tumnus. A snow queen on a sledge it was not lost on him that the lion was a became the White Witch. Lewis formed recurrent Biblical symbol for the Christ. these pictures into stories as a way of Here the author asked "what if the Son of "exorcizing" them from his mind. The God entered into a world of talking picture of the faun had resided in his head animals in the form of a lion?" If Lewis ever since his teenage years. Before he could present a Namian version of the wrote Asian into the story, Lewis was Incarnation, he would have a forum to

46 Origins of the Chronicles of Narnia • Mark Bane articulate some of his most precious However, Asian peels away the layers of feelings about his God. And he could do dragon skin until the real boy underneath is so without the Law, without religious duty revealed. By this, the reader comes to and hypocrisy entering into the equation. It understand the process of conversion and had been Lewis's personal experience that sanctification. what made it hard to feel the way one The next two books, The Silver Chair ought to feel about one's God was the and The Horse and his Boy, reveal some sheer fact that there were feelings one of Asian's "wilder" aspects. He is after all, ought to have. With Asian, Lewis had a "not a tame lion." In The Silver Chair, tabula rasa. He could enjoin the reader to when Jill and Eustace first get into Asian's feel love and devotion without that country, Jill pushes her companion off a suffocating sense of duty. He could convey cliff. For this piece of grave mischief, his own great gratitude and love for his Asian comes between her and a stream. He God without sermonizing. He could, as he warns Jill that he has eaten small girls once put it, "steal past those watchful before, "and boys, women and men, kings dragons." and emperors, c1t1es and realms." In the first two books, Asian is a clear­ However, even in this fearful aspect, Asian cut figure. He inspires fear in his enemies wants the girl to come and drink. The fear and love and devotion in his friends. He of the Lord should not prevent us from makes the four children from our world coming to Him. Later, Asian gives Jill a high kings and queens, and banishes all number of signs to follow, which she traces of evil from his kingdom. Here promptly forgets. When she despairs about Lewis is speaking of the first glorious days this in a dream, the Lion exhorts her to of one's spiritual experience. take courage. "I will not always be However, with the advent of the third scolding," Asian says. Lewis is illustrating book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the filet that God's correction is from love, Lewis takes the reader into deeper not austerity. But God is a just God, as theological waters. Here Asian seems more shown in The Horse and his Boy. Asian distant; he appears in other forms, such as scratches the Calormene princess Aravis, a lamb and an albatross. Lewis deepens the so that she will remember how it feels. spiritual experience of his characters by Also, Lewis portrays Asian as a Divine making Asian harder to find. Faith now hunter, a hound of heaven, in this novel. enters into the equation - belief without The Lion pursues Shasta throughout his seeing. This is best embodied by the mouse quest, driving him on to his destination and Reepicheep, who is determined to find his destiny. Asian's Country, even if he has to swim to Having revealed God's divine nature in the end of the world to do so. Also in The the previous books, Lewis uses the last Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis two Chronicles to address eschatological introduces the idea of the skeptic, the non­ points- namely, the beginning and end of believer, in the form of Eustace Clarence Narnia. The Magician's Nephew gives us Scrubb. Eustace is turned into a dragon Narnia's Genesis account. Here Asian is through his own greed and ignorance. established as the Creator - he sings

47 Origins of the Chronicles of Narnia • Mark Bane

Namia into existence, and gives the animals the gift of speech. Evil enters the young world through a fallen creature: Jadis, queen of the dead world Cham. Like the story of Eden, Lewis incorporates a garden with very peculiar and powerful fruit. He even depicts man's role in the creation by establishing Namia with a human king and queen. The Last Battle shows the end of Namia. First we see its descent into wickedness, and its rejection of Asian's authority. Next, the last few faithful Namians are persecuted. Just when things look darkest, Asian returns to save the day, but he does so by making it the Last Day. All worlds have their ends, according to Lewis, except Asian's own country. All of the faithful friends of N ami a enter into Asian's country, where they are reunited with old friends. But this is not the end. Asian's guests are invited to go "further up and further in" to glorious adventures too beautiful to describe. Lewis ends his last Namia story by giving the readers an imaginative foretaste of what heaven is like. In the final analysis, it is difficult to seize upon any one thing as Lewis's sole intention in writing the Chronicles. His purposes were built on top of one another. He proceeded up from children's fairy tales and took them into the realms of intense theology. However, neither side enjoys success at the expense of the other. It is the fact that the Chronicles are fairy stories that makes their spiritual richness shine out, and it is that richness that makes them the sort of fairy stories to be enjoyed by everyone- both children and adults.

48 Past Watchful Dragons by Stephanie Jones

We walk with C.S. Lewis through the reader's individual soul. wardrobes of every day life into lands hidden I stand before you as one who has felt the within the closets of our imaginations. claws of Asian tear away my facade and reveal Fictitious worlds of personified animal my weakness. For several years of my life, I kingdoms, silent planets, and even heaven was buried beneath the layers of an eating itself become a parallel to some greater truth in disorder. Numerous attempts were made to our lives. The impact of Lewis' writings is so peel away the layers; and after much profound because he first involves our intellect counseling and planning I truly believed I with some idea-childhood fantasy, science would be able to control it, yet it was not until fiction, or heavenly portrayal, and then, after I was able to allow God to rip it completely our intellect is occupied, Lewis' writings away that I was able to be set free. When sneak past all of our "watchful dragons" so reading C.S. Lewis' novel, The Great Divorce, that he can enter the most private recesses of I was allowed to see for the first time the real our minds. In Lewis' own words, "An "me" that existed behind my watchful dragons. obligation to feel can freeze." Lewis thaws It begins with a bus trip from hell to our feelings by stealing past intellectual heaven, as the ghost travelers from hell linger obligations. Like Asian tearing away the outer among the solid, flaming spirits of heaven. dragon skins of Eustace with his claws to While led by a fictitious Lewis to observe the reveal a small boy, Lewis tears away guards interactions between individual ghosts and and masks and exposes our naked humanity. spirits, the watchful dragons begin to relax as The intellectual styles and scenes of Lewis' one's intellect becomes enthralled with the writings have been and will continue to be style and enchantment of Lewis' writings. discussed on end, yet the messages of Lewis' Perhaps one's mind revels over the idea of writings are a private encounter with each penetrating dimensions of time and space,

49 Past Watchful Dragons • Stephanie Jones transporting ghost-like beings from a enough weight so that I was able to fit back fantastical hell. Personally, I have never taken into society. I was not ready, however, to much to science fiction, yet I found my completely "kill" my eating disorder. I had intellect held with a fantastic vision of heaven. gained control of my eating, yet it was this Slowly, Lewis is able to creep around the now "control" that now became my vice. Instead sleeping dragons and grasp our inner soul. of disappearing, my vice sat upon my shoulder While my intellect was putting together the and screamed failure so loudly in my ear that I pieces to the heavenly puzzle that I was sure was not always sure that gaining the weight Lewis was portraying, I found myself among was worth the agony. I was at times ready to the pieces. Not a "heavenly" self, nor an retreat to my former patterns of imagined self, but my REAL, naked, weak malnourishment just to quiet the thoughts of human self; a self controlled by the weaknesses guilt and regret. of a vice, unable to participate in the beauty The oily ghost with the red lizard on his and freedom of the spiritual world. My "self' shoulder suffered the same guise. The lizard was personified as one of the dark, oily ghosts screeched so loudly in his ear that he decided visiting this "spiritual heaven", yet bound to he might just have to go back to the hell from hell because of the inability to "kill" his vice. which he came. One of the solid spirits, a On the surface, the ghosts' vices seem quite person with whom he had a relationship in his silly to the reader. For example, the vice of past life, offered to assist him in taking care of "my" ghost was a bossy little red lizard he the lizard. carried on his shoulder. Though the lizard was nothing but a nuisance, the lizard had become "Would you like me to make him so much a part of the ghost that he was quiet?' said the flaming spirit-an painstakingly reluctant to give it up. In this angel as I now understand. sense, it seemed it was the little red lizard that "Of course I would," said the ghost. carried the ghost by his shoulder. Though the "Then I will kill him," said the angel, ghost thought it was he who controlled the taking a step forward. lizard, the reality can be seen that the lizard "Oh-ah-look out! You're burning actually controlled the "destiny" of the ghost. me. Keep away," said the ghost, Is not this same principle true with vices retreating. today-alcoholism, depression, and eating "Don't you want him killed?" disorders? An individual becomes so "You didn't say anything about consumed by alcohol, depression, or an eating killing him at first. I hardly meant to disorder that it is hard to distinguish the bother you with anything so drastic as individual apart from the "disorder." It even that." appears as though the disorder has taken "It's the only way," said the Angel, control of the individual. For several years, whose burning hands were now very professionals encouraged me to "get control" close to the lizard. "Shall I kill it?'' of my eating disorder. This meant gaining "Well, that's a further question. enough weight to survive and function I'm quite open to consider it, but it's a normally. And so, I did. I successfully new point, isn't it? I mean for the "controlled" my physical vice and gained just moment I'm only thinking about

50 Past Watchful Dragons • Stephanie Jones

silencing it because up here-well, it's slightest necessity for that. I'm sure I shall be so damned embarrassing." able to keep it in order now. I think the "May I kill it?" gradual process would be far better than killing "Well, there's time to discuss that later." it." "There is no time. May I kill it?" "The gradual process is of no use at all." With an eating disorder, as with other "Don't you think so? Well, I'll afflictions, the desire is to simply silence the think over what you've said very negative, not to lose a handle on things all . carefully. I honestly will. In fact, I'd together. I was fed up with my eating let you kill it now, but I'm not feeling disorder. I was fed up with the day in, day out fiightfully well today. It would be silly rituals of eating and exercise that patterned my to do it now. I'd need to be in good every day life. I was fed up with the numbers health for the operation. Some other of calories that shrieked in my ear with each day perhaps." bite of food. I was fed up with the guilt and "There is no other day. All days self-loathing that plagued my thoughts each are present now." time I stepped on the scale or looked in the "Get back! You're burning me. mirror. Yet I was not willing to lose my How can I tell you to kill it. You'd kill control. I controlled what I ate, and thus, I me if you did." controlled my appearance. No, I was not "It is not so." satisfied with my appearance, but would not "Why, you"re hurting me now!" the alternative be ten times worse? I could see "I never said it wouldn"t hurt. I said it myself gaining weight uncontrollably. If I wouldn"t kill you." gave up control, I would lose all of the beauty "Oh, I know, you think I"m a that I had, even if it wasn't enough. Besides, coward. But let me run back to my there was always tomorrow. Someday I family doctor. I"llcome again the first would gain more weight. Some other day moment I can." would be better, not now. I could always find "This moment contains all good reasons to continue on my restricted moments." diet. A diet trend in a magazine, a new health "Why are you torturing me? You report, or even a medical doctor would back are jeering at me. How can I let you up my claim that it was good to "eat healthy". tear me to pieces? If you wanted to I convinced myself that was all I was help me why didn"t you kill the doing--controlling myself to eat healthy. damned thing without asking me­ The ghost responded similarly. He could before I knew? It would be all over control it. now if you had." "I can not kill it against your will. "Look! It's gone to sleep of its own It is impossible. Have I your accord. I'm sure it'll be all right now. Thanks permission?" ever so much." "May I kill it?'' Though the idea of being freed from my "Honestly, I don't think there's the eating disorder was tempting, the alternative in

51 Past Watchful Dragons • Stephanie Jones my mind was much worse. I could no longer I won't do it again. I'll give you see myself apart from the "habits" associated nothing but really nice dreams-all with the eating disorder-the rigorous exercise sweet and fresh and almost innocent. and strict diet. I would lose myself ifl gave in Lewis successfully snuck past my watchful and let go of my control. Throughout the dragons and exposed my actual self There process of gaining enough weight to be were no real pleasures, the little red dragon acceptable, I felt like I was losing all that I was right. Life became mindless rituals, was. How could God ask me to let go frustration, and resentment. I clung dearly to completely? Because he was asking me to dreams of what life could be, yet I experienced live: to live the life that he designed for me, no joy in living. I convinced myself that the apart from the vices that attempt to control. way my life was while under the vice of my Through reading scripture on the life God had eating disorder was the best life could get for promised me, I could taste what life would be me. Somewhere, within the recesses of my like if I let go completely. It would be a life mind, I clung to the promises God had given free of the worldly entanglements. A life with me in the Bible that life could be freeing. a purpose beyond mere existence. God During January of my freshman year at continually offered to kill the eating disorder college, I decided to close my eyes, reach out for me. It was just a matter of me letting go, my hand, and allow God to take control of that once and for all. It became a battle between to which I had clung so dearly. my fleshly self, and the self that God created And so the oily ghost allowed the spirit to within me. It was as if my eating disorder kill the lizard. Intense pain, momentary began to take sides against God. This was a confusion, then a new life emerges. The lizard spiritual battle. turns into a stallion which the ghost, now As the red lizard states his battle position stronger and brighter, mounts with joy and to the ghost in effort to win the ghost"s favor, rides off to claim his place in heaven. It was it is as if my eating disorder has personified not through control that release was possible, and states its refute against God: but through complete submission. C.S. Lewis portrayed on a few short "He can do what he says. He can kill pages in one of his many works that which me. One fatal word from you and he years of counseling and knowledge could not wi/11 Then you'll be without me touch. The release from my eating disorder forever and ever. It's not natural. was not achieved through my own efforts, nor How could you live? You'd be only a through the efforts of others, nor even through sort of ghost, not a real man as you are the revelations brought about by this book. now. He doesn't understand. He's My release was through an individual and only a cold, bloodless abstract thing. personal encounter with God, in which I It may be natural for him, but it isn"t decided on my own to give God my every for us. Yes, yes. I know there are no aspect of my life. Why, then, is this scenario real pleasures now, only dreams. But set up by Lewis so important to my life? I will aren"t they better than nothing? And not be able to ride away on my stallion into f'll be so good. I admit I've sometimes heaven until the Lord calls me home. Until gone too far in the past, but I promise that time, I am in the continual process of

52 Past Watchful Dragons • Stephanie Jones letting go of control. It is not unlike the portrayal previously mentioned of a small boy named Eustace in Lewis"s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace repeatedly ripped off his dragon skins (his weakness of pride) on his own accord, but found that there was always another layer underneath. It took Aslan"s claws to completely tear the dragon skins from Eustace to give him the freedom life. I am reminded of Paul writing to the Romans about his spiritual battle. Though he was no longer a slave to the law of the flesh, it still waged war within him. He was a fleshly man seeking to follow the Spirit living in him. The watchful dragons of our fleshly self, namely pride, keep much from penetrating our spiritual self Lewis" writings are a tool that can be used to grasp the inner spiritual soul past the watchful dragons. Though I am being set free from my eating disorder, the watchful dragons in my life are always building up new areas of resistance and seeking to preserve control over different aspects of my life. Lewis" writings, such as The Great Divorce, serve as a constant pathway to my soul, to remind me of the joy and freedom available in complete submission. Because I am human, I will always have my watchful dragons. Because I have my watchful dragons, I will always have the ability to become callused and resistant to complete freedom. As long as I am human, I will at times struggle with the vices of the fleshly world. As long as I have vices, I will continually have to crucify them for the Lord. Thank God for the writings ofC.S. Lewis, that are able to penetrate watchful dragons, expose vices, and reveal the true joy of freedom in Christ.

53 Old Poet Remembered: A Case for the Poetry of C. S. Lewis by David W. Landrum

Years ago when I was an undergraduate, I poetry, and perhaps to see it through new heard a lecture on C. S. Lewis by a scholar eyes. who had done a dissertation on him. At the Lewis published poetry throughout his life. beginning of his talk he said, "The first thing I Some of the works in Collected Poems were read by Lewis was his poetry, and I did not contained in Pilgrim's Regress and other like it at all." He later discovered the science largely prose works; some were found written fiction trilogy and the Narnia books and went in books or on scraps of paper amid Lewis' on to become a Lewis scholar, but apparently personal artifacts; but many were published in the poetry still did not rate very highly with some of the leading literary magazines of the him. More recently, several members of a day. If the poetry he wrote was of low Lewis discussion group in which I participate quality, apparently some editors were not that all came to the same conclusion: C. S. Lewis' discerning. Walter Hooper lists The poetry is not very good, they said. Over and Cambridge Magazine, The Oxford Magazine, over I have heard this estimation of his Punch, Time and Tide, Nine: A Magazine of poetical endeavors. All of this is puzzling and Poetry and Criticism, Mandrake, New English dismaying because through the years I have Weekly, The Cherwell, as some of the found the poetry-and here I refer to the publications in which Lewis' poems appeared. 1 Collected Poems and not so much to or It has been my experience with editors of -is some of the best poetry magazines that they include only the literature Lewis has written. I have found it best. They are inundated with verse of an academically challenging, brilliantly amateur, pedestrian nature by novice poets or articulated, and personally edifying. Yet few poets with no talent. They unendingly take the share a similar opinion. In this short essay, I wheat and not the chaff due to the fact that would like to speculate a bit on this state of their periodical's reputation for excellence is affairs and perhaps offer some encouragement always on the line. That editors accepted for those who enjoy Lewis to take a look at his Lewis' poetry, that some of the best magazines

54 A Case for the Poetry ofC.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum of the day included it in their pages, is and Stephane Mallarme in "A Confession" to evidence of its very high quality. So when the allusions to Pascal, Herodotus and many today say that Lewis' poetry is not very Sennacherib in "Sonnet." Educational good poetry I tend to believe what they really emphases have changed so that classical mean is that it does not seem to speak to them, studies are often not a part of one's education. is not enjoyable, strikes few responsive notes We tend to be less widely read today than was in their experience, and does not generally do the literary audience of Lewis' time. Often his for them the things that we expect poetry to numerous references to myth, literature, do. criticism, history, confuse us and leave us Several reasons bring this reaction about. wondering at his plethora of allusions. A requirement for publication in such high­ The poetry is also highly intellectual. I quality journals as The Oxford Magazine or once debated a very well-educated pastor Time and Tide would be a high degree of fiiend of mine on the merits of Lewis' poetry. cultural literacy. This is certainly found in He disliked it, he said, and much preferred the Lewis' poetry, and is perhaps one of this poetry contained in Tolkien' s writings. I was things that makes it inaccessible to many greatly puzzled by this, since the poems today. A poem like "Pindar Sang" assumes we embedded in The Hobbit and The Lord of the know something about Greek poetry, Pindaric Rings hardly resemble poetry at all to me but Odes, Greek mythology, the history of the seem like cute little ditties that might be sung Mediterranean peoples, the philosophies and to the accompaniment of a banjo or penny morality of the ancient Dorian culture; or whistle. It was just this quality, however, that witness the opening lines to "The Prodigality he valued in it: it was lyrical and had "music," of Firdausi": as he put it. I have heard many through the years complain that Lewis' poetry lacks music, Firdausi the strong Lion among poets, is not lyrically appealing, and somehow seems lean of purse devoid of the charm and fun found in other And lean with age, had finished his forms of poetry. August mountain of verse, Finally, Lewis' poetry, like his literary The great Shah Nameh gleaming­ criticism, is intellectually formidable. It glaciered with demon wars, requires a high degree of concentration to read Bastioned with Rustem's bitter labours and calls for a muster of each person's verbal, and Isfendiyar' s, linguistic, historical, and cultural expertise. Shadowed with Jamshid's grief and Usually, it cannot be read quickly and lightly. glory as with eagle's wings, I would say oflhand that this is a quality of Its foot-hills dewy-forested with the most good poetry, but at the same time many amours of kings ... (21) today find such writing too difficult to be worth their time-and with Lewisians, this is Many today would not know who Firdausi especially true because so much genuinely was or what was the Shah Nameh. The other enjoyable, accessible, readable material by C. exotic names in the lines would be lost as S. Lewis is so readily available. One does not well. Examples like this could be multiplied, usually pick up The Allegory of Love for from references about the poems ofT. S. Eliot

55 A Case for the Poetry ofC.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum leisure reading or as days. The poem goes on to develop other something to read to the children at night. To similes: love is as fierce as fire, love is as fresh a degree, the same is true of the poetry. The as Spring, love is as hard as nails, each idea effort required to read it discerningly is developed with a similar imaginative touch, considerable. each connecting the particular dynamic of tears All of the above are perhaps barriers to the with more universal truths and with the enjoyment of Lewis' poetry, but all can operations of the Creator. certainly be gotten around, and I do not think The same accessibility is apparent in "Late such a process would require any sort of Summer": specialized training. The poetry found in I, dusty and bedraggled as I am, Collected Poems, and even in Spirits in Pestered with wasps and weeds and Bondage and Dymer, can bring the same sorts making jam, of emotional and intellectual rewards found in Blowsy and stale, my welcome long other of Lewis' writing. The literary and outstayed, cultural barriers the poems seem to present are Proved false in every promise that I by no means insurmountable. made, First of all, not every poem in Lewis' At my beginning I believed, like you, poetic oeuvre is obscure or difficult Not all Something would come of all my green contain references that require a knowledge of and blue. history and literature. Some in fact do have Mortals remember, looking on the the qualities oflyricism that we so value today. thing "Love's As Warm As Tears" is a good I am, that I, even I, was once a spring. example of a Lewis poem that is simple, (104) charming, yet profound: Those with a basic competency in reading Love's as warm as tears, poetry (most who would read a volume of Love is tears: poems) will readily appreciate the Pressure within the brain, personification of summer and the allegorical Tension in the throat, extension of late summer's nature to human Deluge, weeks of rain, experience. Many such poems-poems that Haystacks afloat, require no specialized knowledge beyond the Featureless seas between knowledge of how to read a poem-are to be Hedges, where once was green. ( 123) found in Lewis' poetry. "Narnian Suite," "The Future ofForestry," "On Being Human," and The meaning of the lines should be many others in the volume of Collected Poems apparent to anyone who has cried. The are like this. It is perhaps a pity that most of metaphors, however, take the concrete the poems beginning the volume are a bit language of what happens when we cry, literary. "A Confession," "A Cliche Came Out pressure and tension in the throat, to how we Of Its Cage," "Pindar Sang," are all near the often feel in times of great sorrow or emotion: beginning, all require some specialized a flood something like the deluge of Noah's academic knowledge to fully understand, and possibly turn some readers away due to this

56 A Case for the Poetry ofC.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum fact. But there are many poems that are One could also easily discern that Pindar accessible to anyone who reads and enjoys was a poet, that in this particular poem he is poetry. reciting before an audience and has a chorus of What about those poems that require a young men dancing as he recites the poem. A knowledge of history or literature to fully handy copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology understand? When I first read "The would easily identifY the many mythological Prodigality of Firdausi," quoted earlier, I did stories and characters the poem mentions. An not have the background to identifY his encyclopedia would supply background on references. I did not know who Firdausi was, who Pindar was and perhaps upon his cultural what the Shah Nameh was, who were Jamshid milieu. Reading the poem can be educational. and Isfendiyar. Yet the first stanza makes it The same is true of many other Lewis poems. obvious that Firdausi was a poet, that the Shah The poetry can also be enlightening to Nameh was the poem he wrote, that the names those who are very familiar with the fiction mentioned are characters in that poem. One and prose works of C. S. Lewis for the simple discerns that the poem must have been epic in reason that the poems he wrote often nature since it deals with war and the "amours exemplifY, condense, essentialize · his basic of kings." One gets a sense that it was not ideas. If one is familiar with , only massive but dignified and stately since it a poem like "The Planets" will cover familiar is called an "August" mountain of verse, and is territory and can be something of a gloss, an referred to as "the great" Shah Nameh explanatory text, that will enhance a reading of Subsequent trips to an encyclopedia of world the science fiction trilogy. If one remembers literature confirmed all of this, but in fact I the emphasis on language contained in the don't think any research would have been science fiction, especially in That Hideous necessary to have enjoyed the poem (though it Strength, "The Birth of Language" will clarifY did enhance my appreciation of it). The poem what may be a bit obscure in the novel. "A explains enough that one could enjoy it Confession" sheds light on the talk of "stock without being an expert on Persian or Islamic responses" in The Abolition ofMan. The list literature. So it is with most of Lewis' could be expanded greatly. historical or literary poetry. The manner in which Lewis' philosophical Even a complex poem like "Pindar Sang" notions are often plain and apparent in the has a great deal to offer. Even if one did not poetry may be illustrated in detail by taking a know the historical backgrounds or the many close look "The Salamander": references to myth contained in the poem, lines like the following could still speak to a reader: I stared into the fire; blue waves Of shuddering heat that rose and fell, Take the god's favour when it comes. And blazing ships and blinding caves, Now from one quarter, now Canyons and streets and hills of hell; From another, the wing' d weathers Then presently amidst it all ride above us. Not for long, I saw a living creature crawl. If it grows heavy with goodness, will fortune remain good. (16)

57 A Case for the Poetry of C.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum

Forward it crept and pushed its snout viewpoints. The idea that space is an empty, Between the bars, and with sad eyes barren expanse of nothingness is a thoroughly Into my quiet room looked out, modem view, and a view that Lewis disputed. As men looked out upon the skies; He took the older view that earth was the And from its scalding throat there dregs of the universe and that beyond its limits came a faint voice hissing like a flame: was the joyous cosmos, playground of benign 'This is the end, the stratosphere, spirits, zone of celestial influence. Ransom The rime of the world where all life experiences this in Out of the Silent Planet dies, when he embarks in Weston's space ship. He The vertigo of space, the fear experiences a new vigor and strength. He is Of nothingness; before me lies guardedly told by Weston that this is the effect Blank silence, distances untold of certain "rays" that do not normally reach Of unimaginable cold. earth but were penetrating the space ship. Ransom, however, eventually realizes that it is 'Faint lights that fitfully appear the ebb and flow of a non-fallen environment Far off in that immense abyss that causes him to feel so healthy and vital. He Are but reflections cast from here, reflects in the following manner on what he There is no other fire but this, has discovered: This speck of life, this fading spark Nestled amid the boundless dark. [A] nightmare, long engendered in the modem mind by the mythology that 'Blind Nature's measureless rebuke follows in the wake of science, was falling To all we value, I received off him. He had read of "Space": at the Long since (though wishes bait the back of his thinking for years had lurked hook the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, With tales our ancestors believed) the utter deadness, which was supposed to And now can face with fearless eye separate the worlds. He had not known Negation's final sovereignty.' (72-73) how much it affect him till now--now that the very name "Space" seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean The salamander lives in the fire. Its of radiance in which they swam. 2 environment and, apparently, its own condition, are hellish. Yet when it looks out of its infernal world into the cozy, comfortable The attitude of modem human beings, like lodgings ("quiet room") of the narrator, this that of the salamander in the poem, is that their creature sees desolation, emptiness and own world is wonderful and ideal, when in fact vacancy. It believes its own realm of fire and it is rather hellish; that beyond their world is a heat is heaven, and the world outside is "the vast stretch of vacancy and deadness; and that abyss" beyond which is nothing and of which anyone who would see it otherwise is romantic it is foolish to believe anything supernal. and fondly deluded. What is discussed in the The poem embodies more than one of novel is also a theme in the poem, "The Lewis' cosmological and metaphysical Salamander," but in the poem it is expressed

58 A Case for the Poetry ofC.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum more succinctly and in language that is more earth stops; not only this, but the deadness compressed and dramatic. goes out through the entire solar system and Further, the idea of what hell is, of what the universe. For a moment it is as if all has constitutes the conditions of damnation, is died; the angels wonder if it is the end. What contained in "The Salamander." Lewis' idea has happened is that Christ has left heaven to of hell, advanced in works like The Great be born; his temporary abdication of his task of Divorce and The Problem ofPain, was that it "holding all things together" has just for a was metaphysical, not ethical; that is, one moment been relinquished, and the universe went there because of the condition of the goes dead. spirit, not for transgression of specific But not for long. Soon "the shock I Of commands and dictums. A person goes to hell returning life" corrects this; but there is because his or her state of being has become something unique and different in what returns turned away from God, hardened to him, out to once again enliven creation: of touch with the things of heaven. Hence, the people in hell, while they may not exactly like Then pulsing into space with delicate, where they are, at least know they belong dulcet pace there and end up opting to stay there. Heaven Came a music, infinitely small is too terrifying a place for those who have And clear. But it swelled and drew made themselves fit for hell. Their condition, nearer and held in fact, becomes rather like the mythical All worlds in the sharpness of its call ... creature in "The Salamander." A quiet, cozy Such a note as neither Throne nor room looks to the salamander like a cold Potentate had known barren place because it is so accustomed to its Since the Word first founded the abyss, own hellish environment of flame and fire. But this time it was changed in a mystery, Like damned souls, the salamander is content estranged, to live where it lives and to ridicule anyone A paradox, an ambiguous bliss. (50) who might say there is a desirable and comfortable world outside the limits of the furnace where he dwells. Like the modem According to Job, all the Sons of the skeptic, or the inhabitant of the infernal city, Morning (stars? angels?) sang for joy when the salamander has created a reality that the earth was created. This song is somewhat excludes everything outside its limits, making like that, but different: it is mysterious, it blind to the more voluble, pleasant world estranged, a paradox, an "ambiguous bliss." lying just beyond its own infernal The change is due to the incarnation, the fact neighborhood. that the Word has become flesh, a human One more example of this (though many being. could be illustrated) is the idea of the In Lewis' imaginative world, the incarnation in the poem "The Tum of the incarnation was a profound event that affected Tide." This long Christmas poem begins at not just the earth but the universe. It altered Bethlehem with a deadness and a stillness the manner in which we are able to perceive sweeping out from there and covering the God. A short discussion in That Hideous entire earth. For a moment, everything on Strength parallels the ideas set forth in the

59 A Case for the Poetry of C.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum above portion of the poem. In speaking of the Oyeresu, Ivy Maggs makes the following Not all the poems are as easy as the ones comment: listed in this article. Admittedly, some require "Do you know ... that's a thing I don't a very great knowledge of literature and quite understand. They're so eerie, these ones culture to comprehend. "The Ballade of Dead that come to visit you. I wouldn't go near that Gentlemen" ( 42) is one still beyond me. I part of the house if I thought there was know it is a parody of a poem called "The anything there, not if you paid me a hundred Ballade of Dead Ladies" by the French poet pounds. But I don't feel like that about God. Francios Villon about the famous femmes But He ought to be worse, if you see what I fatales of history. Lewis writes about famous mean." cuckolds and henpecked husbands in his poem. Ransom's reply is instructive: Still, I cannot identifY "Monsieur Cliquot, Mr. Tanqueray, Mr. Beeton," and many of the "He once was . . You are quite right other men he lists (I do know who Zebedee, about the Powers. Angels in general Mr. Grundy and the King of Sheba are); the are not good company for men in repeated line in French that forms the refrain, general, even when they are good "Mais ou sont messieurs /es maris?" has angels and good men. It's all in St. been translated "But where are those men, Paul. But as for Maleldil Himself, all those husbands?" by some of my students and that has changed: it was changed by colleagues. Still, there is so much obscure what happened at Bethlehem. "3 reference present that I probably cannot completely appreciate the poem fully. There The image of God that made Jacob call will be works in the Collected Poems that him "the Fear of his Father Isaac" (Genesis defy our knowledge. All the same, so many 31:53), the terror and apprehension of the other poems can be found that are enjoyable Divine, has been modified, changed, made into and understandable that I am willing to skip something sweet and ambiguous by the this one or put it off for another day. And I incarnation. The image of the incarnation hope someday to research the poem and presented in "The Tum of the Tide" thus enhances one's appreciation for the discover who all these very interesting intergalactic implications the incarnation husbands were. presents in the space trilogy. In the very The poetry of C. S. Lewis is rich and moving ending of the poem, after life has varied and can provide a wealth of knowledge returned and the creatures of earth and beings and can greatly enhance our understanding of throughout the universe are dancing in his other works. Lewis' original ambition was celebration: to be a poet, and though he succeeded much more as a writer of prose, his love of poetry is So death lay in arrest. But at quite evident throughout his work. He wrote Bethlehem the bless' d many poems, interestingly, about poets, such Nothing greater could be heard as "The Prodigality of Firdausi," "Pindar Than a dry wind in the thorn, the cry of Sang," "To Andrew Marvell," and some the One new-born, poems about poetry like "A Confession" and And cattle in the stall as they stirred.(51) "Old Poets Remembered." This is an area of

60 A Case for the Poetry ofC.S. Lewis • David W. Landrum

C. S. Lewis' writing that has been largely neglected, both by readers and critics. The time has come for this state to be corrected and for Lewis to be appreciated as a poet.

Notes

1 C.S. Lewis, Collected Poems, ed. Walter Hooper. New York: Harcourt/Brace, 1964, pp. 139-42. All subsequent references will be included in the text of the article. 2 C.S. Lewis Out of the Silent Planet. New York: Macmillan, 1965. 3 C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength. New York: Macmillan, 1946, p. 262.

61 Human Destiny in C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength by Wilfred Martens

Readers generally consider the third novel ofEdgestow is host to the National Institute of of the trilogy different from the other two. Coordinated Experiments (NICE). Opposed to Even Lewis had different perspectives on his this group is a community of humans and second and third novels. George Sayer notes in animals who live in a large house in the hilltop Jack: A Life of C S. Lewis that Pere/andra village of St. Anne's. Their leader is Ransom. was "the space-travel novel he [Lewis] liked These are the forces and settings which best and of all his books the one most provide Lewis with a structure that conveys essentially his own" (297). The same year as the theme of human destiny, a theme which the publication of Perelandra, Lewis wrote in has been developed in the preceding novels. a letter to E. R Eddison that he had begun Human beings choose their destiny; the choice another novel; he had written "300 sheets and leads either to life or death, heaven or hell. come to the uncomfortable conclusion that it The theme of human destiny is conveyed in is all rubbish." The author's self-deprecatory the third novel through the protagonists, Mark comment belies the nature of That Hideous and Jane Studdock, young newlyweds who are Strength as a complex and highly unified suffering marital difficulties. The manner in novel. which the theme is developed is via symbols Yet in spite of its differences That Hideous which are integrally related to the values, Strength is an integral part of the trilogy. It is beliefs, and dreams of these two characters. an apocalyptic novel which culminates the The idea of using symbols to develop a earlier confrontations between Ransom and theological doctrine is not unusual to Lewis. In Weston in the great battles between the forces his essay "Is Theology Poetry?" he notes the of good and evil. In contrast to the two similarity between the two: "Theology preceding novels, Lewis brings the readers certainly shares with poetry the use of down to earth, to England, to demonstrate metaphorical or symbolical language" (85). that, like the distant worlds of Venus and The archetype which reflects human Mars, the silent planet is a place of contending destiny is the universal symbol of water. In the forces as well. Here too the natural and third novel this archetype is expressed in a supernatural exist side by side. Lewis provides variety of symbols and images including settings with which he was familiar: the swamp, river, well, and a related symbol, academic world and the Christian community. bridge. Water is a common archetypal symbol, Bracton College in the English university town yet its ubiquitous presence in literature past

62 Human Destiny in That Hideous Strength • Wilfred Martens and present does not diminish its significance The river Wynd runs through Edgestow, in the trilogy. For example, Perelandra is a bisecting the campus of Bracton College and planet of water-oceans and islands. It is Bragdon Wood, a remnant of ancient forest paradisal and feminine in concept. Malacandra, owned by the College. NICE has plans to on the other hand, has little water. It has been purchase Bragdon Wood and adjoining impacted by evil men from Earth. It has properties in order to build a large scorched dry deserts and only a few oasis-like headquarters and science experimentation valleys. It is masculine in concept. The third center. The proximity of the river to the Wood novel brings the two gender concepts together makes the ground under the Wood unstable in the protagonists, a husband and wife, for building and creates swampy areas on the inhabitants of the silent planet which was once surface. In order to correct this problem NICE paradisal before the fall. These protagonists plans to divert the river in another direction. are conveyers of the eschatological doctrine of By realigning the topography NICE will cause human destiny, and it is via archetypal symbols the river to flow into and through a nearby that the pattern is developed. valley, thus creating a new reservoir for the Carl Jung notes in Symbols of expanded needs of Edgestow. A major Transformation that the archetype of water consequence of this redirection is the has dualistic associations of both life and inundation of Cure Hardy, a small village in death. In his essay "Symbols of the Mother the valley; the Edenic setting will be forever and of Rebirth" he states: lost in order to accommodate the science experiments of NICE. In an unpublished The maternal significance of water is doctoral dissertation, Robert Martin notes the one of the clearest interpretations of relationship of the river as symbol to Mark and symbols in the whole field of Jane: "Wynd is meant to suggest 'wind,' a mythology, so that even the ancient word associated with the medieval idea of Greeks could say that 'the sea is the 'spirit' through the ancient unities of the symbol of generation.' From water Hebrew roach and the Greek pneuma . ... " comes life; hence, of the two (332). If one combines Jung's association of who here interest us most, Christ and archetypal river with life and death, and Mithras, the latter is represented as Martin's association with Spirit, the Wynd having been born beside a river, while river takes on eschatological significance in Christ experienced his 'rebirth' in the relationship to the characters Jane and Mark Jordan .... All living things rise, like Stud dock. the sun, from water, and sink into it Jane's association with the Wynd is again at evening. Born of rivers, lakes, developed largely through her association with and seas, man at death comes to the Mr. and Mrs. Dimble. In an opening scene in waters of the Styx, and there embarks the first chapter Jane meets her friends, Dr. on the 'night sea journey.' Those black Cecil and 'Mother' Margaret Dimble, while waters of death are the water of life, shopping in Edgestow. Dr. Dimble, a Fell ow in for death with its cold embrace is the Literature of Northumberland College in the maternal womb, just as the sea devours University of Edgestow, is a Christian and a the sun but brings it forth again (218). friend of Ransom. He had been Jane's tutor

63 Human Destiny in Thai Hideous Strength • Wilfred Martens during her last years as an undergraduate. He negative meanings. For example, two of the has a deep knowledge of Arthurian legend. His Narnian tales also include bridges, but with wife is known as "Mother" Dimble, a faculty two different meanings. A positive association wife who served as an "unofficial aunt" to is suggested in The Voyage ofDawn Treader. women students in her home. She is a childless The children are returning from Narnia to their woman who takes a special interest in Jane. world, but they wish to go with Asian to his After their shopping is completed they invite world (heaven): Jane home for lunch; the Dimbles live in "Oh, Asian," said Lucy. "Will you tell college housing near the river and adjoining us how to get into your country from Bragdon Wood. our world?" The Dimbles are directly affected by the "I shall be telling you all the time," said Wynd. The underground seepage and the Asian. "But I will not tell you how swampy areas create a setting which allows for long or short the way will be; only that residential homes but not larger structures for it lies across a river. But do not fear educational or commercial purposes. Only that, for I am the great Bridge Builder. when the wetlands are dry can the land be And now come; I will open the door in reclaimed for new construction. Therefore, the sky and send you to your own NICE plans to evict the Dimbles from their land" (VDT, 215). home in order to purchase the Wood and adjoining properties for its grand scheme. But Asian is a positive bridge; he provides a because of her relationship with the Dimbles, connection between earth and heaven. He Jane is also affected by the river and the plans serves as a bridge which leads to the kingdom ofNICE. She is treated as a family member by of Narnia, a place of joy, peace, and life. But the Dimbles, who draw her into the Company in The bridge takes on another of St. Anne's. Margaret Dimble is a mother­ meaning. It is described as something negative, figure and Cecil Dimble serves as a source of a chain that limits the power of the river god. trust, wisdom, and advice for Jane. These The children, accompanied by Asian and a persons oppose the plans of NICE, which they variety of creatures, come to a river: later learn include changes more far-reaching They turned a little to the right, raced and evil than merely evicting families from down a steep hill, and found the long their homes and wiping out a nearby village. bridge of Beruna in front of them. Bridge is another symbol associated with Before they had begun to cross it, the archetypal river and thus with the theme of however, up out of the water came a human destiny. Several bridges appear in the great wet. bearded head, larger than a novel, but the most prominent bridge is one man's, crowned with rushes. It looked with which Mark is frequently associated as he at Asian and out of its mouth a deep walks from Bracton College to Bragdon voice came. Wood, a covered wooden bridge across the "Hail, Lord," it said. "Loose my Wynd river. It is this bridge which provides chains." access from the university to the Wood, "Who on earth is that?" whispered Susan. property which NICE later acquires for its "I think it's the river-god, but hush," said plans. Bridge as symbol can have positive or

64 Human Destiny in That Hideous Strength • Wilfred Martens

Lucy. notion when she says to her husband, "What "Bacchus," said Asian. "Deliver him you were saying reminded me more of the bit from his chains." in the Bible about the winnowing fan. "That means the bridge, I expect," Separating the wheat and the chaff. Or like thought Lucy. And so it did. Browning's line: 'Life's business being just the terrible choice. "'(THS, 284). The "terrible The bridge falls apart and disappears into choice," a phrase from Browning's lhe Ring the swirling waters. The river-god is freed and and the Book, consists of making a "With much splashing, screaming, and laughter commitment to Ransom's plan, a plan to the revelers waded or swam or danced across destroy NICE before it destroys the world. the ford ... and up the bank on the far side The relationship of the symbols associated and into the town" (PC, 193). In one tale, the with water to the two communities in the bridge represents hope and life; in the other novel reflects Lewis's position that the destiny tale it restrains and imprisons; it must be of the natural world is closely related to the destroyed. In the third novel of the trilogy, the destiny of human beings. In Miracles he symbol of the bridge also conveys dualistic indicates that it is God's desire that all human meanings depending upon its relationship to beings choose and enjoy a new life, a new characters and groups, in particular to Jane human nature. But it is not only human nature and St. Anne's, and Mark and NICE. that will be remade; the natural world will also The Wynd river is a river of destiny and be redeemed. "It is the picture of a new human the bridge which crosses it offers a choice. In nature, and a new Nature in general, being That Hideous Strength the two groups, St. brought into existence. . . . That is the Anne's and NICE, clearly represent the two picture-not of unmaking but of remaking. the options. To Jane, the Dimbles, and the others, old field of space, time, matter, and the senses the Wynd river is a natural river. To this group is to be weeded, dug, and sown for a new the river reflects the words of the ancient crop. We may be tired of that old field: God is prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament, "And not" (149). wherever the river goes every living creature Lewis encourages an attitude of respect, will live .... so everything will live where the even reverence of the natural world, as long as river goes" (Ezekiel 47: 9). In opposing the it does not result in worship of nature. Jane diversion of the river in an unnatural and and Company manifest a respect for nature. destructive direction they implicitly affirm its They attempt to understand why NICE is so natural course. The bridge leads to life. intent on acquiring Bragdon Wood and come Conversely, to Mark and the NICE group, the to the conclusion that the area is desirable river is merely a natural barrier to their selfish because of its "spiritual" history. For Jane and plan. It matters little that its diversion will dry her friends the Merlin legend recalls good up Bragdon Wood and inundate the entire spirits, good magic. For the NICE group this village of Cure Hardy. It reflects human choice history is perceived as a dark and evil spiritual which leads to destruction. The bridge leads to history and therefore desirable for its purposes. death. The legend of Merlin recalls evil spirits, black To Lewis, choice is an essential part of magic. As Dimble observes, "Of course they human destiny. Mrs. Dimble reflects this hoped to have it both ways. They thought the

65 Human Destiny in That Hideous Strength • Wilfred Martens old magia of Merlin, which worked in with the Mark, however, is not destroyed in the spiritual qualities of Nature, loving and decimation of Belbury. Before he commits reverencing them and knowing them from himself unequivocably to the plan of Bel bury within, could be combined with the new he makes an important decision. As he goeteia-The brutal surgery from without" witnesses the chaotic tumult at the final (THS, 285-286). But Bragdon Wood also has Belbury banquet, he receives a note sent by a legendary association with Logres, a time Denniston advising him to escape Edgestow and country associated with Christian values and go quickly to St. Anne's. With and a premodern attitude toward nature. encouragement from Merlin he makes a "Dimble and he [Ransom] and the Dennistons choice: "Next moment he found himself shared between them a knowledge of running as he had never run since boyhood; Arthurian Britain which orthodox scholarship not in fear, but because his legs would not will probably not reach for some centuries. stop. When he became master of them again he They knew that Edgestow lay in what had was half a mile from Belbury" (THS, 352). been the very heart of ancient Logres ... and Shortly thereafter he joins his wife and his that a historical Merlin had once worked in destiny is changed. what was now Bragdon Wood" (THS, 200). As a representative of St. Anne's To the St. Anne's Company , Bragdon Wood Company, Jane lives with respect and in is a source of potential good; from it emerge harmony with nature. She experiences a the Christian values of Merlin. change in attitude and finally accepts a belief in In its efforts to change the course of the God, a new perspective on the world. It is the river of destiny, NICE makes a choice to take world which Lewis describes in his essay "The control of human destiny. For the people of Laws of Nature." The laws of nature, he Belbury the choice reflects their desire to be explains, are behind events which occur but agents of evil who control the world according are not the cause. Behind the chain of events, to their standards. As Dimble states, "After and behind the laws is a source which nature him [Merlin] came the modem man to whom does not identify: Nature is something dead-a machine to be The dazzling, obvious conclusion now worked, and taken to bits if it won't work the arose in my mind: in the whole history way he pleases. Finally, come the Belbury of the universe the laws of Nature people, who take over that view from the have never produced a single event. modem man unaltered and simply want to They are the pattern to which every increase their power by tacking onto it the aid event must conform, provided only of spirits-extra-natural, anti-natural spirits" that it can be induced to happen .... (THS, 285). After the river is diverted, the But the actual existence of the chain world of Belbury is characterized by the dry [of events] will remain wholly Bragdon Wood, a world without life. The unaccountable. We learn more and bridge connects Bragdon College with a sterile more about the pattern. We learn desert. NICE has made its choice, and that nothing about that which 'feeds' real choice results later in its apocalyptic events into the pattern. If it is not God, destruction. The river of NICE is a river of we must at the very least call it death which ends in hell.

66 Human Destiny in That Hideous Strength • Wilfred Martens

Destiny-The immaterial, ultimate, one-way pressure which keeps the energy and beauty spurting up at the very universe on the move" (78-79). centre of reality. If you are close to it, The spray will wet you: if you are not, you will The laws of nature do not in themselves remain dry". (MC, 137). produce events; they are the pattern to which every event must conform. And it is God who Works Cited feeds events into that pattern. It is such a God­ Lewis, C.S. lhe Allegory of Love. London: centered view of the universe which Ransom Oxford University Press, 1959. and the Company of St. Anne's share. Thus __ God in the Dock. Grand Rapids: their respect of, and their desire to live in William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, harmony with, nature. Jane's conversion is 1970. described like a person crossing a bridge from Letter to E.R. Eddison. 29 April 1943. a desert to a garden: "But they were changed. MS Eng Letters C/220/20, Ms. 64. A boundary had been crossed. She had come Oxford: Bodleian Library. into a world, or into a Person, or into the Miracles. New York: Macmillan presence of a Person" (THS, 318). Earlier Publishing Co, 1978. Mark had noticed changes in his wife as she Prince Caspian. New York: continued her association with Ransom's Macmillan, 1973. group. "She seemed to him, as he now thought __ That Hideous Strength. New York: of her, to have in herself deep wells and knee­ Macmillan Publishing Co, 1965. deep meadows of happiness, rivers of Voyage of lhe Dawn Treader. New freshness, enchanted gardens ofleisure, which York: Macmillan Publishing Co, 1973. he could not enter but could have spoiled. She The Weight of Glory. New York: was one of those other people ... like the Macmillan Publishing Co, 1980. Dimbles-who could enjoy things for their Jung, CJ. Symbols ofTran.iformation. 2nd ed. own sake" (THS, 247). The choice ofJane to Vol. 2. Princeton: Princeton University live in harmony with God and nature results in Press, 1976. a world of water--rivers, wells, meadows, Martin, Robert Edwin. "Myth and Icon: The gardens. Her new perspective is largely the Cosmology of C.S. Lewis' 'Space result of the influence of Ransom who Trilogy."' Diss. Florida State U, 1991. appropriately declares, "I have become a Sayer, George. Jack.- A Life of C.S. Lewis. bridge" (THS, 29 1). London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Human destiny is the result of choice. As Lewis states in Mere Christianity: "If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not the sort of prizes which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of

67 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect by Roger Phillips

Dorothy Sayers writes: catchy phrase that came readily to hand from Dorothy's years with Benson's advertising [W]here the intellect is dominant it agency? Even though Barbara Reynolds uses becomes the channel of all the other the phrase as the title for her book, the last feelings. The 'passionate intellect' is sentence of the book expresses a reluctance to really passionate. It is the only point at appropriate it as valid. which ecstasy can enter. I do not What is certain is that Dorothy Sayers' know whether we can be saved encounter with Dante the poet was an affair of through the intellect, but I do know the heart, or, as she would have preferred, of that I can be saved by nothing else. I the passionate intellect. (Reynolds, Passionate know that, if there is judgement, I shall 220) have to be able to say: "This alone, It seems that Barbara Reynolds would Lord, in Thee and in me have I never merely equate "passionate intellect" with "an betrayed, and may it suffice to know affair of the heart." E. L. Mascall, on the and love and choose Thee after this other hand, uses the phrase to enlarge on the manner, for I have no other love, or sensibilities of the intellect, knowledge, or choice in me. (Coomes 206) She is absolutely right in insisting that the intellect can be passionate, that The phrase "passionate intellect" has an through it we can be in love and that it immediate attraction to it. Biographers and can be the point at which ecstasy reviewers have been drawn to it. Barbara enters. This can be true on the purely Reynolds uses it as the main title for her work natural level, as every pure on Dorothy L. Sayers and Dante (The mathematician knows; it can be true on Passionate Intellect: Dorothy L. Sayers' the supernatural level as well. Encounter with Dante). David Coomes (Mascall 11} entitles one of his chapters "The Passionate Intellect" in Dorothy L. Sayers: A Careless Dorothy's Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Rage for Life and "Mysteries of a Passionate have the following discussion in Gaudy Night: Intellect," the title of a review of his work, focuses on this phrase. (Maitland) But does "Should the people with brains sit tight this phrase have real content or is it merely a and let the people with hearts look after

68 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

them?" Deuteronomy omits "mind," Matthew omits "They frequently do." "strength" though argument could be made "So they do. But what are you going that these are subsumed by the other terms.) to do about the people who are cursed Though we as persons are one, it is sometimes with both hearts and brains?" convenient to think of ourselves in parts. With "Well, that's just the problem, isn't it? respect to heart, soul, mind and strength I'm beginning to believe they've got to individuals may manifest more of one aspect choose." than another. A person whose only avenue to "Not compromise?" Christianity is through television may have a "I don't think the compromise works." great heart love for God, but exhibit little of "Compromise is in my blood. mind or strength. A theologian might have a However. Should you catalogue me as a great mind directed often to the things of God heart or a brain?" and pour out his strength in serving his Lord, "Nobody," said Harriet, "could deny but may exhibit little emotion in the process. your brain." Dorothy would have little use for "Who denies it? And you may deny emotionalism with minimal intellectual input. my heart, but I'm damned if you shall deny Likewise the theologian would come under fire its existence." (Sayers Gaudy 66) were he to make Christ boring. In some simulation games different Is the phrase "passionate intellect" one that characters are assigned various values to does away with the curse of having both heart indicate how well they will do in different and brains by denying that one has a heart? In situations in the game. For example, a her mature years Dorothy stated "I am quite particular warrior may be rated on a scale of incapable of religious emotion. But the lack of 1-5 for such attributes as courage, intelligence, religious emotion in me makes me impatient of strength, etc. He might be assigned a 3 for it in other people, and makes me appear cold courage, a 4 for intelligence, a I for strength and unsympathetic and impersonal. This is and these would indicate how he would do true. I am." (Brabazon 262) The context is against a warrior of different ratings. If a important here so that too much is not read similar rating could be done in actuality based into these statements. If an interviewer from on loving God with heart, soul, mind, and the BBC were to approach Dorothy saying strength, it would find most of us with mixed that they had heard she was "cold and ratings and with mid-range scores at best. unsympathetic and impersonal," I think that And our daily lives would draw on one or the Dorothy would be offended. On the other other of these aspects of our beings. But some hand, if an enthusiastic worshiper had just activities might draw upon all aspects-singing finished a third lap around the church in one of hymns, if one thinks about the words one is the more exuberant worship services and said, singing, might be one of these activities. "You appear cold and unsympathetic and Dorothy L. Sayers loved singing the great impersonal," I would expect Dorothy to say, hymns of the faith. She, I think, was a rare "This is true. I am." individual who in the latter part of her life Scripture instructs us to love God with ranked at the highest level in loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Deut. 6:5, heart, soul, mind, and strength. Her literary Mt. 22:37, Mk. 12:30, Lk. 10:27. productions and speaking engagements

69 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips required a total commitment of her resources brought about a dramatic transformation. and these resources surpassed those of most Many people having grown up in the others. It is curious that she says that she household of faith can attest to nothing cannot come to God through her emotions. dramatic in their lives, but conversion in Her passionate, heart-felt defense of Scripture refers to turning from the things of Christianity is evident throughout her essays, this world to the things of God, and Dorothy plays, translation of Dante, etc. She was not a certainly exhibits that in most periods of her victim of emotionalism, but that is to her life. She goes through a period of questioning credit. I expect that she would have looked and doubt in her college years, as do many, but cold, unsympathetic and impersonal to a her letters evidence a continued love for Christ church I attended where the members ran and his church during this time. through the aisles and shouted, but where A friend of my wife's once spoke about there was neither decorum nor message. I Dorothy L. Sayers and how much she enjoyed don't expect that Dorothy spoke in tongues, Dorothy's detective stories, but she was rather but would she have played a tambourine? She sorry that Dorothy had become religious in her had the exuberance to carry it off. later years. It was as if she equated "becoming Sara Maitland stated that plausibly, "she religious" with an affliction of the elderly on a gave up on the life of the emotions and par with Alzheimer's disease. Dorothy gives an retreated into the intellect by way of oblique reference to such a charge against her self-protection." (Maitland) Dorothy may since, as she told one interviewer: "It would be have attempted that, but she failed. Her life well to discourage the idea that I am a writer and writings continually demonstrate a of mystery-fiction, who in middle age suddenly heart-felt love for God, his creation, and his 'got religion' and started to preach the gospel. church. Dorothy exhibits all aspects of love .. ; the truth is the exact contrary. I was a for God. She has her hero Peter Wimsey scholar of my college." (Harmon 4) singing exuberantly during a low church In another instance she wrote: service in Strong Poison and that is a reflection of her own exuberance. Dorothy It is over twenty years since I first read the states, at one point, words, in some forgotten book. I remember neither the name of the author, ... I am quite without the thing known as nor that of the saint from whose "inner light" or "spiritual experience." I meditations he was quoting. Only the have never undergone conversion. Neither statement itself has survived the accident God, nor (for that matter) angel, devil, of transmission: 'Cibus sum grandium; ghost or anything else speaks to me out of cresce, it manducabis Me' - "I am the food the depths of my psyche. (Brabazon 262) of the full-grown; become a man, and Thou shalt feed on me." ... I am glad to When she says that she has "never think, now, that it impressed me so undergone conversion" it may be that she is forcibly then, when I was still referring to the lack of an event in her life such comparatively young. To protest, when as Saul's conversion on the Damascus road one has left one's youth behind, against the where at one moment he was not a Christian prevalent assumption that there is no and the next moment the had salvation for the middle-aged is all very

70 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

well; but it is apt to provoke the mocking And Charles said, with usual prompt reference to the fox who lost his tail. understanding, that he had exactly the (Hone 31) same doubts about himself But this you must try to accept: when we say In 1939 (the date given for this quote) she "in love with the pattern", we mean in is hearkening back to a time "over twenty love. . . (Brabazon 263) years ago" of spiritual vitality which was dormant in the interim. To give my wife's But she goes on to a rather thrilling friend some credit, Dorothy's letters and declaration- literary productions do not bear evidence that she is a follower of Christ during this time I know that, if there is judgement, I period. Jesus in the parable of the sower shall have to be able to say: "This speaks of seed falling among thorns - they who alone, Lord, in Thee and in me, have I "are choked by life's worries, riches and never betrayed, and may it suffice to pleasure, and they do not mature." But thorns know and love and choose Thee after can die or be rooted out, and that may be the this manner, for I have no other love, case for Dorothy. Spiritual progress is often or knowledge, or choice in me." filled with peaks, valleys, and plateaus. That (Brabazon 263) may have been true for Dorothy. She certainly expresses times of self-doubt. In 1943 when Sara Maitland in her review of Coomes' she has an established reputation as an Dorothy L. Sayers: A Careless Rage for Life out-spoken defender of the Christian faith with states: her Canterbury productions and Man Born to be King behind her, she responded to William Sayers has been portrayed as a woman Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury whose faith was without emotional commitment, who merely enjoyed . . . that she would feel happy about theological controversy without any accepting such an honour if she were a real feelings ... An equally plausible better kind of Christian. Was she reading is that. .. she gave up on the really one at all? She mused. Or was life of the emotions and retreated into she only in love with an intellectual the intellect by way of self-protection. pattern? (Coomes 161) It seems worth noting, as Mr. Coomes does not, that until the birth of her In 1954 she would again refer to pattern child (who was raised by a cousin in and doubts she has a true faith in Christ: Oxford), she published poetry- much of it self-revealing, if sentimental. You said that I, and the rest of us, Thereafter, however, she turned first gave people the impression of caring to the detective novel and then to only for dogmatic pattern. That is polemic, doctrinal theology. quite true. I remember once saying to Charles Williams: "I do not know Dorothy may have tried, as Peter Wimsey whether I believe in Christ or whether would not allow, to deny her heart and the I am only in love with the pattern." phrase "passionate intellect" is both a

71 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips testimony to and against that. By linking except to sharpen the tongue and the passion so tightly to intellect she attempts to temper. . . (Reynolds Letters 9) deny that she has a heart and to vitiate any work her heart might do to trip her up. But by This last sentence Dorothy echoed enlisting the word passion at all testifies to the throughout her life. Here is another instance, heart. Wren-Lewis is correct that no one can written forty-seven years later: [B]ut I do approach reality wholly in terms of the loathe making the direct attack by way of intellect: argument and exhortation. It is ruinously bad for one's proper work.... Also it fosters an I frankly do not believe that anyone irritable and domineering spirit." (Reynolds approaches reality wholly in terms of Life 339) the intellect .. .I am quite sure it is the Later in her letter at age 14 she shows feelings and, at a later stage, the will, mature insight and a heart tuned to Christ: that are really important. (Maitland) I think you are a little apt to say, in Tracing Dorothy's walk of faith through effect; 'What this man did was an her literary productions and letters is offence against morality, it was instructive. When she is 13 she writes a very therefore wrong and inexcusable. I do mature letter to her cousin Ivy Shrimpton not care what excuse this person had. about her father's sermon on reconciling He did wrong; therefore he is a wicked science with the Bible and alludes to a person, and there is an end of it.' Dear conversation she had earlier with Ivy about old girl, get out of the way of thinking creation. She took theological themes that. It is terribly closely allied to seriously at an early age, had her own opinions Pharisaism, which, you know, is the about them, and was willing to discourse even one thing Our Lord was always so then, though this particular theme was not to down upon. And I think that this become a major preoccupation with her. attitude towards other people will At age 14 she responds to Ivy about a make you have fewer friends, because cousin oflvy's who is contemplating becoming they will be afraid of you. I shouldn't a Roman Catholic. She exhibits some like to feel, Ivy, that supposing some remarkable sensitivity and insight: time I sinned a great sin, that I should be afraid to come to you for he! p, only, I expect you will have to be very unless you would try to make careful about what you say. Converts allowances for me, I'm afraid I should. are usually very sensitive, and it is St. Paul says, as you heard this difficult to avoid offending them ... morning, 'Though I speak with the So, if your cousin should become a tongues of men and of angels and have R.C., I should humbly advise you, ifl not charity, I am become as sounding may (I speak as a fool) to accept the brass or a tinkling cymbal,' and I think position with a good grace and not to one phase of charity is making make a fuss or to make her feel allowances for other people's mistakes. uncomfortable. And, above all, don't try to argue. It never does any good, I have written all this in fear and

72 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

trembling, and even now, I dare hardly was a vital part of her life. Her letters often look back at what I have written. express appreciation for a particular religious Don't be angry. Try not. It's very musical selection. She sang in the choir at difficult to say these things. If you see Oxford. Singing is one of the human activities a person walking along on the extreme where love for God can be simultaneously verge of a precipice, and if you screw expressed to the utmost in heart, soul, mind, up your courage to go and warn him and strength (if one thinks about the words off, then to one he turns round and one is singing). On the other hand, snaps at you: 'Don't be officious.' confirmation classes chiefly challenge the mind Besides, upbraiding other people for though the bumper sticker I once observed on Pharisaism, looks so unpleasantly like campus could apply equally to confirmation the same sin in one's self that it is classes, "They can send me to college, but they rather like jumping into a bottomless can't make me think." Dorothy's letters as ditch to pull another person out. I compiled by Barbara Reynolds do not bear rather wish I hadn't mentioned the witness to any questions raised or issues subject. Shall I tear up the letter? No, encountered in her confirmation classes. One I think not, only, don't be angry, of her letters at this time refers to an argument please, because I don't want to lose my in one of her university classes about the souls best friend for that. Write as soon as of animals. Perhaps school was more you can, please, to tell me whether I stimulating than confirmation class. have or not. My motives and people's Dorothy had wanted her parents to come words are not always the same thing. to her confirmation service, but they did not. Her letters to her parents and cousin after the There! It's done! I've said it, and hated service sound more like she is a spectator than saying it, if that's any satisfaction to you. a participant. Her reference to her And now, dear brethren, we will have a confirmation is about the logistics, the decor, hymn. . . . (Reynolds Letters I 0) the clothes, the numbers of people there, but nothing of her personal reaction to it all. What When Dorothy is 15 - 16 and is sent away did she feel? We do not know. A postscript to school she gives the impression that on the letter to her parents says, "P. S. I never religious observances are a chore, but she is can write about my feelings - that's why I excited to hear something of the vitality of haven't." (Reynolds Letters 41) But her letter Christianity and that G. K. Chesterton is a and writings constantly reflect her feelings. Christian. She expects "that he is a very She is very much alive to the situations and cheerful one." (Reynolds Letters I 0) A people around. Joy, anger, excitement, positive heart emotion along with an boredom are readily expressed by Dorothy. intellectual commitment to Christianity were Shortly after the previous letter she writes important to young Dorothy. She is confirmed about the hymn " '0 God our Help' [as] at age 16. "She later said that this was against something too thrilling for words." (Reynolds her will but there is no sign of reluctance in her Letters 43) And I find myself singing it letters from school. . Her references to through in my mind to try and capture the thrill services in Salisbury Cathedral are Dorothy felt in this standard hymn of the faith. enthusiastic." (Reynolds Letters 3 5) Music Familiarity has dulled my appreciation, but

73 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

Dorothy reawakens that with her enthusiasm. in Man Born to be King and thereby brings a That ability continues to make her works new vision to us of Christ. exciting. Dorothy's letters with respect to Christian Dorothy's letters during her teen years faith seem rather tepid until a letter dated April evidence a person very comfortable in church 1913 to Catherine Godfrey (Dorothy is 19). and one who loves the church's musical Most letters until this point as chosen by heritage. She expresses, not surprisingly, Barbara Reynolds are to family members. preferences for individuals presenting the Dorothy may well not have written about Christian message. For certain expressions of matters offaith to them any more than I write Christianity she has no tolerance to my children about the fact that I was born in whatsoever-an aunt, Eleanor Sayers, attempts Detroit- they already know that. But this to interest Dorothy in the Christian Social letter shows Dorothy's power of intellect Union and its work in the London slums and turned toward theological issues along with an she is subjected to Dorothy's slashing pen for impassioned indictment of the Christian Union her efforts. (Reynolds Letters 66) about which she says she knows little. Later in life Dorothy will wonder if she is a Christian or one merely in love with the Dear Tony [Catherine Godfrey] pattern. An incident such as the one just referred to would seem to confirm her later Certainly not! pronouncement. Where is the Christian love? She later sees the aunt at church and flees from Speaking as a baptized and more or her, unrepentant of her destructive words. less educated member of the Catholic Dorothy has gone to church alone--an Church of Christ as in England by law evidence of her personal devotion, but. . . On established, certainly not! The C. U. is the other hand I am reminded of the Apostle no more a necessary corollary of Paul who authored both I Corinthians 13, the Christianity than the Inquisition. The love chapter, and passages vigorously only necessary products of Christianity denouncing spiritual but deluded individuals: are those which Christ appointed. He did not encourage misty theological The seeds for Man Born to be King discussion, but taught by authority and were sown at Oxford as evidenced by by example. The Early Christians did having read two Gospels with more the same. They met to pray and to attention than I had ever before given exhort. Thus the Catholic Church in to the subject, I came to the conclusion the Middle Ages. Discussion of beliefs that such a set of stupid, literal, and dogmas came in, I suppose, with pig-headed people never existed as the Renascence, but rested on the Christ had to do with, including the authority of the bible which had disciples. (Reynolds Letters 71) become overlaid with the authority of the Church. Many of us would not take the time to take a hard look at the people around Jesus, but it The C. U. appears to me more like a is just that hard look at the world in which product of Darwinism. Jesus walked that brings Christ's world to life

74 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

Yes-you must aggressively save poems. Dorothy begins Catholic Tales and souls, but you will never do it by Christian Songs as one who wishes to unprofitable argument. honorably serve her Lord:

I know little about the C. U. but it And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, seems to me from all I hear of it, to Hail, Master; and kissed Him. And Jesus begin from the wrong end. said until him, Friend ... Christianity rests on Faith, not Faith on Christianity. If you have Orthodoxy Jesus, if, against my will, you will see what I mean. . I have wrought Thee any ill, (Reynolds Letters 72) And, seeking but to do Thee grace, Have smitten Thee upon the face, Chesterton, the author of Orthodoxy, is If my kiss for Thee be not often cited in her letters and at one point she OfJohn, but oflscariot, laments, after hearing him speak in person, Prithee then, good Jesus, pardon "He is said to have just 'gone over to Rome'. As Thou once didst in the garden, I hope not, because if so we shall have fewer Call me "Friend," and with my crime books and different, I'm afraid. . " Build Thou Thy passion more sublime. (Reynolds, Letters 89) Another poem, "Christ the Companion," Chesterton's impact on Dorothy's life and portrays a love and respect for Christ. The thought would make an interesting study. questions raised may be rhetorical expecting a There is ample evidence that Dorothy "Yes" response, but the questions may have an applied her mind to Christian themes while at element of genuine doubt in them, particularly Oxford. At age 20 she is writing an allegory the question raised in the last two lines. That "distinctly Christian in tone." (Reynolds, poem is reproduced here: Letters 77) Six months later she writes to her parents warning them that her Oxford aunts CHRIST THE COMPANION may be writing to them concerned for her soul's well-being. It is a time of questioning When I've thrown my books aside, being and evaluation of the Christianity she has petulant and weary, received. "I'm worrying it out quietly, and And have turned down the gas, and the whatever I get hold of will be valuable, firelight has sufficed. because I've got it for myself .. " (Reynolds, When my brain's too stiff for prayer, and Letters 85) Dorothy did not "lose her faith" by too indolent for theory, going to college, though her aunts may have Will You come and play with me, big feared as much. While at Oxford she begins Brother Christ? writing the poems that are to appear in her Will You slip behind the book-case? Will first two publications, Op. I and Catholic Tales you stir the window curtain, and Christian Songs. A vital and vibrant Peeping from the shadow with Your eyes Christianity is portrayed in both of those like flame? volumes. The heart and mind of Dorothy L. Set me staring at the alcove where the Sayers are very much in evidence in her flicker's so uncertain,

75 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

Then, suddenly, at my elbow, leap up, poems are about Christ. Some people catch me, call my name? think it 'wonderful' and some think it Or take the great arm-chair, help me set 'blasphemous'. Of course, it may fall the chestnuts roasting, quite flat- but on the other hand, it is And tell me quiet stories, while the brown quite possible that some mugwumps skins pop, may object to it like anything. You Of wayfarers and merchantmen and tramp won't mind being the parents and aunt of Roman hosting, of a notoriety, if that should happen, And how Joseph dwelt with Mary in the will you? I can assure you that it is carpenter's shop? intended at any rate to be the When I drift away in dozing, will You expression of reverent belief- but softly light the candles some people find it hard to allow that And touch the piano with Your kind, faith, if lively, can be reverent - But I strong fingers, dare say, nobody will take any notice Set stern fugues of Bach and stately of it. Anyhow, it's jolly well got to be themes of Handel's published ... (Reynolds Letters 138) Stalking through the corners where the last disquiet lingers? Her excitement about the possibility of And when we say good-night, and You being controversial is evident, but it is her kiss me on the landing, desire that, "it is intended to be the expression Will You promise faithfully and make a of reverent belief .. " solemn tryst: The phrase "but some people find it hard You'll be just at hand if wanted, close by to allow that faith, if lively, can be reverent" here where we are standing, will find expression 20 some years later in And be down in time for breakfast, big essays such as "Creed or Chaos" and "The Brother Christ? Dogma is the Drama" where "pale curates" are Dorothy's letters from this time period find taken to task. As a side note, a letter to a her searching for a church in a new locale friend (Muriel Jaeger) about her poem "Dead upon graduation from Oxford; reveling in the Pan" in Catholic Tales is interesting as it sets music and the misadventures of the organ at forth what will be a major theme for Charles St. Mary's about a year later; and enjoying Williams, that of archetypes, and it also Bunyan's Holy War and Grace Abounding­ expounds on one of C. S. Lewis's later themes: Christian works that would be uncharted the enrichment of Christianity by reference to waters for most of humanity. myths. (Lewis viewed myth as "spilled The day after her twenty-fifth birthday religion.") Dorothy writes her parents to thank them for In an appreciation of the heart and mind of a monetary gift and she comments about the Dorothy L. Sayers her sense of humor must be soon to be published Catholic Tales. mentioned. A letter sent November 26, 1918, is signed, "Yours in love and mirth." I hope [my new book) won't horrifY (Reynolds Letters 144) The content of the you, but I'd better warn you about it! letter has to do with a rather serious subject, Basil is doing it and is very keen on it. "pre-Christian revelation to the heathen," but It is called Catholic Tales, and all the Dorothy has fun with it. Aspects of Dorothy's

76 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips life would make her a candidate for a tragic and he might also be counted as her figure, but her sense of humor displayed intellectual peer.) This is where the parable of throughout her life forestalls that the sower comes to mind. Dorothy "has the consideration. world by the tail." She is among the first Dorothy's poems in Catholic Tales are group of women to be granted degrees by lively. Dorothy enjoyed having a good time Oxford University. But in terms of her with fiiends and ideas, but she could enjoy Christian walk there are some disturbing items contemplative times as well. When she came in her letters. Letters to John Cournos are down with German measles she seizes the very self-denigrating, angry, and bitter. chance for a spiritual retreat: (Reynolds Letters 214,215,217,223) In her inner turmoil her reference to Christ is profane So being thus cut off from my work, rather than an appeal to a person who could be and not wanting to be a leper, I'm of value to her in her torment. (Reynolds going to seize this God-sent Le tiers 221) Her letters are extremely opportunity for doing what I wanted personal and are well-crafted expressions of very much to do, and going into her passion, but though Christ may "be just at Retreat for a few days. I'm getting so hand if wanted," he seems an intrusion now dusty and scuffling in the spiritual and is not wanted. Cousin Ivy writes to region I really thought I'd get time for Dorothy about having her son baptized. such a thing, but doubtless 'all is for Dorothy expresses concern that the parson the best,' as Laura Godfrey would say. doing the baptizing have a head as well as So I shall be at the Convent of the heart for Christianity and, "This is no longer a Holy Name, Newlands, Malvern from Christian country. The chances are that the Thursday to Tuesday, in case I'm boy will not want to be a Christian; if he does, urgently wanted. I'm going to cut it will be because he believes it, which is the clear away and have no letters sent on only good reason ... " (Reynolds Letters 306) or anything, and as for my controversy In the letters selected by Barbara Reynolds with Theodore Maynard in the New Dorothy does not display much concern for Witness, it can stew in its own juice her son's spiritual well-being. At one point she for a week. Controversy is bad for the writes to her son wishing him an enjoyable spirit, however enlivening to the wits. Christmas break, but there is nothing of the (Reynolds Letters 146) Christ of Christmas. But there may have been conversations or other letters. What happened at that retreat? Dorothy's Even during this dark time Dorothy Christianity seems to be shelved after that. indulges in a brief skirmish for biblical truth. Neither letters nor publications bear witness to To Eustace Barton she writes: heart or mind or strength devoted to Christian endeavor until the play Zeal Of Thy House is Anyway, this theory of yours sounds produced eighteen years later. In the interim good. I rather like 'an asymmetric several men are part of her life, none of whom agent became present on the face of appear to be followers of Christ and only one the globe' as a modern substitute for of whom seems her intellectual peer. (Peter the 'the Spirit of God moved upon the Wimsey makes his appearance during this time face of the waters', though it seems a

77 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

little lacking in literary charm (our son is welcomed home by his running father, scientists and religious argufiers might so is Dorothy. get a bit of fun out of this!) By the Dorothy doubts she is a Christian. I look way, what inspired those old birds who at her vibrant defense of Christianity and her wrote the bible and the other early avowed love and respect for Christ and say, accounts to guess that life did start "How can that be?" Two possibilities come to from the waters? That always beats mind for me. She states that the only "inner me. It was all far too far away and light" she has is of "the unendearing form of long ago for them to have had a racial judgment and conviction of son." Well, she memory of it, and it's not the kind of may have looked at herself, realized that she thing that's obvious on the face of it. was at times impatient, unkind, rude, easily And yet they got extraordinarily near angered-traits antithetic to Christian the correct order of things: light first­ love-traits she displayed in some of her and then water-and then earth-and correspondence published in London then vegetable life-and then newspapers, and decided that these are not the fish-and then birds-and then marks of a Christian. She was often embroiled cattle-and then man-anybody would in controversy, and, has been pointed out, she think they had been given elementary felt these to be harmful to the spirit. scientific instruction in a board-school! Another point that may have troubled Perhaps the 'creeping things' have got Dorothy was the deceit involved in the secrecy a trifle out of place, but even so, what regarding her son. That she would give birth an amazing guess! (Reynolds Letters to an illegitimate baby would be a sin that she 276f) would confess and then get on with her life. But to have her son kept secret would be an She gives as much credit as possible to ongoing deception that might well afflict her Eustace Barton, points out the parallel conscience. between his phrase and the biblical one, points I have appreciated the remarks of Sara out the deficiency of his phrase ("lacking in Maitland in reviewing Dorothy L Sayers: A literary charm" would be criminal to Dorothy), Careless Rage for Life. I wish there were and points out the reliability of the biblical more insights from her. Maitland says, account in spite of the writer having no "[Dorothy] gave up on the life of emotions and knowledge of the events. retreated into the intellect by way of Dorothy's life during her public silence on self-protection." I think that Dorothy tried, but things Christian may be that of the prodigal. her honesty to her craft and her Lord would She does not repudiate Christianity; she just not allow her to do this. Dorothy's poems are doesn't bother with it. Her books find good self-revealing. Her early detective novels are triumphing over evil and there are specific intellectual exercises. But each succeeding instances where parsons, vicars, church detective story finds more of Dorothy's heart services, etc. are shown in a favorable light. and soul expressed in them. Dorothy states in Lord Peter appreciates and respects the her essay, "Gaudy Night": church, though he is not a part of it. So Dorothy L. Sayers is silent on Christian Next it was necessary for my theme matters for years-decades. As the prodigal that the malice should be the product,

78 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips

not of intellect starred of emotion, but disreputable company and was looked of emotion uncontrolled by intellect. upon as a "gluttonous man and And to knot the plot tight it must be wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and more than this: it must be emotion sinners"; He assaulted indignant revenging itself upon the intellect for tradesmen and threw them and their some injury wrought by the intellect belongings out of the Temple; He upon the emotions. (Sayers "Gaudy" drove a coach-and-horses through a 214) number of sacrosanct and hoary regulations; He cured diseases by any Might Dorothy's life portray the means that came handy, with a opposite--the intellect revenging itself upon shocking casualness in the matter of the emotions: in Strong Poison Harriet's lover other people's pigs and property; he is killed off and apt parallels have been drawn showed no proper deference for wealth between Harriet and her lover and Dorothy or social position; when confronted and John Cournos. But beyond the detective with neat dialectical traps, He novels, in her doctrinaire treatises, such as in displayed a paradoxical humour that the following excerpt from "The Greatest affronted serious-minded people, and Drama Ever Staged," her heart as well as her he retorted by asking disagreeable mind are revealed: searching questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb. He was If this is dull, then what in Heaven's emphatically not a dull man in His name, is worthy to be called exciting? human lifetime, and if He was God, The people who hanged Christ never, there can be nothing dull about God to do them justice, accused Him of either. being a bore--on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. A respect and love for Christ the It has been left for later generations to person-not just a creed-radiates from the muffle up that shattering personality passage. This is one of many passages and surround Him with an atmosphere reflecting a love for God via heart, soul, mind, of tedium. We have very efficiently and strength. The emotion is there, the pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, intellect is there, the craftsmanship is there - certified Him "meek and mild," and the very essence of Dorothy L. Sayers in recommended Him as a fitting relationship to her Lord pour from the pages. household pet for pale curates and She may attempt to deny her heart in theory, pious old ladies. To those who knew but she cannot do it in fact. Her heart does Him, however, He in no way betray her. Christ can be seen as the love of suggested a milk-and-water person; her life. they objected to Him as a dangerous Dorothy's last major literary task was the firebrand. True, He was tender to the translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. This unfortunate, patient with honest work had tremendous appeal for Dorothy. It inquirers, and humble before Heaven; has patterns on top of patterns, it displays but He referred to King Herod as "that Dante's love for Christ and his kingdom, it is a fox"; He went to parties in good story-a key plus for Dorothy, and it

79 Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect • Roger Phillips provided a challenge few were equal to: how souls, and strength. Her poems, novels, plays, can this be put into English rhyme and be essays, even her notes on Dante, display both easily readable? Dorothy succeeds in bringing intellect and passion. It is easier to Dante's work to life for English readers. And comprehend mind and heart separately than to her notes provide inspiration, conviction, and try and fuse them. instruction in the Christian walk. These flow naturally from the material she is working with Bibliography and from her own Christian walk. At the end Brabazon, James. Dorothy L. Sayers: A of her life Dorothy has finished the first two Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's parts of the Divine Comedy-"Hell" and Sons, 1981. "Purgatory"-and she is in the middle of Coomes, David. Dorothy L. Sayers: A Careless "Heaven." I think that is appropriate. Rage for Life. Batavia, IL: Lion Publishing, But was her death that of a "passionate 1992. intellect?" If the term means simply an Harmon, Robert B. and Margaret A. Burger. An intellect that is not boring, Dorothy is a Annotated Guide to the Works ofJ]orothy L. tremendous example of this. If it means a Sayers. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., person devoid of heart, that does not bear up 1977. under scrutiny-Dorothy exhibits her heart Hone, Ralph E. Dorothy L. Sayers: A Literary Biography. Kent, OH: Kent State University constantly. If it means a person who is not Press, 1979. always loving to people in terms of warm Maitland, Sara "Mysteries of a Passionate hugs, Dorothy could certainly be cutting to Intellect." New York Times Book Review 25 people she thought displayed shoddy Oct. 1992, sec. 7:10. workmanship or ideas. But she was dedicated Mas call, E. L. "What Happened to Dorothy L. to Christ's service with an energy and love for Sayers that Good Friday?" VII (Seven):fin the public that few possess. Dorothy was a Anglo-American Literary Review 3 ( 1982): passionate person. Dorothy was an intelligent 9-18. person. Dorothy L. Sayers refers to the Reynolds, Barbara Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life "passionate intellect" and thereby combines and Soul. New York: St. Martin's Press, two aspects of heart, soul, mind and strength. 1993. Could other combinations provide equally Reynolds, Barbara, camp. and ed. The Letters of valid pairings- thoughtful heart, informed Dorothy L. Sayers, 1899 - 1936: The soul, passionate craftsman, heart of the maker, Making ofa Detective Novelist. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. a working love, etc,? Might not they all refer Reynolds, Barbara. The Passionate Intellect: to Dorothy? Dorothy L. Sayers' Encounter with Dante. For Dorothy "passionate intellect" may Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1989. have been most appropriate as she looked at Sayers, Dorothy L. Catholic Tales and Christian herself in relation to her world. In church Songs. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1918. settings, she had seen intellects without Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. London: passion make Christ boring and she had seen New English Library, I 970. mindless emotional demonstrations that were Sayers, Dorothy L. "Gaudy Night." The Art of repulsive. But the term "passionate intellect" the Mystery Story: A Collection of-Critical obscures more than it illuminates and it is Essays. Ed. Howard Haycraft. New Y ark: better to continue to refer to hearts, minds, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. 197 4.

80 Till We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective on the Condition of Man by Joan Alexander

The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For lhe modern man the roles are reversed. He is lhe judge; God is in the dock. C. S. Lewis, God in lhe Dock

Man's relationship to a Divine Being is one influence. Still, the central characters of the of the persisting concerns of literature. As novel, Orual and her youngest sister, Psyche, are Francis Schaeffer observed, "Modem man not convinced by the Fox's assertion that the thinks there is nobody home in the universe. "1 divine is a matter of nature rather than of Or, others position, if God is there, He remains personality. silent and uncommunicative, ignoring man's Both sisters believe the gods exist. The needs and efforts to find meaning and purpose question that divides and causes alienation in an impersonal, seemingly malevolent between them concerns the nature of the gods. universe. Are they "viler than the vilest men," as Orual But perhaps God is there. Perhaps He is charges? Or, as Psyche asserts, is it that men do concerned for and doing all He can to make not understand the gods? Perhaps the gods do Himself known. Perhaps the problem lies not not do those ihings which men complain of, or with God but with man. One of the central that the gods do those things, "and the things are novels dealing with the problem of the human not what they seem. 2 condition in relation to the Divine is Till We Lewis explored the proposition that modem Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis. By reworking a men are wrong in their assumptions about the pagan myth in the setting of a small pagan cause of the human condition by allowing Orual country, Lewis made his novel a test of the to test the human complaint against divinity in proposition that man may be in the wrong in the pages of her life's story. She records the his perception of the Divine. critical episodes of her life as proof of the Religious superstition abounds in the injustice of the gods. kingdom of men called Glome, but the But certain human experiences that are rationalism of the Fox, a Greek slave who frequently disregarded in post-Christian counsels the king and tutors the three literature do appear in Orual's story, making hers princesses of Glome, exerts a tempering a more authentic picture of the real state of real

81 Till We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective • Joan Alexander human beings. Specifically, her autobiography beautiful face. One of her earliest memories is reveals that she is capable of recognizing that people overlooked her in their admiration critical moments of decision and also that she for her sister Redival. However, Orual finds suffers doubts about the validity of the satisfaction and fulfillment with her Greek tutor assumptions by which she acts. When these and her motherless infant stepsister, Istra, whom two truths enter into a consideration of the she calls Psyche. man-God relationship, they make evident a Psyche's childish fascination with the story of sense of personal human responsibility that the god of the holy mountain, though apparently cannot be ignored. harmless, disturbs Orual's happiness. And as Orual's story reveals that she has always Psyche grows older, greater trouble arises, for possessed the freedom to choose whether to her amazing beauty arouses admiration and trust the gods when she does not understand worship among the pagans of Glome. For a time their ways, or to cling, instead, to "the god the people even regard her as a goddess. This within," whom her Greek tutor has taught her linking of Psyche with the gods further inflames to revere and obey (I 8, 180). Her story shows Orual's suspicion and distrust of jealous gods. that she has consciously chosen to obey "the Soon, Orual's greatest fears are realized. god within" at critical moments, although time Psyche is chosen to be the Great to and again she has uneasily sensed that she appease the anger of Ungit, goddess of Glome. might be wrong in choosing so. Orual's efforts to save her sister from being the What prompts Orual's open challenge of sacrifice all fail. An even worse blow for Orual the gods is her encounter, near the end of her is the realization that Psyche actually desires to life, with the sacred story of a new Essurian leave her to be united, in some unknown way, goddess. This story, which appears to be the with the mysterious god of the mountain. history of her own life, portrays Orual as the Orual tries to convince Psyche that the gods one responsible for the human suffering that are actually vile. Psyche steadfastly defends the her autobiography describes. Believing that the divine nature, however, asserting that men do gods have intentionally spread this account out not understand and are in error. Instead of being of malice toward her, Orual determines to the strength and comforter of Psyche in these defend herself and to expose the nature of the final moments, Orual is shamed to find herself gods. Directing her account to an assumed the weak and pitiable one; a subtle undertone of Greek audience, she begins defiantly: resentment at the reversal of their positions creeps into her account. I will write in this book what no one who The first portion of Orual's story records the has happiness would dare to write. I will means by which the gods rob her of human accuse the gods, especially the god who happiness when they claim Psyche as their lives on the Grey Mountain . . . I will tell sacrifice. The middle portion of her account all he has done to me from the very records the events upon which her charge beginning as if I were making my against the gods chiefly rests. She accuses them complaint of him before a judge. 3 first of afflicting her with a delirious hatred for Orual begins her record of the cruelty of Psyche, and then of betraying her into a fatal the gods with her childhood. The eldest of the decision when she most needs their unmistakable three princesses of Glome, she is the only one guidance. to suffer the injustice of being born without a Recovered from the delirium that carne upon

82 Till We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective • Joan Alexander her the day of the Great Sacrifice, and with her again appear inferior by doing so immediately love for Psyche once more intact, Orual opens the door to doubt. Perhaps what she sees secretly journeys to the Grey Mountain, is not real; perhaps her eyes deceive her. intending to give a proper burial to Psyche's The moment Orual entertains doubt, her remains. Instead of a broken body, however, vision of the palace vanishes in a swirl of fog. Orual finds Psyche radiant, marvelously well, Recalling this moment, Orual sees it as another and eager to share the story of how she has crime of the gods: become the bride of the god. Amazed at Would they (if they answered) make it a Psyche's account, Orual admits her confusion: part of their defense? say it was a sign, a "If this is true, I've been wrong all my life. hint, beckoning me to answer the riddle Everything has to be begun over again" ( 115). one way rather than the other? I'll not To confirm Psyche's story, Orual asks to grant them that. What is the use of a sign see the palace which Psyche shares with her which is itself only another riddle?( 13 3) husband-god. She is willing to believe the gods are good if she is given an acceptable sign. No How can a mortal be expected to believe the sign appears to Orual, however. Although gods honestly intend the best for men when Psyche claims that they have been sitting at the divine guidance is so clouded and uncertain. great gate of the palace, the entire structure Orual returns to the holy mountain, remains invisible to Orual. determined to use the force of Psyche's love for Rather than admit that Psyche has a gift of her to rescue her sister from delusions about a sight denied her, Orual argues that Psyche's wonderful husband-god. Only because Orual entire story is sham and pretense. She silences threatens to take her own life does Psyche inner whispers of conscience, rejects Psyche's disdainfully consent to her sister's demand that testimony, and rages against Psyche's she test her husband-god by disobeying his assurances that the god will enable her to see. command that she not see his face. Orual demands some other form of proof At Throughout the hours while Orual awaits the that moment, a light rain begins to fall. test, she is beset by the terrible conviction that Because Psyche is oblivious to the rain while she does not know everything and that she might Orual can see and feel it, Orual concludes that be betraying Psyche to a horrible fate. Yet her she should act on the basis of her own reason determination to challenge the authority and the and should reject anything that must be nature of the gods overrules her powerful received by faith. Still, it is Orual who feels impulse to release Psyche from the vow. defeated when the sisters part for the night. Soon enough, the silence of the night is Having refused to trust the gods when the shattered by the god of the mountain, who decision must be made strictly on faith, Orual banishes Psyche and confronts Orual with her has her convictions tested the next morning as responsibility for the suffering that must ensue. she gazes across the river toward Psyche's "He rejected, denied, answered, and (worst of supposed home. Looking up, Orual sees-and all) he knew, all that I had thought, done, or knows that she sees-the solid, beautiful palace been," Orual acknowledges. "He made it to be as that Psyche had described. Instantly, Orual if, from the beginning, I had known that Psyche's feels compelled to cross the river to beg the lover was a god, and as if all my doubtings, forgiveness-for her unbelief-of both the god fears, guessings, debatings had been and Psyche. But the realization that she would trumped up foolery (173).

83 Till We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective • Joan Alexander

Banished from Psyche and rejected by the no clear sign, though I begged for it. I god, Orual returns to Glome, certain she has had to guess. And because I guessed proven that the gods exist and that they h_ate wrong, they punished me--what's men (175). She rejects any other explanatiOn worse, punished me through her (249). for what has happened, and anticipates only If her story were all she claims it to be, and some harsh judgment such as madness or a if it ended here, Orual's autobiography would horrible death. affirm the same explanation of man's sense of Instead a series of crises greet her, and alienation and abuse as much of the post­ through the:n she proves herself fit to reign as Christian fiction that wrestles with this question. queen over Glome. The role of queen enables But Orual's story includes some important her to nearly extinguish the character of Orual, elements missing from other accounts of man's to whom the god of the mountain had declared struggle in an unjust universe. the judgment, "You, woman, shall know First of all, she does record the role of the yourself and your work." gods in spite of her accusation that they have The independent strength that Orual dealt falsely. Secondly, she records all her own demonstrates in rejecting the misty vtston thoughts and passions. Looking at her offered by the god makes her reign a completed book, Orual realizes that the past prosperous one for Glome, but produces which she actually recorded was not the past empty nothingness for herself To escape that which she had thought she was remembering. nothingness, she travels abroad, only to In addition, confrontations with a man who discover that her past has not been buried but makes her realize her injustice to her sister has been preserved in a sacred story that Redival and with the widow of the man whose declares her responsible for the suffering and life she had consumed with her demands as misfortune of the past. queen prepare Orual for a series of visions in The story that she hears from the priest of which she recognizes herself as a gluttonous, Istra in the neighboring land of Essur is devouring creature who destroys others through actually the Cupid-Psyche myth, but Orual is the very self interest that she had condemned in so stung by the memories it revives that she the gods. believes it to be her own story. She sees only Orual determines to change but finds change one point to contest. In defense against the impossible, for the gods refuse to help. ~er one charge that jealousy has motivated her consolation is the memory of her genume love decisions, Orual sets forth her version of the for Psyche. "There, if nowhere else, I had the story to prove the thesis that the deity ~ad right of it and the gods were in the wrong," she dealt falsely with her and were therefore gmlty declares. To comfort herself, Orual turns to her of causing the human misery: book and reads again and again of how she had They gave me nothing in the world but "cared for Psyche and taught her and tried to Psyche and then took her from me. save her and wounded [herself] for her sake" But that was not enough. Then they (285). brought me to her at such a place and The unveiling of her true nature takes place time that it hung on my word whether when, in a vision, Orual is given the opportunity she should continue in bliss or be cast to stand before the judge in the great hall of the into misery .... They would give me dead to present her accusation against the gods.

84 Till We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective • Joan Alexander

Stripped of every covering so that she stands exposing this side of human nature, Lewis in her true character, Orual is commanded to restored a missing perspective on the problem of read her book. Looking at it, she sees only "a the man-God relationship. Orual realizes the vast vile scribble-each stroke mean and yet difference that this new perspective makes in her savage" (290). She intends to reject it and thesis: demand the return of the clean one which she composed. Instead, she finds herself declaring I [see] well why the gods do not speak the truth that lies at the center of her soul. to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that Standing before the judge and the word at the center of our souls can be multitude, Orual asserts that she has always dug out of us, why should they hear the known the true nature of the gods. Not until babble that we think we mean? How can they interfered with her life did she begin to they meet us face to face till we have hate them. Her second resentment is that they faces? (294) gifted Psyche with a sight which they denied to By tracing the life of a character who has her. "You'll say I was jealous," she continues, suffered and who believes herself justified in Jealous of Psyche? Not while she was accusing the gods, Lewis exposed the mine. If you'd gone the other way to weaknesses of the worldview that proclaims the work-if it was my [italics added] eyes innocence of man and the injustice and guilt of you had opened .... But to hear a chit God. The alternative, as Orual discovered, of a girl who had (or ought to have demands self-examination and confession. But if had) no thought in her head that I'd not it is the correct explanation, it offers put there, setting up for a seer and a reconciliation and hope in place of alienation and prophetess and the next thing to a despair. goddess ... how could anyone endure it? ... That there should be gods at all, Notes there's our misery and bitter wrong. 1 Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City (Downers There's no room for you and us in the Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1969), p. 19. same world. You're a tree in whose 2 Schaeffer, p. 39. shadow we can't thrive. We want to be 3 C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth our own (291 ). Retold (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), 71. Subsequent references to the text of this novel The character who has professed to be the will be to this edition, and pagination will innocent victim proves to be the villain instead. hereafter be indicated in parentheses. To have the hero unmasked as a villain is not particularly unusual in literature. But to compose a story in defense of man's rebellion against the injustice and suffering he is compelled to endure, then to have that rebellion answered by the revelation of the selfishness that lies at the very center of man's soul and that motivates his decisions and actions is unusual in the fiction of our day. By

85 The Question of Biblical Allegory in Till We Have Faces by David Bedsole

The title page ofC.S. Lewis's Till We depart from this into what some would call Have Faces clearly labels the work as "a myth paganism or secular ? The only retold," and some would argue that it is simply logical approach at first would be to labor at that-a pagan myth placed in a more intimate finding the "hidden" message in the light, nothing more. The novel, they would novel-the parable that Lewis was actually argue, depicts two kinds of love: devouring telling us in this unorthodox context. Till We love and exonerating love, and has nothing to Have Faces is laden with theological allusions do with Christian theology. It is interesting to and parallels, but these seem to work on a note, however, that the copyright year of Till variety oflevels. Therefore, we systematically We Have Faces (1956) is the same as Lewis's explore the novel in search of identities to final Namia book, The Last Battle. He had assign to the characters (i.e. who represents already written such titles as The Problem of Christ, Satan, etc.) And what biblical tale is Pain, The Screwtape Letters, and the Great being retold. Divorce (Sayer 265-66). The overzealous The first conclusion that one reaches as might be found guilty of endeavoring to one finishes reading the first few chapters of construct an entire Christian allegory out of the novel is that Psyche is a very obvious the work, and the author of this paper was no Christ-figure. She effectively parallels Christ's exception. Lewis, one would assume, was time on earth by first being blessed by the well into his Christian walk by this time, and people, and later being cursed. At first, people had just completed his allegorical masterpiece wish for her to heal them of disease, just as for children in The Chronicles ofNarnia-for Christ did in his time (Lewis 31 ). In the same what reason would he confuse his readers by way that Christ was accused of making himself composing a retelling of a pagan myth in a a god by claiming to be son of God, Psyche is humanistic light, with no Christian backdrop? accused of making herself a goddess, and is If Lewis had set himself up as a theological called "the Accursed" (Lewis 39). The author, what would cause him to suddenly sacrifice of Psyche to the Shadowbrute could

86 Biblical Allegory in Till We Have Faces • David Bedsole

not be a more blatant crucifixion scene. Just Tree ofKnowledge of Good and Evil because as Christ was crucified for the sins of man, it allowed them to cheekily attempt to Psyche was crucified to heal an accursed land. transcend their mortality, and Psyche (albeit Psyche was chained to a tree on the top of a unwillingly) commits the same sin. Sin mountain; Christ was nailed to a tree on top of invariably leads to estrangement, however, and a mountain. Both Psyche and Christ were Psyche is banished by the angry god to roam guiltless; the book states that "In the Great the earth just as Eve was (Lewis 175, 298- Offering, the victim must be perfect." Just like 300). The indignant god tells Satan!Orual that Christ, Psyche's only sin was perfection "You shall also be Psyche" and Orual (Lewis 49, 107-109). Ironically enough, interprets this as a curse (174). This could be Bardia later calls Psyche "the Blessed" in seen as a parallel of god's curse on Satan in sorrow for her death and lamentation for the Genesis. sins of his land. This is the same way that We now begin to doubt our theory that Christians regard Christ (Lewis 95). Till We Have Faces is an allegory, because we On the basis of these points alone, one see that the characters in the story behave like is apt to go careening wildly through the novel traveling actors, going backstage to change with smug confidence that Psyche is Christ, costumes and constantly coming back in a therefore Trom is Satan, and so on. However, different role. Just as we begin wondering tension begins when one reaches chapter how we can change our former Christ-figure fourteen, when Orual convinces Psyche to theory to fit this new Eve-figure theory, Lewis reveal the face of her husband/god. If we were again turns the tables on us, and we find to cling doggedly to our current theory, then Psyche in the role of Christ once again, this we might say that Orual was fallen man asking time as Christ the Redeemer. This time, Orual Christ to break faith with God so that man shows herself to represent fallen man. The could see the Kingdom. Unfortunately, reason dream that Orual has about digging with King explodes our theory at this point for two Trom can be interpreted as Orual's descent reasons: first, this would place the entire into hell, with Trom, or Satan, as her guide. allegory out of chronological order (the asking She finds that this Ungit that she has so for intervention after the crucifixion) and hated-this hateful, unfair, devouring secondly, this would imply that the redemption goddess-is herself. She has devoured the of Christ was a favor granted at man's lives of those who are loyal to her, such as behest-not a gift that man could not possibly Bardia. She is Ungit-or man, dead in ask for or deserve. sin-and she needs to be redeemed (Lewis We are forced at this point, then, to see 274-276). (This was undoubtedly an offshoot chapter fourteen as a Fall scene, and Psyche is of William's theology, the idea that hell is a cast in the role of Eve. Orual takes the form subjective reality that one thrusts himself into of Satan in this chapter as she manipulates because of selfishness.) Orual angrily accuses Psyche to do the one thing that she has been the gods at the end of the novel, and begins to forbidden to do-reveal her god's face. realize that in doing so, she implicates herself. Psyche, like Eve, acquires the deadly Thus, she parallels man's rebellion against knowledge that had been denied to her. God God. Obviously, the punishment for treason is commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the death, and Trom again shows himself as Satan

87 Biblical Allegory in Till We Have Faces • David Bedsole as he requests that the god "leave the girl to stories untouched. We find that the allegory me. I'll lesson her." Satan, like Trom, that we have synthesized brims over with requests and demands the soul of the contradictions, and compromise is inevitable. unredeemed (Lewis 294). Psyche, however, We begin to realize that there is Christian ransoms Orual's soul with her descent into the theology at work in the novel, although we are Deadlands. She parallels the dynamic forced to admit that the allegory idea is non redemption of Christ by ascending into this sequitur. It seems in conclusion that Lewis symbolic Hell to acquire beauty for Ungit, or formulated the novel not simply to show the Orual-the unredeemed. Lewis reconciles two kinds oflove in a human context, but to myth and allegory as he depicts Psyche's illuminate the only two loves in the refusal to be stopped by the forces of reason world-human love and divine love. The (the Fox) or non-divine love (Orual herself), novel shows the futility of human love without just as Jesus is not dissuaded from h is spiritual the intervention of Christ, and the bliss that is battle by Satan's temptation in the desert. possible when man ceases to rebel against Earthly loves and humanistic reason do not God. stop him from completing the task, and neither do they halt Psyche. Psyche continues down Bibliography into Hell and acquires the beauty that is promised to Orual, in the same way that Christ Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces New York: descended into Hell after his crucifixion for Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1956. man's redemption. When Psyche gives the Sayer, George. Jack: C.S. Lewis and His beauty to Orual, Orual is reconciled to the Times San Francisco: Harper and Row, gods and pardoned of her impudence. The Publishers, 1988. phrase "You are also Psyche" becomes a pardon at this point, because Orual is like Psyche, and in another dimension, man becomes like Christ (Lewis 301-309). Here we see three separate stories told in allegory, and yet there is no cohesion between them. Two suggest Psyche as a Christ-figure, but one shows her inarguably as an Eve-figure. All attempts at reconciling the two views fail, and we become more and more frustrated as we see the novel as a kind of a disjointed allegory, one where the characters constantly change roles. Admittedly, Lewis shows in The Great Divorce that he sees time as merely a mortal inconvenience, and that Christ's redemption is occurring at every moment of every hour. This could account for the chronological order problem, but leaves the problem of synthesis between the three

88 : First Principles and Pre-Evangelism (or, "What C.S. Lewis Taught My Brother") by Ted Dorman

It was 4:30 a.m., a few days before accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of his life. We Christmas 1973. My brother Jim and I had were now brothers two times over. spent the previous six hours in animated point­ What did Lewis's slim volume of three counterpoint concerning the claims of Jesus short essays, easily read in one sitting, have to Christ: I the believer; he the pagan. For the say which became for my brother a bridge first time in his life, Jim began to perceive the from unbelief to faith? And what can we as uniqueness of Jesus over against all other Christians learn from Jim Dorman's encounter philosophers and religious teachers throughout with C.S. Lewis about communicating the history. Gospel to the modem and post-modem Yet the question remained: Is Christianity mind set of contemporary culture? TRUE? Can one believe in the Risen Christ in The lessons we can learn from The a modem "scientific" age which denies that Abolition ofMan are multifaceted, much like dead people can come back to life? As one a glittering diamond perfectly cut by an expert trained in the biological sciences, Jim had jeweler. I would like to deal briefly with two looked to natural causes to explain everything facets of this small but precious gem of a from mere physical existence to religion and book. The first of these I will label "First ethics. Yet he was beginning to think that Principles"; the second, "Pre-evangelism." naturalistic science did NOT have all the answers to life's biggest questions. First Principles But if not in scientific inquiry, where were those answers to be found? Here I employ the term found in Blaise Sensing that Jim's life was at a crossroads, Pascal's Pensees #II 0 (Paris: Editions du I loaned him my copy of C.S. Lewis's The Seuil, 1962), where he wrote: Abolition of Man. A few days later (it was December 28, 1973 to be precise), after he had finished reading Lewis, Jim told me that he had

89 What Lewis Taught My Brother • Ted Dorman

We know the truth, not only through The same would be true of statements of right our reason, but also through our heart. and wrong. It is through this latter that we know Such people, Lewis argued, equate first principles; and reason, which has wisdom with the ability to explain away nothing to do with this, vainly tries to traditional canons of value and morality. refute them. These canons, which Lewis dubbed the Tao, express themselves with remarkable To which Pascal added in Pensees #188: consistency across both time and culture. This cross-cultural consistency of the Tao, Lewis The final step which reason can take is argued, is prima facie evidence that the values to recognize that there are an infinite it expresses set forth universal truths, not number of things which are beyond it. merely cultural sentiments. To try to explain It is merely impotent if it cannot get as them away with rational argumentation is to far as to realize this. miss (or ignore?) the point that the Tao Three centuries later C S. Lewis was to precedes and forms the basis for rational confront the intellectual progeny of those thought. In a word, the Tao is Lewis's label Enlightenment Rationalists whom Pascal had for Pascal's "first principles." excoriated. Lewis's task in the first two Lewis saw clearly where a generation of chapters of The Abolition ofMan was to argue children raised on The Green Book was for what he called "the doctrine of objective headed. Having been taught how to explain value," i.e. the notion that in non-empirical away every notion of value or "first principles" arenas such as morals and aesthetics "certain (the Tao) on the basis of "rational" analysis, attitudes are really true, and others really false, such children will grow up as "Men Without to the kind of thing the universe is and to the Chests." For if the "head" represents rational kind of things we are" (p. 29). He thereby thought, the "chest" represents those virtuous launched a frontal attack on the prevailing sentiments which guide our thinking towards Zeitgeist of his, and our, time: The notion that the nobler aspects of our nature, as opposed to what may be termed "values" (e.g. beauty, ridiculing those sentiments and thereby morality, religion) are merely matters of reducing us to the animal appetites of our personal preference, as opposed to the realm nature. To separate the "head" from the of Reason and applied science, which deals "chest," as does The Green Book, would in with things as they really are. Lewis's estimation lead to the following In the first chapter Lewis used a newly­ scenano: published English textbook, which he labeled On this view [promoted by The Green The Green Book, to make his point. He noted Book] the world of facts, without one how its authors consistently reduced trace of value, and the world of statements of value to statements of personal feelings without one trace of truth or preference. For example, The Green Book falsehood, justice or injustice, confront insisted that the statement "the waterfall is one another, and no rapprochement is sublime" says nothing about the waterfall, but possible (p. 30f ). only speaks of our feelings about the waterfall.

90 What Lewis Taught My Brother • Ted Dorman

stage for a message of meaning and hope to a Such a head-only philosophy of education meaningless, hopeless world. would in tum produce students of whom it may be said: For Lewis, to explain away the Tao would result in nothing less than "The Abolition of They are not distinguished from other Man," the title of the book's final essay. The men by any unusual skill in finding obvious progress of modem applied science truth .... It is not excess of thought might lead us to a contrary conclusion, but defect of fertile and generous namely, that what is just around the comer is emotion that marks them out. Their "Man's conquest of Nature" (p. 67). Upon heads are no bigger than the ordinary: closer examination, however, we find that it is the atrophy of the chest that "Man's conquest ofNature" turns out to be the makes them seem so. (p. 35) conquest of some men by others, i.e. "a power possessed by some men which they may, or And yet, Lewis noted with irony, even as may not, allow other men to profit by" (p. 68). all too many of us, students and teachers alike, This, insisted Lewis, is what "'Man's power imbibe the heady brew of The Green Book, we of Nature' must always and essentially be" (p. continue to clamor for those very qualities we 69) "Man's conquest of Nature, if the dreams are rendering impossible [by following The of some scientific planners are realized, means Green Book]. ... We make men without the rule of a few hundreds of men over billions chests and expect from them virtue and upon billions of men" (p. 71). Here Lewis may enterprise. We castrate and bid the geldings well have had fellow Englishman Aldous be fruitful. (p. 35) Huxley's Brave New World in the crosshairs of Nevertheless, Lewis conceded, it is his rhetorical rifle. At whom might Lewis take theoretically possible that the "chest" does not aim today? One can only speculate. (Or really exist. In this view the Tao is merely a perhaps Lewis would have decided to go fish collection of culturally-relative rather than to go hunt.) pronouncements which can be explained away Furthermore, to conquer nature in the scientifically. In chapter three Lewis sense of explaining away all elements of the confronted this possibility by asking in effect, Tao by means of naturalistic analysis in the Where do we end up if we follow this ends frees us not from nature, but from the proposition to its logical conclusion? guardianship of the "first principles" of the Tao which have held in check humanity's baser Pre-evangelism instincts since time immemorial. But if all are free from the strictures of the Tao, then there Lewis's response to this question sets forth are no first principles to keep some men from one of the greatest examples of what I earlier enslaving others. referred to as "pre-evangelism," or Lewis concluded that the abolition of man prolegomena to preaching of the Gospel. For completes itself with the destruction of the as he set forth the full implications of The very concept of human nature. For the first Green Boolts world-view, Lewis also set the principles of the Tao presuppose that human

91 What Lewis Taught My Brother • Ted Dorman nature is in some ways transcendent, and not premisses, was for that very reason all the merely the result of natural cause and effect. more convincing to Jim's pagan mindset. The But if modem applied science has seen one who thought he could sooner or later see through all of these purported first principles through everything realized at last that to do and pronounced them as pure subjective so was in fact a form of blindness. And who sentiment devoid of truth value, then what is better to heal the eyes of the blind that the One left? Have we not in fact explained away who did so almost 2, 000 years ago as He said, those very qualities which make us human "I am the Light of the World"? (including those qualities which allow us to transcend the natural world to the extent that Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound we can analyze it in the first place)? That saved a wretch like me. What, then, is left when we have explained I once was lost, but now am found; away everything? Total agnosticism and Was blind, but now I see! solipsism, as exemplified in Lewis's final, devastating analysis of the true end of the modem mindset:

But you cannot go on 'explaining away' for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.

It was this final paragraph which stopped my brother Jim in his tracks. His desire to explain away all notions of value as mere subjective preference was now revealed for what it really was: the stealing of his soul, the death of his humanity. Lewis's approach, by virtue of not beginning from strictly-Christian

92 A Doubting Thomas and His Challengers: George MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crisis of Faith by Pamela Jordan

In his essay "Faith and Doubt in Victorian most influential religious novelists of the Fiction" Reg Tye reminds us that "the nineteenth century" (217). Unquestionably, retention of faith under a variety of MacDonald used his fiction as a pulpit. In the onslaughts" was one of the most excruciating words of his son Ronald, "[H]e was driven and consuming problems faced by the inwardly to make as clear as he could to as Victorians (139-40). Advances in science, the large an audience as possible his understanding influence of German higher criticism, political of the relations of Christian truth to human reforms, and drastic changes in society and experience" (qtd. In Hein, Harmony 113). His culture as a result of industrialization and novel Thomas Wing/old, Curate is no newly articulated philosophies, all challenged exception. traditional habits of mind and threatened to In this novel about a clergyman who undermine belief Victorians found no easy doesn't know what he believes or why, answers in their struggle to cope with change MacDonald outlines all the major tenets of his and especially to comprehend the implications personal theology. In fact, he considered the of advances in science and biblical scholarship, story of Wingfold one of his most significant but the writers of the day came to their aid. novels. According to Rolland Hein, As the work of Margaret Maison, Robert Lee MacDonald regarded Thomas Wingfold, Wolff, and Elisabeth Jay has shown, Victorian Curate important for two reasons. First, in it religious novels addressed all the multifaceted "he had found a way to successfully convey issues of faith and doubt, and religious the heart and substance of his Christian novelists provided a variety of answers to the convictions in story form." In his preceding Victorian crisis of faith. novels he had difficulty juxtaposing the Like other Victorian religious novelists, message he wanted to convey and the story he George MacDonald used his novels "to attempted to frame it in. Second, "the novel address the theological and social questions of represented his response to many of the issues his day" (Raeper 196). His popularity would confronting the contemporary church, suggest that his readers appreciated his beginning with the validity of belief itself' answers. Apparently, MacDonald spoke to (George MacDonald 281). In recording many Victorians who found in his message a Thomas Wingfold' s quest for belief, shelter from the storm of doubt. Probably for MacDonald is able to explore the causes of this reason , Maison considers him, "one of the doubt and confront the challenges to orthodox

93 MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crises of Faith • Pamela Jordan belief faced by many Victorians. Through emphasis for MacDonald is always on personal Wingfold, MacDonald suggests that one might relationship with the Heavenly Father through serious! y entertain the questions of the His Son, Jesus Christ. Victorian era yet still be able to retain belief. Wingfold's story also illustrates what some Initially, Wingfold is a professional Victorians turned to in the face of their own clergyman only. He has no real convictions doubts according to Horton Davies. He and accepts the teachings of the Church on maintains that a certain group within the authority. Although he is a sincere and dutiful Established Church thought through what they curate, he is incapable of defending his faith. believed very carefully and reached When his beliefs are challenged by George conclusions very similar to what MacDonald Bascombe, Wingfold realizes he has never advocates in Thomas Wingfo/d, Curate. really thought through what he believes. Davies asserts: "Only the more careful and Wingfold is ill-equipped to find answers on his most committed learned anew that they must own, but help is provided by an unlikely cling, with unyielding grasp, to a supernatural source, a parishioner who confronts him for a religion; to a Christ, truly Divine as well as plagiarized sermon. In a series of human: to an Incarnate, Crucified, Risen and conversations with Joseph Polwarth, Wingfold Reigning Lord of all the centuries, who would is guided through a search for truth and sustain and renew the flagging cohorts of His develops a personal faith. Church" (205). Wingfold represents the Wingfold' s conversion represents sector of the Victorian population whose faith MacDonald's answer to the Victorian crisis of was strengthened and deepened by the faith. MacDonald felt the most valid response questioning that characterized the era. to doubt was to honestly seek God. He Two other characters in the novel enable believed and sought to demonstrate in all of his MacDonald to address this questioning. Both fiction that human beings prosper and find play a key role in Wingfold's conversion. fulfillment only when they are in right George Bascombe pushes Wingfold to relationship to God (Dyer 221). His position question his beliefs in the first place, and is, essentially, an Evangelical one. As Jay Joseph Polwarth helps him think through what points out, one of the key elements of he believes. These two characters are Evangelical doctrine is "an insistence on the significant because MacDonald uses them to primacy of the individual's relationship with express his personal views regarding faith and his Savior, maintained through prayer and the doubt in Victorian England. One reflects search for guidance from Scripture" (Faith MacDonald's argument for belief; the other and Doubt 1). Wingfold finds what he's represents his answer to those who argued that looking for in a personal relationship with science had invalidated Christian belief. Jesus Christ which is made possible by his Joseph Polwarth serves as a spokesperson study of the New Testament. Wingfold comes for MacDonald and presents a cogent to knllli: Jesus as He is revealed in the New argument for retaining faith. Polwarth is a Testament and accepts that what Jesus says type found in most of MacDonald's novels, about Himself is true. While Wingfold may "true sages of great moral and spiritual insight not expound a particular creed, he lives by the who stand outside the conventional Christian essentials of Evangelical doctrine. The ministry" (Rein, Harmony 124 ). Polwarth

94 MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crises of Faith • Pamela Jordan rarely attends the parish church, and it is never the divine nature within them is cultivated and clear what his association with the Church is, they move toward the perfection which God yet he is the wisest man Wingfold has ever met intends for them (295; ch. 60). Additionally, and much more well-read in religion and he sees God as very interested in the welfare knowledgeable of the Bible than Wingfold. of those He has created and able to tum Polworth serves as a mentor who teaches everything to good. Polwarth is the one who Wingfold that knowledge of God comes convinces Leopold that God can forgive him. through acquaintance with Jesus Christ. MacDonald's ever present conviction that God Explaining his own quest to know if God is a loving Father and that we are His beloved was real, Polwarth tells Wingfold he also had children is also expressed by Polwarth. begun by asking "How can I know there is a Polwarth' s staunch conviction that believing God?" and "How am I to know that such a and trusting in God is humankind's only hope man as Jesus ever lived" but soon discovered and deepest need is expressed to Mr. Drew in that those questions were void in the face of chapter 95: being drawn to Jesus as He was revealed in the [I]t is not a belief in immortality that New Testament. He says to Wingfold, "I had will deliver a man from the woes of seen the man Jesus Christ, and in him had humanity, but faith in the God of life, known the Father of him and of me" (88; ch. the Father of lights, the God of all 18). Polwarth argues that it is not necessary consolation and comfort. Believing in to prove the existence of God. To those who him, a man can leave friends, ... with can't believe in the unseen, to the scientists, to everything else ... in his hands. Until those who speak of the world being governed we have the life in us, we shall never by natural laws, and to those who simply be at peace. The living God dwelling assert that common sense flies in the face of in the heart he has made, and the miraculous, Polwarth puts forth the glorifying it by inmost speech with question: What if God is real? Polwarth himself--that is life, assurance and argues "Either the whole frame of existence" safety. Nothing less is or can be such. is chaos or it is the "perfect creative idea" of (487) the God of the universe who is everywhere and always involved with His creation. This is the sermon of Thomas Wingfold, It is clear from reading MacDonald's Curate and every other MacDonald novel. letters and sermons that the words Polwarth Polwarth's convictions underscore the validity speaks and the beliefs he expresses replicate of the new belief that Wingfold has acquired MacDonald's own. Throughout the novel, and afford MacDonald the opportunity to Polwarth gives expression to key elements in reiterate that the choice to believe in God and MacDonald's theology. He believes that Jesus as He is revealed in the New Testament man's role is ro render service to God and that is the only answer to the Victorian crisis of in serving, the divine nature is developed in faith. man. Doing something for God means serving While Wingfold owes much to Joseph fellow creatures just as Christ's example Polwarth for helping him find a genuine faith, demonstrates (292; ch. 60). Polwarth also he is also indebted to George Bascombe who believes human beings are fulfilled only when first challenges his belief. When confronted

95 MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crises of Faith • Pamela Jordan with Bascombe's question, "Then I am to beyond the limits of his own thinking and also understand, Mr. Wingfold that you neither as one who denounces everyone who didn't believe nor disbelieve the tenets of the church believe as he did as "either a knave or a fool if whose bread you eat?" Wingfold does not not both in one" (32). More than once in the have an honest response (52; ch 11). novel, the author suggests that Bascombe's Bascombe is an atheist who makes it his major fault is prideful close-mindedness. With business to destroy the beliefs of others. The regard to Bascombe's dismissal of the narrator suggests that Bascombe sees himself teachings of the Church, the narrator is as "one of the prophets of the new order of especially critical because Bascombe is not things" (33; ch. 7). Bascombe believes men fully informed or is misinformed and has made will be happier from learning that there is no judgments for which he has no validation; as God and that by enlightening them he is doing the narrator observes, Bascombe "inveighed them a service. He takes pride in "his doctrine against the beliefs of other people without ofliving for posterity without a hope of good having ever seen more · .an a distorted shadow result to self beyond the consciousness that of those beliefs" (32). future generations of perishing men and In chapter 7 MacDonald suggests that women would be a little more comfortable, Bascombe is caught up in the current of the and perhaps a little less faulty therefrom" ( 61; times readily accepting the propositions of the ch. 13). Bascombe believes the story of Christ scientists and writers of higher criticism and is rubbish. He thinks the conceptions of the riding the coattails of those who rejected atonement .1d resurrection are absurd, and orthodoxy. Bascombe believes in science and claims that even those who call themselves facts that can be proven. He is ready to accept Christians don't act as if they really believe the any scientific or intellectual evidence that biblical account is true. To him "the whole supersedes traditionally held beliefs and to system is a lie" a consummate self-deception disdain any notion of the supernatural. The (26; ch. 5). He refers to the Bible as a tone in which the author speaks of Bascombe's "farrago of priestly absurdities" and asserts attitude toward Wingfold suggests that that those who believe it are idiots (240; MacDonald felt that men like Bascombe had ch.48). closed their minds to possible truth. MacDonald is clearly biased in his Bascombe thinks the curate is "worrying his portrayal of Bascombe, but in giving brain about things that had no existence" expression to Bascombe's beliefs, he is able to which he wouldn't even concede were call attention to the weaknesses in them. possible. "The thought had never rippled the Bascombe flatly rejects what he cannot see and gray mass of his self-satisfied brain that has no capacity for faith. MacDonald's perhaps there was more of himself than what personal response to thinkers like Bascombe is he counted himself yet knew, and that possibly depicted in this description of him in chapter 7: these matters had a consistent relation with "That region of man's nature which has to do parts unknown" (189; ch. 38). with the unknown was in Bascombe shut off Bascombe's is a rationalistic and by a wall without chink or cranny; he was materialistic approach to life that MacDonald unaware of its existence" (32). MacDonald presents as insufficient in Thomas Wingfold, portrays Bascombe as one incapable of seeing Curate. Bascombe's belief that after death

96 MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crises of Faith • Pamela Jordan humans become "only an unpleasant mass of regard the Bible, Polwarth implies that the chemicals, which a whole ant-heap of little issue of inspiration is a moot point and laws would presently be carrying outside the counters Wingfold's question with another, of the organic" leaves no hope for "For yourself, however, let me ask if you have humankind. His position if taken to its logical not already found in the book the highest conclusion leaves humanity in a desperate state means of spiritual education and development of meaningless existence which MacDonald you have yet met with" (172; ch. 35)? If the pictures in chapter 92: Bible serves this purpose, then why question its authorship or historicity? MacDonald Then either man is the constructive contends that the Bible as a text is not nearly centre of the world, and its as significant as the Bible as a means of meanings are but his own face becoming acquainted with Jesus Christ and looking back upon him from the God through Him. He doesn't so much mirror of his own projected provide an argument against science or higher atmosphere, and comfort there is criticism as he seeks to help his readers find a none; or he is not the centre of the personal faith that can stand in the face of the world, which yet carries in its perplexities of the Victorian milieu. forms and colours the aspects of It is important to note that MacDonald his mind; and then, horror of was not opposed to science; in fact, he had a horrors! Is man the one conscious strong interest in it. At one time he had even point and object of a vast hoped to become a doctor and studied natural derision-insentient nature science at Kings College in Aberdeen. He also grinning at sentient man! Rose or read Darwin with interest and was well saffron his sky, but mocks and acquainted with the debates within the Church. makes mows at him; while he His response to the issues which caused so himself is the worst mockery of all, many Victorians to doubt was to accept the being at once that which mocks enlightenment that advances in science and and that which not only is mocked criticism could bring without surrendering the but writhes in agony under the essence of his faith. MacDonald is likened to mockery. (477) Scottish theologians who, in the words of D. MacDonald's picture suggests that if humans J. Vauglm, are perfectly prepared to surrender are confined to the limits of what can be to modem critical and scientific thought all proven experientially, they are, indeed, without that they can be reasonably asked to surrender hope. to it; but who at the same time hold fast by the MacDonald's goal was to help refocus the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, being firmly thinking of Victorians who were beset by persuaded that the final outcome of all modem attacks on orthodox belief In Thomas speculation will only be to make our Wingfold, Curate he contends that Victorians conception of that Gospel more pure and were preoccupied with irrelevant questions potent for good than ever. (472) and replaces them with the only questions that, MacDonald didn't reject the advances in in his mind, really mattered. For example, science or higher criticism, he simply when Wingfold asks Polwarth how he is to contended that scientific investigations or new

97 MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Crises of Faith • Pamela Jordan ways of studying the biblical texts could not C.S. Lewis Society 20.7 (1989): 1-7. reveal all truth. His argument turns on the Hein, Rolland. George MacDonald: Victorian premise that finite man cannot know that there Mythmaker.Nashville: Starsong, 1993. is no God. As an intrusive narrator he states __. The Harmony Within: The Spiritual his case in chapter 13: Even if it were possible Vision of George MacDonald Eureka, for one to search "all spaces of space, up and CA: Sunrise, 1989. down, in greatness and smallness . . . and all Johnson, Joseph. George MacDonald: A regions of thought and feeling, all the Biographical and Critical Appreciation. unknown mental universe of possible 1906. New York: Haskell, 1973. discovery" one might find "that there is no MacDonald, George. Thomas Wingfold, God such as this or that in whom men imagine Curate. 1876. Eureka: Sunrise, 1988. they believe, but you cannot be convinced that Maison, Margaret. The Victorian Vision: there is no God" (61-62). MacDonald furthers Studies in the Religious Novel. New this argument in chapter 43 when Wingfold York: Sheed, 1961. reasons that though he may not be able to Raeper, William. George MacDonald. prove that God exists, neither can Bascombe Batavia: Lion, 1987. prove that God doesn't exist. Finally, using Reis, Richard. George MacDonald New his speaker Polwarth, MacDonald expresses York: Twayne, 1972. his own conviction that God does exist and Triggs, Kathy. The Stars and the Stillness: A further that He is a involved Portrait of George with those whom He has created: MacDonald.Cambridge:Lutterworth, 1986. Either the whole frame of existence ... Tye, Reg. "Faith and Doubt in Victorian is a wretched, miserable unfitness, a Fiction." From Dante to Solzhenitsyn: chaos with dreams of a world, a chaos Essays on Christianity and Literature. Ed. in which the higher is for ever subject Robert Yule. Wellington: U of Wellington, to the lower, or it is an embodied idea 1978. growing towards perfection in him Vaughn, D. J. "Scottish Influence Upon who is the one perfect creative Idea, English Theological Thought." the Father oflights who suffers himself Contemporary Review 32 (1878): 457-73. that he may bring his many sons into Wolff, Robert Gains and Losses: Novels of the glory which is his own glory. (88; Faith and Doubt in Victorian England. ch. 18) New York: Garland, 1977. For MacDonald, Christianity was a viable option. Like his character, Thomas Wingfold, he chose to believe in the Father of Jesus Christ. Works Cited

Bowen, BilL "The Personal God of George MacDonald." Bulletin of the New York

98 The Speaking Elephant: Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Fairy Tales by Darren Hotmire

What if the elephant could speak? A well­ Firstly, the interpreters describe positions known Indian proverb compares the pursuit of that are contradictory to each other, yet all God to several blind men describing different claim that they are describing what parts of an elephant. One man touches a leg MacDonald was actually thinking as he wrote and argues that the creature must be a tree. his stories. Secondly, the power of the stories Another feels his snout and, after scoffing at themselves may cause the reader to wonder the first man, says that the creature really what it is the author had in mind. resembles a large snake. Another feels the The good news is that the elephant did trunk, another the tail. All describe the speak. George MacDonald was not only a creature in different ways. All are true, yet not writer of fantasy, he also wrote letters, essays, complete. God-and the elephant-is a sermons, and novels. In all of these writings compilation of what humanity says of him. he writes clearly of what his beliefs are. It is But, what, one might ask, if the elephant the goal of this paper, after summarizing those could speak? thoughts attributed to MacDonald, to examine One might compare the fantasy stories of what the author wrote directly in his other George MacDonald to this elephant. Many writings that apply to lhe Princess and the people have read The Princess and the Goblin and lhe Princess and Curdie. and others of MacDonald's fairy tales, and the interpretations of these have been as varied as Differing Views the blind men feeling the elephant. This is a natural result of the genre; the Several of the blind elephant feelers voiced mythopoetic is designed to stir the imagination their interpretations in the North Wind: and may be subject to many interpretations. Journal of the George MacDonald Society. But at least two reasons exist why one might Marie Davies says that the great-grandmother wish to go beyond this statement and figure found in MacDonald's The Princess and investigate possible meanings in the works. the Goblin represents Mother Earth. She

99 Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Fairy Tales • Darren Hotmire states: "In MacDonald's fantasy works the Two other interpretations of MacDonald feminine figures always appear to be are offered by William Raeper and Robert embodiments of the greatest of , Wolff William Raeper explains MacDonald's Mother Earth."' She concludes her essay with beliefs on the basis of the influence of "In both books MacDonald has expressed Coleridge, Novalis, and F.D. Maurice upon masterfully the way in which reflects him 6 And, finally, the critic Robert Wolff man's need to come to terms with Mother analyzes MacDonald's thought from a Earth our origin, who is a goddess in most Freudian perspective. societies and a feminine presence in fairy A final interpretation is given by both C. S. tales. 2 Lewis, an ardent admirer of MacDonald, and A second elephant interpreter, Diedre Rolland Hein. Lewis represented MacDonald Hayward, states that the grandmother figure as basically an orthodox Christian in his beliefs primarily represents the need for the union of that were unorthodox. 7 Rolland Hein believes the soul with Sophia. After establishing the that this is the reason MacDonald's writings presence of Sophia as a female mediator have such a profound influence on his readers. between God and man in Boehme's vision, she He states, "what affects them is the insight into asserts the need to "seek some evidence what are felt to be the ultimate truths about linking MacDonald's great-great grandmother existence, conceived from a Christian point of with these Sophianic characteristics. "3 She VIew.. ,g then compares Sophianic aspects in Boehme and Novalis to MacDonald's great­ The Elephant Speaks: grandmother. She concludes with the MacDonald's Concept of God following words: and Revelation in the Princess Stories These are only brief examples of the Sophianic aspects of MacDonald's Revelations 9 of God great-great grandmother figure, but it can be seen that the image of the Fortunately for those who are concerned Sophia was of profound interest and with what MacDonald himself had in mind as importance to him . . . The Sophia, he wrote, the elephant has spoken. Often, with her life-giving and creative events occurring in the fairy stories of George powers, in this world and the next is a MacDonald sound similar to concepts found in figure who had immense meaning and his other writings. These instances should be relevance to MacDonald. 4 considered the best interpretation of MacDonald's fantasy works. The elephant Another article found in the North Wind was himself is speaking. written by Adrian Gunther. Gunther represents One instance of this occurs as the princess the Great -Grandmother as a spiritual guide in The Princess and the Goblin finds the whose goal is to lead one into the revelation of grandmother by climbing a series of stairs. one's inner light By doing so she leads one to This may be reminiscent of a statement of discover that sacred energy is reality rather MacDonald about revelation being similar to than material objects. 5 his climbing in the hills. He writes:

100 Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Fairy Tales • Darren Hotmire

Once today, looking through the mist, sure, that while you hold it, I hold it too." 13 l said with just a slight reservation of doubt in my heart, "There. That is as The globe of the grandmother fulfills a high as l want it to be," and similar function. This is seen as Curdie sees straightway I saw a higher point grow the glove in . Curdie, out of the mist beyond. So I have who has begun to grow less of a child, does an found it with all the ways of God10 evil deed and feels remorse. As he stands commiserating, he sees the globe of the Irene climbs "up and up" and finds that she grandmother. He realizes, then, that he can go can only climb up more. It is only as she to the grandmother and she will come to his climbs up further that revelation occurs: she aid. The globe guides him to the meets her grandmother. grandmother. 14 Another characteristic of revelation which MacDonald believed, which may be Revelation and Obedience symbolized in this story is the belief that God is the initiator of revelation. When Irene One of Cur die's interactions with the comes to see her grandmother for a second great-grandmother in The Princess and Curdie time, she is confused because on a previous illustrates MacDonald's belief that the occasion she could not find her. When she obedience of the person to what one knows to asks her grandmother why she could not find do is essential for further revelation to occur. her, her grandmother responds, "I didn't want The grandmother advises Curdie that she is you to find me."" While it is true that Irene going to put him to a test which requires only has a role in discovering the grandmother, it is trust and obedience. She then instructs him to equally clear that no revelation would have put his hands in the rose-fire. Curdie obeys occurred had not the grandmother initiated the and revelation occurs. 15 process. One of the beliefs most often in Childlike MacDonald's thoughts is that God reveals Himself to humanity in various ways, such as: This experience also emphasizes the Scripture, Jesus, nature, and the child. 12 importance of being childlike. Curdie receives MacDonald's use of the thread made on the hands that have been purified and can sense in spinning wheel may be seen as an illustration what direction each person's inner life is of the revelation of God. They both lead the traveling. Each person's spirit is going, in a princess, or any who sees them, to the sense, either beast-ward or child-ward. It is grandmother. The grandmother gives the either becoming worse or better. thread to Irene and explains it to her. As she MacDonald stresses his belief in the does this Irene exclaims, "Oh, how delightful! significance of becoming childlike in his It will lead me to you, grandmother, I know!" sermons. He writes in The Hope of the Gospel The grandmother responds, "Yes, but that it is only to the child-like that God himself remember, it may seem to you a very can be revealed. 16 He also states that the child roundabout way indeed, and you must not has divine characteristics, and that because of doubt the thread. Of one thing you may be this a child can be a revelation of God to

101 Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Fairy Tales • Darren Hotmire

others. 17 didn't know anything in the world could be so comfortable " 21 Woman and Revelation The love of God, as believed by MacDonald, is also illustrated in the The Princess and the Goblin also has grandmother's fire of roses. This fire bums elements that illustrate MacDonald's belief everything it touches into purity. The that one of God's means of revelation is grandmother brushes a single rosebud over her women. Curdie is faced with a situation that stained dress and it is instantly cleansed22 One he cannot understand; Irene has just attribute of the God of MacDonald is a love introduced him to her grandmother, but Curdie that seeks the purity of that which it loves. is unable to see her. Curdie believes that Irene This love he compares to a consuming fire is making her grandmother up. When his which bums all impurities in the object loved. 23 father sees that something is troubling Curdie, A final thought ofMacDonald is illustrated he confronts him. As he does so, he by the appearance of the great-grandmother. admonishes Curdie to give all the facts, When Irene saw her grandmother, her because, "Your mother may be able to throw grandmother did not look the same as on some light upon them." 18 previous occasions. There were two basic At another time, in The Princess and "looks" of the grandmother, which describe Curdie, his father tells Curdie that it is his something about the nature of the mother that has made him desire to be a true grandmother that is similar to the nature of "gentleman. " 19 She influences his father, God in the thought of MacDonald. The first helping him to desire to be righteous. time the princess sees her grandmother, the Both of these instances reflect grandmother's long hair is almost as white as MacDonald's belief in women as one means of snow. And her eyes "looked so wise that you God's revelation. In both instances, a woman could not have helped seeing she must be has been the instrument to introduce him to old. " 24 There was a divine wisdom in Irene's the grandmother. This can also be seen in the grandmother. grandmother herself She displays some of the One another visit of the princess, the characteristics of God. grandmother was so beautiful that the princess was "bewildered with astonishment and The Characteristics of God admiration."" Irene, when confronted with the beauty of her grandmother, feels dirty and One of the characteristics of the great­ uncomfortable in comparison. grandmother, that echoes MacDonald's thoughts about God, is love. During Irene's Concluding Comments first encounter with her grandmother, the grandmother asks why Irene did not come to The elephant of this essay speaks of the her so that she could wipe the tears from her elephant of the Indian proverb. MacDonald's eyes. 20 In a subsequent meeting her God is a God who is known through reading grandmother invites the little princess to sleep the scripture, by looking at the person of in her arms. Irene nestles close to her and Jesus, by viewing his work in nature, by being exclaims, "Oh dear! This is so nice ... I obedient to the duty one sees, by having a

102 Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Fairy Tales • Darren Hotmire child-like faith, and by relationships with sense often given to it. In many instances it is fellow human beings. being used in a sense more accurately He is a loving Father, one who does not described in theology as "illumination." rely on a feminine mediator, but who lovingly 10MacDonald, George, An Expression of reveals Himself to the world. He is a personal Character: The Letters of George God who lovingly created the world; he is MacDonald Edited by Glenn Edward Sadler. separate from it, but chooses to reveal Himself (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans to it. He is a God oflove, a God of wisdom, Publishing Company, 1994), 149. and a God of beauty. 11 MacDonald, George, The Princess and the This is the God of George Goblin. (New York: E.P. Dutton and MacDonald~the God that he loved and lived Company Inc, 1949), 75. Compare to to please and satisfY. The God that he writes comments made in A Dish of Orts pages two of in all his works, including his works of and three. For the sake of time, the thoughts fantasy. ofMacDonald as displayed in his other works will not be quoted directly, but will be spoken Notes of and documented. 12MacDonald, George, Unspoken Sermons; 1Davis, Marie, "A Spiritual Presence in the First Series. (London: Strahan and Fairyland: The Great-Great Grandmother in Company, 1869), 59. the Princess Books, North Wind: Journal of 13PG. 105. the Geor~ MacDonald Society 12 ( 1993) 60. 14MacDonald, George, The Princess and >rbid., 64. Curdie. (London: Blackie and Son. N.D.), 16- 'Hayward, Deidre, "The Mystical Sophia: 18. More on the Great Grandmother in the 1'PG, 69-70. Compare this with MacDonald's Princess Books," North Wind: Journal ofThe thoughts found in A Dish of Orts 72, 153, Georse MacDonald Society. 13 (1994): 30. Unspoken Sermon 156, Hope of the Gospels 'Ibid., 31-33. 121, Paul Faber Surgeon61. 'Gunther, Adrian, "The Phenomenal as a 16HG, 162. See also 155 and US 50-51. Channel to the Real in MacDonald's Fantasy," 17US, 3. For further writings of MacDonald North Wind Journal of the Georie on the childlike see HG 86. 114, 56, 11-12. MacDonald Society. 13 ( 1994): 3 4-3 8. 18PG, 165. "Raeper, William, Geor11e MacDonald. (Tring, 19 PC, 83. Some examples of MacDonald Batavia, Sydney: Lion Publishing, 1987), 239- speaking of Women as means of God's 240. revealing himself to individuals in Paul Faber­ 'Lewis, C.S., The Great Divorce. (New York: Surgeon 22, 27, 28. The MacMillan Company, 1946), 60-61. 2"PG 11. 'Hein, Rolland, The Harmony Within: The 21 PG. 81. Spiritual Vision of George MacDonald, 22PG. 99. (Washington D.C.: Christian University Press, 23US, 27-28. 1982), xvi. 24PG, 11. 9 25 Revelation, as discussed in this paper is not PG ' 98 . always referred to in the strict theological

103 Rightly Dividing MacDonald's Fairy Tales • Darren Hotmire

Works Cited l. Sermons and Essays MacDonald, George. A Dish of Orts. London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, Ltd, 1885. __An Expression ofCharacter: The Letters of George MacDonald. Edited by Glenn Edward Sadler. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994. __.The Hope of the Gospel. London: Word, Lock, Bowden, 1892; reprint, Eureka, Cal.: sunrise Centenary Editions, 1989. __.Unspoken Sermons: The First Series. London: Strahan and Company, 1869. __.Unspoken Sermons: The Second Series. New York: Longrnans, Green and Company, 1886. __.Unspoken Sermons: The Third Series. New York: Longrnans Green and Company, 1889.

2. Novels .Paul Faber-Surgeon. New York: George Routledge and sons, 1900; reprint, Whitethorn, Cal.: Johanneson, 1992 . . What's Mine's Mine. Boston: D. Lothrop Company, 1886.

3. Children's Stories __.The Princess and Curdie. London: Blackie and son, N.D . . The Princess and the Goblin. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company Inc., 1949.

104 MacDonald and Medicine by Darrel Hotmire

An overwhelming list of physicians, anatomy in addition to his regular classes in patients and their ailments appear in George mathematics and literature, so it islikely that MacDonald's writings. Young was MacDonald did also (Hein). It was only after a mute street urchin. Wilfred Cumbermead MacDonald realized he had insufficient funds to had tuberculosis. Diamond was a sickly child study under the better doctors of his time that who went into several comas. Florimel' s his interests in literature, poetry and preaching father suffered from a broken leg that had began to grow. He therefore switched his become infected. Malcolm's father was a blind studies to religion and literature (Phillips). piper. Juliet had Pleurisy. Robert Falconer, The medicine that MacDonald was Paul Faber, Willie MacMichael and his father interested in was much different than the were all physicians deeply concerned with medicine of today. The Victorian era marked a treating unfortunate victims of poverty and period where many changes took place in the disease. Why were MacDonald's books so practice of medicine. The stethoscope was filled with maladies and medicine? In order to newly developed, but was looked on by most answer this question we must look at physicians as having no practical benefit. The MacDonald's life. To further understand the timing of the pulse with a wrist watch was not medicine in his novels, we must also look at done until this era. The discovery that the state of the medical field in the time period thermometers could be used on humans was in which they were written. also made in this time period (Darren). These MacDonald's interest in medicine started diagnostic tools were not available to the in his youth. Upon entering college his highest average physician. Diagnosis consisted almost marks were in physics and chemistry. It is entirely of history, palpation, and observation. very likely that he attended medicine and Etiology of maladies and ailments were little anatomy classes, as students could and did go understood-the germ theory was proclaimed to any class they desired. In the novel named to the world of Victorian medicine by Joseph after him, Alec Forbes attended medicine and Lister only to be laughed at by colleagues.

105 MacDonald and Medicine • Darrell Hotmire

Meanwhile, medical schools continued to golden bowl. He stroked the arm to teach Galen's medieval theory of the plethora help its flow and soon the girl once of blood as the cause of many ailments more opened her eyes and looked at (Magner). him. Already her breathing was easier. Treatments were also much different in Victorian times. Medications were first being Statistical evidence presented in the mid developed; however their effectiveness was 1800's showing the deficiencies of venesection questionable as it was common practice to use (bloodletting) failed to produce a change in one medication for all ailments. If a pill was most practicing physicians during most of the found to help scarlet fever, it was also given Victorian era. However, during the late 1800's for consumption, the plague, and measles. In the practice began to fall into some disfavor, as addition, medications were seldom purified, indicated in this passage, only to experience a making the quantities of "active ingredients" resurgence in the early 1900's (Libby). This in pills and elixirs dubious at best. Surgeries passage in Paul Faber, Surgeon, is not were also being developed; however, evidence of MacDonald's insufficient antiseptic techniques of surgery were scoffed knowledge of medicine. It is merely a at by most of the world. Bloodletting (or reflection of medicine in his lifetime. venesection) was the most popular surgery and Incidentally, modern medicine has reinstituted was used for inflammation, fevers, and a the practice of bloodletting through multitude of disease states (Magner). These venipuncture. (Removing blood through the use are some general examples of medicine in of a needle much like the process of donating MacDonald's time. Specific examples of blood.) This technique is valuable for certain Victorian medical practices are evident in his blood disorders including Hemochromatosis writings, especially Paul Faber, Surgeon. and and Polycythemia Rubra Vera. Gutta Percha Willie. Another example of Victorian medicine Dan Hamilton experienced a problem while occurs soon after the venesection episode in editing Paul Faber, Surgeon. Imagine trying Paul Faber. Faber's patient experienced a to make the following passage apply complication to the bloodletting procedure. His meaningfully to the modem reader: patient continued to bleed in spite of adequate dressing of the wound, eventually losing a large Every thing [about the patient's amount of blood. MacDonald explains why she condition] indicated pleurisy-such experiences the complication: that there was no longer room for gentle measures. She must be relieved Hers was one of those peculiar at once: He must open a vein. In the organizations in which, from some changed practice of later days it had cause but dimly conjectured as yet, the seldom fallen to the lot of Faber to blood once set flowing will flow on to perform the very simple operation of death and even the tiniest wound is hard venesection. A slight tremble of the to staunch. hand he held acknowledged the intruding sharpness (of the scissors), then the red parabola rose from the

106 MacDonald and Medicine • Darrell Hotmire

The modem term for these illnesses are out the syringe in clean hot water ... hemophilia's A and B. Macdonald's character this process he went through most likely had one of these blood disorders. repeatedly. . . By the time he had MacDonald continues this dramatic finished, the pulse was perceptible at medical scene by describing the patient's her wrist. Last of all he bound up his condition after bleeding. Note that his own wound from which had escaped a decisions are based solely on observation and good deal beyond what he had used ... palpation. No stethoscope and no blood Then a horror seized him at the pressure cuff is used to monitor the depth of presumptuousness of the liberty he had her hemorrhagic shock. (a.k.a. blood loss). taken. What if she would rather have died than have the blood of a man, one In her wrist he discerned no pulse .. she neither loved nor knew, in her veins he laid his ear to her heart. Yes; there coursing to her very heart. was certainly the faintest flutter; he watched a moment. Yes; he could see In the context of modem medicine, this just the faintest tremor of the passage seems almost barbaric, but the amount diaphragm. of detail in this passage leaves little doubt that MacDonald was drawing on his own memory. Faber's response to his exam is the same as Perhaps during his university days he had seen a modem physician's would be; the patient has a transfusions such as this take place. lost blood; therefore, she needs blood Medical transfusions began in 1667 when it replaced-she needs a transfusion. Modem was noted that a previously venesectioned physicians would, however, differ from his feverish boy recovered after receiving a technique: transfusion of lamb's blood. Following this experiment, transfusions increased in popularity [Faber to the housekeeper] "Run .. and were used for a variety of ailments. There bring me a syringe." Afler she brought are even reports that several experiments were him the syringe, he first told her to done using sheep's blood to calm patients who wash it with hot water. Then he suffered "frenzy." It is obvious that pre­ quickly opened a vein of his own (with Victorian and Victorian physicians had some a knife), and held the syringe to catch interesting ideas about the qualities of blood. It the spout that followed. When it was is equally as obvious that they did not full he replaced the piston, telling the understand the dangers of receiving mis­ housekeeper to put a thumb on his matched blood types. In fact, it wasn't until wound, turned the point of the syringe 1930 that the discovery of the four different up and drove a little out to get rid of blood groups (O,A,B, and AB) took place. air, then with the help of a probe, Another novel that illustrates the changes in inserted the nozzle into the wound and medicine since the Victorian era is the gently forced in the blood. That done children's novel, Gutta Percha Willie. In this he placed his own thumb in the two novel, father and son physicians become wounds and made the woman wash immensely popular, in part due to a mineral

107 MacDonald and Medicine • Darrell Hotmire well. The physician father describes the well References: water: "The salts [the well water] contained could do no one any harm, and might do some Darren, Charles C. The Peaks ofMedical people much good; that there was iron in it, History. Paul B. Haber Inc. 1927. which was strengthening." Water from the well at first helped heal Heins, Rolland. George MacDonald: Victorian three different maladies of those living close Mythmaker. Starsong. 16-24. 1993. by. It later progressed to a place where people throughout the countryside came to spend Libby, Walter M.A. Ph.D. The History of seven to ten days drinking the water. Finally Medicine, In its Salient Features. on the last page of the novel, the well water is Houghton-Mifflin, pp 318-353. 19922. used in a mineral bath house (swimming pool). This is a good example of medications Lloyd, Wyndham E.B. A Hundred Years of being used for multiple ailments. Both iron Medicine Humanities Press. Pp 177-187. and salts are treatments in modem times for 1968. specific illnesses, but are not to be used in excess by all. Iron is one of the main Magner, Lois N. A History of Medicine, ingredients in prenatal vitamins because Marcel Dekker, Inc. pp 189-213. 1992. pregnant women develop iron deficiency anemia. For people with this anemia, iron Phillips, Michael R. George MacDonald, does give strength. However it does not Scotland's Beloved Storyteller. Bethany benefit people who are not deficient in iron. House Publishers. pp 16-24. 1987. Salts can also be beneficial and are indicated in certain conditions. This is seen by the amount of salts in the modem formulations of Pedialyte and Gatorade. These are beneficial to dehydrated children and exercising adults, but can be harmful if not used for these specific indications. The use of iron and salts are seen to be beneficial to all in Gutta Percha Willie. MacDonald gives us a good example of the Victorian philosophy of medicines working in a general manner in this passage. MacDonald's writings are remarkable for their preaching and their emphasis on literature and poetry. By looking at the way medicine was practiced in his lifetime, we can also understand better the medical aspects of his novels. In doing this we gain new insight into one of the interests of a great man of God.

108 Cliffhanger: The Serial Tale-Telling Gifts of George MacDonald by Dan Hamilton

Elizabeth and I sat in the public library in gap. Sunday as a "holy day" was more widely Huntly, Scotland, and handled-carefully­ observed than today, and there was special the original manuscript of The Princess and approved reading for the occasion. the Goblin. A few minutes with that stack of Many of MacDonald's novels first paper told us much about MacDonald and his appeared in serial form in one or another of methods of putting words into print. such magazines-The Sunday Magazine, To begin with, the manuscript was not on Comhi/1 Magazine, Good Words, Day of Rest, what we would call "writing paper"-it was Wide Awake, and The Glasgow Weekly Mail. written on the backs of old envelopes which The full story could take up to a year to run its had been opened up and flattened out. We course, and the first true book version would could flip the pages over and see the addresses appear some time after that. The first book and the ancient postmarks. This was necessary version was usually printed in three volumes thrift. The Princess and the Goblin was called a "triple-decker." The triple-deckers written during some of the poorest went mainly to the circulating libraries, which circumstances in MacDonald's life. He did not "rented" the books out to anxious readers. have extra money for fresh, clean, unused (These copies were quickly worn out, and writing paper. He used what he had on hand­ usually discarded-which helps explain their and not simply the obvious, but anything that rarity and price today.) Perhaps two or three could be adapted for his use. years after the triple-decker versions, a "new An appreciation of his poverty led us into and cheaper" one-volume reprint would other interesting observations about the appear. realities of his era and his work as a writer. It Such an approach to publishing created was an age without electricity, a time before special problems for the writers. Books were cars, a season when reading was a large, family written in installments of several chapters event. Books were expensive, but they were each, and had to be delivered piece-meal on a available, and weekly magazines helped fill the regular schedule to keep the publishers-and

109 George MacDonald and The Serial Tale • Dan Hamilton the reading public-happy. Some writers mistakes made across the entire story could be could handle the forced creativity, and some remedied - but MacDonald didn't always have could not. William Thackeray admitted that that option. Chapter 37 of The Vicar's towards the end of the month he grew so Daughter shows what he could do in desperate nervous that he could scarcely speak to circumstances: he titled the whole chapter anyone, and that turning out each piece of "Retrospective," offering corrections like Vanity Fair was typically a "life or death these: struggle." Constant panic seemed to be his normal working condition. I find also that I have, in the fourth Dickens apparently had an easier time, chapter, by some odd though he relates a moment when "once, and cerebro-mechanical freak, substituted but once only" in his life, he was frightened. the name of my aunt Martha for that of David Copperfield was in magazine progress, my aunt Millicent, another sister of my and Dickens happened to be in a stationer's father. . . I find also in the thirteenth shop when a lady asked for the latest "number" chapter an unexplained allusion ... of that story. The shopkeeper told her to come back in a few days-and Dickens suddenly 3. There are side stories, diversions, and realized that he had not yet written a single occasional short or "empty" chapters that do word for the imminent issue. little to advance the story. Perhaps he had MacDonald apparently operated temporarily lost track of the plot, or perhaps somewhere between these extremes. His books he was trying to gracefully fill out an generally flow fairly well, but under close installment while he tried to figure out what inspection they do show some signs of having would happen next. The story wasn't been conceived under pressure. necessarily complete in his mind, and fictional tales seem especially prone to changing shape 1. There are puzzling mistakes between as they are hammered together. As he admitted successive chapters. In Annals of a Quiet in that same "retrospective" chapter, "I find Neighbourhood, the pastor's horse changes besides that several intentions I had when I genders a couple of times. We wondered how had started, have fallen out of the scheme." this had happened, until we realized that while installment four (for example) was appearing 4. For similar reasons, there are dangling on the newsstands, the handwritten-and narratives-parts of the story that were never only!-copy of installment five would be at the properly finished. A Rough Shaking, in printer, and installment six was being written. particular, suffers from this. There are No wonder MacDonald sometimes lost track fascinating allusions, half-tales, and of what had been said and done. possibilities that are never fully fleshed out or finished later in the story. 2. Mistakes were not only easy to make, but hard to correct. Once an installment was in 5. There is a certain amount of chronological print, it was public history-and that was that. confusion. When Elizabeth and I were Books published under more normal preparing to edit Mary Marston for circumstances would be edited as a whole, and republication, we were both bothered by the

110 George MacDonald and The Serial Tale • Dan Hamilton continual flashbacks-apparently inserted as even his friends and family as raw material. MacDonald realized that he had left essential We tracked MacDonald throughout Great pieces of the story out. This might not Britain-and discovered many of the towns normally be a problem, but one of his main and landmarks that he described in his novels. characters died in the middle of the narrative. In Arundel, his prototype for the Later chapters contained whole "resurrections" Marshmallows of Annals of a Quiet so important details could be inserted. When Neighbourhood, we found the bridge where Elizabeth edited this book-to reappear as The Pastor Walton met his indispensable Mr. Shopkeeper's Daughter-she snipped all the Rogers; we found the castle; we even surmised little pieces out and lined them up in that the name "Oldcastle Hall"-where his chronological order. The resulting edition is heroine lived-was his subtle salute to the much easier to read than the original. castle The story of Robert Falconer first appeared in Argosy. Normally, the separate 5. There are rather abrupt endings to several of parts would simply have been collated for the books, as though he suddenly realized he publication in book form. However, George only had two installments left to "tie it all MacDonald rewrote the last portion in together." preparation for the forthcoming book An unintended result for our time is the publication. In the interval, however, his loss of the "cliffhanger" aspect of his books. publisher issued the collected original parts as The completed novels do not mark the original Robert Falconer. George MacDonald serial divisions, and one doesn't sense the ebb protested the occurrence in a letter . . . see and flow of the narrative. There is room for Grey bibliography. investigation here-to group the chapters into their original installments and read them at the original pace. We tend to read a book in one or two sittings and then put it away- but how much more could we enjoy it if we savored it piecemeal for an entire year, rereading the earlier sections to keep the story fresh in our minds? Perhaps these minor flaws would bother us less, and the narrative impact grow all the more. The process shapes the product; understanding and appreciating MacDonald's work will be easier and more rewarding if we take the time to see how-and under what circumstances and limitations-they were conceived, written, and published. We found as we researched his books­ and the circumstances that led to them- that he used not only old envelopes for his stories but buildings, towns, historical events, and

Ill Faith and Fantasy by Dan Hamilton

Reading is a wonderful addiction. I Three essential assumptions, three "givens" of occasionally indulge in month-long reading fantasy, appeared in every story in every book­ binges-setting aside the other browsing and in different disguises, of course, but there study to be done, and concentrating instead on nonetheless. some subset of the world of literature. One such binge led me through most every fantasy 1. The heroes and heroines, obscure in the book on my shelves, including a number of beginning, truly tum out to be Somebodies. books by George MacDonald, G.K. Ash-dwelling Cinderellas are crowned Queens. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolk:ien. Frogs are kissed into Princes. And the lowly When I came up for air after four or five squire or stable-boy-the life-long coward-is weeks I had a fresh view, not of fantasy alone, molded into the greatest Knight of all. but (to my surprise) of both Christianity and fantasy together. The books (and then the 2. The Good Guys win. Witches are puddled passages I proceeded to look up) touched me into wax by a splash of water. Giants are at a level that is hard to talk about-the level turned to frozen stone by the first rays of the where I can't stop the tears and wouldn't ifl dawn. The Mordor darkness is ruined, and could, because the tears are the kind that bring banished by the deliberate loss of the One healing even as they flow. And at that time I Ring. The Death Star is destroyed by a scribbled down what would become the theme back -planet dreamer with a burned-out droid of a whole series of essays: "Christianity is the and one last shot. And the heroes, humbled ultimate fulfillment of all fantasy." and intoxicated by their success, stand exultant What happened? As I moved from book to over all. book, a few things became exceptionally clear -notably the "essential assumptions" of 3. There is Rest, and a Home, and a Happily fantasy, the seeds of appreciation within us, Ever After. By the end of the story, the and a direct correlation between fantasy and long-awaited Home is itself waiting in the personal promises of Christianity. welcome and peace. The new-crowned King

112 Faith and Fantasy • Dan Hamilton carries his rescued chosen away to the marble we understand how tremendous a difference it castle overlooking the sea. The Grey Havens makes who wins and who loses. We cheer for and the West beckon the weary heroes of the Rocky all the way through. We desperately War of the Ring. And the unexpected universe hope the SEAL team will find a secret way within a tiny stable in Narnia beckons the through the fortress walls and rescue the victors "farther up and farther in." The hostages. We bleed inside when criminals go conquerors tum from battle to baths, from free and their victims live on in fear. Day by warfare to wound-tending, from conflict to day we separate the good from the evil around contentment, from mayhem to marriage. us and long-often in vain--for the triumph of Happily ever after. the first over the second. We want the good Without these three elements, fantasy is side to win, and we want to be on the winning simply not fantasy. side. But why do these tales touch us? What are the unfilled deeps that respond? Why do 3. We want to Rest. We know the point of children ask for the same stories again and conflict is not to war forever-the point is to again (and again}-and why do we grown-ups win, to remove the reason for battle, and to enjoy them when we think no one is watching? retire honorably to a better life. Home in all A friend of mine termed the reasons the fullness. A place to hang our hats and not our "seeds of appreciation", and again there are heads. Where love and healing flow and three. harmony is never broken, where strength abides and hounding pressures are a distant I. We want to be Somebody. Noticed. memory. Even what we have now is not Acclaimed. We daydream about rescuing the ultimately enough. During a [pleasant] evening fair maidens and charging after the fierce with the ones we love most, we may still feel dragons. We've always wished we could come the sudden stabbing of "there must be more to bat in the ninth inning of the seventh game and higher than this! "-and know that in our of the World Series, down by three runs with hearts we bear the secret mark of exile, and the bases loaded, then work the count to three suddenly remember that our home is far and and two before smashing a grand slam over the away across an undiscovered ocean out top of the scoreboard. We make Walter somewhere beyond the edge of the only world Mitty's dreams seem tame. Whatever we we can see. fantasize, we come out having done exactly the right thing at precisely the right moment, We have these built-in holes-these and we receive the just rewards for our inherent hungers-but we're not always sure actions. There are honors, there are trophies, what to do with them. We can take comfort in there is fame, there are cheers from the the reminder that God does not create an assembled multitudes, and the gaze of our appetite without making provision for food to loved ones is upon us. fill that appetite. And so our fantasies tug at these very important (and mostly unconfessed) 2. We want Justice to prevail. We see the longings and hollow places, preparing us for­ fight, the skirmish, the long and bitter war; we the personal promises of Christianity. know there must be winners and losers, and

113 Faith and Fantasy • Dan Hamilton

I. We will be Somebody. To be revealed­ And so we read, and dream, and long, and finally-can it be? Sons of God! ( ... a real rejoice in the certainty of coming attractions­ Man, an ageless God, a son of God, strong, knowing that all truth is not yet fact, and that radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy." our ache-shaped dreams will not remain empty ("Man Or Rabbit" by C. S. Lewis) We will be wishes. Noticed-Acclaimed-Accepted­ Approved- Adopted. "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your master!" Kings and Queens. Bigger than life and ten times as lovable. We will have a new name, a secret name, written on white stone, a lover's name never revealed or known by any save us and the One Lover. A Bride-radiant like no other bride-loved like no other Bride has ever been, more valued than any other bride ever can be. Chosen. Selected. Pursued. Paid for. Redeemed. And taken home by the Lord of the Infinite All-that is to be Somebody! We shall judge angels, and hobnob with the godly giants of all the ages. We shall have Arrived.

2. Justice will prevail. Complete, sudden, irrefutable. Heavenly justice imposed on earth-sweeping vengeance and a terrible swift sword. Trumpet blasts and the resurrection of the righteous. The wicked doomed and banished forever. The kingdom come. We shall wake and know the long war to be over-and we shall see how the Rest was won.

3. We shall be home. Eden all over again­ without the snake. New Jerusalem, golden gates wide, waiting for those who have at long last laid down their burdens by the riverside and run splashing through the water. Many mansions-not just a niche for a sleeping bag and a few orange crates. And not just happily ever after, but Joyfully Forever After.

114 Until the End of the World: Omega Point Eschatology in C.S. Lewis and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin by C. Christopher Smith

Introduction own Omega Point eschatology in the 1946 novel That Hideous Strength. By synthesizing The Bible, in its wonderful weaving of the Literature, Science, Philosophy and Faith, one tale of the universe, does not fail to describe can begin to analyze these two related the end of time. However, it shapes its perspectives on the world's end. depiction not only out of words-crafty creatures themselves-but also out of Two Different Approaches to the Omega Point particularly ambiguous terms and symbols. Thus, many diverse understandings have arisen Before discussing either eschatology, one over time as humankind seeks to interpret must understand the men from whom these these futuristic passages using the tools of a visions flowed and how each description given historical, socio-political, scientific and emerges from its personal context. Lewis, an philosophic context. The twentieth century is author and literary critic, appropriately no exception, and a number of new encapsulates his views in the form of a story. have emerged from it. One of Accordingly, one must approach his work as a the most prominent, and one of the most work of fiction. Thus, Lewis was not misunderstood, is the vision of the French explicitly trying to describe Reality, but Jesuit anthropologist Pierre Teilhard de instead, through the reality of the world of Chardin. In two books that would only Edgestow, Bracton, and Belbury, he emerge posthumously, Teilhard thoroughly approached the Truth of our world. Story is a described an "Omega Point" at the end of time wonderful medium for expressing the when God would re-unite the church unto hypothetical unforeseen. Indeed, even the Himself A contemporary of Teilhard' s, the biblical account of the world's end consists British scholar C.S. Lewis would present his mostly of John narrating his divine revelation.

115 Omega Point Eschatology in Lewis and de Chardin • C. Christopher Smith

In contrast, Teilhard-an anthropologist and Weight of Glory entitled "Is Theology scientist-speaks from the context of the Poetry?" and in his heavily sarcastic poem Reality of our world. Any eschatology must "Evolutionary Hymn." certainly be speculative, but its expression There appears to be no clear statement of must flow from some rhetorical form. For Lewis's opinion on theories, like Teilhard' s, of Lewis this form was story, and for Teilhard, it theistic evolution. He does seem to indicate a was science. belief in evolution on some scale, as he says in "Is Theology Poetry?": "However, even if The Role of Evolution evolution in the strict biological sense has some better grounds than Professor [D.M.S.] Anyone familiar with the works of both Watson suggests-and I can't help thinking Lewis and Teilhard will note their apparently that it must-we should distinguish evolution contradictory views on evolution. As an in this strict sense from what may be called the anthropologist, Teilhard was a staunch universal evolutionism of modem thought" evolutionist, and was even involved in a team (89-90). The "universal evolutionism" in this effort that unearthed the infamous Peking Man passage refers to the aforementioned emergent (Wright 259). Teilhard's ideologies however, evolution of Stapledon, Bergson, and others. unlike those of many of his colleagues, were Thus, one realizes that Lewis-though by no not atheistic. James Reilly notes that means a scientist-accepted evolution on Teilhard's work was "a criticism of [Henry] some level. However, one cannot be sure of Bergson's [naturalistic) doctrine of evolution" whether he was simply referring to the (51). Instead, he passionately sought to unite scientifically well-documented models of faith and science, and thus was one of the first micro-evolution, or to some more grandiose accept evolution as Teleological. Teilhard notion like the ideologies of Teilhard. gives a thorough documentation of his theistic Regardless of Lewis's understanding of the evolutionary views in The Phenomenon of role of evolution, his character Dr. Dimble in Man. That Hideous Strength, a key figure among the On the contrary, Lewis passionately sought forces of Good, apparently accepts a to refute evolution. In fact, a bold defense of Teleological model of evolution, as the faith against naturalistic and mechanistic demonstrated in his articulation of an "Omega evolution is one of the main themes of his Point" eschatology. space trilogy. In the introduction to That Hideous Strength, he recognizes the work of Lewis's Presentation of the renowned science fiction writer Olaf Omega Point Eschatology Stapledon, whose perspective he aimed to refute. In his critical work on Lewis's Space Lewis sets Dr. Dimble about describing Trilogy, David Downing notes that one of the this Omega Point eschatology on pages 283- main themes of Strength is a response to the 286 of That Hideous Strength. After a period naturalistic idea that "some sort of god ... is of prolonged thought, Dimble begins: evolving amid the galaxies" (53). Lewis also very clearly spoke his opposition to (atheistic) Have you ever noticed that ... the evolution in an essay in the collection The universe and every little bit of it, is

116 Omega Point Eschatology in Lewis and de Chardin • C. Christopher Smith

always hardening and coming to a point? ... more evil and as the community at St. Anne's I mean this, ... If you dip into any college, or grows in its virtue. Due to the relatively small school, or parish, or family-anything you historical scope of the novel, the role of like-at a given point in history, you always evolution as such is not particularly evident. find that there was a time before that point The minor exceptions would be the when there was more elbow room and aforementioned spiritual evolution toward contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that better or worse, and the historical references there's going to be a time after that point when such as those pertaining to Merlin that there is even less room for indecision and described the shift in the Earth's condition. choices are even more momentous. Good is Lewis portrays the Omega Point (or in this always getting better and bad is always getting case, points) toward which both Evil and worse ... The whole thing is sorting itself out Good were progressing. The organization at all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper Belbury peaks at the Great Banquet, which and harder. (283) terminates in all manners of chaos and death. St. Anne's reaches its apex in the final chapter Dimble proceeds to talk about the role of when Perelandra sets upon this community. evolution in the progression toward this The Earth glows with an undue brilliance "Omega Point" of sorts, "Evolution means (364), and the animals liberated from Belbury species getting less and less like one another. revel in sexual glee (377-378)---a state Minds get more and more spiritual, matter somewhat reminiscent of Isaiah's glorious more and more material" (284 ). He posits the vision of the world to come (11:6-9). One example of Merlin, in whose era spirits were should note how Lewis deftly unites the less defined than at the present, and indeed physical and spiritual realms in his some may have had a neutral impact on the eschatology. The physical event of Venus universe. It is important to note here the vital drawing nigh to the Earth concurs with the role that the spiritual realm plays in Dimble's spiritual culmination of human history. As the view of the progression of the universe. Director says, "she comes more near the Earth However, all non-divine spiritual beings are than she was wont to-to make Earth sane. apparently also subject to evolutionary Perelandra is all about us and Man is no longer processes. isolated. We are now as we ought to be-between the angels who are our elder Embodiment of this eschatology in brothers and the beasts who are our jesters, That Hideous Strength servants and playfellows" (3 78). It is interesting to note the similarity of Lewis's Lewis has the wonderful privilege through paradise in Strength and the one he describes the medium of story, of developing this in the Last Battle. eschatology through its conclusion. The congregations of Bel bury and St. Anne's indubitably represent the two camps of Evil and Good that Dimble has predicted. As the tale progresses, the tension mounts between the two groups, as N.I.C.E. gradually becomes

117 Omega Point Eschatology in Lewis and de Chardin • C. Christopher Smith

Teilhard's Vision of the Omega Point a variety of this "emergent evolution" that spurred Lewis to pen the space trilogy. Teilhard produced two major works during The vital difference between the his lifetime, and continuously polished these Lewis/Teilhard vision and that of Bergson and two works because the Catholic church Stapledon is the underlying motivation. prohibited their publication due to their aim of Evolution in That Hideous Strength and that uniting religious faith and evolution. The of Teilhard was Teleological, driven by the theme of each of these works was his vision of hand of God and incorporating the spiritual the impending Omega Point. However, each realm as well as the natural. Contrarily, book takes a very different approach to Stapledon, Bergson, et al. saw evolution as a describing this eschatology. The Phenomenon wholly naturalistic process. Teilhard posits a of Man presents the vision through the media model of how physical and spiritual energies of the natural sciences and thus, as a self­ indeed are two aspects of one universal energy professed "scientific treatise" (29), focuses (Phenomenon 62-64). The Divine Milieu primarily on the "natural" process of reinforces the Teleology of Teilhard's evolution. Contrarily, The Divine Milieu ideologies, in accord with the Pauline describes the Omega Point eschatology from a descriptions of Christ as "all in all" (1 spiritual perspective, detailing the theological Corinthians 15 :28) and "over all and through aspects which relate to the "natural" processes all and in all" (Ephesians 4:6). described in Phenomenon. It is outside the Probably the most striking similarity of the scope of this discussion to provide a detailed eschatologies of Teilhard and Lewis is their exposttton or analysis of Teilhard's depiction of the distinct evolutions of Good evolutionary ideologies. Instead, the aim will and Evil. This aspect of Lewis's vision is be to make connections in Teilhard's works to readily apparent in Dimble's description. the primary facets of Lewis's eschatology. However, it is less evident in Teilhard's work, only emerging as one of two hypothetical Creation Evolving Toward the Omega Point states of our universe as it "approaches maturation" (Phenomenon 287). The opposite Both Teilhard and Lewis imagined that hypothesis is more idealistic and universalistic: evolution played some role in drawing the one where humanity will evolve to a state of universe to the Omega Point. Both recognized peace and unity prior to the Omega Point that there was a rise in what one could vaguely (Phenomenon 283-284). The latter conjecture call the "universal consciousness"-a terrn is the one that has, mistakenly, arisen as best expressed in Dimble' s notion of increasing stereotypical of Teilhard' s work. However, definition, that "the possibilities of even Christopher Mooney makes a strong case in apparent neutrality are always demising" his book Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery (283). Teilhard laboriously details the of Christ that Teilhard, despite his hope and biological possibilities of this hypothesis in optimism, favored the forrner hypothesis ( 131 Phenomenon. One must proceed with caution ff). The evidence lies in Teilhard's acceptance when discussing an emerging "universal of the necessity of freedom, stemming from consciousness." Indeed, it was opposition to Love (132). Mooney also notes that Teilhard

118 Omega Point Eschatology in Lewis and de Chardin • C. Christopher Smith does accept the necessity of hell and damnation (Milieu 147-148), which would Conclusion tend to support a dual evolution of Good and Evil. Despite the different rhetorical forms in Regardless of which hypothesis Teilhard which Lewis and Teilhard shape their thought more probable, his depiction of the eschatologies, one finds that they are Good/Evil co-evolution (Phenomenon 288- remarkably similar. First, both depict a 290), is strikingly reminiscent of Lewis's. coming Omega Point when the Parousia will Teilhard says that Evil "too may attain its occur. Each of these eschatologies is paroxysm at the end" (Phenomenon 288). He adamantly Teleological. As Robert Wright proceeds to say: says, they represent "a divine means to an end" (273). Teilhard indubitably grounds his vision Are we to foresee a mechanizing in evolutionary theory. Lewis, although his synergy under brute force, or a personal stance on theistic evolution is unclear, synergy of sympathy? Are we to appears to have expected evolution to play foresee man seeking to fulfill himself some sort of role in his eschatological vision collectively upon himself, or personally expressed in That Hideous Strength. Finally, on a greater level than himself? both seem to accept that both Good and Evil Refusal or acceptance of the Omega? will peak at the end oftime. Lewis is explicit A conflict may supervene. (288) in his expression of these twin peaks, and thought strong evidence exists showing his Earlier in Phenomenon (62-66), Teilhard's inclination was toward this view. Teilhard' s discussion of the interaction of "radial energy" writings are less committal. (spiritual, drawing toward the Center) and The aim of this discussion was not to "tangential energy" (material, pulling away advocate either Lewis's or Teilhard's vision as from the Center) is particularly similar to the most appropriate eschatology at the Dimble's notion that "Minds are getting more present. Indeed, both religious and scientific and more spiritual and matter more and more commumtles have recently questioned material" (284). Teilhard also inclines toward Teilhard's. The evangelical community has the Good/Evil dichotomy in his Epilogue to spumed Teilhard's work, primarily because The Divine Milieu: they mistakenly view his work through the "New Age" universalists who hail him as a Segregation and aggregation. prophet. The science of Teilhard's vision is Separation of the evil elements of the undoubtedly vague and obsolete, lending him world, and 'co-adunation' of the little favor among scientists. However, a new, worlds that each faithful trendy school of physicists (e.g., Frank Tipler) spirit constructs around him in work have adopted his concept and terminology of and pain. Under the influence of this the Omega Point, although their science has twofold movement, which is still little to do with Teilhard's. The renowned almost entirely hidden, the universe is quantum physicist and Anglican priest, John being transformed and is maturing all Polkinghome, has aptly criticized this school around us. (ISO) of thought as "a kind of cosmic Tower of

119 Omega Point Eschatology in Lewis and de Chard in • C. Christopher Smith

Babel" (66). Lewis's views could likewise be Wall. New York: Harper, 1959. condemned as scientifically archaic, though such judgment would be unfair, as Lewis had Tipler, Frank. The Physics of Immortality. New no pretense of speaking as a scientist. The York: Doubleday, 1994. primary value and exhortation of both Wright, Robert. Three Scientists and Their Gods. eschatologies is that they seek to understand New York: Times, 1988. and interpret the Scriptural accounts in light of the present human understanding of the world. One would do well to follow the example of both Teilhard de Chardin and Lewis, and illuminated by the Spirit, passionately seek to know creation and its Creator through the integrating ofFaith and Reason.

Works Cited

Downing, David. Planets in Peril: A critical Study of C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy. Amherst: U of Mass P, 1992.

Lewis, C.S. "Is Theology Poetry?" The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. Ed. Walter Hooper. Macmillan, 1949.

Poems. New York: Harcourt, 1964.

That Hideous Strength. New York: Macmillan, 1965.

Mooney, Christopher. Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ. Garden City, NY: Image, 1968.

Polkinghorne, John. Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue. Valley Forge: Trinity, 1995.

Reilly, James P. "A Student of the Phenomena." The World ofTei/hard de Chardin. Ed. Robert Francoeur. Baltimore: Helicon, 1961.

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Divine Milieu. Trans. Bernard Wall. New York: Harper 1960.

The Phenomenon ofMan. Trans. Bernard

120 Wordsmiths as Warriors: The Intellectual Honesty of G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis by J. Daryl Charles

Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger ofmen who have no opinions. - G.K. Chesterton

Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue al the testing point. -C.S. Lewis

While this centenary celebration focuses In retrospect, however, it is not at all on the literary legacy of C. S. Lewis, the name difficult to understand what drew Lewis to of another literary legend-a generation Chesterton. In addition to a sharp wit, keen removed- presses to the fore as we consider sense of humor and extraordinarily fertile the formative influences upon Lewis' own literary imagination, each possessed a fierce spiritual and intellectual pilgrimage. Certainly intellect and passion for truth that, when Lewis himself would concede the influence of combined, inevitably wove its way through the one whose writings-The Everlasting controversy and debate. On display in the Man, in particular- were instrumental in writings of both men is that uncanny ability to bringing him to the place of vital faith. Lewis' cut to the heart of a matter, recognize faulty first encounter with G.K. Chesterton was in assumptions that drive culture, and then 1918, while recovering in a military hospital expose those assumptions with considerable from a bout of trench fever. In Surprised by literary flare. It is this delicious mix of writ and Joy, Lewis reflects on this initial encounter, wit that has inspired succeeding generations of unable to comprehend fully why Chesterton, Christians -- and this among Roman Catholics, unknown to him at the time, had made such Protestants and Orthodox alike. To be sure, "an immediate conquest" of him. the styles of Chesterton and Lewis differ

121 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles drastically. The former, using pun and pen, verse--the one a journalist, the other a fearlessly stormed ramparts and attempted to connoisseur of medieval and Renaissance establish beachheads; the latter operated literature. Both wrote with unbounded literary quietly behind enemy lines in the respectable imagination-what Chesterton would groves of the academy. Yet both men engaged frequently refer to as "romance." This the world with a view of changing it. Both imagination, coupled with a knack for getting men, though not ofthe world, were very much to the heart of a matter, has endeared both in it. And both expended their all, in order that Chesterton and Lewis to succeeding the Christian cause might be furthered. generations. Upon engaging both, the reader In reading both Chesterton and Lewis, senses what Aidan Mackay describes as the one not infrequently senses something of a "inevitable feeling of rightness" about so many kinship. Fueling and sustaining this kinship is of their utterances. the strong impression that one has As their popularity particularly among discovered-or rediscovered-a wise, old Protestants and Catholics alike attests, both fiiend, a fiiend who has already been where we men made their mark not only as writers but are treading. Frequently, North Americans will also as thinkers during their day. The life of the be heard to say of Lewis, for example, that he mind was utterly important to each. Equipped taught them both to think as well as to think with a robust intellect that found creative and Christianly. Whatever the reasons for this, forceful literary expression, both "earnestly something about the character of twentieth­ contended for the faith," borne by a conviction century religious thought has resulted in the of a phi /osophia perennis that immense appeal of Chesterton and Lewis -- an transcended-and penetrated-culture, and appeal, admittedly, that can take on inevitably, compelled each toward a critical proportions larger than life. At the close of our appraisal of modernity. A salient feature of century, both Lewis and Chesterton still modernity (with its offspring, postmodernity) possess a power strangely unaccounted for by is a tendency to worship the present and the average reader- a power that allows each disavow the past. The wisdom of the past, to "walk into the heart without knocking." which in contemporary culture receives short Although a generation separates these shrift, for Chesterton and Lewis was, by two apologists of the faith, Christian warriors contrast, ever relevant. In this way the two each, they stand as it were shoulder to men continuously challenged the intellectual shoulder-each willing to engage fiiend or foe snobbery of their day. and each passionately committed volunteers in To suggest strong affinities between the service of the Lord of Hosts. Chesterton and Lewis, however, is not to deny conspicuous differences, most notably in their work habits. An acquaintance of both men Wordsmiths and Warriors: Emerging summarized the contrast this way: "Lewis Profiles wrote meticulously, cherishing time like a Men ofletters, both Chesterton and Lewis jewel: Chesterton wrote chaotically, making were prodigious and prolific contributors to time into a disheveled mess and somehow diverse literary genres, both in prose and in getting away with it." While the one was

122 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles known for being supremely disciplined with Lewis, by contrast, wishes most of the time the mind and the pen, the other was not. neither to be political nor to be very public. One of the glaring contrasts between the This, of course, may well be due to the habitat two men is the public persona that attended of each man, as Burton suggests. A more each-i.e., how each engaged the world. plausible explanation, however, is that Lewis Because of his appearances on radio, in public was much more the private individual. meetings and running debates with "friendly Consider, by way of example, the travel habits foes" such as Bernard Shaw, Chesterton came of both men. Chesterton enjoyed very much to be viewed as something of a "political visiting the States, notwithstanding his little animal." Swashbuckling was his style, charging sympathy for the Prohibition. Lewis, on the into the battle with both guns blazing was his other hand, was often invited to this country modus operandi. John David Burton, in a most but never came. To a former pupil, Lewis insightful essay, captures the Chestertonian confided that he looked upon every invitation swagger most appropriately: to visit the U.S. with horror. It is then strangely ironic that for a brief and very tender If a man be known by his enemies as moment in Lewis' life, love and grief are well as by his friends, Chesterton intricately bound up in the object of an needs no introduction. He goes American woman. forth, "fighting for the Christian By most accounts, Chesterton and Lewis civilization," throwing down the are viewed as polar opposites with respect to gauntlet to whatever, whomever their education. Lewis, having spent thirty is there in public view. The Fabian years at Oxford and then another ten at Society, Calvinism (at least Cambridge before his death in 1963, was Chesterton's slight grasp on the plainly a scholar of stupendous erudition; Gospel via Geneva), the landed Chesterton, in stark contrast, is typically aristocracy, industrial capitalism: you deemed "half-educated," illustrated by the name it and Chesterton tackles it. He comment of Evelyn Waugh: "What wonderful lives the Roman proverb, "I am a things Chesterton would have to say if only he man and nothing human is foreign to had been an educated man!" me." His eccentric life-style and what While the difference in education between seems at times to be a "hit and run" Chesterton and Lewis is considerable, one dare literary style may tempt some to see not make too much of it. The fact of him as a shambling crusader seeking Chesterton's education-or lack thereof--as to slay a dragon a day to earn a he stands next to Lewis in the end is less of a knight's pay. To read Chesterton factor than some would have it. Chesterton again and again, particularly the himself grew up in a home where education nonfiction prose, is to see that he was valued-and its importance taken for intends to take seriously and to be granted: taken seriously on the public issues The general background of all my of his day, some of which are still boyhood was agnostic. My own with us.

123 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles

parents were rather exceptional, MacDonald, I did not know what I among people so intelligent was letting myself in for. A young [A] was an established man who wishes to remain a sound thing. We might almost say that Atheist cannot be too careful of his agnosticism was an established reading. church. There was a uniformity of In the end, it is the combination of style unbelief among educated people ... and thought in Chesterton that Lewis finds most appealing. Chesterton thinks Thus, it seems exaggerated to philosophically, he thinks Christianity, he maintain--or insinuate--that Chesterton's thinks in terms of the past when examining the writing and thinking lack responsibility (with present; ultimately, for Lewis he makes sense. whom shall he be compared?). If indeed they Significantly, it is Everlasting Man, a work mirror a lack, it is precisely this quality that which-if it does anything-engages and seems to have attracted Lewis, who as a critiques reigning philosophical assumptions, Second Lieutenant in the Light Infantry was that is the catalyst for drawing Lewis to a recuperating from sickness near the end of place of intellectual, if not spiritual, World War I when infected by another "virus" conversion. Both Chesterton and Lewis were of sorts: respected by their peers-the former by It was here that I first read a volume leading thinkers and propagandists of the day; of Chesterton's essays. I had never the latter as a result of thirty years as an heard of him and had no idea of what Oxford don and ten years at Cambridge, where he stood for; nor can I quite even atheists were forced to concede understand why he made such an begrudging admiration. immediate conquest of me. . Liking an author may be as Wordsmiths as Warriors: involuntary and improbable as falling The Pen and the Sword in love. I was by now a sufficiently experienced reader to distinguish It is not without consequence for their liking from agreement. I did not need later work that both Chesterton and Lewis to accept what Chesterton said in endured a dark period of scepticism and order to enjoy it. His humor was of despair before converting to vital faith. For the kind which I like best-not both, this experience was to sharpen them-as "jokes" imbedded in the page like thinkers and writers. Once through the tunnel, currants in a cake, still less . . a they could critique with clarity and cogency general tone of flippancy and the state of moral and philosophical scepticism. jocularity, but the humour which is There is an authority that lends itself to their not in any way separable from the writings because of their intimate acquaintance argument but is rather . . the with both sides-faith and unbelief "bloom" on dialectic itself . . In For Chesterton the dark side manifest reading Chesterton, as in reading itself at the Slade School of Art in the early

124 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles

1890's. In his Autobiography Chesterton emergence into the light. By Lewis' own reminisces about the severity of scepticism that testimony, the awareness of the occult and confronted him during his days at the art supernatural evil was with him during his school: boyhood and would remain. Primary influences on the young Lewis during this darker period [T]here was a time when I had are acknowledged to be two-fold: (I) a matron reached that condition of moral at the school in Malvern, described by Lewis anarchy within, in which a man says, as "floundering in the mazes of Theosophy, in the words of Wilde, that 'Atys Rosicrucianism, ; the whole Anglo­ with the blood-stained knife were American occultist tradition," and (2) reading better than the thing I am' ... I could people like William Butler Yeats, whose life­ at this time imagine the worst and view was steeped in spiritualism, theosophy wildest proportions and distortions and . Had the right opportunity of more normal passion presented itself, "I might now be a Satanist or overpowered and oppressed with a a maniac," Lewis later reflects. It is about this sort of congestion of imagination ... I time-ca. 193 !-that Lewis simultaneously had never heard of Confession ... ; embraces Christ's lordship and experiences a but that is what is really needed in shift away from preoccupation with the inner such cases. . . Anyhow the point is realm of the occult and toward an affirmation here that I dug quite low enough to of the rational self-a quality that is integral to discover the devil ... When I had many of his writings. This however should not been for some time in these, the be misconstrued as a denial of the supernatural darkest depths of the contemporary world of evil for Lewis. Though a world to be pessimism, I had a strong inward avoided, it was also for Lewis a world to be impulse to revolt; to dislodge this taken into account. incubus or throw off this nightmare. It is significant that both Chesterton and In his autobiographical work of 1908 Lewis claimed to be profoundly affected by the titled (somewhat dauntingly) Orthodoxy, writings of George MacDonald, whose own Chesterton devotes the first two theological and philosophical assumptions chapters-"The Maniac" and "The Suicide of imbue his poetry, novels, children's fantasies Thought"-to this journey of despair. The and literary criticism. Already as a child contours of this journey are described vividly, Chesterton had read MacDonald, and in later as only one who has been there could describe years he reflected on how powerfully the them. The somewhat autobiographical fantasy The Princess and the Goblin had phantasy, The Man Who Was Thursday, influenced him. Of peculiar interest is the written the same year, also mirrors the earlier appearance in Chesterton of a white horse (for breakdown and recovery. example, Ballad of the White Horse), which For Lewis, it was from a religious nihilism was a recurring image in MacDonald's novels of a strongly "gnostic" character that personal (for example, in The Princess and the Goblin deliverance was to come. Significantly, reading and The Back of the North Wind). Years later Chesterton contributed foremost to this Chesterton would confess: "To this day I can

125 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles never see a big white horse in the street him. But it has not seemed to me that without a sudden sense of indescribable those who have received my books things." kindly take even now sufficient Somewhat the same could be said for notice of the affiliation. Honesty MacDonald's influence on Lewis as well. drives me to emphasize it. Profound as this influence was, it came about almost by accident: In the end, MacDonald helps shape a worldview perspective that will be It must be more than thirty years ago indispensable to two of this century's most that I bought-almost unwillingly, effective apologists. Although Chesterton, for I had looked at that volume on unlike Lewis, was unschooled in logic and that bookstall and rejected it on a dialectic, both men were controversialists, dozen previous occasions-the engaging scepticism and irreligion in their Everyman edition of Phantasies. A respective eras. What Chesterton lacked in few hours later I knew that I had scholarly erudition he made up for with a crossed a great frontier. I had passionately combative mind. Chesterton's was already been waist-deep in the age of Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Romanticism; and likely enough, at Thomas Huxley, and Sigmund Freud; of any moment, to flounder into its , G.E. Moore, Ludwig darker and more evil forms, Wittgenstein and H.G. Wells. Christian faith slithering down the steep descent was very much under siege. In the year 1891, that leads from the love of when Chesterton was seventeen, Friedrich strangeness to that of eccentricity Engels was publishing his completion of and thence to that of perversion. Marx's Das Kapital. Openly materialistic Now Phantasies was romantic , socialism and social Darwinism were enough . . .; but there was a vying for restless hearts and minds. Chesterton difference. Nothing was at that time engaged "friendly enemies" such as Bernard further from my thoughts than Shaw and Wells in public debates, on BBC Christianity and I therefore had no radio talks broadcast regularly during the notion what this difference really 1930's, as well as through his journalism and was ... What it actually did to me was books. The "heretics" with whom he debated to convert, even to baptise . . . my were men "whose philosophy was quite solid, imagination. quite coherent, and quite wrong." The effects of MacDonald's writings can Though Chesterton and Wells were be measured quite straightforwardly by Lewis' contemporary, Lewis' life overlaps that of own words of tribute: Wells, whose works such as The Time Machine (1895), The War of the Worlds I have never concealed the fact that (1898), and The First Men in the Moon ( 1901) I regarded him as my master; indeed are considered pioneering masterpieces of I fancy that I have never written a science fiction, and whose The Outline of book in which I did not quote from History (1920) sets forth a progressive view of

126 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles time and cosmogony predicated on Darwinian Notes evolutionary theory. It is during Lewis' lifetime 1Everlasting Man is devoted to two that Jules Verne's popularity was peaking, principal ends-highlighting the contours of corresponding to a self-confessed "ravenous" human history and examining the effects of interest in science fiction on the part of Lewis Christ's visitation upon history. Given this himself. When people think of Lewis the agenda, in the book's introduction Che~te~on apologist, they normally tend to think of works chides the critics of Christianity-evolutlorusts other than Perelandra. It may well be, and professors of comparative religion in however, that in this fantasy Lewis the particular-for their "stark hypocrisy" in apologist shines brightest, given the vivid pretending to be "impartial." representations of the demonic realm, the 2C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (London: nature of sin, the nature of grace and the Geoffrey Bles, 1955), p. 180. nature of the universe that are on display. 'Thus Maisie Ward, Return to Chesterton Lewis, too, with an extraordinarily fecund (London: Sheed & Ward, 1952), p. 193. imagination, is a man of his time. 4Aidan Mackay, "The Christian Influence ofG.K. Chesterton on C.S. Lewis," in Andrew Conclusion Walker and James Patrick, eds., A Christian for All Seasons: Essays in Honor of C.S. Both Chesterton and Lewis are indeed Lewis (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, men of their times, creatively seeking to carve 1992), p. 82. out an apologetic for Christian truth-claims in 'Christopher Derrick, "Some Personal the context of the prevailing intellectual Angles on Chesterton and Lewis," in Michael climate. Both men engage the world not H. MacDonald and Andrew A. Tadie, eds., because they despise it but because God loves The Riddle ofJoy: G.K. Chesterton and C.S. it. They continue to serve as a model to the Lewis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), p. 11. Christian lay person, whatever his or her 'John David Burton, "G.K. Chesterton calling. Both are fighters for the cause of and CS. Lewis: The Men and Their Times," in Christ; both are artists, applying the rich brush­ Michael H. MacDonald and Andrew A. Tadie, strokes of literary imagination. Of the many eds. The Riddle ofJoy: G.K. Chesterton and individual qualities that these two have in C.S. Lewis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), common one of the more striking is their , . . pp. 161-62. ability to cut to the very heart of an Issue m "Ibid., p. 166. such a way that their arguments come to us, at 'Derrick, "Personal Angles," pp.l 0-11. the threshold of the Third Millennium, with 9Ibid, p. 11. remarkable clarity, freshness and relevance. 10Cited in Christopher Hollis, The Mind of The spirit of their bold and artistic witness still Chesterton (London: Hollis & Carter, 1970), beckons us. p. 191. "Thus, for example, Christopher Derrick, who writes that Chesterton "could only have profited ... from a slightly more disciplined

127 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles approach to the use of the mind and of the Chesterton's family believed "in progress and pen ... Chesterton wrote far too much, far too all things new" (ibid., p. 24). Tongue-in-cheek, quickly, far too carelessly, and often . . in Chesterton can quip: "I regret that I have no very considerable ignorance. He used to gloomy or savage father to offer ... I cannot do charge into battle more unthinkingly than was my duty as a true modem, by cursing really prudent: he would bring the whole heavy everybody who made me whatever I am" barrage of his merriment to bear upon 'the (ibid., p. 29). modems,' as he called them too 13Lewis, Surprised, pp. 180-81. sweepingly-even upon 'the 140n occasion Chesterton would be scientists'-without first taking the trouble to invited to deliver university lectures, such as find out what they were really trying to say, or the esteemed University of London centenary how far it really needed denunciation in causa lecture of 1927 titled "Culture and the Christ" ("Personal Angles," pp. 11-12). Common Peril." Derrick may be a bit too severe in his "Chesterton, Autobiography, pp. 92-94. criticisms of Chesterton. How do we know 16 Aidan Mackay contends that reading that Chesterton wrote "far too much, far too George MacDonald as a child laid a foundation quickly, far too carelessly"? By what standard? in Chesterton's worldview that in time would And whose measurements? Certainly not by preserve him from probable insanity and Lewis's. And did Chesterton in fact write "in possible suicide during his dark and tormented very considerable ignorance"? This charge, adolescence ("Christian Influence," p. 72). however benign in its intention, falls prey to 17Lewis, Surprised, p.62. the very cnt1c1sm Derrick raises of "William Butler Yeats had been living in Chesterton-viz., it is too sweeping-but it Oxford and conducting meetings in his also finds little confirmation among apartment. One rather traumatic experience contemporaries of Chesterton with whom he that left a strong impression on Lewis was had regular occasion to spar-namely, the watching a friend who had attended Yeats' H.G. Wellses, the Max Beerbohms, the meetings go insane. In Surprised by Joy, Lewis George Bernard Shaws, and other leading recounts how he held his friend while the thinkers of his day. It was no less than Bernard friend "kicked and wallowed on the floor, Shaw, the noted journalist, art and theater screaming out that devils were tearing him and critic, playwright and essayist, who considered that he was that moment falling down to Hell" Chesterton to be a "colossal genius." (p. 192). As far as we know, "the squalid 12G.K. Chesterton, Autobiography nightmare of[occult] magic" was not to have (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1936), pp. 143- affected him any longer from that point 44. In fact, elsewhere Chesterton almost forward. apologizes for his high-brow upbringing. As it '"Lewis, Surprised, pp. 165-66. turns out, his family is "so disappointingly 20In the Preface to Pilgrim's Regress, respectable and even reasonable" that they are Lewis sums up his intellectual journey: "On the "deficient in all those unpleasant qualities that intellectual side my own progress had been make a biography really popular" (ibid., p. 29). from 'popular realism' to Philosophical As most of the well-educated of his day, Idealism; from Idealism to Pantheism; from

128 The Intellectual Honesty of Lewis and Chesterton • J. Darryl Charles

Pantheism to ; and from Theism to for Cambridge in 1954. The purpose of the Christianity" (Pilgrim's Regress [Grand club was to foster open and honest debates Rapids: Eerdmans, 1943], p. 5). between Christians and sceptics, thereby 21 See Evan K. Gibson, "The Centrality of demonstrating the intellectual viability of the Perelandra to Lewis's Theology," in Michael Christian faith. H. MacDonald and Andrew A. Tadie, eds., 29Thus Chesterton, in "A Hymn" penned The Riddle ofJoy: G.K. Chesterton and C.S. in 1915: Lewis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), p. 125-138. In The Problem of Pain, Lewis From all that terror teaches, acknowledges so much: "that some older and From lies of tongue and pen, mightier being long since became apostate and From all the easy speeches is now the emperor of darkness and That comfort cruel men, (significantly) the Lord of this world . . I From sale and profanation myself believe." That Lewis took the realm of Of honour and the sword, evil very seriously can be seen in numerous of From sleep and from damnation, his writings-for example, in The Great Deliver us, good Lord! Divorce, Perelandra, The Problem of Pain, and cleverly, in The Screwtape Letters. Lewis leaves no doubt as to his convictions; they square with the New Testament: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6: 12). 22 G. K. Chesterton, in the "Introduction" to Greville MacDonald, George MacDonald and His Wife (London: Allen & Unwin, 1924). 23 From the "Preface" ofC.S. Lewis, ed., George MacDonald: An Anthology (London: Geofrey Bles, 1946). 241bid. 25 G.K. Chesterton, Heretics (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1923), pp.ll-12. 26-J'o which Chesterton's Everlasting Man is intended to be a response. 27 1n the "Foreward" to Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis expresses his debt to Wells. 28 The influence of his pen fully aside, Lewis in 1941 founded the Socratic Club at Oxford, remaining as its president until he left

129 The Apologetics of Chesterton and Lewis in a World Marked by Disbelief by Michael R. Smith

A philosophy major at a small liberal arts names that are consistently mentioned when college told his mass communication professor apologists reach for authority are G.K. that he wanted to believe in God. Could the Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, prolific writers of professor, the student asked, give him some the early 20th century whose books are yet in reasons for a belief. The educator reached for print today. As evidence of their popularity, his copy of Lewis's Mere Christianity and rarely does Dr. , the East Indian began the slow, systematic argument that all conference speaker, fail to drop a line from people have a sense of fairness, a kind of law Chesterton or Lewis in his Just Thinking akin to the law of nature, yet these same newsletter. The one from February, 1996, people fail to keep the law. The professor mentioned Chesterton for declaring truth is kept up the monologue, sure that he was as stranger than fiction "because we have made compelling as the legendary British thinker, fiction to suit ourselves" (Zacharias I). In that but before long, the student shook his head same newsletter, Bocchino quoted Lewis's and said that he would need a more convincing Problem ofPain, to explain that Christ teaches approach than the idea of men breaking a law that God has ultimate control when even men that they know they should keep. In an age use their freedom to be cruel and unjust (II). characterized by meaninglessness and Chesterton (1874-1936) was the more relativeness, these arguments once thought to prolific of the two writers, writing novels, be timeless are meeting the challenge of the several volumes of poetry and biographies of age a postmodernism world view that Browning, G.F. Watts, Charles Dickens, evaluates all ideas as equal and flawed just the William Cobbett, Robert Louis Stevenson, same. Chaucer, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Despite this low regard for a systematic of Aquinas. In 1922 when he converted to approach to theology and meaning, the two Roman Catholicism, Chesterton became a

130 The Apologetics of Chesterton and Lewis • Michael R. Smith champion of the faith, but Orthodoxy was arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free among his earlier books on religion. He was travelers (29)," an invitation to be included in called the Prince of Paradox (Sheedy 22), God's family. remembered for his Father Brown detective Both writers referred to the law of gravity fiction ("G.K. Chesterton" 21) but is quoted to make their points (Chesterton 32; Lewis, 4) today for his whimsical and thoughtful analysis and suggested a standard and the need for of the human condition. Lewis (1898-1963) objective truth (Chesterton, 36). For those in was acknowledged as a brilliant lecturer, but it the culture embracing the skepticism of is his prose and fiction that continues to keep postmodernisim, Chesterton observed: his name alive ("C. S. Lewis" 22). Of the two men, Lewis has the wider [T]he fact that he doubts everything audience on his view of Christianity if for no really gets in his way when he wants to other reason than Word Records of Waco, denounce anything. For all Texas, has released Mere Christianity as a denunciation implies a moral doctrine book on tape, on which British actor Michael of some kind; and the modem York reads from the famous 1943 BBC revolutionist doubts no only the broadcasts. institution he denounces, but the Yet it appears that Chesterton was the doctrine by which he denounces it. influence on Lewis. While each author's book ( 41) is nearly identical in length, about 170 pages in a paperback format, it is the Lewis book that The writers both mentioned the myth of possesses the best organization that stacks Beauty and the Beast to support their ideas. argument upon argument that gently leads the Chesterton said the story's theme is to love the reader to logical conclusions, a dynamic that unlovable (50), whereas Lewis wrote that by appears to be lost on some moderns who reject imitating or pretending to be something, a logic and order as reflections of an world view person can really become that model (146). that attempts to co-op audiences in When Beauty kissed the monster, she did so as maintaining oppression. For wit and style, both if it were a man, "and then, much to her relief, contain lively lines. For instance, Chesterton it really turned into a man and all went well" wrote of the failing of logic short of (146). Both writers used this illustration to imagination: "Exactly what does breed insanity make a number of points, some practical, some is reason. Poets do not go mad; but academic. Chesterton elevates the power of a chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and narrative, such as the Beauty story, to suggest cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am man's need for mystery and to establish that not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking life as a story means a storyteller must exist. logic: I only say that this danger does lie in Chesterton wrote, "I came to feel as if magic logic, not in imagination" (17). In concluding must have a meaning, and meaning must have his chapter on "The Maniac," Chesterton someone to mean it" (65). compared Christianity's symbol of the cross to Lewis took a more applied approach and the Buddhist's circle that is infinite but fixed in wrote that pretending to be a man is like the its size (28). By contrast, "the cross opens its Christian idea of the way dressing up as Christ

131 The Apologetics of Chesterton and Lewis • Michael R. Smith works "to tum your pretense into a reality" power of enduring doctrines, the beauty of (147). With this simple illustration, Lewis orthodoxy (Chesterton I 00). Chesterton unwraps a difficult doctrine about the work of observed that while nothing is stable in this the indwelling holy spirit. life, Christianity is eternal (109). He wrote that The writers also unpacked the idea of a in avoiding fads, life "has been one whirling believer's divided existence, to live at once in adventure; and in my vision the heavenly this world while yearning to inhabit the next chariot flies thundering through the ages, the simultaneously. Chesterton used the Robinson dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild Crusoe story to establish that a Christian's truth reeling but erect" (101). In writing about optimism is based on the idea that believers do change, Lewis described faith as the art of not fit in the world, and "the unnaturalness of holding on to things reason has accepted, everything in light ofthe supernatural" (80). despite changes in moods (107). Lewis Lewis made the same point by noting that regarded faith as a virtue that sustained a Christians assume built-in desires can be person when a thing he once accepted as true satisfied. However, he wrote: was reconsidered. He used the example of the benefit of anesthetics in a surgery, which is a If I find in myself a desire which no reasonable and standard practice but can be experience in this world can satisfY, the terrifYing to a person whose emotions most probable explanation is that I was convince him that he will choke to death. "The made for another world. If none of my battle is between faith and reason on one side earthly pleasures satisfY it, that does and emotion and imagination on the other," not prove that the universe is a fraud. wrote Lewis (108). Probably earthly pleasures were never In addition to the powerful use of meant to satisfY it, but only to arouse metaphor and example to communicate biblical it, to suggest the real thing. If that is truths, the writers also addressed complex so, I must take care, on the one hand, issues and provoked wondrous thoughts. In never to despise, or be unthankful for, explaining the trinity, Chesterton discussed the these earthly blessings, and on the crucifixion and described a paradox. He wrote other, never to mistake them for that the Christian God is the only god who was something else of which they are only in revolt with himself (138). When the world a kind of copy, or echo or mirage. I shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it must keep alive in myself the desire for was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from my true country, which I shall not find the cross: the cry which confessed that God till after death; I must never let it get was forsaken of God" (138). He challenged snowed under or turned aside; I must the atheist to consider the "one divinity who make it the main object oflife to press ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in on to that other country and to help which God seemed an instant to be an atheist" others to do the same. (I 06) ( 13 8). In writing about the nature of God, Lewis These ideas may sound incredible to remarked on the observation that God is not unbelievers, but both authors emphasized the readily seen from a materialistic notion,

132 The Apologetics of Chesterton and Lewis • Michael R. Smith making his existence questionable. Lewis Works Cited wrote: Bocchino, Peter. "Where is God?" Just If there was a controlling power Thinking (Winter 1996): 10-12. outside the universe, it could not show Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. Orthodoxy. New itself to us one of the facts inside the York: Doubleday, 1990. universe no more than the architect of "C.S. Lewis Dead; Author, Critic, 64." The a house could actually be a wall or New York Times 25 Nov. 1963: A19. staircase or fireplace in that house. The "G.K. Chesterton, 62, Noted Author, Dies." only way in which we could expect it Obituary. The New York Times IS June 1936: to show itself would be inside AI, A21. ourselves as an influence or a Lewis, Clive Staples. Mere Christianity. New command trying to get us to behave in York: Macmillan, 1984. a certain way (19). Sheedy, Morgan M. Letter. The New York Times 21 Dec. 1936: A22. All in all, the writers developed a case for Zacharias, Ravi. "Dying Beliefs and Stillborn Christianity that is difficult to deny logically. Hopes." Just Thinking (Winter 1996): 1-5, The trouble these days is found in the rejection 7-9. of systematic thinking on all fronts. The quick cuts of modem television suggest the chaotic approach used in the culture to attend to information: tuning in now, tuning out a second later. For the person who seeks extra-biblical explanation for the truth of scripture, both books will prove beneficial. I prefer Lewis because I am more familiar with his fiction and his life. My sense is that he was the kind of man whom I would have embraced as a friend, who would have cried with me in tragedy and laughed in victory. Chesterton, on the other hand, possessed a touch of elitism that penetrates his words. While he may have offered the warm handshake and a good word, I suspect that he might have been the type who knew the need but chose to ignore it if a deadline was pressing and another publication was imminent. Nonetheless, both men were intellectual giants who may have done more, said more and written more for the cause of Christ during this century than any other English-speaking thinkers.

133 "Some Shattering Simplicity": Suffering, Love, and Faith in the Thought of C.S. Lewis by Jennifer Lynn Woodruff

"Heaven will solve our problems, but nol, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently conll'adictory noh"ons. The notions will all he knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.. .. And more than once, thai impression which I can 'I describe except by saying thai il 's like the sound ofa chuckle in the darkness. The sense thai some shallering and disanning simplicity is the real answer." -C.S. Lewis,

A repeated theme in the works of C.S. not have guessed" (Mere Christianity 46). Lewis is the tension inherent in why and how Perhaps, it seems to me, these two concepts we believe and accept Christianity. On the one are not as contradictory as they might seem; it hand, he claims, we recognize Christianity as may well be that our experience and true because it makes so much sense out of acceptance of faith will both confirm and patterns and ideas we intuitively know or have complicate our first impressions. Christianity observed already: "The whole [the makes sense of reality, but at the same time Incarnation], far from denying what we already shatters all our expectations of reality. knew of reality, writes the comment which How-and why-does this happen? And makes that crabbed text plain: proves itself to what implications does it have? be the text on which Nature was only the Inextricably connected to a discussion of commentary" (Miracles 130) On the other the nature of faith is a discussion of the nature hand, Lewis also asserts, Christianity is of love: our faith, after all, is ultimately not something that, left to our own human only intellectual belief, but a relationship. In resources, we never could have guessed: "It is The Four Loves and A Grief Observed, Lewis no use asking for a simple religion. After all, describes and expands upon, from both real things are not simple. They look simple, apologetic and personal viewpoints, the nature but they are not .... That is one of the reasons I of love. His discussion provides a way of believe Christianity. It is a religion you could understanding both these aspects of the

134 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff

Journey of faith, and how they may be authorities altogether, He often continues reconciled. others in their offices and, by subjecting their Understanding the nature of love in a authority to His, gives it for the first time a Christian sense (agape, or Charity) begins as firm basis .... When God arrives (and only all Christian understanding does, by confirming then) the half-gods can remain" (Loves 119). much of our natural experience of love. Yet, as much as we would like to, we Throughout The Four Loves, Lewis cannot stop there. Once we allow a true illuminates how, if Charity is present, each of understanding of the Christian conception of the other three loves can serve as a proper love to enter our lives, once we allow God to reflection of and pathways to that Charity. shape, remake, and deepen our loves, we are Affection can teach us to love the unlovable all too quickly faced with a painful reality and "[open] our eyes to goodness we could which our Christian beliefs seem only to not have seen, or should not have appreciated complicate. In a world where loss and death without it" (The Four Loves 37). are factors, real love for any fellow-creature Friendship, as a love "free from instinct, involves and cannot avoid real suffering; and a free from all duties but those which love has proper understanding of Christian charity, freely assumed, almost wholly free from which has allowed that love to develop to its jealousy, and free without qualification from fullest potential, only deepens the pain at the the need to be needed" (Loves 77) gives us a point of loss. Our response to this face is foretaste, in nearness of resemblance to the similar to what Lewis claims was his natural "heavenly life" (Loves 88). As for Eros, Lewis response, as it was St. Augustine's: "I am a says, "Christ says to us through Eros, 'Thus­ safety-first creature. Of all arguments against just like this-with-this prodigality-not love none makes so strong an appeal to my counting the cost-you are to love me and the nature as 'Careful! This might lead you to least of my brethren"' (Loves II 0). All have suffering;" (Loves 120). the ability to awaken in us the appreciative As Lewis mourns the death of his wife Joy love towards others and towards God which in A Grief Observed, we see this response Lewis calls "that higher-that illustrated in graphic detail, and the questions highest-subject" (Loves 129). he asks parallel our own questions and our Lewis is very clear about the spiritual own complaints when faced with a reality perversions which each of these loves is which seems so contrary to our desires. "Oh subject to if considered as an end instead of a god, God," he writes in his journal at one means, and constantly reiterates the idea that point, "why did you take such trouble to force love "begins to be a demon the moment he this creature out of its shell if it is now begins to be a god" (Loves 6). But he is doomed to crawl back to be sucked back into equally clear that living in Christian charity it?'' (Grief20). Later: "If God's goodness is does not automatically entail renouncing our inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is natural loves. Rather, submission to Charity not good or there is no God: for in the only perfects these natural loves and helps develop life we know He hurts us beyond all our worst them to their highest capacity: "When God fears and beyond all we can imagine" (Grief rules in a human heart, though he may 31). And: "Aren't all these notes the senseless sometimes have to remove certain of its native writhings of a man who won't accept the fact

135 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff that there is nothing we can do with suffering in the face of facts that it seemingly cannot except to suffer it?'' (Grief38) Perhaps what explain. "You never know," Lewis says, is hardest is that this suffering inherent in love seems contrary not only to our unadulterated how much you really believe anything natural desires and expectations, but to the until its truth or falsehood becomes a very encouragement of those natural desires matter of life and death to you. It is which Christianity has given us. easy to say you believe a rope to be Given this dilemma, this impasse, what are strong and sound as long as you are our options? There is, of course, the choice merely using it to cord a box. But not to love any "earthly beloveds" (Loves 122) suppose you had to hang by that rope at all. This is the alternative St. Augustine was over a precipice. Wouldn't you then recommending, and the choice Leis recognizes first discover how much you really as so congenial to our nature. But it seems trusted it? ... Apparently the faith-1 clear, if we take our faith with any seriousness, thought it faith-which enables me to that this alternative is not what was pray for the other dead has seemed commanded of us. "We follow One," says strong only because I have never really Lewis, "who wept over Jerusalem and at the cared, not desperately, whether they grave ofLazarus .... Even if it were granted that existed or not. Yet I thought I did. insurances against heartbreak were our highest (Grief25-26) wisdom, does God Himself offer them? Apparently not. Christ comes at last to say At first, in all likelihood, we will be angry 'Why has thou forsaken me?'" (Loves 121). at God. But if we choose the route of ceasing So the puzzle remains. Why are we led so to believe, and follow that road where it deliberately (it almost seems) into heartbreak? ultimately leads, the anger will fade; the cruel Why, if we are commanded to love and not to joke will be accepted, and the love which our count the cost, is the world set up so that faith enabled to grow and blossom will die suffering is part ofloving? when that faith dies. We become then what Granted that we have loved, and granted Lewis, discussing Hope, calls the that we have suffered, we are fully within out "Disillusioned 'Sensible Man"' who "settles rights and our human nature to stop there, and down and learns not to expect too much" to claim a number of fully human and cynical (Mere Christianity 120). In fact, this option is things. We may come to believe that we have no option at all, for we end up directly in the misunderstood the very foundations of our middle of the alternative we have already faith, and deny God's existence. More likely, rejected. As surely as if we had chosen not to as Lewis puts it in A Grief Observed, "Not love, by rejecting love's consequence of that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing suffering we are locking our heart "up safe in to believe in god. The real danger is of the casket or coffin of [our] selfishness. But in coming to believe such dreadful things about that casket safe, dark, motionless, airless it will Him" (Grief 5). He toys in this book, as we change. It will not be broken; it will become toy in our sufferings, with the idea that god is unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable" ultimately uncaring, or worse, evil. The faith (Loves 121 ). that we thought fit the facts so well crumbles So it seems we have no other choice but to

136 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff suffer; even to abandon ourselves to the outrun his comprehension of it" (Beversluis suffering, with no guarantee as to what our 3 0). "Lewis claimed," Beversluis says, "his faith will look like on the other side. This does faith somehow survived. I am sure that it did. not prevent us from asking some of the same But it no longer invited the assent of the questions and feeling the same anger that we rational man" (30). Perhaps, however, the should ask and feel along the road to "sidestepping" of rationality is not disillusionment, but it prevents our coming up sidestepping, but transcending. Perhaps it is with the same ultimate conclusion; and we do good that we do not comprehend all of God; not have to come up with that conclusion, if perhaps it is necessary that the final thing we we admit that faith can move through doubt trust is not our own reason. Perhaps Lewis's and still be faith. One response when our faith no longer invited the assent, not of the experience shatters our expectations or reality rational man, but of the solely rational man. is the response that we had false expectations I realize this point is vulnerable to the same about God's goodness and purpose; but charge that Beversluis leveled against Lewis; another response is that it is in the nature of that of changing the definitions of Christian god's goodness to shatter our expectations not faith to avoid the consequences of that faith's shattering in the sense that we thought He is contact with reality. To this charge I can only good, and He is instead evil, but shattering in respond: who is to say that our first impression the sense that He is certainly bigger, and of those definitions was complete? That, at probably better, than we thought. any rate, was Lewis's response. If Lewis John Beversluis, writing in Christian claimed his faith "somehow survived," perhaps History on themes more fully developed in his we ought to listen to why. book C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational In fact, this point seems to be central to Religion, characterized Lewis's position in his Lewis's final conclusion, and to the resolution later writings thus: "The ambitious scope and of Christianity's confirmation and extrovert manner of the old days is replaced by complication. What we discover when we go a noticeably smaller -scaled and more through suffering, Lewis seems to imply, is piecemeal approach together with a that our first impressions were true, but correspondingly quieter tone and tree-ripened incomplete. We defended them in honest good meditativeness" (Beversluis 29). His faith and certitude, and this was not a mistake. description of the specifically post-Grief It is certainly preferable to never having Observed Lewis pictures him as "no longer the believed, never having defended them at all. Apostle to the Skeptics, acutely surveying the But there is more. Applying this concept present state of the evidence, but the Reminder specifically to love, we see that we may have to the Forgetful, humbly searching for just perfected our earthly loves in a truly Christian enough light to face the day ahead" manner. But that never really was enough. In (Beversluis 31 ). There is much truth in both A Grief Observed, considering his description of these characterizations. What seems less of his marriage to Joy as "too perfect to last," true is Beversluis's interpretation of what this Lewis says: "It could ... mean 'This had change means. He claims it meant that reached its proper perfection. Therefore of "rationality has been sidestepped" and that course it would not be prolonged.' As if God Lewis's "commitment to divine goodness had said 'Good; you have mastered that exercise.

137 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff

I am very pleased with it. And now you are Day that has been entrusted to me" (2 Tim. ready to go on to the next"' (Grief 56-57). In I: 12,RSV). Not what we have believed: The Four Loves, he states the point Whom. But why? memorably: "We find thus by experience that Lewis makes the point near the end of The there is no good applying to Heaven for Four Loves that one of God's strangest and earthly comfort. Heaven can give heavenly most paradoxical actions is to create in us a comfort; no other kind. And earth cannot give supernatural Need-love of Him. "Need is so earthly comfort either. There is no earthly near greed and we are so greedy already that comfort in the long run" (Loves 139). it seems a strange grace," he says. It is our own enslavement to our own But I cannot get it out of my head that original expectations which prevents our faith this is what happens .... Of course the from reaching its fruition. Not that our Grace does not create the need. That original expectations were false. Lewis is there already; 'given' ... in the mere certainly believed that, done in good faith, fact of our being creatures, and human reason can develop explanations and incalculably increased by our being defenses of many great truths of our existence fallen creatures. What the Grace gives and our faith; and indeed, if we believe our is the full recognition, the sensible intellectual powers are God-given, we are awareness, the complete acceptance under obligation not to hide the talent in the even, with certain reservations, the ground (Matt. 25: 14-30). But in reasoning glad acceptance of this Need. (Loves about Divine things, the picture is not 129-30) complete without Divine assistance; and since faith is not a matter of reason alone, that Even in our repentance, even in our Divine assistance is perhaps best accomplished humility, Lewis claims, we still attempt to find not merely by sharpening our reason but by a source of pride: "Depth beneath depth and sending us experiences where the beliefs we subtlety within subtlety, there remains some have arrived at by reason can be tested, tried, lingering idea of our own, our very own, refined, and completed. attractiveness" (Loves 131). Yet God cannot For in order to complete our faith, in order give the full measure of his love to us until we for it to come to fruition, we must realize our acknowledge that we need it, until we develop ultimate helplessness. This is where "a joy in total dependence" (Loves 131 ). And Beversluis's account of what Lewis's newly­ perhaps the only way to truly learn this is discovered humility meant falls wide of the through suffering. Returning for a moment to mark. "Humbly searching for just enough light Lewis's rope example from A Grief Observed: to face the day ahead" is not necessarily an without abandoning ourselves to the process unfaithful position. In fact, it is probably of suffering, without being willing to take the closer to the core of our faith than an complicated way out of admitting our ideas overzealous certitude. Not that our faith does were incomplete--rather than the easy way not promise certitude; but we ultimately base out of proclaiming that they were merely that certitude, not on our own powers, but on wrong we are only tying cords around boxes, the fact that "I know Whom I have believed, and may pride ourselves on how artfully we and I am sure that he is able to guard until that make the knots. When we choose to love, we

138 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff choose the precipice instead. When we choose It may very well be asked at this point, to grow through the suffering of love, we especially by those who have not yet choose to take the rope in our hands, knowing undergone this kind of experience, why the that our own artful knot-tying will not in the rope holds. Why, if real love involves real end be the deciding factor in the rope's own suffering, the shattering action of the great strength, and take the jump. Or, as :Lewis Iconoclast, the ultimate taking of a leap we says: "We shall draw nearer to God, not by cannot solely justifY rationally, does God's trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all goodness and purpose make sense? The loves, but by accepting them and offering them answer, and the resolution-at least the to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If resolution Lewis and along with him other our hearts need to be broken, and if He theologians and philosophers, seems to chooses this as the way in which they should imply-is that we are not merely God's break, so be it" (Loves 122). disinterested experiment. If we stop our And what, then, do we discover when we growth in faith at this point of realizing that make the jump? We discover that the rope suffering serves a divine purpose, we have not holds. What Lewis described early in A Grief fully regained our faith in god's goodness; for Observed as the "locked door, the iron curtain, we have left out of our picture of God an the vacuum, absolute zero" (7) is later element of compassion. We have left out of transformed for him: "When I lay these our picture God's suffering. For some, the questions before God I get no answer. But a idea of God's suffering is controversial. But if rather special sort of'No answer.' It is not the we believe that perfect God and perfect Man locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly died on the Cross if we believe that He called not uncompassionate, gaze. As though he out, in that darkest hour just before death, the shook His head not in refusal but waiving the haunting phrase which is echoed faintly in our question. Like, "Peace, child, you don't own human cries, including Lewis's-if we understand" (Grief80-81). We discover that believe that God Himself asked the ultimate God is there; we even begin to reassert that question of doubt-"My God, my God, why God is good. But now, in what can eventually hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46, Mark become that "joy of total dependence," we 15:34) if we believe that, we have no other assert this in humility and gratitude, more choice. tentatively perhaps not because we believe How does the Cross achieve this God is too small to deal with the world's reconciliation of our faith with our fiustrated problems, but because we have discovered he expectations? What is the strength of this is so much larger than we could have rope? As long as God had never become Man, conceived on our own. "My idea of God," we could claim somehow that he "never really Lewis says, "is not a divine idea. It has to be understood." Our grievance against Him, our shattered time after time. He shatters it description of Him as something close to the Himself He is the great iconoclast. Could we cosmic vivisectionist Lewis comes up with not almost say that this shattering is one of the early in A Grief Observed (33), might have marks ofHis presence? The Incarnation is the some basis in fact. Granting that suffering is supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas for our benefit, we could still claim that His of the Messiah in ruins" (Grief76). inflicting of suffering is somehow cruel. What

139 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff the Cross means-or, more specifically, the understanding the Cross we will understand agony of the Cross-is that we cannot make love no better than we understand faith. The that complaint. We can doubt no more, key to both is that they involve suffering. The agonize no more, and suffer no more than God key to both is also that God shares that Himself has done. Modern theologian Thomas suffering. The key to both is that when we C. Oden comments: "The most profound suffer, when our original confidence is shaken, Christian theodicy does not reason deductively we may walk a dark road and we may think we but tells the story of God's suffering for us. walk it alone; but if we do not give up we find No argument can convince the sufferer. Only out that we do not walk it alone, and there is the actual history of God's own coming to a new kind of light at the end, on the other suffering humanity could make the difference. side of our experience. Lewis says: "God has That is what has occurred" (Oden 422). And not been trying an experiment on my faith or an apologist of an earlier era, G.K. Chesterton, love in order to find out their quality. He Put it even more memorably: knew it already. It was I who didn't" (Grief 61). In that terrific tale of the Passion there So, if the rope holds, and if this is why it is a distinct emotional suggestion that holds, then we must reassess our original the author of all things (in some question somewhat. We began by asking how unthinkable way) went not only and why it is that Christianity both confirms through agony, but through doubt. ... and complicates our first impressions. The When the world shook and the sun answer seems clear, if profound, now: God was wiped out of heaven, it was not at confirms, then complicates, in order to confirm the crucifixion, but at the cry from the again, but differently now. We begin in cross; the cry which confessed that innocence, in the fresh excitement of a new­ God was forsaken of God. And now found faith, of a developing, growing love that let the revolutionists choose a creed is learning within the framework of that faith from all the creeds and a god from all how to give and to receive. Christianity is gods of the world, of unalterable what we expected; it makes sense of all the power. They will not find another god fragmented parts of our faith and our love. who has himself been in revolt. Nay Then we move into experience. The love we (the matter grows too difficult for have surrendered to involves suffering. The human speech), but let the atheists faith we have surrendered to is attacked and themselves choose a god. They will tormented with doubts. Christianity is not at find only one divinity who ever uttered all what we expected, and everything we their isolation; only one religion in desire is dying. Our former explanations seem, which God seemed for an instant to be as Beversluis perhaps somewhat overzealously an atheist. (Chesterton 194-95) termed Lewis's earlier books, "facile and cavalier" (Beversluis 31 ). We knock at It may seem that we have moved in the last Heaven's door for earthly comfort, and hear few paragraphs rather far away from our no sound. discussion oflove. I think that rather we have Yet experience is not the end. There is moved closer to its core; for without what might be called a higher innocence; a

140 Suffering, Love, and Faith in C.S. Lewis • Jennifer Lynn Woodruff level of understanding where our intellect, for His name's sake. clothed in experience and bowed in humility, Even though I walk through the valley transcends itself--or rather, finds itself of the shadow of death, transcended by a God who is not inconsistent I fear no evil; with our earlier conceptions, simply larger than for Thou art with me; them. IfHis Word became flesh, can ours fail Thy rod and Thy staff to do as much? Lewis implied as much at the they comfort me. end of Mere Christianity: "Nothing that you Thou prepares! a table before me have not given away will every be really yours. in the presence of my enemies; Nothing in you that has not died will ever be Thou anointest my head with oil, raised from the dead" (190). After complexity my cup overflows. and complication come, not "subtle Surely goodness and mercy shall reconciliations," but "some shattering and follow me disarming simplicity:" "We shall see that there all the days of my life; never was any problem" (Grief 83). "Didn't and I shall dwell in the house of the people dispute once," Lewis says in his Lord forever. journal's last paragraphs, "whether the final (Psalm 23,RSV) vision of God was more an act of intelligence or of love? That is probably another of the Works Cited nonsense questions" (Grief89). Beversluis, John. "Beyond the Double Bolted One final testimony. Perhaps it is Door." Christian History Vol. IV, no. 3 farfetched; but I think not so. Thousands of (Fall 1985): 21-31 years before Lewis, centuries even before Chesterton, G.K. Orthodoxy. New York: J. Christ, in some of the most famous lines ever Lane, 1909. written, in poetry which has entered and Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves. San Diego: informed the imagination even of those who Harcourt, 1960. do not yet profess Christianity-another writer A Grief Observed. New York: who understood suffering, love, and faith had Bantam, 1961. this to say as he chronicled how God Mere Christianity. New York: Collier, confirmed, complicated, and confirmed again 1960. what he had first believed. Having moved Miracles: A Preliminary Study. New from mere reason to relationship, having York: Collier, 1960. passed from innocence through experience to Oden, Thomas C. The Word of Life. San a higher innocence he wrote: Francisco: HarperCollins, 1989.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness

141 Perspectives in Strength: Four Women in the Writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall

The female figure in mythic literature has believable. These women were often often been a mirror of current male thought. presented in positions of power equal to that In ancient Greece, the truly heroic women of comparable men characters and did not were the clever but passive types like seem to suffer from the dualism that many Penelope. If you recall, she sat at home for male authors struggled with. twenty years waiting the return of her Tolkien begins his world in traditional adventuring husband, Ulysses. Aggressive mythopoetic style with opposing and semi­ women were not to be trusted, and were often equal groups of gods and goddesses (the vilified. Remember Medea? She who brought Valar, or the Holy Ones). These were set to great glory to her husband, Jason, was earth by Eru, the One, or Iluvatar (Father of eventually left on the wayside, and her only All). Iluvatar also created both and men. recourse was infanticide, and black magic. The elves were brought by the Ainur to live Most often this literature was written by males with them on their enchanted isle, V arda, who seem to have struggled with the across the western seas. However, evil had Madonna/whore complex. That is, their already entered the story in the form of Melkor female characters had to be sweet and innocent (literally "He who arises in might"), who was while at the same time acting out male later known as Morgoth. Morgoth had fantasies and fears (black magic, infidelity, rebelled against Eru and desired to corrupt the infanticide etc.) While this characterization of elves. Accordingly, he tempted them to rebel women was common in most literary genres it against Ainur and return to Middle Earth seems especially pronounced in mythopoetic where he could destroy them. literature. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien However, Morgoth's lust for the beauty of presented an important break with the past as the silmarills controlled him more than his they presented women who were central to the desire to control the elves. As he stole the plot, coherent in character, and above all, silmarills and murdered Franor, the king of the

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Noldor, he turned the hearts of the elves addressed by male authors and that is the forever against him. The sons of Feanor mentorship of one woman to another. For the swore to let nothing and no one stand in their text states that Galadriel "abode" with Melian, way of recovering the silmarills. Here is where and here learned great lore and wisdom Galadriel enters the story. For while she concerning Middle-earth" (Silmarillion, 135). followed her kin into exile and war, she did not Here we wonder at the intent of Tolkien. rashly swear against the Valar. Soon after the What was the importance of including the kin slaying at the heavens, while Feanor tutelage of Galadriel by Melian? There are burned the ships leaving his followers stranded two things we can glean from this almost on the other side of the ocean, we get a good incidental account. For one we can see the glimpse of the character of Galadriel. We are character of Tolkien. We see that this was a told: "The fire of their [the Noldor] hearts was man who was above his generation and beyond young, and led by Fingolfin and his sons, and his literary genre. He was trying to understand by Finrod and Galadriel, they dared to pass and validate the female experience. Secondly, into the bitterest North." The narrator we understand the character of Galadriel as describes this passage as "Few of the deeds of she was in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We the Noldor thereafter surpassed that desperate now begin to understand how she seemed so crossing in hardihood or woe" (Silmarillion wise to us as we read of her reign in the woods 102). of Lothlorien. The naming of Galadriel as a leader of the When Frodo Baggins and the rest of the group was hardly unintentional. Tolkien "Fellowship of the Ring'' reach Lothlorien, late clearly meant for us to take this woman in the volume by the same name, Galadriel is seriously and recognize her strength. She presented as a wise, reserved and powerful survived a hardship that Tolkien tells us few woman. We hear from her own mouth that it did. It is also key to recognize that this is she that has stood at the fore-front of the woman was not so rash as her male kin. She battle against Sauron. She tells us "It was I did not swear an oath that systematically who first summoned the white Council. And hunted down her brother and uncles. if my designs had not gone amiss, it would However, her resolve to revenge the theft of have been governed by Gandalfthe Grey, and the silmarills and the death ofFeanor is no less the mayhap things would have gone than Finwe' s, her tragic uncle. otherwise" (TFOTR 462). However, during Galadriel then spent years with Melian and their stay in Lothlorien, Frodo makes an Thingol in Doriath. Tolkien tells us that the interesting discovery. reason for this was "for in Doriath dwelt It is revealed to us that Galadriel possesses Celeborn, kinsman of Thingol, and there was one of the three untainted eleven rings of great love between them." (Silmari/lion 134) power. She possesses Nenya, the ring of Here, Tolkien rounds out the character of water, whose stone was adamant. The Galadriel for us. We see that she can feel love symbolism here was vital, for water is the giver as well as resolve and that there is a hint of the and sustainer of life. Galadriel was shown in gentleness that she would someday show Bilbo the height of feminine mystique. She and Frodo. In this same passage, Tolkien possessed the ring that symbolized life and touches on something that has rarely been growth. It was the secret to the preservation

143 Four Women in Lewis and Tolkien • Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall offair Lothlorien and it was the cornerstone of the forces of Sauron. In his mortal life the protection in that comer of the world. Witch King had possessed one of the nine Yet for Tolkein, water was not always soft rings of power given to mortal men; Sauron and refreshing. He often used it to set had twisted his soul and destroyed his body to boundaries between land protected and the make the Lord of the Nazgul the most dreadful outside world. He did this at Rivendell and weapon in Sauron' s arsenal. It had been again with Lothlorien. Perhaps the greatest foretold that no man could kill him and as he use of water as a protection was the western rode to battle astride a great "winged serpent: sea separating Varda from the rest of Middle all assembled were aware of this doom. The Earth. Finally, we also see that water could be Lord of the Nazgul had swept down upon used as a weapon. This was demonstrated by Theoden and dealt him a mortal blow. But, as the battle for the ford of Rivendell in The the servant of Sauron was about to destroy Fellowship of the Ring. Here, Elrond causes him, a voice spoke, 'Begone foul the water to rise and destroy the Ring Wraiths. dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead Definitely the choice to bestow Nenya in peace!" (TROK 116). upon Galadriel was a deliberate one. The ring It was Demhelm, and as the Lord of the further rounds out the character of Galadriel Nazgul challenged him he answered in a "clear and gives her the responsibility to nurture and voice that was like the ring of ," and gave destroy, to give and sustain life while enabling forth his own challenge: her to take life when the cause called for it. Another woman that shines in T olkien' s But no living man am I! You look upon a work is Eowyn, princess ofRohan. Eowyn we woman. Eowyn I am, Eomund's daughter. first meet in The Two Towers. Here we learn You stand between me and my lord and little except of her determination. However, in kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For The Return of The King, Eowyn fulfills a job living or dark undead, I will smite you if that no man is able to do. She slays the witch you touch him (TROTK 116). King. When the King Of Rohan, Theoden, is Eowyn killed first the great winged steed summoned to the aid of Denthor, Lord of that the dark king rode upon, but in the fall she Gondor, he takes with him Meny, Frodo's herself was knocked to the ground. Here we hobbit companion. As he and Meny ride out have a great picture of strength and behind the King, he notices a rider among the vulnerability: The courage to do what few company that was "less in height and girth men would, and to do what ultimately no man than most. He caught the glint of clear grey could, but beaten down and facing her own eyes; and then he shivered, for it came destruction. In this case, Meny saves her by suddenly to him that it was the face of one distracting and attacking the Lord of the without hope who goes in search of death" Nazgul himself The distraction allows Eowyn (TROTK 76). We later discover that this to drive her sword home, but then she falls in soldier, who called "himself' Demhelm, was a swoon. none other than Eowyn. As Eowyn lay dying of the wounds she At the battle of the citadel ofGondor, the received, Gandalf delivers a stirring and Lord of the Nazgul himself was commanding strikingly modem speech on behalf ofEowyn.

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My friend you had horses, and deeds more worried about dusting her coffee table of arms, and the free fields; but she, than changing the world. But the post-war born in the body of a maid, had a spirit woman was about to get a helping hand from and courage at least to match yours. a confirmed bachelor living in Oxford, Yet she was doomed to wait on an old England. C.S. Lewis must have had the soul of man, whom she loved as a father, and a poet. His unique views of women fill his watch him falling into a mean works of fiction and offer an insight rarely dishonored dotage; and her part seen in post-modem fiction. In That Hideous seemed to her more ignoble than that Strength and Till We Have Faces, Lewis of the staff he leaned on .... But who shows not the modem woman screaming for knows what she spoke to the darkness equality, nor the watered-down woman unable alone, in the bitter watches of the to leave her mark on the world, but two night, when all her life seemed compelling women who know they are strong shrinking, and the walls of her bower and know they have a job to do, but see no closing in about her, a hutch to need to stand around talking about it. Both trammel some wild thing in? (TROTK Jane and Orual, though very different, face the 143) same challenges as they use their strength for the good of their worlds while also finding In the end, Eowyn wedded Faramir of balance and obedience as they serve. Gondor, and so we see that not only is she a strong capable woman, but a woman capable That Hideous Strength: Jane's Battle of great depth and love as well as fierce The lovely Jane Studdock, bored courage. housewife and disillusioned doctoral student, at first glance does not seem like heroine Lewis's Jane and Orual material. She is frustrated with herself for The dichotomy of woman has been the giving up her freedom and getting married subject of debate for as long as there has been because " ... marriage had proved to be the door a woman to talk about. The beautiful but out of a world ofwork and comradeship and dangerous woman has been a motif in laughter and innumerable things to do, into literature since Helen launched her thousand something like solitary confinement" (THS ships. From Aphrodite to Juliet to Scarlet 13). She is angry at her husband Mark for O'Hara, woman has manipulated, nurtured, never being home to relieve the tedium, and wooed, and fought her way into history. Her she is saddened by her lack of interest in strength is legendary. She is loved by the things which she once enjoyed, like her poet, but a source of chagrin to the brute who doctoral thesis on John Donne. would rule her. She had always intended to continue Unfortunately by the 1950s the image of her own career as a scholar after she woman as a powerful force was watered down married, that was one of the reasons and turned into more of a Donna Reed than a why they were to have no children, at Helen of Troy-that smiling household deity any rate for a long time yet ... She adorned with her single strand of pearls and still believed that if she got out her

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notebooks and editions and really sat goes against Jane's sensible, ordinary view of down at the job, she could force life, but she cannot help but discuss it with her herself back into her lost enthusiasm good friends the Dimbles. They immediately for the subject (14). send her to the Director's house in St. Anne' s­ on-the-Hill to talk to a Miss Ironwood. The thesis, however, never does get done Discussing her dream with Miss Ironwood, as Jane suddenly finds herself in the middle of Jane tells her, "I'm afraid I don't believe in a war she doesn't understand, playing a part that sort of thing" (66). Later, when Jane she never imagined she could. Before the realizes that she had been sent to St. Anne's to visions had disturbed Jane, she had "detested give information, she becomes haughty with . . . the fluttering tearful 'little woman' of Miss Ironwood saying she thought Mr. Dimble sentimental fiction rurming for comfort to male was trying to help her. Miss Ironwood replies, arms" (46). Dreaming of headless bodies and "He was. But he was also trying to do dead men awakening changes all that. Jane is something more important at the same time" fearful, and in her search for comfort she finds (67). Jane is indignant, still believing herself the Pendragon. When they meet, not only are ill-used. She leaves St. Anne's confused and all ofJane's ideas of womanhood changed, but hurt. Had she listened to Ironwood she might "her world [i]s unmade; anything might happen have been spared the ordeal which ultimately now" (143). Thus begins a transformation. takes her back to the house of the Director, Through her fear and struggles Jane realizes but it often takes a great deal to make us see that her strength is within her and is how small our world truly is. So it was with independent of outside circumstances. With Jane. There were changes to be made before the help ofPendragon, Fairy Hardcastle, and her power could be fully known even to Jane's husband Mark, her metamorphosis from herself The greatest change occurs in Jane a self-centered woman trying to be powerful to when she meets the Director, the Pendragon a dynamic woman of mental prowess, physical himself. fortitude, and courageous character is After leaving Miss Ironwood, Jane tries to complete. forget about the dreams, but she cannot. They Jane is essentially a modern-day seer. Her continue, and one morning Jane sees a man dreams allow her behind-the-scenes glimpses from her dreams on the street in Edgestow. of the battle which is waging around her. Her powers, of course, make her very attractive to She had no need to think what she would both sides of the warring factions. The do. Her body, walking quickly past, knowledge which comes to Jane in her dreams seemed of itself to have decided that it was makes her extremely powerful. Her heading for the station and thence for St. information can be used to win the war. Anne's. It was something different from At first Jane doesn't want to have anything fear (though she was frightened, too, to do with the odd people she encounters almost to the point of nausea) that drove through her dreams. She is suspicious of her so unerringly forward. It was a total them, and even angry that she is being used as rejection, or revulsion from, this man on all a for information they want. levels of her being at once ( 13 7). Everything about her supernatural abilities

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It is a moment of truth for Jane. The her new-found courage. events of the next few days change her Jane's clairvoyant abilities made her as forever. She finally understands how small her attractive to the enemy as they had to the world is and how much bigger she needs to be. remnant ofLogres. It is, therefore, no surprise Arriving at St. Anne's there is obvious change. that upon leaving St. Anne's she fell into the She looks around her, impressed at the size of hands of those enemies who had been studying the world from above Edgestow. "She felt she her and searching for her longer than anyone had come near to forgetting how big the sky realized. is, how removed the horizon" (138). Enter Jane's antagonist. She is Jane's Arriving at the Director's house, Jane antithesis in every way. While Jane is a offers information on her latest dream. Miss beautiful woman with refined tastes and Ironwood decides it is time for Jane to meet prophetic visions, Hardcastle is masculine, the Director, and informs Jane that she will no vulgar, and obtuse. Unfortunately, Hardcastle doubt be called upon to make a final decision is also in position of power-the head of the during her interview with him. Indeed, upon institutional police. Thus when the NICE seeing the beautiful, youthful figure of the police arrest Jane on an unknown charge Pendragon, Jane cannot help but make during the in Edgestow, she is taken to decisions. "Her world was unmade" (143). Hardcastle for "interrogation." Lamentably, Jane realizes that she wants to stay, that to ally Hardcastle's interrogation consists of asking herself with this man and with Camilla and Jane one question--where she had been on the Ironwood is the only reasonable thing to do. train--and, when Jane doesn't answer, burning However, one problem arises: Jane's husband her with a cheroot. Like a soldier offering Mark is on the enemies' side, and the only name, rank, and serial number, Jane gives Pendragon wishes Jane to make at least one away nothing. Even under torture Jane is attempt to save her husband. He sends her calm, almost dazed, but strong-too strong for home, but not without comfort, not without Hardcastle. It's quite unthinkable what else giving her more questions to think about. Her might have happened had the interrogation strength is increasing. She is becoming more continued, but police matters call the officers and more what she was created to be, but away, and Jane escapes through a series of there are more changes to come. There are blunders on their part. When a couple stops to tests that Jane must pass before she can make offer her a ride home, Jane instinctively gives full use of her powers as a seer, as a woman, "The Manor, St. Anne's" as her home. From and as a wife. this time on Jane will live with the remnant of Jane had no way of knowing that one of Logres under the Pendragon' s roof. these tests would meet her almost as soon as Just when Jane grows accustomed to the she left the Pendragon. Her talk with him strange behavior of her new friends, and is brought many things to the surface; many beginning to grasp what is truly at stake, the things Jane saw that needed to be changed, but Director calls the household together in the many things, too, that were good about her kitchen one cold, rainy night. Jane's own that she had not known were inside her. And powers as seer have led up to this moment. It as she stepped off the train in Edge stow she is she who has informed the Director that found herself in a situation which would test Merlin had awakened although she doesn't

147 Four Women in Lewis and Tolkien • Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall realize it herself. And if Merlin is awake it is You are all right, child?" said Ransom. up to the remnant of Logres to find him before "I think so, Sir" said Jane. Her actual anyone else does. It would be dangerous, and state of mind was one she could not the group assembled in the cozy kitchen sat analyze. Her expectation was strung quietly and awaited the orders from their up to the height; something that would leader. have been terror but for the joy, and The first question to be settled was joy but for the terror, possessed Merlin's possible whereabouts. The men her-an all-absorbing tension of discussed the possibility that he might still be excitement and obedience" (229). buried. MacPhee assumes he will be needed to do some digging and is startled when the Thus Jane, with her God-given talent and Director refuses his offer to help. her willingness to place herself in obedience to "You can't go, MacPhee," said the the servant of Maledil, sets off with the men Director. "He'd put you to sleep in ten while the other women sit in the kitchen seconds. The others are heavily protected as performing another powerful service-the you are not" (228). MacPhee having not petitioning of Maledil for the safety of their placed himself under the protection ofMaledil loved ones and for His will to be done. would have been in great danger on the The will of Maledil means victory for mission, so for the brawn of the operation Logres. Merlin arrives at The Manor, plans Frank Denniston is chosen. are made to end the war, and N.I.C.E. comes Next, it was absolutely imperative that to a swift and violent end. Questions remain, Dimble should go. He has knowledge of the however, about Jane's husband Mark who had Great Tongue. He can communicate with been on the wrong side of the war all along. Merlin-at least enough to bring him back to He survives, but is faced with some of the the Director at St. Anne's. The Director then same struggles his wife had faced and come asks Dimble to practice what he is to speak through. It is now Mark's tum to make the when they find Merlin. Jane is shocked when long, symbolic climb up to The Manor at St. he opens his mouth and speaks "words that Anne' s-on-the-Hill. What Mark finds at the sounded like castles ... " (228). The Director end is a transformed wife, a woman of power. is satisfied. Between Dimble and Denniston he A final test remains for them both: how will is hopeful Merlin can be enticed back to St. they react to each other after their respective Anne's. The only problem remains in finding struggles? him. A guide is needed, and the Director In Jane's talks with the Pendragon she knows who will fill that position quite nicely. asked many questions about obedience and Though not a man, it is Jane who must be the about what her relationship with Mark should third member of the search party. She will be. In her mind marriage meant equality, not lead them to the place of her vision, and in so submission. She had refused to be ruled by her doing will show a strength beyond the barriers husband. She thought it weakness until the of gender. But for now Jane just sits quietly Pendragon told her: "You see that obedience beside the Director as the others file out of the and rule are more like a dance than a kitchen: drill-especially between a man and a woman where the roles are always changing" (149).

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With Mark arriving at St. Anne's and Jane Mark and of all his sufferings." in her new role as powerful woman, she now For a brief moment Jane wonders if she is faced her greatest test of all. Could she as a doing the right thing after all, but seeing an woman of authority not only take back her open window and her husband's clothes husband who had not her strength and who scattered around the lodge in disarray, she even had been on the wrong side of the war in enters and knows that she is where she which Jane was fighting, but also submit to belongs. It is Jane's finest hour for not until him as Maledil would want her to? she obeys is she truly strong. For even Maledil Fortunately for Jane, Mark had been teaches that in weakness is strength. Her changed, too. His long walk to St. Anne's put courage and fortitude in other trials would many things in perspective for Mark, not the have meant nothing if Jane had not submitted least of these being how shabbily he had as Maledil and the Director had taught her. treated Jane: So through the strength of a woman the world is saved. Through the triumphs of Inch by inch, all the lout and clown beautiful Jane Studdock, Logres not only and clod-hopper in him was revealed remains intact, but can continue through Jane's to him in his own reluctant inspection: heirs who will speak of her strength for many the coarse, male boor with horny years to come. hands and hobnailed shoes and beefsteak jaw, not rushing in-for that Till We Have Faces: the Strength ofthe Queen can be carried off-but blundering, sauntering, stumping in where great There is no more powerful woman than a lovers, knights and poets, would have Queen, especially one who rules in her own feared to tread ... How had he dared? right and without a consort to help or to (381) hinder. Orual, powerful ruler of Glome, is such a woman. She is the strength of her He decided to release Jane, but the household and family, of her subjects and her decision was a painful one for only now did he country. Yet hers is a dangerous strength. realize that he loved her. Thus, Mark arrives Her power· must be tested and tempered by at St. Anne's, but he does not go to the humility before it gains its purest form. Like Manor. He is beckoned by Venus into the Jane, Orual has mental prowess and physical lodge which Jane had herself prepared for fortitude, but she has to learn about obedience habitation earlier that day. He enters for "he and humility before she is truly strong, and did not dare disobey" (382). through these conflicts Orual becomes truly After saying farewell to the Pendragon, great. In the end she is more of a queen than Jane also turns toward the lodge. Her any title or kingdom could ever make her. thoughts wander from the Director she just left Orual's royal blood places her on the to Maledil, who is taking the Director home. throne after her father's death, but she keeps "Then she thought of her obedience and the her throne through her own wits and sagacity. setting of each foot before the other became a As a child she is fortunate to have as a teacher of sacrificial ceremony. And she thought kind a learned Greek who comes to her father's of children, and of pain and death. And now kingdom as a slave. For a girl in this time and she was halfway to the lodge, and thought of

149 Four Women in Lewis and Tolkien • Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall place it is uncommon enough to be educated at single combat" (Till We Have Faces 195). If all, but the education Orual receives from the Argan wins, Trunia is turned over to his Fox is extraordinary. He teaches her to speak countrymen, but cannot say he was treated and write in Greek, the language she later uses badly. If Glome's warrior wins, Argan dies to accuse the gods. He teaches philosophy and Trunia is the new king. The only detail to and poetry as well. From the Fox Oruallearns be worked out then is who the champion will about a life beyond her father's little kingdom be. Orual already knows. She will be the one and about the equality of people. He helps her to fight Argan. dispel many of the foolish and often Orual' s counselors are shocked and superstitious ideas of the time. Through the unwilling to consider this idea. Bardia, captain fox's tutelage Orual' s own innate perspicacity of the guards and trusted advisor to Orual is honed. She grows into an intelligent, exclaims, "I've played chess too long to serious-minded young woman who is more hazard my Queen" ( 197). But Orual is than qualified to succeed to the throne of adamant. She and Bardia have worked many Glome upon the death of her father the king. long hours at making her an accomplished The Fox becomes one of her closest advisors swordsman. Bardia himself believes that "the whose opinion is always very important to gods never made anyone--man or Orual. She surrounds herself with wise woman-with a better natural gift for it" counselors which in itself is wisdom and ( 197). He knows Orual is a better swordsman strength. than Argan, but it seems her gender is against The subjects of the Queen of Glome, her in Bardia's eyes. Orual sees it in another however, do not love her only because she is light-the light which shows how Argan a wise and just ruler. Her first day as queen would be certain to accept the offer to fight finds her on the battlefield fighting another such a contemptible opponent as a woman. ruler to settle a dispute in which her country Bardia and the Fox understand the truth and has been involved. A neighboring country is the plausibility of her plan in the end, and plans experiencing civil war over the succession of go forward to organize the match. Orual has their next king. One of the successors arrives used her mental prowess to gain her way, but in Glome pleading for sanctuary and now there is a physical battle to be fought and assistance. Glome is in no position to enter she--rather unnecessarily-questions her own into a war, but is interested in aiding the young strength in that area. However, there is no prince who has arrived. Orual and her fear in her, only reasonable questions which advisors believe Prince Trunia will be the she knows will be answered on the day of the better ruler of Phars and thus the better battle. neighbor to Glome. A scheme must be Even on the day of the battle Orual is developed that will keep Orual' s impoverished composed, only anxious to get started and to country out of war yet will settle the be done with the whole business. Once the succession problem of their neighbors and battle is started and she comes to the place keep Orual' s own throne safe. The queen when Bardia said she would finally feel fear, knows just such a plan. Glome will offer a there is none. "I felt no fear because, now that champion to fight Trunia's brother Argan. we were really at it, I did not believe in the They will "pawn ... Trunia's head upon the combat at all. It was so like all my sham fights

150 Four Women in Lewis and Tolkien • Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall with Bardia... " (219). and of her journey to see her on that lonely Perhaps no other scene in Till We Have mountaintop. She writes of the god's cruelty Faces shows Orual in such a wonderful light. to her for not allowing her to see the truth She is brave, braver than many men. She is about Psyche and for giving her a riddle and strong, wielding a sword against a man twice punishing her when she guesses incorrectly. her size. She is powerful, fighting for the good of her country and her people. And she I say the gods deal very unrightly with is swift, killing her opponent in less than ten us. For they will neither (which would minutes. There was a certain ruthlessness be best of all) go away and leave us to about her which was crucial to do what she live our own short days to ourselves, had to do: "I jumped back of course, lest his nor will they show themselves openly fall should bear me down with him; so my first and tell us what they would have us man-killing bespattered me less than my first do. For that too would be endurable. pig-killing" (219). However, this ruthlessness But to hint and hover, to draw near us now shows how her strength would be in dreams and oracles, or in a waking tempered later. For though Orual is a good vision that vanishes as soon as is seen, queen and much loved by her people there is a to be dead silent when we question hardness about her, a fury for what has been them and then glide back and whisper taken from her, and a bitterness for what she (words we cannot understand) in our never had. There is her charge to the gods, ears ... and to show to one what they too, which only a woman of power and a hide from another; what is all this but woman with nothing to lose would dare cat-and-mouse play, blind man's bluff, attempt to write. She establishes herself as a and mere jugglery (249)? dynamic figure early on, but there is more strength in Orual than acumen and the ability Finally Orual demands an answer from the to wield a sword. She is the proprietor of a gods believing she might be struck mad or strength which only the refining fires of the leprous or even turned into an animal, but at gods can purify, and they use her own writing, least that would be an answer. It would be her own accusations to do this. proof that the gods have no answer. In this Orual begins her book shortly after a trip vengeful writing Orual is at her weakest. She abroad where she hears a story told oflstra, a is being ruled by her bitterness and not by her new goddess who resembles Orual's own intelligence. She is the great warrior losing a sister Psyche. Orual lost Psyche many years battle simply because she does not understand before as a sacrifice to appease the goddess her enemy. Her strength lies dormant as her Ungit. Hard times had fallen upon Glome and passions dominate her actions, but even the sacrificing Psyche to the gods had seemed the writing of the book and her charge to the gods most likely way to alleviate the problem. Now will work for good as Orual much later comes Orual is hearing the story of Psyche told with to understand that the gods "used my own pen much left out and with no justice for the to probe my wound" (254). Her wound would goddess's sisters. Inflamed by the disservice require the surgery of the gods, and in the story does her, Orual hurries horne to write preparation of this, two situations work a her own version, to tell of her love for Psyche change in the powerful queen.

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The first is a conversation with a young and the Pillar Room and the Pillar man who once served in the court of Orual' s Room. The mines are not the only father, but who was castrated and sent away place where a man can be worked to for dallying with the king's daughter, Orual's death. (261) other sister, Redival. He returns to Glome years later as an important official working for It is another epiphany and another another king. He confides to Orual that he is heartache for the queen whose strength is happy with his life and that he did not regret waning. However, there is strength in facing his flirtation with Redival. He coyly explains the truth and admitting wrong. Her strength his behavior toward Redival. "Yes . . a wanes, but it is not extinguished. Through a pretty girl. I took pity on her. She was series of visions Orual's renewal will come. lonely" (255). Through her beloved sister Psyche, Orual is Shocked, the queen demands an redeemed. explanation. Redival had told this young man It was while Orual was obsessed with that she was lonely because first the Fox had writing her charge to the gods that the first come and Orualloved her less, and later when vision came. More of these strange dreams Psyche had been born Orual loved her not at followed Bardia's death until Orual feared the all. Queen Orual is shaken. The thought that gods had struck her mad. Finally in one vision Redival had wanted her love was she is taken before the gods to accuse them. It extraordinary. The realization that she had is here before the gods and before the dead as never thought that Redival might be hurt by she reads her charges that she finally hears her her-"the pitiable and ill-used one" own voice. She understands in a of (256}-was humbling. "This was only the first divine inspiration why the gods never spoke to stroke, a light one; the first snowflake of the her before: winter that I was entering, regarded only because it tells us what's to come" (256). When the time comes to you at The second fire in which Orual must be which you will be forced at last to refined is Bardia's death and the subsequent utter the speech which has lain at revelations she receives through Ansit, the center of your soul for years, Bardia's long-suffering wife. His death was which you have, all that time, painful enough for Orual for she had loved him idiot-like, been saying over and in her way, but the accusations which followed over, you'll not talk about joy of meant more humiliation for the queen. Ansit words. I saw well why the gods accuses Orual of working Bardia to death: do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be Five wars, thirty-one battles, nineteen dug out of us openly, why should embassies, taking thought for this and they hear the babble that we think thought for that, speaking a word in we mean? How can they meet us one ear, and another, and another, face to face till we have faces? soothing this man, and scaring that and (294) flattering a third, devising, consulting, remembering, guessing, forecasting ...

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In her complaint to the gods she realizes they were pioneers in many ways, wntmg she has been answered. Again she sees she has about subjects that their contemporaries dared been wrong, but does not shrink from it. She not touch, they were also visionaries seeing faces it boldly even telling the Fox who she what might become of Woman some day and sees among the dead, "I've battened on the wishing to ensure that a powerful legacy was lives of men" (296). She is being renewed. not lost. So Jane dreams her dreams forever. She sees the dross as the fires of the gods Orual is the eternal, benevolent ruler. refine her and make her strong again. One test Galadriel is the ageless sage always standing in remains. The gods must now try her as she the gap for peace, and Eowyn continues to re­ tried them, and Orual is not at all certain they energize the troops and lead them into the are just. Then the Fox quietly reminds her, ceaseless battle. These women live on though "What would become of us if they were their male creators are gone. (297)?" Lewis writes in That Hideous Strength, Orual' s trial before the gods consists of "The beauty of the female is the root of joy to three painted walls depicting scenes which the female as well as to the male, and it is no were very familiar to her. They were scenes of accident that the goddess of Love is older and her visions, except that it was Psyche who was stronger than the god." These women are shown instead of her. It was Psyche who was myth, legend, truth, and reality all at the same undergoing the tests-sorting the seeds and time. They are immortal. They are Woman. gathering the rams' wool and stumbling through the desert wilderness. Works Cited A shocked Orual stammers, "but how could she-did she really-do such things and Lewis, C.S. That Hideous Strength. New go such places . . . Grandfather, she was all York: Macmillan, 1965. but unscathed. She was almost happy"(300). Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces. New York: To which the fox replies, "Another bore Harcourt Brace, 1984. nearly all the anguish" (300). Tolkien, J.R.R. The Silmaril/ion. Boston: Orual is redeemed. Her strength is Houghton Mifflin, 1973. brought through the fires changed into a pure Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. fonn of obedient love and selfless giving. She Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973. bore Psyche's anguish and, through the fires Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King. and changed into a pure fonn of obedient love Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. and selfless giving. She bore Psyche's anguish, and though Psyche achieved the tasks, Orual asks for no justice. It is enough for her that she assisted Psyche. True strength and true love need no accolades. Orual is now more than a Queen. "You are also Psyche," carne a great voice" (308). She is a goddess. The stories of these four women should not be taken lightly. Lewis and Tolkien told these stories for a very good reason. While

!53 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately by Marjorie Lamp Mead

I imagine that many of you here this child of an English rector and his wife, morning have only a vague sense of who Sayers was raised in a loving home filled Dorothy L. Sayers was. You most with books, music, and creativity. And probably know her name as one of the though Christian teachings were clearly a authors in the Ed Brown Collection. part of her home environment, she seemed Some of you, no doubt, are fans of her not to find it easy to discuss either her detective novels featuring her aristocratic beginning faith or her very real doubts and sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey. Others may questions with her parents. know that she wrote apologetic works and As a young person, she attended was a friend of C.S. Lewis. A few may worship services regularly; she even taught even be aware of her religious drama and Sunday School to the younger children of of her translation of Dante's The Divine the parish. The first indication we have of Comedy. But I would assume that most of her early faith struggles is found around you are largely unacquainted with her the time of her confirmation, a sacrament personal life and story. which takes place in the Church of Dorothy Sayers was a bright and England in the early teenage years. She engaging woman. Of all of her close later wrote of this to her cousin Ivy: friends that I have been privileged to meet over the years, I have yet to find one who Being baptised without one's will did not speak of her lively sense of humor, is certainly not so harmful as being or indeed of her great capacity for confirmed against one's will, which meaningful friendship. Sayers was clearly is what happened to me, and gave a woman who embraced life and enjoyed it me a resentment against religion in deeply, and as a result was a delight to be general which lasted a long time. with. My people (weakly) thought it However-perhaps just like some of would 'be better' to have it 'done' you here this morning-Dorothy L. Sayers at school-and it was the worst did not find faith an easy path. The only possible school for the purpose,

154 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

being Low Church and While it is unwise to apply fiction sentimental-and I (still more exactly to real life, it still seems reasonable weakly) gave in because I didn't to take general indicators from this want to be conspicuous and fight it passage. Indeed, here and elsewhere in her out. Afterwards [when I began to writings, it is clear that Dorothy Sayers have my own faith] I wish I hadn't found the Christianity which she was done it, because then I could have offered as a teenager to be singularly undertaken it properly, without distasteful. She recoiled from the "hushed fury and resentment, and without tones and pietism" which surrounded her, having the dreariest associations longing even then for a faith with a strong connected with the Communion intellectual underpinning. Instinctively, Service. " 1 she felt that if God mattered at all, He was robust not sentimental. This heart-felt Further indications of her thoughts at conviction about the nature of God carried this time can be found in Cat 0 'Mary, a over to Sayers's mature faith, for years partially autobiographical, unpublished later when discussing our modern tendency novel which we have in manuscript form in to diminish the dynamic character of the Wade Center. In it, her main Christ, she described her concerns this character, Katherine Lammas, is also way: forced to undergo the confirmation process against her will. Dismayed by If this is dull, then what, in what she perceived as a cloying and Heaven's name, is worthy to be sentimental religious atmosphere, called exciting? The people who Katherine found that all of this "produced [crucified] Christ never, to do [in her] ... a powerful agnostic reaction."' them justice, accused Him of being Gloomy and rebellious, but unwilling to be a bore-on the contrary; they totally frank with her parents as to the thought Him too dynamic to be reasons why she did not want to be safe. It has been left for later confirmed, the fictional Katherine found generations to muffle up that herself at the moment of confirmation shattering personality and surround saying "I do," while secretly meaning ''I've Him with an atmosphere of got to, but I'd much rather not."' tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him 'meek and 'DLS to Ivy Shrimpton, April 15, 1930, The mild,' and recommended Him as a Letters oJDLS, Volume 1, 1899-/936, edited by fitting household pet for pale Barbara Reynolds (New York: St. Martin's Press, curates and pious old ladies. To 1996) p. 306. those who knew Him, however, He in no way suggested a milk- 2 DLS, Cat 0 'Mary, Ms-40, 156.

'DLS, Cat 0 'Mary, Ms-40, 169.

!55 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

and-water person; they objected to This lack of religious emotion also left Him as a dangerous firebrand." 4 Sayers with a fundamental dilemma which she described in this way: "since I cannot Perhaps if the teenage Sayers had been come at God through intuition, or through able to see the dynamic character of Christ my emotions . . there is only the intellect in this way, she would have found herself left. "6 ln many ways, seeking God, through naturally attracted to the Christian whatever means, is of necessity a solitary message. As it was, the overly maudlin journey, but Sayers did find a worthy surroundings of her religious environment guide in the writings of G.K. Chesterton. only served to alienate her from the Years later she acknowledged this debt Church. For Sayers, the primary difficulty when writing a letter of condolence to lay in the fact that she found herself Chesterton's widow. Here are her words: incapable of responding as the other girls "I think in some ways, G.K.'s books have in her confirmation class did. Religious become more a part of my mental make-up emotion was a dry well for her. In fact, than those of any writer you could name. rather than pulling her along in its wake, I remember vividly the extraordinary the trappings of religious feeling erected excitement of reading The Napoleon of insurmountable barriers in her path. As Nolting Hill at a very impressionable age; she later acknowledged to the Christian and I owe him a debt of gratitude of a kind scientist, John Wren-Lewis: which it is foolish to try and express in words."7 I am quite incapable of 'religious emotion'. This has its good as well as its bad side. I am not The extent of this debt she made clear seriously liable to mistake an elsewhere, declaring that it was reading aesthetic pleasure in ritual or Chesterton's vigorous words which first architecture for moral virtue, or to gave her a sense of the true excitement and suppose that shedding a few tears substance of Christianity. As she over the pathos of the Crucifixion explained: "Chesterton performed [this is the same thing as crucifying the service] for me when I was a sullenly old man in myself ... But the lack unreceptive adolescent. If I am not now a of religious emotion in me makes logical Positivist, [that is to say, someone me impatient of it in other people' who focuses on the meaning of words rather than the underlying realities] I

4 DLS, "The Greatest Drama Ever Staged," from Creed or Chaos? (London: Metheun & Co. Ltd., 1947), pp. 15. 6 DLS to John Wren-Lewis, Good Friday March 1954, Letter #387/23. 'DLS to John Wren-Lewis, Good Friday March 1954, Letter #387/22. 'DLS to Mrs. G.K. Chesterton, 15 June 1936.

!56 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead probably have to thank GKC. Because .. Christian Union. She responds I am not religious by nature."' emphatically: "Certainly not! ... The Having glimpsed the fact that [Christian Union] is no more a necessary Christianity need not be dull and flavorless, corollary of Christianity than the Sayers continued on this spiritual journey Inquisition." Following this tactful during her years as an undergraduate at opening, she then goes on to explain: Oxford. It is rather ironic, however, that "The only necessary products of Sayers, who by personality embraced that Christianity are those which Christ which was lively and passionate in all other appointed. He did not encourage misty aspects of her life, still found no place in theological discussion, but taught by her religious pilgrimage for religious authority and by example. The Early ecstasy. Christians did the same. . . . Discussion of In her letters home to her parents, we beliefs and dogmas came in, I suppose, get some idea of what she was reading and with the Renascence, but rested on the thinking in this regard. For example, in authority of the Bible which had become March 1913, when she was age 20, she overlaid with the authority of the Church. writes that she has been reading I know little about the [Christian Chesterton's What's Wrong with the Union] but it seems to me from all I hear World, as well as several books from the of it, to begin from the wrong end. New Testament including The Acts of the Christianity rests on Faith, not Faith on Apostles. She also readily offers her Christianity. If you have read parents her own critical assessment of [Chesterton's] Orthodoxy you will see those who lived during the time of Christ what I mean ..." 10 Already in this letter, and listened to His teachings. She Sayers is beginning to carve out a position declares: "Having read two Gospels with which maintained the clear and pre­ more attention than I had ever before eminent authority of the Church and given to the subject, I came to the scripture on all matters of theology. Even conclusion that such a set of stupid, literal, as a young person, she wanted nothing to pig-headed people never existed as Christ do with what she termed "misty" and had to do with, including the disciples. "9 vague doctrinal discussions. 11 A month later, she is writing to a friend who is innocently attempting to interest 10 her in an organization known as the DLS. The Letters ofDLS, Volume 1, letter to Catherine Godfrey of April 1913, p. 72.

11 See also, E.L. Mascall, "What Happened to DLS 'DLS to John Wren-Lewis. Good Friday March that Good Friday?" SEVEN (volume 3 -- 1982), 1954, Letter #387/27; logical positivism was anti­ p.ll & 14: " ... the use of the intellect in the supernatural, materialistic, concerned only with the Christian religion can mean two quite distinct. world of our five senses. though compatible, activities. It can mean the understanding and explanation of the nature of 9 DLS, The Letters of DLS, Volume 1, letter to her Christianity or the investigation of the question of parents of 2 March 1913, p. 71. its truth. And Dorothy was rightly convinced that a great deal of argumentation about the second of

!57 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

But no matter how confident she was reality of the Christian creeds, she declared in the authority of the Christian Church, "But unless it is a living [emphasis mine] her own faith questions were still far from truth to me, I cannot make it truth to settled, as this letter to her parents nearly you. " 13 a year later indicates. She writes: " ... [as The first evidence of this "living" truth regards the spiritual realm] what you have in her spiritual life comes four years later. been taught counts for nothing, and . . . Having graduated with a First Class degree the only things worth having are the things in French from Oxford, Sayers was you find out for yourself ... I'm worrying working for the publisher, Basil Blackwell, it out quietly, and whatever I get hold of and awaiting her second book of poetry to will be valuable, because I've got it for be published. She decided it was wise to myself; but really, you know, the whole alert her parents to the nature of this question is not as simple as it looks. " 12 forthcoming volume: "I hope [my new Years later, Sayers was to say that she book] won't horrify you, but I'd better never had an explicit conversion warn you about it! . . . It is called experience, having been raised in and Catholic Tales [and Christian Songs], and having always remained within the all the poems are about Christ. Some Christian faith. Nonetheless, whether we people think it 'wonderful' and some think term the cui mination of Sayers's faith it 'blasphemous' .... I can assure you that journey a conversion experience or not, it it is intended at any rate to be the is evident that as a young woman, she did expression of reverent belief-- but some carefully examine the tenets of her people find it hard to allow that faith, if Christian faith and come to a point where lively, can be reverent. " 14 she made an intentional decision to accept Sayers's concern that her poems be for herself these same Christian beliefs. received as a reverent expression of faith Nor was this a simple academic exercise of was genuine, and extended to more than mere head-knowledge; many years later, her parents, as evidenced by her dedicatory when writing about the substance and poem in this collection. She begins this dedication by quoting from scripture, the passage where Judas betrays Christ in the these aspects was quite futile because of confusion Garden: "And forthwith he came to Jesus, about the first. . . . Dorothy was thus convinced and said, Hail, Master; and kissed Him. that her particular task, as a Christian intellectual, And Jesus said unto him, Friend ...." was to make it plain to modern people, in language that they could understand, just what the historic Christian faith is, and to discredit the bogus substitutes which, frequently bearing its name, are offered in its place. The task of arguing for its truth sbe was content to leave to others---<>r at least 13 DLS to John Wren-Lewis, #387/29. she thought she was." 14 DLS, Leiters volume 1, letter to her parents of 12 DLS, Leiters volume 1, letter to her parents of 14 June 1918, p. 138~ book was published in Oct. March l914,p. 85. 1918.

158 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

Her verse then reads as follows: not hers. Rather, when she declares the intellect, albeit what she terms the Jesus, if, against my will, passionate intellect, as being the path I have wrought Thee any ill, which brought her to God, she means that And, seeking but to do Thee grace, a conviction of the truth of the Christian Have smitten Thee upon the face, message is what compelled her to If my kiss for Thee be not believe-nothing more, but, just as Of John, but oflscariot, importantly, nothing less. In other words, Prithee then, good Jesus, pardon Dorothy Sayers did not come to faith As Thou once didst in the garden, because she sought solace there from her Call me 'Friend,' and with my crime problems and difficulties, but rather she Build thy passion more sublime." examined the orthodox teachings of the Christian Church, believed them to be true, Faith was now a reality in Sayers's life, and responded to Christ's claim on her life. and she was concerned that her vigorous Her later apologetic essays underscore expressions of it did not reflect poorly on this conviction. Hear her words: "faith is her Lord. For, no longer mired in not primarily a 'comfort,' but a truth about uncertainty about what she believed, ourselves. . . . Only when we know what Sayers had begun to speak with we truly believe can we decide whether it conviction-and yes, even passion-about is 'cornforting.'" 16 And this: "The proper the Christian truths she had embraced as question to be asked about any creed is her own. Like her spiritual mentor, not, 'Is it pleasant?' but 'is it true?'"17 In Chesterton, she unabashedly declares her other words, for Dorothy Sayers the only faith to be both reverent and lively. Make relevant reason for accepting Christianity no mistake, however; this passion, this was that it was true-not that it was intensity, which Sayers brought to her faith pleasant, or comforting, or even valuable is not something she would equate with to our lives, but simply that it was true18 religious emotion. Let me clarify: by religious emotion, 16 DLS, "What do We Believe?," Unpopular Sayers meant something that evoked in the Opinions (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1946), p. believer a sense of comfort, well-being, 18. even happiness, and thereby became the motivation for belief Sayers did not "DLS,Mind of the Maker (1941), p. 12. dismiss the value of certain religious 18 Mascall, "What Happened to Dorothy L. Sayers emotion or even that it could be the means that Good Friday?", SEVEN (volume 3, 1982), p. for bringing others to the Christian faith; 14 --"when all is said and done, the only really she simply understood that this avenue was relevant reason for accepting Christianity is that you are convinced that it is troe~ not that it is comfortable or uncomfortable, interesting or "DLS, Catholic Tales and Christian Songs, uninteresting, profitable or unprofitable, or what­ (Oxford: Blackwells, 1918), [I). have-you, but simply that it is true."

159 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

(Her stance on this, incidentally, is very I quote in part from this letter: "I admit reminiscent ofC.S. Lewis.)" that I have not chosen one [faith] or the In this unswerving emphasis on truth, other because I have seen no need to make Sayers is at definite odds with the a choice. . . . Good people can emerge pluralistic relativism which was then from multi-religious upbringings, with a prevalent in the intellectual community of firm belief in tolerance and a strong sense her time and certainly defines so much of of morality. Saying that children must be our culture today. Just a few weeks ago, raised in one faith or the other seems to the Chicago Tribune printed a letter from suggest that you can be truly religious only a junior at Harvard University in which he if you have been brainwashed into touted the benefits of religious toleration accepting a specific denomination. This having been raised in a home where one premise I reject absolutely. . . . Religion parent was Christian and the other Jewish. should be a search for spiritual answers, not a commitment to dogma. "20 A noble statement, perhaps, if the goal 19 There are nwnerous parallel Lewis quotes, see is simply a moral life, but it is not the same for example: "One of the great difficulties is to end goal which motivated Dorothy Sayers. keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are reconu .. ending The truth she served went much deeper. Christianity not because it is troe but because it is She expresses this view of truth most good. . . . One must keep on pointing out that eloquently in an essay on Dante's Inferno, Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no the first book of his epic work, The Divine importance, and if true, of infinite importance. Comedy. In this passage, Sayers is The one thing it cannot be is moderately describing what she calls "the journey of important." from "" God in the Dock (1945), p. I 0 I. ; Or this CSL quote: "The self-knowledge." As you may recall, in Christian religion ... does not begin in comfort; it The Divine Comedy, Dante is being led by begins in ... dismay. . . In religion, as in war and his guide, the poet Virgil, on a journey everything else, comfort is the one thing you can beginning in Hell. But before entering not get by looking for it. If you look for truth. you may fmd comfort in the end: If you look for Hell, itself, the two travelers must pass comfort you will not get either comfort or truth-­ through the Vestibule. This is a place that only softsoap and wishful thinking to begin with, "is not yet Hell, though it is the way to and, in the end, despair." from Mere Christianity. Hell. .[In other words, it is the bk. I, chap. 5, p. 39; or this: "Christianity is not a entryway, but it has a significance greater patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an than simply this. For] it is populated by account of facts-- to tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe may be true, or those whom both Heaven and Hell reject: it may not. and once the question is before you. those who [in their lifetime] were 'neither then your natural inquisitiveness must make you for God nor for His enemies."' want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true. every 20 Ann Landers column, "Grateful to my parents, honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives The Pros and cons of a multi-religious him no help at all." from "Man or Rabbit?" in upbringing," Chicago Tribune, October 26, 1997, GodintheDock(J946),pp. 108-109. section 7, p. 2.

160 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

Sayers goes on: "Dante looks, and Now remember, Sayers wrote this recognises. We too may recognise­ view of the dangers of relativism in 1947; perhaps with some astonishment. The Dante published his earlier description in vestibule is very crowded .... Here are the 1314. But both are strikingly prophetic of people who never come to any decision. the tragic flaw plaguing our society today. Do we despise them? Or do we admire For fear of being thought intolerant, we their wide-minded tolerance and their disdain choosing, but we read in these freedom from bigotry and dogmatism? words of both Sayers and Dante that such They discuss everything, but come to no toleration is, itself, ultimately worthy of conclusion. They will commit themselves disdain-not admiration. to no opinion, since there is so much to be Fence-sitting was not a pastime said on the other side .... They never accepted by Dorothy Sayers. For her abandon themselves wholeheartedly to any thinking passionately meant thinking pursuit lest they should be missing decisively; thinking always with energy and something: neither to God, lest they should integrity; putting rigor back into an lose the world, nor to the world, because understanding of the Christian faith. In there might, after all, be 'something in' short, it is the call to a committed life­ religion. They shrink from responsibility, and a committed life which includes the life lest it should bind them; they condemn of the mind. This is not a call she makes nothing, for fear of being thought narrow. on her own authority. The Christ she They chose indecision, and here in Hell served is not shy in making His claims: they have it; they run forever after a "Take up your cross and follow me." perpetually-shifting banner; the worry and But no matter how important it is to fret that torments them as of old stings live a committed life, to think passionately, them like a swarm of hornets. They sweat it does little good if we don't understand blood and tears, but in no purposeful what we are committed to. And indeed, martyrdom: the painful drops fall to the addressing this lack of understanding as ground and are licked up by worms .... regards the Christian faith became one of 'But surely,' they cry, 'all experience is the great passions of Dorothy Sayers's life. valuable! All good and evil are relative! For she was convinced that not only All religions are the same in essentials! unbelievers, but also too many Christians, One mustn't draw hard-and-fast were largely ignorant of the foundational distinctions! One must be free to try teachings of the Christian faith. She everything! "'21 identified a related tendency by Christians to dismiss doctrine as "boring" in preference to the experience of worship. 21 DLS, "The City of Dis," from Introductory Sayers, however, believed that unless you Papers on Dante (New York: Harper & Brolhers, 1954), p. 132; originally written for lhe truly knew what you were worshipping, Confraternitas Historica, Sidney Sussex College, your worship experience would be shallow Cambridge. and presented 25 February 1947.

!61 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead at best 22 Does this reality sound familiar exciting, and so dramatic can be the to you? Unfortunately, it seems that all orthodox Creed of the Church. "23 too often today, even as we have This observation was not just idle succeeded in carefully crafting worship speculation on her part, she knew first­ environments which reflect the tastes of hand from her own experience (such as her our modem congregations, we have often play-cycle on the life of Christ) that all too failed to insure that the substance and many people were shocked when understanding of our Christian doctrines confronted with the simple claims of the remain. Sayers would tell you that gospel story. Sayers believed that the ultimately such experiences will be less response of an individual could be belief or than satisfying as the hunger for spiritual not, but that there was no room to call the knowledge will remain largely unfilled. story of God's sacrifice on our behalf dull. Sayers also saw this lack of knowledge Or as she put it in her typical no-nonsense as being a critical handicap in the way: Church's efforts at evangelism. In this regard, she said: "It is more startling to Now we may call that doctrine discover how many people there are who exhilarating or we may call it heartily dislike and despise Christianity devastating; we may call it without having the faintest notion what it revelation or we may call it is. If you tell them, they cannot believe rubbish; but if we call it dull, then you. I do not mean that they cannot words have no meaning at all. believe the doctrine: that would be [Here Sayers was speaking as understandable enough, since it takes some writer.] . . . Any journalist, believing. I mean they simply cannot hearing [this story] for the first believe that anything so interesting, so time [that is, the story of man putting God to death ... and of God's triumph over death on mankind's behalf] would recognize it as news, and good news at that; 22 DLS, "The Dogma is the Drama," Christian though we are apt to forget that Letters to a Post-Christian World, p. 23. DLS quotes Jesus talking to the Woman of Samaria, the word Gospel ever meant 24 '"Ye worship what ye know not what'- being anything so sensational apparently under the impression that it might be desirable, on the whole, to know what one was worshipping. He thus, showed himself to be sadly out of touch with the twentieth-century mind, for the cry today is: 'Away with the tedious complex­ ities of dogma- let us have the simple spirit of 23 DLS, "The Dogma is the Drama," Christian worship; just worship, no matter of what!' The Letters to a Post-Christian World, p.23. only drawback to this demand for a generalized and undirected worship is the practical difficulty of 24 DLS, "Greatest Drama Ever Staged," Creed or arousing any sort of enthusiasm for the worship of Chaos? (London: Metheun & Co. Ltd., 1947), pp. nothing in particular." 5-6.

162 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

She continues: surrounding world than they were at the turn of the century. "26 Official Christianity, of late years, Osmer then goes on to discuss the fact has been having what is known as that modern educational theory has been 'a bad press.' We are constantly shown to be lacking in its emphasis on assured that the churches are process over content. He says: "To put it empty because preachers insist too simply, you cannot think, speak or act much upon doctrine-' dull unless you have something to think, speak dogma,' as people call it. The fact or act with. Unless explicit attention is is the precise opposite. It is the given to the acquisition of biblical and neglect of dogma that makes for theological knowledge, the members of the dullness. The Christian faith is the church will not be capable of using the most exciting drama that ever faith to interpret their lives or their world. staggered the imagination of They will employ concepts from other man- and the dogma is the areas of life in which they do have drama. That drama is summarized competence. "27 quite clear! y in the creeds of the In other words, individuals inevitably early Church, and if we think it must make decisions based on some frame dull it is because we either have of reference; if their lack of theological never read those amazing knowledge prevents them from using documents, or have recited them Christian precepts as their reference so often and mechanically as to points, then even those who declare have lost all sense of their themselves to be Christians will be forced meaning. 2s to make the most important decisions of their daily lives using standards they have A recent article by Richard Osmer, a acquired from the world around them­ professor of Christian Education at rather than from the teachings of the Princeton Seminary, on the need for re­ Church. It is this sort of tragic introducing catechism in today's churches circumstance that appalled Dorothy would support Sayers's view of the Sayers, and why she thought the mind was Church's general lack of theological such a vital part of our Christian faith. knowledge as well as the importance of In a little known, but brilliant essay this knowledge in the life of each believer. entitled, "The Meaning of the Universe," Osmer says: "it is safe to say that the Sayers clearly marks out where she stands members of mainline Protestant churches on the intellectual responsibility of each [today] know less about the faith, are more tenuously committed to the church, and 26 Osmer, Richard R., "The Case for Catechism," are less equipped to make an impact on the The Christian Century, April 23-30, 1997, p. 412.

" Osmer, Richard R., "The Case for Catechism," " DLS, "Greatest Drama Ever Staged," p. I. The Christian Century, April 23-30, 1997, p. 412.

163 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead

Christian. Presented originally as a talk to We are all afraid. We are afraid of the Christian Mission on Ash Wednesday, each other and of ourselves. And 1946, Sayers was speaking to an audience the greater the power and of both Christians and non-Christians. She ingenuity exercised by Man in his begins this way: inventions, the weaker and more "I have come here this evening to say insignificant does each individual a few words about a part of the human man or woman seem to be--the make-up which is often forgotten or less important, the less able to neglected in discussions about cope with the situation or Christianity-the part which we call understand what is going on or do intellect, or mind, or understanding .... anything at all about it. We cannot The first thing I want to say, as plainly and go on like this. . . . Somehow we forcibly as possible, is this: I do not think have got to rescue the human mind we can afford to live any longer in a from this chaos of stark universe which makes no sense. It is bewilderment. Now the Christian hardly an over-statement to say that to revelation does do that. It does ninety-nine people out of a hundred today, make sense of the universe. It the world, and man's life, and man's place does more than that, of course- it in the world have come to appear not only explains things, but also completely irrational. . . . they do not gives the power to put wrong understand what it is all for, or where it is things right. But for the moment, going, or what they are doing in it."28 let us concentrate on the one point. Speaking as she was in post-World It sets the intellect free. It makes War II England, Sayers goes on to sense of what before seemed describe man's futile attempts to control irrational. 29 his environment, to achieve progress, to advance his society-all of which efforts In other words, Sayers is saying that had been met in recent years by terrifYing the Christian faith gives us a frame of and dismal failure. This had resulted in reference whereby we can understand the what she believed to be a world of confusion of the world around us. And in increasing confusion, where man had lost offering a rational view of the universe and confidence in his own abilities to build a of God's over-arching plan, Christianity better society, and now all that faced him enables us to be freed from the turmoil that was his own fear of the future. plagues those who put their faith solely in She goes on: man and his abilities. To repeat her words: "The Christian revelation makes sense of the universe. It makes sense of what

28 DLS, "The Meaning of the Universe," (1946), "DLS, "The Meaning of the Universe," (1946), p.3. p.4-5.

164 Dorothy L. Sayers: Thinking Passionately • Marjorie Lamp Mead before seemed irrational. And as a result, valued. Sayers would have understood it sets the intellect free." this emphasis. The voice of Dorothy Sayers will never Like Paul, Dorothy Sayers did not see be a popular one in today's world, for in the mind as incidental to faith; she, too, her passionate pursuit of dogma, she will saw wisdom as something to be treasured. be seen by many to be dogmatic. Unafraid of intellectual inquiry, she However, this is not a charge which would believed that Christianity not only have worried her. Indeed, she looked to supported, but also stood up to the most Another for her model. This same woman rigorous examination. Faith and reason, who struggled so mightily with her own all too often, have had an uneasy marriage faith questions as a young person, having within the Church; but Sayers did not see once made her decision-based not upon it that way. I close with these words of what was comfortable but rather upon hers on the essential relationship between what she saw to be true--this same the mind and faith: "faith does not destroy woman had no difficulty in standing tall reason-faith supports it. You must not upon her convictions. For her, there was let anybody suppose that Christianity no choice. To think passionately about her means doing away with your intelligence faith meant to unwaveringly embrace the and believing a lot of nonsense. If you are core tenets of Christian doctrine. She did doing your duty by your neighbour, and by this, first of all, because she believed Christ-whom Christians call 'the Divine Christianity to be true, and she did it with Reason'-your message to the world has passion because she saw the Christian faith got to be, not: 'I have given up trying to as infinitely vital and exhilarating. understand and have fallen back on blind Dorothy Sayers may not have come belief,' but 'I believe in Christ, and easily to faith, but when she did come it therefore I understand. '"31 was with a sense of integrity and absolute trust in the truthfulness of what she whole­ heartedly and passionately believed. In ©!997 Marjorie Lamp Mead Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul writes of Associate Director his hope that the Christians there will The Marion E. Wade Center attain: "all the riches of the full assurance Wheaton College of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 30 Note well, Paul declares wisdom and 31 DLS, "The Meaning of the Universe," ( 1946), knowledge to be treasures- something to p.l5; see also this quote by CSL, "I believe in be sought after, something to be greatly Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else." from "Is Theology Poetry?" in "' Colossians 2:2-3 NKJV. The Weight ofGlory (1944), p. 92.

!65 ~~~~~ ~o-~0~ Tile P..""~cn~ 2[~i.· ~ Frances White Ewbank 0\a~<1 .CjQ i Colloquium ~~·n1:' p.. it~ -~tr1 GENERAL INFORMATION ::t.~ on Rectstntlon: If you have not sent your registration fee, please do so by November 10 to insure a seat at the banquet. ~[ C.S. Lewis Your registration packet will be available at the table in the Rupp Communications Center (across from the Rediger ~ Auditorium) beginning at 9 :00 a.m. on Friday, November and 14. Ifyou arrive Thunday, call Rick Hill (998-4971 or 998- 0636) or David Neubouser (998-S245 or 998-2587) for assistance. ' l Friends Parldnc: Please parlc. in the visitor lots on either aide of the Rediger Chapel / Auditorium. Motel and Airport Sbuttle: When you pick up your registration packet, please be sure to request any or all of the shuttle times listed below; if we have no one scheduled, we won't send the van. Ifrequested, we will pick up motel guests at 7:15p.m. for the 8:00 Thursday performance of Shadow/ands and return soon after the performance ends. We will pick up guests at 8:45 a.m. on Friday morning and return Friday evening after the David Payne performance. If you need a ride back to the airport, please be sure to let us know when you pick up your registration materials.

Shadowlanth Tlcketa: If you have requested tickets to November 14-15, 1997 Shadow/ands for either the Thursday or Saturday evening performances, you may pick them up at the box office in the Taylor University Rupp Communications Center. Upland, Indiana ~The Friday evening banquet will be a sit-down dinner in the Isley Room ofthe Hodson Dining Commons. Lunch on Friday will be available at a nominal cost in a special line in the Isley room; breakfast and lunch on Saturday will be available in the regular lines. The Grill restaurant in the student center also serves during meal hours. For those PROGRJ.\i'i\ interested in an expanded fast food menu and hundreds of wild ice cream creations, we suggest Ivanhoe's restaurant, located a mile north of campus on Hwy. 22. SC)-IEJJUtE The Frances White Ewbank Colloquittm

On C. S. Lewis Friday, Nov. 14 (continued) Saturday, Nov. 15 (continued) 3:15 Session 3, Room CC-203 Stadmt Papen 10:4.5 Papers I Concurrent Sessions and Friends Session 5, Room CC-205 "Till Poems Have Faces" Lou Olson "Till We Have Faces: A Restoration of Perspective on "Myth Made Truth: Origins of the Chronicles of the Condition of Man" Joan Alexander Namia" Marl<. Bane "The Question of Biblical Allegory in Till We Have Faces" "C. S. Lewis: Past Watchful Dragons" David Bedsole, Huntingdon College Stephanie Jones "The AboliNon o[Man: First Principles and Pre-Evangelisn Ted Dorman, TaylorU. 4:30 CARRlJfH RECITAL HALL "The Joys of Collecting" I :30 pm CARRlJfH RECITAL HALL PROG~ SCHEDULE Edwin W. Brown, M.D. "George MacDonald's Answer to the Victorian Followed by a tour of the Edwin Brown Crises of Faith" Friday, Nov. 14 collection of Lewis, MacDonald, Barfield, Pamela Jordan, Taylor U. Sayers, and Williams fmrt editions and 9:00am RUPP COMMUNICATION CENTER manuscripts at Taylor's Zondervan Library. Registration and Welcome 2:30 Papers I Concurrent Sessions 6:00 ISLEY ROOM Session 6, Room CC-222 10:00 REDIGER CHAPEUAUDITORIUM HODSON DINING COMMONS "C.S. Lewis and the Problem of Evil" Banquet "The Speaking Elephant: Rightly Dividing Jerry Root, Wheaton College MacDonald's Fairy Tales" 8:15 MITCHELL THEATER Darren Hotmire, Trinity Divinity School 1:00pm CARRlJfH RECITAL HALL Through the Shadowlands: "C. S. Lewis and Christian Scholarship" a Portrayal of C. S. Lewis by David Payne "George MacDonald and Medicine" 13ruce EdwaTds, Bowling Green State U. Darrel Hotmire, M.D.

2:00 CARRlJfH RECITAL HALL Saturday, Nov. 15 "Clifthangers and Extracts From Fact and Fantasy" "C. S. Lewis's Pilgrimage to Faith" Dan Hamilton 9:00am CARRliTH RECITAL HALL Jerry Root, Wheaton College Devotions Jay Kesler, President, Taylor University Session 7, Room CC-205 :us Concurrent sesslons/papen on Lewis End Omega and the lnldlnp 9:15 CARRliTH RECITAL HALL "Unto the of the World: Point Eschatology "On Dorothy L Sayers" in C. S. Lewis and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin" Session 1, Room CC-222 Marjorie L. Mead, Associate Director, Chris Smith "C. S. Lewis: LightbeaTer in the Shadowlands" Wade Center, Wheaton College "Wordsmiths as Warriors: The Intellectual Honesty of Angus Menuge, Concordia University 10:45 Papers I Concurrent Sessions G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis" "PraepaTatio Evangelica" Daryl Charles, Taylor U. Session 4, Room CC-222 Joel Heck, Concordia University ''The Apologetics of Chesterton and Lewis in a World "Old Poet Remembered: The Case for the Marl<.ed by Disbelief' Michael R Smith, Taylor U. St-sslon 2, Room CC-205 Poetry of C. S. Lewis" David Landrum. Cornerstone College Session 8, Room CC-203 "Shadows That Fall: The lnunanence of Heaven in the Fiction of Lewis and MacDonald" "Human Destiny in That Hideous Strength" "Some Shattering Simplicity: Suffering, Love, and David Manley, Trinity Western U. Wilfred Martens, Fresno Pacific U. Faith in the Thought of C. S. Lewis" B.C. Canada Jennifer Woodruff, Asbury Theological Seminary "Dorothy L. Sayers and the Passionate Intellect" "Perspectives in Strength: Four Women in the Writings "The Friendship of Lewis and Tolkien" Roger Phillips, Taylor U. John Seland, Nanzan U., Japan of Lewis and Tolkein" Angela Fortner and Peter Marshall