Chou, Hsiu-Chin (2008) The problem of faith and the self: the interplay between literary art, apologetics and hermeneutics in C.S. Lewis's religious narratives. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/577/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] THE PROBLEM OF FAITH AND THE SELF: The Interplay between Literary Art, Apologetics and Hermeneutics in C. S. Lewis’s Religious Narratives HSIU-CHIN CHOU THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LITERATURE, THEOLOGY AND THE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW August 2008 © Hsiu-Chin Chou, August 2008 Abstract Based on the observation that “interdisciplinarity” is the essential nature of C. S. Lewis’s religious narratives created by twofold enterprise—imaginative writing and Christian apologetics, this thesis aims to undertake a comprehensive reception of Lewis’s works by considering carefully the inter-mixture of literary art and Christian apologetics within the texts and the relevance of the reader’s role to the textual experience. In other words, the whole study is oriented to combine literary analysis, apologetic reading and “hermeneutical” reflection upon the encounter between reader and text. The purpose in general is to demonstrate that Lewis’s literary world remains artistically engaging, religiously meaningful and existentially significant to the readers beyond his time. The main part of the thesis presents a practice of close reading and multi-faceted discussion of five texts of Lewis, including: The Pilgrim’s Regress (an allegorical account of a modern man’s conversion), The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce (theological fantasies concerning interaction between subjective being and objective reality), Till We Have Faces (a mythic novel about the correlation between self-knowledge and religious experience), and A Grief Observed (a first-person narrative of an inward journey of coming to terms with grief and faith). Varied in literary modes of expression, these texts are read in terms of one common theme about the inter-related problem of faith and self. More specifically, they are treated as works of “literary apologetics”—written to manifest and tackle in an “existentialist” manner the alienated or disrupted relationship between the human self and religious / Christian faith. In the concluding section, the discussion is moved from interpreting the texts to revisiting C. S. Lewis’s mind and rethinking the proper mindset for Lewis’s readers. This part of the discussion is intended firstly to re-estimate the enterprise of C. S. Lewis as a Christian thinker and literary writer through connecting and comparing his ways of thinking and reading with contemporary theologians and hermeneutical thinkers, particularly Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Ricoeur, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. Such association between Lewis and the contemporary trends of hermeneutics leads to the conclusion that C. S. Lewis is indeed an intellectually defensible thinker as well as literary figure in and even beyond his time. Moreover, it helps to fulfill the second objective of this final discussion, which is also the chief goal of the whole thesis, namely, to shed light on an appropriate way of reading C. S. Lewis. Methodologically, this research is done on a cross-disciplinary basis in terms of a multiplicity of theoretical ideas concerning such topics as literary tropes, figures of speech, the psychology of religion, literary theory and (Kierkegaard’s) existentialist philosophy of irony, and hermeneutics. Illuminated by these miscellaneous tools of interpretation, the whole research looks to attest to the claim that the genuine experience of Lewis’s texts is not gained through simply appreciating the art of expression or digging out the underlying ideas of Christian apologetics, nor does it rest upon the response of the reader alone, but must rely on the co-working and interplay of all these three aspects of experience. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Allegory and the Mixed Textuality in 15 The Pilgrim’s Regress Chapter 2 The Pilgrim’s Regress: A Modern Self’s Pilgrimage 32 toward Conversion Chapter 3 Fantasy, Irony and Christian Existentialism in 65 The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce Chapter 4 The Screwtape Letters: Ironic Discourse and 79 the “Triangle” of Human, Devil and God Chapter 5 The Great Divorce: Irony and the Free Choice of 120 Either Heaven Or Hell Chapter 6 Myth, (Jungian) Psychology of Religion and the 153 Mystical Sense in Till We Have Faces Chapter 7 Till We Have Faces: Writing, Self and Sacred Space 175 Chapter 8 A Grief Observed: An Inward Drama of the Crisis of Faith 229 Conclusion 267 Bibliography 296 Acknowledgements My greatest indebtedness is owed to my supervisor, Professor David Jasper. Were it not because of his invaluable scholarship, mentorship and friendship, the whole process of completing this thesis would not have been such a rewarding and fulfilling experience. I am indeed deeply grateful for being blessed by studying with him, a phenomenally learned and authoritative scholar in both literature and religion / theology, whom I can always look up to, and for being led and inspired by his example of profound and inexhaustible open-mindedness, kindness and supportiveness as a teacher and as a friend. He gives me “space” to think independently and meanwhile teaches me, by his example, how to be a good participant in conversation. No word can fully express my respect, admiration and gratitude for him. Besides, to me as well as to my two young children, the privilege of enjoying a family-like relationship and the generous hospitality from the whole Jaspers’ family—Professor Jasper, Dr. Alison Jasper and their grown-up daughters—is the warmest and most unforgettable memory of our living in Scotland for the past three years. I would also like to thank the Department of Theology and Religious Studies for offering me two years’ grants and to the Graduate School of the Faculty of Arts for the generous funding in support of my attendances to and presentations at the conferences hosted by other universities. Furthermore, my special thanks are attributed to the Faculty of Arts for the one-year full scholarship awarded to me, which meant crucial support to my studies at Glasgow, not just in the financial aspect but also in a spiritual sense. I am obliged as well to Dr. Heather Walton, whose insightful advice and friendly encouragement, not to mention her exemplary scholarship, were a truly valuable voice and model to learn from. More debts to acknowledge are owed both to the fellow researchers in the Centre and to all the good friends here in Glasgow or back in Taiwan—for their important help with enriching my academic pursuit here and their precious friendship which considerably lessened my inescapable feeling of loneliness, homesickness, and oftentimes even anxiety during these Scottish years. Particularly, Luyen Yao in Taipei, Shueh-May Yin in Kaohsiung and Pastor Pan of Glasgow Chinese Christian Church and his wife, Teacher Anita Pan. Lastly but most indispensably, my gratitude toward God for all His blessings through my family that have sustained me all along is beyond word. To Danny, my all-supportive husband and my love, to Angie and Andy, our wonderful darling angels and our joy, and to my loving father too, this piece of work is humbly dedicated. Introduction With all his scholarly expertise in the pre-modern period of literature, the Renaissance and the medieval age in particular, C. S. Lewis’s literary outputs are, however, products of the modern time. Deeply concerned with the relationship between (human) being and (Christian) faith, Lewis’s religious narratives, on the one hand, are distinctly marked by traditional Christian views, such as belief in the supernatural, the redemption of human soul, and the transformation of the self via re-union and reconciliation with the divine other, i.e. God. On the other hand, they are also invested with symbols, dramas, and sometimes realistic portrayals of the “pilgrimage” that is typically “modern” in the sense of acquiring faith not simply through the acceptance of divine grace but even more importantly via the exercise of understanding as well as human freedom (i.e. the will to believe). Therefore, “traditionalist” as the religious import may be, Lewis’s narratives are to a considerable extent reflective of and related to the modern spirit of thinking on one’s own, although equally true is Lewis’s suspicion of the reliability of the rational self of human being, especially when it comes to religious truth or even the self-knowledge of the human subject him- or herself. In his 1784 essay, “What is Enlightenment?” Kant, the most prominent modern thinker of eighteenth century Europe, proclaims that he who dares “to use [his] own understanding” (to grow “mature”) is a true child of the age of Enlightenment.1 Such a spirit of relying on the confidence of the human self as an independent thinker