I'm taking a brief break from The Narnian and reading CSL's Fern-seed and Elephants, and other essays on Christianity (ed. Walter Hooper). My students are looking for non-fiction to read after reading the trilogy; one has already started The Narnian, and I thought I'd look through a few other things to see if I can suggest something for them.
The first essay in this collection (which was published posthumously) is "Membership"; I thought maybe it would shed some light on Mark in THS, which I think it may. It's an interesting discussion, first read as a lecture in 1945. Its focus is the contrast between membership in the "collective" and "participation in the Body of Christ" (13). Lewis sets up a hierarchy: Body of Christ, "personal and private life," and "collective life" (13).
He references literature to provide examples; he mentions Charlotte Yonge, who has been on my list of authors I want to read -- maybe after I work my way through Dickens. He sees Rat, Mole, and Badger (in The Wind in the Willows) as symbolizing "the extreme differentiation of persons in harmonious union which we know intuitively to be our true refuge both from solitude and from the collective" (16). This is the function of the "mystical body" of Christ, the Church (15).
One sentence did remind me of themes in the trilogy, perhaps especially in THS: "Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality" (18). This seems to sum up the paths both Jane and Mark had to follow too find peace and fulfillment.
Lewis's medievalism and Platonism show up here in a privileging of hierarchy over equality, though he recognizes that "artificial equality is necessary in the life of the State"; he says, "in the church we strip off this disguise, we recover our real inequalities, and are thereby refreshed and quickened" (18). He seems in this essay to value humans only partially correctly; he says, "the value of the individual does not lie in him. He is capable of receiving value. He receives it by union with Christ" (24). I think later in his career he recognizes the intrinsic value of the individual as Imago Dei; still the value is not because of anything the person does but is due to what we are as creatures. He does counter the Platonic influence with a clear statement that our eternal existence will be corporeal, which I think Christians sometimes need to be reminded of.
Then he says, " . . . as organs in the Body of Christ, as stones and pillars in the temple, we are assured of our eternal self-identity and shall live to remember the galaxies as an old tale" (23).
I've said before that Charles Williams' Arthurian poems make me feel like I'm levitating . . . Lewis's prose can sometimes have the same effect. What an amazing description of eternity--outliving the galaxies! While the "collective . . . is mortal," the individual and the Body "live forever" (22).
Friday, February 19, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Narnian, ch 5 . . .
Just the highlights tonight; between my injured hand and the Olympics I'm not sure whether I'll get the blogging done regularly for the next couple of weeks. But I'll give it a shot.
In this chapter Jacobs covers Lewis's early years at Oxford until his first (temporary) appointment which began his career as a don. The focus is on Lewis's relationship with Mrs. Moore and the friendships established during this time.
While Lewis had (and was required to have) rooms in college, he set up house with Mrs. Moore and apparently spent nearly every spare moment there, going in to college for lectures, to meet with his tutors, and to spend the night in his rooms--he had to be in by curfew! We learn that he could work in the midst of chaos and interruptions and be productive in such circumstances, which, according to Warnie and others, were constant in the household. It seems clear that Lewis's "affair," at least at this time, was an intimate relationship; he saw this as his family--at a time when his relationship with his father was quite strained. He maintained a relationship with Mrs. Moore for 30 years, caring for her as she became ill and even more eccentric than she was at this time. She is described here as "unintellectual" and "anti-Christian" (94, 95). No one seemed to understand their relationship either then or now; Jacobs says, "Indeed, this is the great mystery of C. S. Lewis's life" (93).
During these years, but being careful to keep the "home" and academic sides of his life separate, he developed several friendships which would be influential for years. Foremost of these new friends was Owen Barfield; Lewis wrote of him, "he is not so much the alter ego as the antiself" (91). They were worthy sparing partners for each other but also so fond of one another that their friendship grew through, in spite of, because of their very different ideas on many topics. [To learn more about what they called the "Great War," you might look at C. S. Lewis' "Great War" with Owen Barfield (1978), by Lionel Adey.] I love this relationship--and many of the friendships among the Inklings--because it allows for so much freedom and difference; too often, I think, we (only) see friendships between people who "have things in common." Lewis's friendships seem to have really stretched him, causing him to develop his ideas and his ability to articulate them.
Jacobs comments that Lewis joined a literary group, the Martlets, and read to them a paper on William Morris (100). I'd love to know if this paper exists and where. This brings me to the one complaint I have so far of Jacobs' book; there's obviously a lot of scholarly research here, but the "notes" appear in truncated, sometimes unclear, format at the back of the book, and there's no indication in the text itself when there may be a note available. I suppose when writing for a popular audience it's difficult to strike a balance between readers and academic documentation, but I still wish the text had included endnote numbers and the endnotes themselves were more clearly documented. However, it's an interesting and sometimes enlightening read.
In this chapter Jacobs covers Lewis's early years at Oxford until his first (temporary) appointment which began his career as a don. The focus is on Lewis's relationship with Mrs. Moore and the friendships established during this time.
While Lewis had (and was required to have) rooms in college, he set up house with Mrs. Moore and apparently spent nearly every spare moment there, going in to college for lectures, to meet with his tutors, and to spend the night in his rooms--he had to be in by curfew! We learn that he could work in the midst of chaos and interruptions and be productive in such circumstances, which, according to Warnie and others, were constant in the household. It seems clear that Lewis's "affair," at least at this time, was an intimate relationship; he saw this as his family--at a time when his relationship with his father was quite strained. He maintained a relationship with Mrs. Moore for 30 years, caring for her as she became ill and even more eccentric than she was at this time. She is described here as "unintellectual" and "anti-Christian" (94, 95). No one seemed to understand their relationship either then or now; Jacobs says, "Indeed, this is the great mystery of C. S. Lewis's life" (93).
During these years, but being careful to keep the "home" and academic sides of his life separate, he developed several friendships which would be influential for years. Foremost of these new friends was Owen Barfield; Lewis wrote of him, "he is not so much the alter ego as the antiself" (91). They were worthy sparing partners for each other but also so fond of one another that their friendship grew through, in spite of, because of their very different ideas on many topics. [To learn more about what they called the "Great War," you might look at C. S. Lewis' "Great War" with Owen Barfield (1978), by Lionel Adey.] I love this relationship--and many of the friendships among the Inklings--because it allows for so much freedom and difference; too often, I think, we (only) see friendships between people who "have things in common." Lewis's friendships seem to have really stretched him, causing him to develop his ideas and his ability to articulate them.
Jacobs comments that Lewis joined a literary group, the Martlets, and read to them a paper on William Morris (100). I'd love to know if this paper exists and where. This brings me to the one complaint I have so far of Jacobs' book; there's obviously a lot of scholarly research here, but the "notes" appear in truncated, sometimes unclear, format at the back of the book, and there's no indication in the text itself when there may be a note available. I suppose when writing for a popular audience it's difficult to strike a balance between readers and academic documentation, but I still wish the text had included endnote numbers and the endnotes themselves were more clearly documented. However, it's an interesting and sometimes enlightening read.
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