Out of the Silent Planet
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CSLewis Bashers!
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I don't recall anything about Kali in the Last Battle, but I agree that Lewis seems to have been much more ecumenically minded than his most fervent admirers give him credit for, and the Last Battle contains a lot of evidence of this, though it can also be seen elsewhere in his work. He was not a participant in today's culture wars, and I suspect that they would have baffleed him.
This is a really Great Trilogy
I enjoyed these works. Found them lacking when compared to prose of Tolkien and the poetry of Eliot (style of the trilogy best compares to Bradbury in my opinion). But he was more focus on Christendom. That gave him a particular message and also limited what he did as a writer. Thought his best fiction was Screwtape Letters. Certainly his best writing was in his various apologetics. From this outsider I must say his work is respectable.
He was a product of his time. We talk about his religious leanings, but many of his contemporaries leaned even further. Tolkein casts a large shadow for any writer. I think Lewis' works have aged well, though I don't read some of the preachier stuff. Too bad he didn't get to see the movies; I think he would have liked them.
I, too, have great fondness for Lewis and his books, even though I am agnostic and somewhat allergic to Christianity. I love the trilogy.
Griffin wrote: "I must have a very affectionate link to this book, as I perceive a lack of patience or a lessening of the value of Lewis' work because of its limiting Christianity.So?
However, in defense even ..."
people ask one another, do you believe in jesus? And some reply with scoffing and turn and walk away. What i think now Christinas should be doing is evolving. Jesus existed to these earlier ppl thats why they said things as they did. 2000 years have passed. The embers of Jesus have long gone we have to find a backdoor into getting back into the house of god
So i say to you: do you think christianity exists? Have you wondered how christianity began (like in narnia - the magicians nephew). It began with one man believing with a passion what this other man had said. At a time you were put to death for believing.
Christianity has taught me you can fight against the majority. We have christianity as witness for this claim. This is why christians go out with a special mission. The truth has revealed it to them.
I am no christian. But i am torn between 2 forces i know exist otherwise the whole basis of thinking would be mocked. What we chose to reason with can not be proved only discussed. it's all we have. so we have to trust it and learn from it...
The religeon is not just part and parcel of the times. As far as I am aware Lewis was an atheist by choice as a teenager who converted to christianity later after personal studies and then studied theology at length. His books are very well considered analogies. I'm a Christian myself and I appreciate the comparisons as they help think about common ideas in new ways. I read several Narnia books as a child and atheist and the faith comparisons didn't make a difference to my own appreciation of magic places and creatures. If we started discarding programs with references to saviours and good and bad moral forces we would discard Lord of the rings and Dr Who also (though atheist Dr who is suprisingly theological). But...mention christianity and some will close off straight away. I think they'll miss out on alot.
AJ wrote: "Lewis's focus on characters and philosophy lend his style more naturally to those types of works rather than science fiction, where constraints of scientific or technological ideas can often limit the author."Except there are no scientific or technological ideas in this book. It's the softest science fiction imaginable, with consistency of mist or vapor.
I didn't find it very Christian either, unlike the second one. For me it was more of a "noble savages" story than anything, like James Fenimore Cooper's books or Karl May.
I started reading C.S. Lewis when I was a kid with the Chronicles of Narnia, and never stopped being a fan. I the trilogy goes way beyond Christianity. C.S Lewis spiritual leanings are NOT to the institution of the church, but to a deep felt spiritual truth. If you read his non fiction spiritual books you find a great open mindedness and spiritual insight that can not be found in any dogma of any Christian church.
Personally, I have a hard time deciding which of Lewis' works are my favorite. On most days however, I would have to list this trilogy as on top. I see his science fiction as being very much in the spirit of H.G. Wells, now dated by the advances of science. I also, (contrary to some comments above) consider this to be one of his most overtly Christian books. He does an incredible job of translating biblical cosmology and world view into a modern setting. I love the way he renders the biblical "steekia."
I still value Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra for the descriptions of an alien but beautiful world. The poetry, sensuality and sheer love of life in the language are, I think, separable from the theology.
I like that Lewis never threw religion in your face but somehow connected life. The religious tone in Silent planet reminds me more of Star Wars the force than of Christianity. Lewis knows how to paint worlds.
Lewis was just simply being real as a writer. He connected his experience of life, his developing understanding of the universe, to his writing. This is what makes him so special. The fact that his worldview was Christian should not pre-dispose anyone to discriminate. Reading books by writers who identify as Christian, or Buddhist or Hindu, or Pagan, or whatever, is profoundly interesting and can only serve to let us understand one another ore deeply.
I am interested by the reference to the Last Battle above, because my recollection of that was that it was explicitly anti-ecumenical - people who say that Aslan and Tash are different names for the same thing are shown to be Wrong, which looks like saying that followers of Buddha, Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, L Ron Hubbard etc. are not all on the same path at all.
I think Griffin is referring to Tash in his OP. Tash was the god of the Calormenes in The Last Battle. In appearance, he was a cross between Kali (perhaps) and something out of Egyptian mythology, maybe Horus.I think Lewis understood more about the metaphysical world than any of his books explicitly tell us. The idea of Jadis being the offspring of a Jinn (A demon in Islam) and a giant. Tash's appearance. The idea of amalgamating gods in order to dilute their individual ideologies. All this tells me he understood the metaphysical world, and understood the spiritual warfare of the past, and the present.
Ian wrote: "I am interested by the reference to the Last Battle above, because my recollection of that was that it was explicitly anti-ecumenical - people who say that Aslan and Tash are different names for th..."The Last Battle has the ape (a satirical figure standing for the Pope) try to reunite different teachings by force, what is called concordism. This means in the end that only one side wins by "eating" the others. This is not ecumenism, or dialogue as it now often is called. A true dialogue begins with a declaration of friendship despite differences, then a mutual examination of the differences and also what we has in common.
You completely lost me at "h8terz"... Oh my word, there are intelligent people on this site of all sites.
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So?
However, in defense even of the h8rz, I think of myself as a friend. I think Lewis' writing was a welcoming to interpretation more broad than Christianity. At the risk of Catholicising, I remember his recognition of the blue-skinned Kali in The Last
Battle, and see a bid for tolerance.
Why is he not heralded as an emissary of ethical behavior?