A reflection on the work of CS Lewis by Kara Martin
In my Bible Study group we have been working through a history of Christian spirituality; focusing on individuals more than movements.
We have finally made it to the 20th Century, and are looking at CS Lewis. While there are many different ways of looking at his contribution to our understanding of spirituality, I have chosen to focus on the way he linked theology and story.
Of course, there is nothing new in this, we just have to look at the Bible to know that Jesus thought this was an effective way of communicating.
However, CS Lewis has probably done more than most Christian writers to effectively communicate deep theological principles through the medium of story.
I wonder how you came to know CS Lewis?
Narnia series
Theology through story
Power of imagination
Parables especially of Redemption
Sci-fi series
Story of humanity's need for something beyond
Essays
Seeking God through the rational, argument
Seeing God in the everyday challenges
Letters (e.g. Letters to an American Woman)
Seeing God's hand at work in each other's lives
Journals (e.g. A Grief Observed)
Wrestling with God on paper
Finding God in the deep emotions
Apologetics (e.g. The Problem of Pain, Mere Christianity)
Making sense of who we are and who God is
Allegory (e.g. Screwtape Letters, Til we have Faces)
Grown-up stories that teach about relationship with each other and God
Doctrine (e.g., Prayers of Malcolm, Four Loves, Miracles)
Deepening our experience of God
Sermons/recordings
Making sense of God's Word
Autobiography (e.g. Surprised by Joy)
Discovering God's story in our story
CS Lewis followed on from two contrasting periods. The Enlightenment magnified the idea of human reason, which focused on the rational, and which was interested only in the material world. In reaction, Romanticism was a movement towards radicalism, with a focus on imagination and passion, and a growing interest in mysticism and an increasing emphasis on self.
CS Lewis was able to draw together the best of these forces by emphasising the following:
Our intelligence and reason are important
God created us with intelligence; our reason must act in unity with our soul and will; Christianity can stand up to intellectual scrutiny.
Our passion and imagination are important
God uses story to describe himself; we are part of God's story. God is creative and passionate in expression in and through his Word.
Our self is important
God calls us as individuals into community. Who we are individually intimately matters to God. Children matter to God just as much as adults matter to God. He is interested in every aspect of our doing and thinking and being.
Gilbert Meilander wrote an essay on Lewis' use of story and said the following:
[CS Lewis believed] the story is a spell which brings "refreshment of the spirit'. It brings one close to, if not directly into contact with, something entirely beyond time. But this all fades and is soon gone; for story is narrative. The spirit is both refreshed and frustrated because it has temporarily been drawn out of the constraints which time places upon us and, yet, has been so drawn by a literary form which is itself inherently temporal. Thus story "more than myth' unites the temporal and eternal as intimately as plot and theme.
This gives a clue to the power of story, and also the way it can lift our eyes from the ordinary, the everyday, the now; and catch a glimpse of the possible, the transcendent, the eternal.
We have so much still to learn about God, and so many stories to tell.
