We continue our series on C.S. Lewis by Prof. Vernell Ingle, Faculty Chair at Messenger College (and Dad).[1] This is part of some seminary research Vernell did on key works of C.S. Lewis. This particular post focuses on his salvation experience and on his first Christian philosophical work Miracles: A Preliminary Study.
Search for Joy (continued)
Christianity offered no doors of escape. The externals of Christianity did not appeal to him [C.S. Lewis]. The reason being that he admitted to possessing a deep-seated hatred for authority, monstrous individualism, and lawlessness.
He despised interference and Christianity spoke of a great, transcendent Interferer.[2]
It was not until Lewis was at Oxford that he returned to his faith in God. His time at Oxford was interrupted by a stint in the army during World War I in which he was wounded. Eventually the Lord placed around Lewis men of great learning who were believers. Many of these, much to his chagrin, though not orthodox, yet rejected materialism out of hand.
One book he selected for reading began to move him out of the pig slough and back toward his Father’s house.
This book was Phantastes by George MacDonald
There was an inexpressible joy from this story. But there was a new quality he had not been confronted with, holiness, true holiness. He called this holiness a bright shadow.
“Up till now each visitation of Joy had left the common world momentarily a desert – ‘The first touch of the earth went nigh to kill’ . . . But now I saw the bright shadow coming out of the book into the real world and resting there, transforming all common things and yet itself unchanged. Or, more accurately, I saw the common things drawn into the bright shadow.”[3]
At that point Lewis was no where near Christianity in his thoughts. But the goodness and innocence of the story snared him. He called it a “good death.”[4]
Another contributing factor toward his conversion was the friends that God surrounded him with.
Two of these were Christians, H.V.V. Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien, December 1955 | Haywood Magee | gettyimages
Then a fellow atheist attested to the historicity of the Gospels, and that was the final blow for Lewis.
“If he, the cynic of cynics, the toughest of the toughs, were not – as I would still have put it – ‘safe,’ where could I turn? Was there no escape . . . Everyone and everything had joined the other side.”[5]
In 1929 Lewis gave in to the relentless pursuit of God. He knelt and prayed one evening, describing himself as the most dejected and reluctant convert in England.[6] The rest is history.
Natural versus Supernatural
C.S. Lewis’ work, Miracles was written as a preliminary philosophical look at the historicity of the Gospels. It was not Lewis’ intention to study or argue historical evidence for Christian miracles. His purpose for this work was to place his readers in a position to decide for themselves. His perspective was that it was useless to go to the Biblical text unless one decided whether miracles were a possibility or a probability.[7]
Lewis distinguished between the Naturalist and the Supernaturalist
The Naturalist was described as one who thinks nothing but Nature exists. Nature to the Naturalist is the whole show, everything or whatever there is.
The problem is nailing down what Nature is. Certain philosophers have attempted to define Nature as the world of the senses but Lewis attacked that definition. Why? Our emotions are not perceived in that way and yet they are considered natural events. He concluded that the meaning of Nature is what happens of itself and of its own accord.
“The Natural is what springs up, or comes forth, or arrives, or goes on, of its own accord: the given, what is there already: the spontaneous, the unintended, the unsolicited.”[8]
Lewis pointed out that the Naturalist and the Supernaturalist agree that there must be something that exists in its own right. This would be the same basic Fact which is in itself the starting point of all explanations.
The difference between the two lies in the identity of the basic Fact. The Naturalist considers the basic Fact as the whole show. The Supernaturalist believes that this One Thing is basic and original, exists on its own, and has caused all other things to be. These other things exist because it exists. He summed up the difference between the two by saying, “Naturalism gives us a democratic, Supernaturalism a monarchical, picture of reality.”[9]
Reading this work was a heady experience. It was deep and at times hard to follow, but his presentation was profound. He seemed to turn our understanding of natural, supernatural, miracles, and rationalism all on their head.
The outcome of the natural, rationalistic viewpoint is that miracles are probable because there is a basic Fact above and beyond the world of our senses
And this basic Fact is God, the Creator. And if God does exist, and rationally speaking He does, then He has a right to intervene or interfere with the natural laws that He has established.
Basic Questions:
1) First of all, Lewis has the ability to be spellbinding at times with his philosophy, yet easily accessible to us all at other times. This post delves a little deeper into his thought, but there is one basic truth that stands out to me.
At the beginning of the post, Lewis is still an atheist, and one who refers to any concept of God as an “Interferer.”
By the end of the post he’s arguing philosophically that God has a right to intervene with His created order (i.e. miracles).
Do you find that ironic? Why? Have you ever argued against an aspect of God, or against something that He asks of you, only to find yourself arguing for it later on?
2) Is there any aspect of Lewis’ conversion experience that intrigues you or that you can relate to? Has a good Christian book, or another form of media, ever caught your attention and informed your faith? What can be said for Christian friends in your journey?
[1] This post is part of a series about C.S. Lewis.
Aslan Acrostic: Dr. Thomas Woodward shares the story of C.S. Lewis
Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis
Vernell Ingle reflects on the works of C.S. Lewis, pt. 2
A Distinction in Ancient Literature (a/v)
[2] C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (London: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1955), 172.Amazon: Surprised by Joy
[3] Ibid., 181.
[4] George MacDonald, Phantastes: A Faerie Romance (1858; repr. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1981), p. xi.Amazon: Phantastes
[5] Lewis, Surprised by Joy, 224-225.
[6] Ibid., 228-229.
[7] C.S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study (New York: MacMillan Company, 1946), 206.Amazon: Miracles
[8] Ibid., 209.
[9] Ibid., 210.
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