Creation vs. creation (Narnia)
In the book,
The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis’s
creates a beautiful allegory of creation that parallels the Creation story in
the book of Genesis. Lewis states that he initial didn’t hold Christian
ideologies to be a big part of the
Chronicle’s of Narnia. However, over time Christian proses are seen to have
been developing over his works. The Magician’s
Nephew starts off Lewis’s Christian proses. Digory is tempted by Jadis to
eat an apple, he refuses, and however this is a direct reference to Genesis 3,
where Eve actually does eat the apple. The biggest difference between the
Biblical account of Creation and Lewis’s story of creation is that Lewis
depicts the fall first. It could be argued that for Lewis creation actually
starts after the fall. That the created world we are accustomed to is actually
occurred after the fall. The world of sin was created, and since this world is
full of sin that is when creation started. Lewis also gave everyone souls,
where in Genesis Man and Women are the only ones given the “Breath of life.”
Lewis’s books definitely combine Christian worldviews with his fondness for
nature, myth, and fairy tales. Which carries over his entire fiction
books.
Early Apologist? (Narnia)
C.S Lewis
can be argued to be the most influential modern era apologist. His arguments
for Christianity are beautifully developed with astounding intellect. They were
crafted so well even a layperson could understand them. One of his most famous
apologist arguments is known as the Trilemma. The argument is laid out by
saying that Jesus had to be 1 of 3 things: liar, lunatic, or lord. The argument
is set up to prove the divine nature of Jesus, ultimately trying to show that
Jesus can only be considered Lord. Lewis’s initial layout of the Trilemma is in
his book, Mere Christianity. However,
I argue that Lewis in fact took years to develop his Trilemma, and that he used
the book The Lion, Witch, and The
Wardrobe as a test run. Here is a direct quote from the book that has
subtle hints to the Trilemma: “There are only three possibilities. Either your
sister is telling lies, or she is mad,
or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it’s obvious
that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns
up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.” These statement presents three
options in regards to Lucy’s experiences of going into the world of Narnia, she
is either lying, she is either mad, or she is either telling the truth. The
three-option concept in this book is almost directly matches the three option
logic in Mere Christianity.
Good Vs. Evil (space trilogy)
In Lewis’s
book, Perelandra the forces of good
and evil are in constant struggle. From the opening chapters of the book we see
the narrator struggling alone on the road to Ransom’s trying to decide what he
is facing is good or evil. The biggest picture of evil vs. good occurs when
Ransom battles the Un-man, where Ransom is trying to keep Evil from overcoming
the Green Lady. Another picture of good vs. evil is when professor Weston
arrives to Venus, and it said his body is possessed by a demon. In the end
Ransom defeats the evil and frees Venus. It is often said that Perelandra was the story if Adam and Eve
did not actually eat the apple.
The Myth of the Trinity (space trilogy)
Lewis’s
space trilogy has an overarching theme of Christian proses that include: good
vs. evil, demonic possession, and even Trinitarian references. In his first
book of the trilogy, Out of the Silent
Plant, the book portrays the cosmos that is ruled by a triune God and the
batter against dark and fallen rulers. For example Maledi the Elder is
referenced as Father or God, and Maledi the Younger is referenced as Son or
Jesus. For Lewis, Christianity was the truest of all the myths. He said, “Heart
of Christianity is a myth which also is a fact.” In this book Lewis uses this
concept of myth and storytelling to portray the idea of the trinity.
Sacrificial Love
(Till we Have Faces)
In Lewis book,
Till we Have Faces, he talks about
one of the main branches of Christianity: Love. The book has hints of sacrifice,
and self-sacrifice throughout it. One over looked quote that I believe sums up
this theme is, “I wonder do the gods know what it feels like to be a man,” this
quote is a direct reference to Jesus becoming man, and actually feeling what it
is like to be a man. We all know how the story of Jesus ended; he sacrificed
his life for our sins. Lewis in the book tries to explain that sacrificial love
in and itself functions simply as material—the ends towards which sacrificial
love is directed determines its moral value. Lewis understood this, and wrote
an entire book dedicated to this called, Four
Loves.
Outside Readings
Intro to Chesterton
Over the
semester I have been reading Chesterton’s book, Orthodoxy. The book has shed new light onto concepts and ideas that
I never thought were possible. Chesterton writes beautifully, like he is
talking to someone in a coffee shop. The most profound parts in his book are
the way he blends truthful hard-hitting ideas with the simplicity of writing.
He takes phrases that often mean nothing and gives them life. His most profound
concepts are his concepts of Christianity as a whole. He makes the reader not
just think with his or her mind, but with their heart. For Chesterton he wants
to examine everything, and either count it as truthful or make up a new truth.
His book has been encouraging to read, and also hard to read.
Love according to Chesterton
My favorite
quote from Orthodoxy is: “Love is not
blind: that is the last thing it is. Love is bound; and more it is bound the
less it is blind.” I take this to mean that love can be seen all around us in
this world, and that love itself is something that will always be in the light.
Love being bound means that it must have something to bind too. Love binds to
everything, the more it binds the more it is shown and the less it is not
shown. For Chesterton love needs to follow this formula, and when it does it
gets closer to the love of the Father. We see the love of God, because we are
bound to Christ in love. For this reason love is not in the dark, it is not
blind, it is in fact seen because of this bounding.
The Mess We Have Mad
“God had written, not so much a
poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had
necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a
great mess of it.” This to me is a beautiful picture of the fall according to
Chesterton. It says that God has written a play for us to follow, but since we
are human with human conditions we took the words of God and decided to take a
red pen to it and make our own play. We choose to use human actors and human
stage managers, all we ideas of pride and selfishness, and decided to do things
without God. We sinned, and tried to write our new play without the Help of the
true Director.
Myth vs. Myth
Lewis talks
about myth as being, “the heart of Christianity is a myth which also is a
fact.” Chesterton also devotes one of his chapters in his book the Ethics of
Elfland. Where In it he talks about fairy tales, another name for myths. One
quote from the chapter is, “Ordinary things are more valuable than
extraordinary things; nay, they are more extraordinary.” I believe this quote
hints out that what happens in myths are just normal ordinary things, that we
often think are magical and extraordinary, but are in fact just another part of
the story. We read myths as being extraordinary where we should them as just
being ordinary stories, and that their ordinariness creates the feeling of
extraordinary. Lewis saw this idea, in calling Christian a myth that is fact he
is saying that Christianity is just an ordinary religion, but in fact it is
extraordinary
Oddity of Truth.
“Show that whenever we feel there
is something odd in Christian theology, we shall generally find that there is
something odd in the truth.” To me Chesterton says in truth we have to expect
oddity. And since some people say that Christianity is an odd religion, with
odd rules, and an odd man at the middle of it. They would have to accept all
this oddity to be truths right? The say that the truth is odd is in itself
creating a paradox, which Chesterton wants to do, and writes about in the rest
of his book.
Own Topic
Stories are beautiful
Over the whole semester, and
talking about story making and story telling has got me thinking about the
importance of stories in general. I have looked at many stories in the bible,
and other stories in general. I have been persuaded that stories are in fact
the most form of communication in our lives. Everything we do, everything we
say, ever way we act with people and interact with people make up a chapter in
our story. We write our own stories, and that is the beautiful part of story
making. Everyone’s story is different and everyone’s story matter. Jesus’s
story matter because of themes of love and faith, our stories should matter
because of those themes as well.
Love,
Happiness, and Adaptability
I was thinking about stories, and
about the truest myth of Christianity, and how Jesus used three concepts in
ever interaction with people, adding to his beauty of stories. Jesus showed
love, happiness, and adaptability, Jesus showed love to everyone, doesn’t
matter what story they are telling. Jesus showed joy in every interaction, and
he adapted to every situation so he could show joy and love. We should do that
in our relationships.
Stories and Nature
Each year my home church does a
guys retreat, where only the guys go away for the weekend to grow together as a
community and grow close to God. For some reason where we go on these retreats
are usually places away from the everyday hustle of life. The places we usually
go are typically considered “country,” which I very enjoy. The places we go to
we usually stay in cabins, and when its night time you can see millions of
stars. I remember this year when I went on the retreat there was a giant lake,
and over looking that lake was a place where you could have worship. On this
certain retreat I was leader of group of guys, so one morning we decided to
have bible study out by the lake. So we got up in time to see the sun rise, and
when the sun was rising we engaged in the Bible. It was one of the coolest
moments of that weekend. For me to engage in the Bible with a bunch of guys and
at the same time we took in the aweness of creation. It’s clear to me that when
you are doing something in nature, or just outside it feels 10 times better. I
guess for me nature brings up different feelings in a person. In nature we feel
connected to the world.
Our Stories Matter.
Our lives
are comprised of many chapters, with many themes, and many challenges. Stories
always often have challenges, and these challenges make us better. Trials are
not bad in nature but bad in essence. Our stories matter, and our challenges
matter in order to shaping our stories. The Bible matters because it’s a story
of fall, redemption, and then rise. Our stories matter, because Jesus makes us
matter
No comments:
Post a Comment