hobie
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Since C.S. Lewis said he was a converted Christian, why did they he, along with his close 'fellow christian' friend J.R.R. Tolkien write stories that contained or exalted elements of magic, wizards and witchcraft synonymous with paganism or worse that are condemned in the Bible?
(http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/narnia-trouble.htm)
Here are a few interesting comments I came across...
"It's folly to predict the future, but being a fool, I'll say that maybe in 150 years it will be the Chronicles of Narnia that are the most remembered of Lewis's work.
In order to write to a post-Christian culture, Lewis used pre-Christian, pagan ideas.
C.S. Lewis's ideas about returning to a paganism before coming to Christian faith still apply today. He recognized that we live in a post-Christian world, and for him that was the most basic category when trying to understand present society. We talk about modernism and now postmodernism, but if Lewis was around I think he'd still be saying that the fact that we're post-Christian is more fundamental.
Contemporary people have no background at all in Christian faith. They need to be brought to paganism to prepare the way..." https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/juneweb-only/6-28-12.0.html
He was friends with another writer of books, J. R. Tolkien, who wrote stories of pagan myths and fantasy.
There is even a book on it, "J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: A Legendary Friendship
A new book reveals how these two famous friends conspired to bring myth and legend?and Truth?to modern readers" and his website confirms it..http://www.cslewis.com/from-atheism-to-paganism-to-god/
"Many fans are aware that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were close friends who had a great deal in common. Tolkien helped return Lewis to the Christianity of his youth, whereas Lewis encouraged Tolkien to expand his fictional writing; both taught at Oxford and were members of the same literary group, both were interested in literature, myth, and language, and both wrote fictional books which propagated basic Christian themes and principles.
At the same time, though, they also had serious disagreements--in particular, over the quality of Lewis' Narnia books--especially where the religious elements were concerned.
Although Lewis was very proud of his first Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and it would spawn a massively successful series of children's books, Tolkien didn't think very highly of it. First, he thought that the Christian themes and messages were far too strong--he didn't approve of the way Lewis seemed to beat the reader over the head with such obvious symbols referring to and Jesus." https://www.learnreligions.com/c-s-lewis-and-j-r-r-tolkien-christia...
"Personally, I did not come across the writings of Lewis until I was in college, long after I had been reading the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Indeed, though I had been reading Tolkien since I?d turned age ten, way back in 1977, I had no idea that he and Lewis were so close until taking a course on ?Philosophy, Science Fiction, and Fantasy? at the University of Notre Dame in the fall of 1988. There, in Professor Sayer?s class, we learned not only of the friendship of the two men but of their mutual desire to reform the world through the art of storytelling."https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/08/c-s-lewis-man-faith-warmed-over-pagan-bradley-birzer.html
They made up a circle of friends which had some curious interests..."Tolkien was the philologist and Anglo-Saxon scholar, Lewis the Christian apologist who wrote on medieval allegory before earning fame with a science fiction trilogy, wartime BBC broadcasts on Christian faith, and later ?The Screwtape Letters? and Narnia books. Owen Barfield loved English folk dance and wrote the influential ?Poetic Diction,? developing a theory of language that anticipated later developments in the study of consciousness, as well as what became known as New Age thought. The disarmingly fey Williams had no problems reconciling his Anglicanism with a belief in magic and the tarot, participating in esoteric rites such as the ?Ceremony of Consecration on the Threshold of Sacred Mystery.? https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-philip-carol-zale...
It seems the fiction of C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien (and the circle of friends) can seen as something which can be taken in and be 'entertained' by Christians and pagans alike.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5048867
(http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/narnia-trouble.htm)
Here are a few interesting comments I came across...
"It's folly to predict the future, but being a fool, I'll say that maybe in 150 years it will be the Chronicles of Narnia that are the most remembered of Lewis's work.
In order to write to a post-Christian culture, Lewis used pre-Christian, pagan ideas.
C.S. Lewis's ideas about returning to a paganism before coming to Christian faith still apply today. He recognized that we live in a post-Christian world, and for him that was the most basic category when trying to understand present society. We talk about modernism and now postmodernism, but if Lewis was around I think he'd still be saying that the fact that we're post-Christian is more fundamental.
Contemporary people have no background at all in Christian faith. They need to be brought to paganism to prepare the way..." https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/juneweb-only/6-28-12.0.html
He was friends with another writer of books, J. R. Tolkien, who wrote stories of pagan myths and fantasy.
There is even a book on it, "J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: A Legendary Friendship
A new book reveals how these two famous friends conspired to bring myth and legend?and Truth?to modern readers" and his website confirms it..http://www.cslewis.com/from-atheism-to-paganism-to-god/
"Many fans are aware that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were close friends who had a great deal in common. Tolkien helped return Lewis to the Christianity of his youth, whereas Lewis encouraged Tolkien to expand his fictional writing; both taught at Oxford and were members of the same literary group, both were interested in literature, myth, and language, and both wrote fictional books which propagated basic Christian themes and principles.
At the same time, though, they also had serious disagreements--in particular, over the quality of Lewis' Narnia books--especially where the religious elements were concerned.
Although Lewis was very proud of his first Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and it would spawn a massively successful series of children's books, Tolkien didn't think very highly of it. First, he thought that the Christian themes and messages were far too strong--he didn't approve of the way Lewis seemed to beat the reader over the head with such obvious symbols referring to and Jesus." https://www.learnreligions.com/c-s-lewis-and-j-r-r-tolkien-christia...
"Personally, I did not come across the writings of Lewis until I was in college, long after I had been reading the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Indeed, though I had been reading Tolkien since I?d turned age ten, way back in 1977, I had no idea that he and Lewis were so close until taking a course on ?Philosophy, Science Fiction, and Fantasy? at the University of Notre Dame in the fall of 1988. There, in Professor Sayer?s class, we learned not only of the friendship of the two men but of their mutual desire to reform the world through the art of storytelling."https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/08/c-s-lewis-man-faith-warmed-over-pagan-bradley-birzer.html
They made up a circle of friends which had some curious interests..."Tolkien was the philologist and Anglo-Saxon scholar, Lewis the Christian apologist who wrote on medieval allegory before earning fame with a science fiction trilogy, wartime BBC broadcasts on Christian faith, and later ?The Screwtape Letters? and Narnia books. Owen Barfield loved English folk dance and wrote the influential ?Poetic Diction,? developing a theory of language that anticipated later developments in the study of consciousness, as well as what became known as New Age thought. The disarmingly fey Williams had no problems reconciling his Anglicanism with a belief in magic and the tarot, participating in esoteric rites such as the ?Ceremony of Consecration on the Threshold of Sacred Mystery.? https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-philip-carol-zale...
It seems the fiction of C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien (and the circle of friends) can seen as something which can be taken in and be 'entertained' by Christians and pagans alike.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5048867
