C.S. Lewis in the
Dock
Forthcoming
next month is a film of The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first of C.S. Lewiss
popular childrens stories of the land of Narnia. Lewis, of course, was
a noted Christian
apologist,
and these books are informed by religious allegory that drives liberals nuts.
So its about time for a new
attack on the man, and sure enough, it comes in The New
Yorker, where Adam Gopnik, often an interesting and intelligent
writer, belittles Lewiss work in a way I can describe only as catty.
Gopnik concedes that the Narnia
stories are classics in the only sense that matters books
that are read a full generation after their author has gone
but he dislikes the authors overtly religious books. So he harps on
what he chooses to call Lewiss religiosity, with its
overtones of aggressive sanctimony.
In just his first four paragraphs,
Gopnik writes of Lewiss conservative religiosity, his
bullying brand of religiosity, and his narrow-hearted
religiosity. Would someone please send this man a thesaurus?
Im not sure how a book can
be bullying, but Im sure the term hardly does justice
to Lewiss gently persuasive defense of Christianity in The
Problem of Pain, Miracles, Mere
Christianity, and other books. These are classics by Gopniks
own standard: they sell millions of copies a full generation after
Lewiss death on November 22, 1963. If Lewiss readers felt
they were being bullied, why would they read him so eagerly?
It gets worse. Gopnik cant
stand Lewiss racism, finds him nasty,
a prig, a very odd kind of Christian, and so on.
He speaks of his weird and complicated sex life with a
sadomasochistic tinge. Lewiss school days, Gopnik
suggests, made him a warped, morbid, stammering sexual
pervert. (In liberal discourse, only a heterosexual Christian can incur
the charge of a sexual perversion. Ask Mel Gibson.)
Lewis conceives God as a
dispenser of vacuous bromides, and Gopnik assures us that
believing cut Lewis off from writing well about belief, for
a belief that needs this much work to believe in isnt really a
belief but a very strong desire to believe. At bottom, Lewis had a
bad conscience and an uncertain personal
faith. The Narnia stories, in many ways, are actually
anti-Christian; Lewis didnt realize this, but Gopnik
does.
Im afraid Gopnik
hasnt read the C.S. Lewis millions of other readers have treasured.
He has missed Lewiss point not a very difficult one, really
about the virtue of faith. Belief is something you have or
dont have; but faith is an act of will and fortitude, which is why we
speak of keeping or breaking faith.
![[Breaker quote for C.S. Lewis in the Dock: The charge: Christianity]](2005breakers/051122.gif) A
child may know perfectly well that the water is safe
and that anyone can learn to swim, but still allow himself to succumb to fear
of the water when he actually gets into it. The problem isnt the
childs beliefs about the water; its his irrational
panic. In the same way, Lewis explains in Christian Reflections,
we may believe intellectually, but allow our moods and passions to weaken our
faith when we are tempted.
When our faith fails, it isnt
usually because of any rational doubt. Reason isnt opposed to faith;
its opposed to the passions (the word is cognate with
passive; were truly active only when we act rationally). In
spite of all the clichés equating intelligence with doubt, the loss of
faith doesnt occur in the intellect, but in the will. Lewis understood
this; but the clever Gopnik seems not to.
Nor did Lewis present Gods
message as vacuous bromides. He saw it as just the opposite:
a love so consuming that our natural reaction to it is shock, almost terror.
Lewis specifically rejects bland and comforting bromides: God is
truly our Father, though we might prefer him to be (I love this image) a kindly
grandfather in heaven, a senile benevolence who, as they say,
liked to see young people enjoying themselves.
Gods love is fierce,
burning, and, like the love of any real father, troubling; he demands that we
love him back with all of our energy. In truth, God loves us far more than we
want to be loved. At times his love feels to us like hatred and tyranny. No
wonder were tempted to hate him.
Bromides, eh? For
my part, I can say only that in his quiet way, C.S. Lewis has, like no other
writer Ive ever read, brought home to me some frightening truths
frightening, yet also consoling. And in his Narnia tales, he found a
way to convey them to children too.
Joseph Sobran
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