Article 3 of 25

Subject:      Re: really about inklings
From:         Sam Dodsworth <sam@aristos.demon.co.uk>
Date:         1997/05/27
Message-Id:   <gy1OQPArruizEwiO@aristos.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups:   alt.books.cs-lewis,alt.books.inklings,alt.books.tolkien
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In article <864665093.23248@dejanews.com>, daved@chelmsford.com writes
>I appreciated Mary's Neo-Pagan exegesis; but on balance, I don't think it
>will work out. Christianity, unless arbitrarily restricted to
>fungelicalism, is as broad as the redeemed universe it inhabits, but no
>broader. To sound for a momement like the early A.J.Ayer, I think to talk
>about 'Christianity is OK as far as it goes' is formally meaningless-
>since the Xtianity I see goes as far as the cosmos. Or, to bring in
>Wittgenstein and Aquinas, beyond the cosmos to touch at the edges of the
>Deity.
>
        Hm. There are a lot of ways-of-relating-to-the-unknown that
aren't easily subsumed into Christianity - particularly from cultures
that didn't feed into the Christian tradition. Or am I misreading you? 

>That the Inklings, each in their way, touched on the mythopoeic heart of
>things I think undeniable, and it is a source of joy to me. I also happen
>to think in large part (though not always) they did a better job of this
>than that rather silly 'Recovering Catholic' Joseph Campbell.

         I didn't know there was much overlap between Joseph Cambell's
approach and that of the Inklings. Personally, I'd say that drawing on
the "mythopoeic heart of things" is a very different activity from
studying it - although I suppose I'd be prepared to argue that the best
way to talk about myths is in the language of myth.

>I think that the Inklings' broad-brush orthodoxy informed this success,
>even as Campbell's Perenniialism (if you will) influenced his
>(interpretive) failure. There's a correspondence for you! ;-)
>
        This sounds interesting, but I'm having trouble following you.
Elucidation?

Sam Dodsworth (sam@aristos.demon.co.uk)
"He thought he saw an argument that proved he was the Pope
 He looked again and saw it was a bar of mottled soap
 'A fact so dread', he faintly said, 'extinguishes all hope.'
                                - Lewis Carrol