Article 30 of 7223

Subject:      Re: Christianity and Literature
From:         Sam Dodsworth <sam@aristos.demon.co.uk>
Date:         1997/04/22
Message-Id:   <fgChkGAgWMXzEwNB@aristos.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups:   alt.books.cs-lewis
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In article <E90Lr2.A4q@nonexistent.com>, ahnemann
<ahnemann@cybernex.net> writes
>Sam Dodsworth wrote:
>> 
>
>> Sam Dodsworth (sam@aristos.demon.co.uk)
>> "If I have read the New Testament aright, it leaves no room for 
>'creativeness'
>> even in a modified or metaphorical sense. Our whole destiny seems to lie in 
>the
>> opposite direction, in being as little as possible ourselves...in becoming 
>clean
>> mirrors filled with the image of a face that is not ours."
>>                                 - C. S. Lewis: "Christianity and Literature"
>
>
>What an interesting quote.  Always something new here! I don't have
>Christianity and Literature, but would like to find it and read the
>rest.  What do you think Lewis meant by this statement?  What do you
>personally make of it?  It's that "modified or methaphorical" that gets
>me.  
>(Is this a Lewis essay?  Where?)
>
        "Christianity and Literature" was written for the Anglican Times
(or some such - as usual, I don't have the text to hand) and is
collected in "Christian Reflections". The quote's out-of-context, but
only slightly: Lewis is talking about the emphasis on "creativity" and
"self-expression" in some then-current appoaches to criticism, so it's
not necessarily fair to take his talk of "creativeness" completely
literally. On the other hand, he does seem to be taking an unusually
utilitarian position. He begins by distinguishing "Christian Literature"
from literature that a Christian could acceptably read, but talks about
"Christian Literature" only in terms of its effectiveness in promoting
Christian ideas, without adressing the question of works that weren't
created to inform or instruct but simply in one way or another to praise
God. 
        In the light of the above, I'd read him as taking a common (in
Christianity-as-I-have-encountered-it at least) Christian position: we
are all sinful, so we should not seek to express our (sinful) selves,
but only to follow the Christian way more closely. It's not a point of
view that I have a lot of sympathy with myself - when people start
talking about becoming mirrors that reflect a single face I feel an
overwhelming urge to shout "Pod People!"

Sam Dodsworth (sam@aristos.demon.co.uk)
"Nature as not including humanity, Nature as what is not human, that Nature 
 is a construct made by Man, not a real thing; just as most of what Man says
 and knows about women is mere myth and construct. Where I live as woman is 
 to men a wilderness. But to me it is home."
                                                        - Ursula LeGuin