C.S. Lewis
Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 1:18 am
Jim,
The article you linked to by Mary Ann Collins regarding C.S. Lewis was interesting. However, having been a long time fan of C.S. Lewis myself it is obvious that Mary Ann Collins is not being objective and quotes things out of context. Since I moved last October I can't find most of my books or I would quote the passages in context. But, even in her article she writes very poorly to support her position. One example is that she says,
" Many Christians are treating the Narnia books as being an allegory, with Aslan representing Jesus and the children representing Christians. If you do this with “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” then you portray Jesus as being pleased when Christians do magic and work spells. And you support the idea that that there are “good” spells and “good” magic. That belief is the basis for modern “white” witchcraft. However, the Bible clearly forbids any form of witchcraft:
The first problem is she says Aslan represents Jesus and the children represent Christians but she fails to say what the spells represent. Instead she conveniently leave the spells in there to support her position. You can't take an allegory and translate only half the allegory of you will end up with very strange connections.
The second problem is she says that during the time of C.S. Lewis, spells and which craft didn't exist so it wouldn't have been a problem. My question is, if spells didn't exists then he must have made that up as an allegory to something that did exist, right?
The last problem I find for now is her use of quoting his struggles. She takes what he said were his struggles and tries to portray it as being the same as if he were giving into them. There is nothing unbiblical or wrong about a Christian struggling with sin. Who cares if it was a huge temptation for C.S. Lewis and his wife to give into and pray to some other god while traveling. All that matters is, did he give in? As a guy there are times when I struggle with things like lust and it is a huge temptation to give in. Wow, now that I've said that does that mean I'm supporting lust? God forbid!
Sure people could take C.S. Lewis' books and use them to support magic but that doesn't mean that was his intent and it doesn't make them bad. If we use that reasoning then we must conclude that sex is bad even if God's original intentions were good. Is that the case? My parents and other happily married Christians who have sex inside of marriage have told me otherwise. You can't say something is wrong just because it can be misused or misunderstood. C.S. Lewis would never support magic whether good or bad. Just as God isn't the problem or sex, it is people who choose to misuse it that is.
The article you linked to by Mary Ann Collins regarding C.S. Lewis was interesting. However, having been a long time fan of C.S. Lewis myself it is obvious that Mary Ann Collins is not being objective and quotes things out of context. Since I moved last October I can't find most of my books or I would quote the passages in context. But, even in her article she writes very poorly to support her position. One example is that she says,
" Many Christians are treating the Narnia books as being an allegory, with Aslan representing Jesus and the children representing Christians. If you do this with “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” then you portray Jesus as being pleased when Christians do magic and work spells. And you support the idea that that there are “good” spells and “good” magic. That belief is the basis for modern “white” witchcraft. However, the Bible clearly forbids any form of witchcraft:
The first problem is she says Aslan represents Jesus and the children represent Christians but she fails to say what the spells represent. Instead she conveniently leave the spells in there to support her position. You can't take an allegory and translate only half the allegory of you will end up with very strange connections.
The second problem is she says that during the time of C.S. Lewis, spells and which craft didn't exist so it wouldn't have been a problem. My question is, if spells didn't exists then he must have made that up as an allegory to something that did exist, right?
The last problem I find for now is her use of quoting his struggles. She takes what he said were his struggles and tries to portray it as being the same as if he were giving into them. There is nothing unbiblical or wrong about a Christian struggling with sin. Who cares if it was a huge temptation for C.S. Lewis and his wife to give into and pray to some other god while traveling. All that matters is, did he give in? As a guy there are times when I struggle with things like lust and it is a huge temptation to give in. Wow, now that I've said that does that mean I'm supporting lust? God forbid!
Sure people could take C.S. Lewis' books and use them to support magic but that doesn't mean that was his intent and it doesn't make them bad. If we use that reasoning then we must conclude that sex is bad even if God's original intentions were good. Is that the case? My parents and other happily married Christians who have sex inside of marriage have told me otherwise. You can't say something is wrong just because it can be misused or misunderstood. C.S. Lewis would never support magic whether good or bad. Just as God isn't the problem or sex, it is people who choose to misuse it that is.