VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT The Philosophical Christianity of C. S. Lewis: Its Sources, Content and Formation ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. L.M. Bouter, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de faculteit der Wijsbegeerte op vrijdag 12 juni 2009 om 13.45 uur in het auditorium van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Adam James Barkman geboren te Winnipeg, Canada promotor: prof.dr. R. Sweetman copromotor: prof.dr. R. van Woudenberg 2 Table of Contents Introduction The Philosophical Christianity of C. S. Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chapter 1 Philosophy as a Way of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Chapter 2 “Practicing True Philosophy;” or, Lewis’s Philosophical Journey 24 Chapter 3 “Longing for the Island;” or, Lewis’s Theory of Heavenly Desire 79 Chapter 4 “A Solider Reality;” or, Lewis’s Understanding of Myth . . . . . . 115 Chapter 5 “Old Western Man;” or, Lewis’s Cultural Ideal and Identity . . . . 184 Conclusion “A Right Branch on the Old European Tree;” or, an Appraisal of Lewis’s Philosophical Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Classical and Medieval Texts Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Abstracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 3 Introduction: The Philosophical Christianity of C. S. Lewis A. J. Ayer, one of the leaders of Logical Positivism in Britain, recounts an exchange he once had with C. S. Lewis: While the analytic movement, in one form or another took increasing control of the English philosophical scene, there were some pockets of resistance to it. One of those who fought a rearguard action against it in Oxford was the English scholar C. S. Lewis, who had once had the ambition to become a tutor in philosophy and still took a lively interest in the subject. He presided over the Socratic Club, which then drew a large audience to meetings at which the principal speakers usually struck a religious note. At one of these meetings, not long after my return to Oxford, I undertook a reply to a paper by Michael Foster, who had spent part of the war as an officer in Northern Ireland and had come back strengthened in his Puritanism. I dealt with his paper rather harshly, and when he made little effort to defend it, C. S. Lewis took over from him. Lewis and I then engaged in a flashy debate, which entertained the audience but did neither of us much credit, while Foster sat by, suffering in silence.1 This passage is interesting because it shows C. S. Lewis, a man generally perceived as a literary critic, fantasy writer and / or lay theologian, engaged in a philosophical debate with one of the twentieth century’s most influential philosophers. And this was not just a one-time occurrence: over the course of his life, Lewis crossed paths with many great 1 A. J. Ayer, Part of My Life: Memoirs of a Philosopher (London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977), 296- 7. 4 philosophers such as Gilbert Ryle,2 Antony Flew,3 C. E. M. Joad,4 Fredrick Copleston,5 Basil Mitchell,6 and George Grant.7 If one thinks about it for a moment, these philosophical debates point to a dimension of Lewis – a philosophical dimension – which has been largely overlooked. And this brings me to the motivation behind this dissertation. By and large it seems as though friends and critics alike have been content with reducing any discussion of Lewis’s philosophical thoughts, if they mention it at all, to his apologetics. I find this lack of attention given to Lewis’s larger philosophical interests both saddening because it robs “Lewis of the philosophic insights that constitute the very texture of his apologetic,”8 and surprising given the vast outpouring of publications about Lewis every year. It is lamentable that, for instance, during the Christmas 2005 holiday season alone, more than twenty books were written about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, none of which 2 John Mabbott, Oxford Memories (Oxford: Thornton’s, 1986), 77-8. 3 “The Socratic Club was a lively forum for debates between atheists and Christians, and I was a regular participant at its meetings. Its redoubtable president from 1942 to 1954 was the famous Christian writer C. S. Lewis.” Antony Flew, There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 22-3. Cf. Antony Flew and Gary Habermas, “My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: A Discussion between Antony Flew and Gary Habermas,” Philosophia Christi 6, no. 2 (2004): 200. Cf. Antony Flew and Gary Habermas, “From Atheism to Deism: A Conversation between Antony Flew and Gary Habermas,” in C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, ed. David Baggett, Gary Habermas and Jerry Walls, 37-52 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008). 4 Christopher W. Mitchell, “University Battles: C. S. Lewis and the Oxford University Socratic Club,” in C. S. Lewis: Lightbearer in the Shadowlands; The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis, ed. Angus J. L. Menuge, 329-52 (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1997), 329. 5 Walter Hooper, “Oxford’s Bonny Fighter,” in C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences, ed. James Como, 137-85 (San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1992), 180. 6 Basil Mitchell and Andrew Walker, “Reflections on C. S. Lewis, Apologetics, and the Moral Tradition,” in Rumours of Heaven: Essays in Celebration of C. S. Lewis, ed. Andrew Walker and James Patrick, 7-26 (London: Eagle, 1998), 7. Basil Mitchell, “C. S. Lewis on The Abolition of Man,” in C. S. Lewis Remembered, ed. Harry Lee Poe and Rebecca Whitten Poe, 174-83 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 174. 7 Ron Dart, “C. S. Lewis and George Grant: A Tale of Two Anglican Tories,” Pilgrimage: The Toronto C. S. Lewis Society Bulletin 9, no. 2 (April 2002): 1. 8 James Patrick, The Magdalen Metaphysicals: Idealism and Orthodoxy at Oxford 1901-1945 (N.p.: Mercer University Press, 1985), 164. 5 told us anything new about Lewis (“a shelf-full of mediocrity,”9 as one critic put it). Of course there have been a few attempts at drawing attention to Lewis philosophical thoughts, notably: the recently released collection of essays on Lewis’s understanding of Truth, Beauty and Goodness (which is nicely titled C. S. Lewis as Philosopher),10 another recently released collection of essays on The Chronicles of Narnia and philosophy,11 Erik Wielenberg’s new book which discusses the views of Lewis, Russell and Hume largely on natural theology,12 French philosopher Iréne Fernandez’s book on Lewis’s theory of reason and myth,13 the third volume of Bruce Edward’s C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy,14 Owen Barfield’s and Lionel Adey’s insight into Lewis’s “Great War” with Owen Barfield,15 Peter Kreeft’s selected essays on Lewis’s argument for Joy and Natural Law,16 Victor Reppert’s books and essays on Lewis’s argument from reason,17 Richard 9 Laura Miller, “Return to Narnia,” The Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2005. 10 David Baggett, Gary Habermas and Jerry Walls, eds., C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008). Let me extend my gratitude to David Baggett, who graciously provided me with all the chapters to this book before it was published. 11 Gregory Bassham and Jerry L. Walls, eds., The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview (Chicago: Open Court, 2005). 12 Erik Wielenberg, God and the Reach of Reason: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Also see Adam Barkman, Review of God and the Reach of Reason: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell, by Erik Wielenberg. Christian Scholar’s Review 38, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 160-3. 13 Iréne Fernandez, C. S. Lewis – Mythe, Raison Ardente: Imagination et Réalité Selon C. S. Lewis (Geneva: Ad Solem, 2005). 14 Bruce Edwards, ed., Apologist, Philosopher, & Theologian, Vol. 3, C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy (West Point, CT: Greenwood, 2007). 15 Owen Barfield, Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis, ed. G. B. Tennyson (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989). Lionel Adey, C. S. Lewis’s ‘Great War’ with Owen Barfield (Victoria, BC: University of Victoria Press, 1978). 16 Peter Kreeft, “C. S. Lewis’ Argument from Desire,” appendix A in Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing, 201-32 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989). Peter Kreeft, C. S. Lewis for the Third Millennium: Six Essays on The Abolition of Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994). 17 Victor Reppert, C. S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea: In Defence of the Argument from Reason (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2003). Victor Reppert, “The Green Witch and the Great Debate: Freeing Narnia from the Spell of the Lewis-Anscombe Legend,” in The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, ed. Gregory Bassham and Jerry Walls, 260-72 (Chicago: Open Court, 2005). Victor Reppert, “Miracles: C. S. Lewis’s Critique of Naturalism,” in Apologist, Philosopher, & Theologian, Vol. 3, C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy, ed. Bruce Edwards, 153-82 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007). Victor Reppert, “Defending the Dangerous Idea: An Update on Lewis’s Argument from Reason,” in C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, ed. David Baggett, Gary Habermas 6 Purtill’s philosophical insights into Lewis’s theological project,18 Peter Schakel’s discussion on reason and the imagination,19 James Patrick’s essays on Lewis and Idealism,20 Basil Mitchell’s papers about Lewis and ethics,21 Christopher Mitchell’s essay on Lewis and the Socratic Club,22 John Beversluis’s attack on Lewis’s rational religion,23 and selected essays by prominent Catholic theologians like Avery Cardinal Dulles, who said Lewis was “competent in philosophy,”24 and Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), who spoke of Lewis as “the English author and philosopher.”25 Nevertheless, for the most part, these books and essays only partially discuss Lewis’s larger philosophical views, and when they do discuss his larger philosophical views, none of them do an adequate job of detailing Lewis’s philosophical formation, for most of these books and and Jerry Walls, 53-67 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008). Also see Adam Barkman, review of C. S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea: A Philosophical Defense of Lewis’s Argument from Reason, by Victor Reppert, Pilgrimage 12, no. 1 (January 2005): 8. 18 Richard Purtill, C. S. Lewis’s Case for the Christian Faith (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985). Richard Purtill, Lord of the Elves and Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974). 19 Peter Schakel, Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis: A Study of Till We Have Faces (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984). 20 Patrick, The Magdalen Metaphysicsals, 109-34. James Patrick, “C. S. Lewis and Idealism,” in Rumours of Heaven: Essays in Celebration of C. S. Lewis, ed. Andrew Walker and James Patrick, 156-73 (London: Eagle, 1998). 21 Mitchell, “Reflections on C. S. Lewis, Apologetics, and the Moral Tradition,” 7-26. Mitchell, “C. S. Lewis on The Abolition of Man,” 174-83. 22 Mitchell, “University Battles: C. S. Lewis and the Oxford University Socratic Club,” 329-52. 23 John Beversluis, C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985). It should be noted that while a second, revised edition of this book was released in 2007, I have not made use of it since all of the basic arguments – with their respective theses and conclusions – are basically unchanged. 24 Avery Cardinal Dulles, “C. S. Lewis: The Case for Apologetics,” CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society 36, no. 1 (January-February 2005): 1-9. 25 Joseph Ratzinger, “Consumer Materialism and Christian Hope,” http://www.catholic- ew.org.uk/resource/totf/ratzinger.html (accessed August 4, 2005). Cf. “I think one of the most illuminating comments I have ever heard about Lewis was from someone who hadn’t met him but who could understand human motivation very well and who also was a writer, and that was the Pope. I met him in 1984, and as I understand it the meeting was at his suggestion because he was the one who wanted to talk about Lewis. John Paul had been reading the works of Lewis at least since the fifties. Anyway, it was a great moment for me when I had the talk with him and he began by asking me, ‘Do you still love your old friend C. S. Lewis?’ I said, ‘Yes, Holy Father, both storge and philia,’ and he said, ‘Ah, you knew I liked The Four Loves!’ But at the end of the interview he then made a comment about Lewis. He said, ‘C. S. Lewis knew what his apostolate was.’ There was a long pause, then he said, ‘And he did it!’” Walter Hooper, “Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: An Interview with Walter Hooper,” in Tolkein: A Celebration, ed. Joseph Pearce, 190-8 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001), 194. 7 essays are ultimately concerned with, as I said before, explaining Lewis’s natural theology and thus, in turn, his apologetics. Consequently, not one of these books or essays has properly dealt with the complexity of Lewis’s philosophical formation and how this formation ultimately relates to Lewis’s larger Christian thought; that is, nothing has yet been written that sufficiently discusses how Lewis’s philosophical views shaped, and were shaped by, his views on literature and theology and how all of these came together in Lewis’s mature Christian beliefs. Thus, in this dissertation, which I have entitled “The Philosophical Christianity of C. S. Lewis,” I would like to rectify this situation by focusing on Lewis’s philosophical formation and how this formation, by complex interaction with literature and theology, ultimately gave birth to Lewis’s mature Christian views. As a result, I will not focus on Lewis’s arguments in natural theology and apologetics; rather, I will only discuss these arguments if they become necessary to elucidate Lewis’s philosophical formation. Yet this title – “The Philosophical Christianity of C. S. Lewis” – by itself is incomplete, for Lewis’s philosophical Christianity was largely motivated by classical and medieval philosophical, literary and theological ideas, and in this regard two things are important to keep in mind. First, although Lewis was primarily an interdisciplinary, eclectic thinker, his major influence – I do not say his only influence – in terms of philosophical, theological and literary content is a generous Christian Neoplatonism, a body of philosophical, theological and literary works which attempts to synchronize, as well as it can, the best of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Pagan religion with Christianity. Second, Lewis understood the purpose of philosophy – which for him was inextricably tied to theology and literature – to be the complete transformation of life or a radical 8 combination of theory and practice and not simply theory partially informing, or worse yet, completely divorced from, practice. In this regard he is largely in agreement with the philosophers of antiquity, who, according to Pierre Hadot, understood philosophy to be “a method of spiritual progress which demanded a radical conversion and transformation of the individual’s way of being.”26 To this Lewis would only add that the truly philosophical life will utilize not only reason but also the imagination and indeed all of man’s faculties to probe physical, metaphysical and mythological reality for answers as to how one ought to live.27 Hence, it is my view that if one understands philosophy in the classical sense, as a way of life or a process by which one seeks after wisdom and then attempts to live in accordance with it, Lewis may be justly called a philosophical Christian. Vector Reppert, although he formulates it differently than I, agrees: Lewis was a thinker with what I believe to be outstanding philosophical instincts. . . . It is sometimes presupposed by those who are familiar with the technical side of a discipline like philosophy that no one who is not similarly a ‘professional’ has anything serious to say. But of course ‘professionalism’ in philosophy is a rather recent development: the majority of those who have made significant contributions to philosophy over the past twenty-five centuries would not qualify as ‘professional’ philosophers in the contemporary sense.28 26 Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault, ed. Arnold I. Davidson, trans. Michael Chase (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995), 265. Parts of this book were originally published in Exercices Spirituels et Philosophie Antique. Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1987. 27 “[Christianity] is not ‘a religion,’ nor ‘a philosophy.’ It is the summing up and actuality of them all.” C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, in C. S. Lewis: Selected Books [Long Edition] (1955 Reprint; London: HarperCollins, 1999), 1380. 28 Reppert, C. S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea, 12, 15. Cf. “Technically, [Lewis] was throughout most of his adult life a professor of literature. But really, he was a philosopher. Philosophy is the love of wisdom, along with an unending desire to find it, understand it, put it into action, and pass it on to others. Lewis brought a 9 Nevertheless, while I will attempt to show throughout this dissertation that Lewis is an interdisciplinary Christian thinker of impressive philosophical merit, let me strongly emphasize that I have no intention of turning a blind eye (as so many Lewis scholars do) to Lewis’s philosophical and theological shortcomings, nor do I intend to prove in any way that Lewis is a “serious” or “professional” philosopher or theologian if by this we mean, as Hadot does when he speaks of the modern understanding of the philosopher, someone who strives “in turn to invent . . . a new construction, systematic and abstract, intended to somehow or other to explain the universe, or at the least . . . elaborate a new discourse about language.”29 It would be odd indeed if after lamenting the poor state of Lewis scholarship, I would then proceed to commit the most common of all mistakes in regard to Lewis scholarship – to oversimplify him and then hail him as infallible. Methodologically, I will be using a combination of a problem-centered approach (how do we solve this apparent inconsistency?) and a genealogical approach (what came before this?) to reconstruct, and of course evaluate, Lewis’s philosophical Christianity. And while these two approaches can provide a fairly accurate picture of what is going on, historical reconstruction is no straightforward matter as the meaning of terms and concepts change from philosopher to philosopher and theologian to theologian. And even philosophical caste of mind to everything he did.” Tom Morris, “Foreword,” in C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, ed. David Baggett, Gary Habermas and Jerry Walls, 9-10 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 10. Cf. Paul Vincent, “C. S. Lewis as Amateur Philosopher,” The New York C. S. Lewis Society Bulletin no. 9 (July 1970): 1-3. Cf. “The popular literature on C. S. Lewis, from the first, has tended to run to excessive adulation; yet his Christian apologetics have usually been dismissed out of hand by serious philosophers and theologians. Neither attitude, as it seems to me, properly takes Lewis’s measure.” Hugo Meynell, “An Attack on C. S. Lewis,” Faith and Philosophy 8, no. 3 (July 1991): 305. 29 Pierre Hadot, What is Ancient Philosophy? trans. Michael Chase (1995 reprint from the French; Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004), 2. Hence, I agree with Scott Burson and Jerry Walls when they write, “So the first thing we should realize is that when we come to Lewis . . . we should not come expecting the philosophical rigor of a Plantinga or Swinburne. Those who come with such expectations are sure to be disappointed.” Scott Burson and Jerry Walls, C. S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer: Lessons for a New Century from the Most Influential Apologists of Our Time (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 240. 10