Reading Report

Here is the Reading Report for The Artist's Way.

-chelle

Lewis on MacDonald

We read C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce for the theology class this weekend. At the very end, Lewis has an imaginary conversation with his guide and mentor, George MacDonald. (Keep in mind that in reality, they did not live at the same time. But this does show the influence that MacDonald had on Lewis' theological imagination...)


So, here it is, a conversation between C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald from The Great Divorce:

"In your own books, Sir," said I, "you were a Universalist. You talked as if all men would be saved. And St. Paul too."

"Ye can know nothing of the end of all things, or nothing expressible in those terms. It may be, as the Lord said to the Lady Julian, that all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. But it's ill talking of such questions."

"Because they are too terrible, Sir?"

"No. Because all answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see--small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope--something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it's truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic's vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real; but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two. And wouldn't Universalism do the same? Ye cannot know eternal reality by a definition. Time itself, and all acts and events that fill Time, are the definition, and it must be lived. The Lord said we were gods. How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?"

Readings & Music

Just in case, I wanted to remind you that we are reading the Saliers article "Theology Sung." Suggested is Art & Soul parts 3 & 4.

Also, remember to bring in your songs. It would be great to have words as well, so if you put them onto power point slides, we can put up any words for the class.

See you Wed!
Chelle

Power Point Slides

Here are the powerpoint slides from the George Day!!

More George!!

Here is a link to MacDonald's "The Fantastic Imagination."

Enjoy!
Chelle

George!!!

Hello All,

I know that you are excited about reading Lilith this week. Yes, it is a crazy and wacky book! I have really enjoyed it and now feel that I understand C.S. Lewis so much better. (I went on a Lewis binge over Christmas break.)

Those of you who have read a lot of Lewis should be picking up resonances with MacDonald. I felt this with Lilith much more than with Phantastes, but that may be because I have assigned The Great Divorce for the Theology II class meeting this weekend. Definitely resonances there: having a guide (Mr. Raven [it is George MacDonald in The Great Divorce!]), meeting those that are lost and cannot help themselves along the way, or (if you think of Til We Have Faces or The Space Trilogy) the importance of participating in the process of redemption: a becoming the causes us to desire true redemption.

Overall, it seems that George (or GMD, as my friend Kristin writes it) longs for us to have an imagination that explores faithfully what life with God is and could be. We'll talk about this in more depth in class, but if you are interested check out GMD's essay "The Imagination: Its Function and Its Culture." I'll post an edited version of this essay later--I just need to scan it into my computer.

Anyway, I'm having fun reading George!!

Peace to you all,
Chelle