Up@dawn 2.0

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

C.S. Lewis's Road to Religion


Clive Staples Lewis, known by many, was a professor at Cambridge University. He taught Medieval and Renaissance literature. C.S. Lewis is also the author of a widely known book series The Chronicles of Narnia. He was an amazing writer who influenced people of all ages.  While a great part of his life he claimed to be an atheist, he later converted to Christianity. It has been stated that in 1915 he was an atheist and in 1931 he was a Christian.  As a student there was a debate at Oxford University on realism and idealism. This ultimately led Lewis down a path to reject both philosophical ideologies and convert to Christianity. While debates like this wouldn’t affect most, Lewis was different. He was an avid reader with a huge imagination who also sought truth.  His ultimate goal in life was ultimately to attain joy.
 Isn’t that the main goal for us all? What is it in us that makes us long for that pure happiness instead of settling for contentment in life? Almost as if we were designed this way…. C.S Lewis described this feeling using the German word Sehnsucht, that translates to longing. Lewis felt this greatly as a child around the time his mother passed away of cancer and he was stuck with his father who he described as “misunderstanding”. He felt Sehnsucht during this time more than ever. Here is where I, and probably most others, can relate to Lewis tremendously. We all go through hard times in life and battle some pretty major events. Death and pain are always going to be a part of this world. During these times we long to have security and certainty about the future. Some chose personally to not look into what this longing feeling comes from or what happens after life. Some simply explain this as human nature, and others, likes C.S Lewis, felt this came from something more. Lewis, however, during this tragic childhood time was very unhappy, and turned away from his younger Christian faith to find other things that could make him happy again.
 Lewis became a realist and sought intellectual training and freedom. And by the age of 15 he claimed to be the happiest he’d ever been. He was studying with a mentor named W.T. Kirkpatrick, who was also an atheist. Lewis’s newfound freedom from learning away from God gave him joy he’d been searching for.  He started to read lots of literature that attacked God and Christianity which encouraged him to do the same.  One poem he wrote stated “come let us curse our master ere we die, for all our hopes in endless ruin die, Good is dead. Let us Curse God most high.” He even argued religion was nothing more than man’s own invention without real foundation. It seems as though Lewis was angry at God. While he may have just gone through a life phase questioning his existence, he obviously had an anger towards faith. Lewis believed only what he saw and did what he reasoned to be right.  He was very self-reliant and didn’t believe he could find joy from anyone or thing other than himself.
 Fast forward a few years later, and Lewis finds himself converting from realism to idealism.  His realist foundation was being broken and his happiness was fading. He started to question himself and he decided that if aesthetic experiences were valued then values must exist. He was in a state of uncertainty but still very against the Christian faith.  At one point he writes, “what I have learned from the Idealists is the maxim: ‘it is more important that heaven should exist than that of any of us should reach it.” He stuck with his idealist belief for quite a while but he couldn’t get over his value of reason.  Lewis was lost he couldn’t find a home in the philosophical world. He then got elected to a fellowship position at Magdalen in 1925. He was getting to the point where he was forced to choose a philosophical position. He was committed to his idealistic fellowship, but had so much controversy and pull from some of his realist beliefs. In 1926 Lewis reached the peak of this battle while at Oxford and ultimately decided neither of these philosophical beliefs could sway him.
His path to Christianity began. On January 10th 1927 Lewis reports in his journal, “A most extraordinary afternoon. Most of the sky was a very pale creamy blue . . . near the sun the sky simply turned white itself . . . I got into a tremendously happy mood." This is apparently the first time Lewis felt what he explained as natural joy. He then realized Philosophy had failed him.  At this point, C.S. Lewis was on a straight path converting to Christianity which is well documented. Others wrote about his conversion and the long path he went down to get there. He eventually wrote about this journey in 1933 in a book called The Pilgrims Regress.
 He had returned to his childhood faith. It had been a long confusing road. His desire for truth and reason was ultimately what led him to this point. He states that truth is not found in philosophy, but in God. The joy he had been searching for is entire life was found. Only this time it was certain and unshakable.  All the missing pieces began to fall into place. The questions he had as a realist and idealist that couldn’t be answered, now seemed to be found. C.S. Lewis’s journey to Christianity is inspiring to me. There’s so many that look down on the Christian faith and look for all the cracks and holes, but for others it can be life changing. For C.S. Lewis it was. He wasn’t always a Christian. He searched for years, asked questions, and even at one point talked down on it. But in the end realized that happiness didn’t come from others, himself or even philosophy, but from God.













(http://web.stanford.edu/group/ww1/spring2000/Glenn/Lewis.htm)

other post: Aristotle, Love, and Selfishness

3 comments:

  1. What's the connection between Lewis and the subject of your first post, Aristotle? Love? Joy? Do those concepts relate to what A called eudaimonia?

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  2. Interesting to see a single man's struggle through life and take lessons from his downfalls and quagmires. I believe that we should all reflect on our mistakes as well as others.

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  3. Ministro Paulo Guedes é o ministro da economia brasileiro e os nossos carros já estão com o IPVA 2019 pagos e o Licenciamento anual em dia. E o nosso Flamengo ? 2022

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