Final Essay

Logic and Love: C.S. Lewis’s approach to God Nolan Worstell

01/16/10

DCM C.S. Lewis

“Let there be Light!” (International) and, with a flash, light came into existence and the creation of the universe had begun. This is the classic way that we, if we were raised in a Christian home, were taught that the world was created. This has been proved to be more of an almost poetic way of putting the creation of the world since science has explained, in our age, the much more likely method by which God created the universe. By the same token, we as Christians must always be trying to logically understand what our faith means and its effects. However, we cannot rely solely on logic to understand our faith and salvation in Jesus Christ because many of God’s actions cannot solely be explained in the sense of pure cold logic, but also require an understanding of God’s immense love for his creation. In Developing the Christian Mind: C.S. Lewis, we have used both the works of Cornelius Plantinga and C.S. Lewis to help further our understanding of what it means to be Christian.

First off, I think we must begin with the contamination of all things by sin. This is the necessary starting point for a talk about how to approach one’s faith in God because if all things were not twisted and warped by evil, then there would be no reason for Jesus to have come to this earth. Thus, we must come to the understanding that all things are contaminated by Evil. I think there is, as Lewis says in Mere Christianity, a Moral Law this is unlike almost everything else in the world in that it applies solely to humans. However, the odd thing is that, despite almost all humans having an internal sense of Morals that are all very similar and that are given to them by their unique parents and society, all humans fail to follow the Moral law and then try to explain how they didn't break the law or how the moral law didn't apply in their situation. This Moral Law and the cognizant constant breaking there of hints to the idea that all men realize that there is brokenness in our world. This brokenness is what Christians call evil and when a person commits evil knowingly then a sin has occurred. Now some people try to argue that the Moral Law does not exist, but then, shortly after, say that something is unfair, which in turn appeals to the idea that a Moral Law exists because if a Moral Law did not exist then there would not be a valid argument for someone treating you unfairly because there would not be a definition of fairness to say that the opposite there of had occurred. (Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity) This is an attempt on the part of the one who is saying that there is no Moral Law to validate the idea that he is perfect and does not sin because if he acknowledges that he sins then he realizes that he must be punished for it in the end or otherwise there is no purpose of the Moral Law. Thus, each and every one of us has an innate understanding that things in the universe are not as they should be and that we are in need of salvation.

Now to go any farther, we must talk about how much God loves us as his creation. This is evident, to Christians, because God sent his son, who is part of God himself, to this earth to pay the price for our sins and die as a substitute for us. Now common wisdom tells us that if God was willing to send his son, which is part and parcel of God himself, then he must love us quite a lot. Think for a moment, if you will, what it would take for a human father to send his only son to die for several billion people who have slandered him, ignored all that he ever asked of them, and tried to say that he didn’t even exist even though the father had done many kind things for the several billion people. It seems rather ridiculous for the father to send his son who loves him and obeys him in all things to die for this sorry ingrate lot of slobs does it not? This is exactly what God did for us as humans that “while we were yet sinners (or for this example a sorry ingrate lot of slobs) Christ died for us.” (International) This helps us understand, as Christians, why God just hasn’t ended the world already because God wishes for all people to believe in him and accept the atonement for their sins that is given freely because of the sacrifice of Christ and thus be saved, which in Christian thought means to be able to join God in the new heaven and new earth that will be created after the passing away of our present age.

Now that we understand the two greatest components of Christianity, we must introduce the idea of logic. Logic is very important to the Christian faith because at any moment in time we could be called to “give reason for the faith we have in Christ Jesus.” (International) This is why, when we consider our faith, we must begin with the common logic, which all human beings have, to prove why we believe as we do. C.S. Lewis is very supportive of this idea and as such wrote Mere Christianity in order that people of all denominations would have a solid logical argument for their belief in Christ as their Lord and Savior and not just their own life experiences. This approach of having both real life experience and an objective look at why God must exist and why we believe in him is linked to C.S. Lewis’s “Meditation in a Tool shed” which says that we cannot simply look along or at, but we must do both, also known as experiencing what something is like and knowing facts about the experience as well when either is sensible or possible. However, Lewis did not limit himself solely to a logical defense of the Christian faith, but also wrote books for the Christian and his walk of faith. For instance in the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis wrote letters supposedly between a elder demon and a younger demon that is tempting a devout Christian away from his faith. In this work, Lewis points out the importance of constant vigilance on the part of a Christian to ensure that his faith is not becoming simply an empty shell and, by extension, becoming a false Christian because the devil is out to get you every day and in every way that he can. He is patient and he does not sleep. This is a scary thought that the devil watching you all the time just waiting for you to slip up so he can capitalize on a moment’s hesitation to follow God so he can chip away at our faith. We say that the devil cannot steal our souls; we are God-fearing and church-going people. Dear Uncle Screwtape says, in essence, Great keep on thinking you are God fearing and that your church going will save you. It is absolutely ok that you think that I'll work in the back of your mind rotting your faith from the inside out.(C.S. Lewis Screwtape Letters) This is a valuable lesson that Lewis tries to teach us that when we think we are safe we are most vulnerable. Thus though our fallen condition and God’s Love form the foundation of our faith, we still must be thinking people to fulfill our calling as Christians.

To be Christian is to be sons and daughters of God. This is a high and important calling and cannot be separated from our everyday life, but must be integrated in all we say and do. Also we must be able to defend our faith if called to account for it. To do these things, we must believe we are sinful and that God loves us. Then using logic, we can see that if God shows such extreme love to us then we must show the same extreme amount of love to others. Also logic teaches us why we are sinful and why God is not merely a story made up to make us feel better about ourselves, but is a true and the only foundational force in the universe.

Bibliography

International Bible Society. Holy Bible New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. 1. Print.

Lewis, C S. Mere Christianity. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Calvin College. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. .

Lewis, C S. Meditiation in a Toolshed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan. Web. 16 Jan. 2010. .

Lewis, C S. Screwtape Letters. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan. Web. 16 Jan. 2010. .

Problem of Pain

In chapter 6, Lewis talks about human pain. In this he notes that there are two types of pain, that of cognizant Pain and that can be either physical or mental and biological pain that is the result of synapses of special nerve fibers. The first type of pain is called the B sense in Chapter 6 and Lewis comments that this type of pain is mostly caused by one person on another and at the same time this pain is also felt by people when they surrender their lives to God which is a kind of death for the self-will, the desire of a person to control his own life and not surrender it to its true owner, God.

Lewis goes on to say that Pain is an evil, but not the subtle and smooth evils that lurk in our hearts, but an evil that is "unmasked and unmistakable". Thus the idea of punishment for the good of the perpetrator so that he will recognize that he is committing evil and thus shattering his illusion of being good or ok is a useful thing, but it can be warped into vengefulness which is to punish for the sake of punishing not for the improvement of the person. Lewis then shows how this type of correction is what God uses on us daily lest we fall into deluding ourselves that we are Good and have no need of him because our lives are going so well, which is especially common amongst the "good" people of this world. However this is not to say that all following of God's will is painful, but rather that a good portion of it becomes less and less painful the close to God that we get unless you are referring to the pain of self-surrender which will always be an unpleasant experience, but ever more beneficial to the one who under goes it.

I think that we can find examples of this in all things. For instance, how does a dog learn to sit or to not go into the house? by kind words of the master or by the master kicking the dog out of the house or forcing the dog to sit down despite its will to resist, but if no action is taken then the dog will never sit and will freely roam the house despite the master's thundering thoughts that he should not that are never vocalized. Much the same, God wishes to train us and teach us to conform to the innate rightness of his will. We can choose either to resist and keep going where we should not or we can listen and move closer to being right.

Man or Rabbit

It is just like Lewis to begin talking about whether Christianity is necessary to live a good life and end up with the question of whether one is a man or a rabbit. Lewis's basic point in this selection is that in order to answer the question of whether or not Christianity is necessary to lead a Good Life is a question that each person must answer for themselves. Some may seriously look into Christianity and say this is a lie and others will confront Christianity and say this is the great secret of the Universe. Neither conclusion is necessary for proving that you are a man. The necessary question is were you willing to honestly stand up to the question and look into all the facts and logic behind Christianity and its relationship to a Good life and decide for yourself. To avoid the facts or to remain purposefully ignorant of what Christianity is and try to get some one else to tell you what you should believe is to be, as Lewis says, a rabbit, a creature who lives its life in fear of almost all things and does not stand up to anything lest it might die.

How often do we as Christians and as people act like rabbits? We are always looking for the easy way out. The way that involves us being as passive as possible and get the most reward. This is a corruption of our humanity. We are given innate desires to explore and to learn and above all to be moderately skeptical, to challenge all that is presented to us. We must learn to act much like the Spartans of 300 and face our Persian empires not cower in fear. After all if the question must be answered eventually would it not be better to find out the answer as soon as possible and face what is rumored to be coming and find out if the rumors are true or false rather than let our fear take away the dignity we have and turn us into lowly rabbits?

Vocation

Vocation...this seems like a never ending theme here at Calvin College. Our professors are obsessed with it. It seems to Calvin that perhaps this is the end all and be all purpose of a college. This is a problem in my view. I hold with C.S. Lewis that college is about a human pursuing knowledge because he has interest in it. The important thing is that a person has to find on his own the what he enjoys the most because, while an institution can possibly introduce the person to a thing which he loves, the institution can only show him some of his chosen field of study and should not teach the person as one would do on the job training. When you are at college you are there to learn for the sake of learning and to learn how to be a better man not do a prolonged four or more year training for a job.

Now this is not to say that a college does not manage to prepare us for a job in four or more years, but to say that this preparation is not the primary purpose. Thus, I do not think we can say that making people find a Vocation is a plausible goal of a college. Rather the purpose of a college in this respect should be to provide a place in which one can learn more about a field one already enjoys and provide a place that a person who has many can varied interests can come and learn more about each and use that information to decide for himself what his vocation should be. The professors, while they should help the students, should not be primarily focused on the students careers but rather helping the students learn more about a subject that they enjoy which as a by-product will be beneficial to their careers. I am sure that by now you have noticed two things, One that this is very similar to "Our English Syllabus" and, two, that both points of thought give the same information, but the difference between the two schools of thought is the way in which the student and the professor engage the subject matter. On one hand, the student sits in class and gets lectured at and on the side of learning alongside one another, both student and professor engage the subject matter because of their enjoyment there of not under the coercion of the Board of Trustees or because a Core requirement says they should.

My Precious (a Lesson from Golem)

C.S. Lewis remarks in, The inner ring, about a phenomenon that each of us can find examples in our every day lives. This phenomenon is that of, what C.S. Lewis calls, the Inner Ring or more commonly known in High Schools throughout the United States as the In crowd. This is a group of people that band together and spend lots of time together.

The concept of an Inner ring is not a new one nor is it a bad one. As a matter of fact it is perhaps one of the most natural things for a person do to in that a person will always tend to spend time with people that are most like that person. The Inner Ring can be quite good when it is used to protect the members involved from persecution or to protect other people. For instance, the early church was like an inner ring in many respects, especially during the Nero's persecution of the Christian church, because to allow people who were not part of the church to know all of it's members would be much like signing a death warrant for all who were there and would destroy the church.

However the Inner ring can also be used for bad purposes. This most often, at least in Lewis's mind, occurred when the purpose of the exclusivity of the ring is to intentionally make it hard for new people to join the ring. This begets a cycle of remorse and false or undeserved privilege toward or for, respectively, the members of the inner ring. In this type of inner ring, the focus is control and vying for power, neither of which are satisfying or permanent.

Still we humans have an innate desire to be part of the inner workings of all things and be an integral part of whatever we are a part of. Perhaps this is a sign of our design according to God's plan. For indeed as C.S. Lewis says in the "Weight of Glory" that the ultimate thing that can happen to us humans is that God recognizes us and thus we are an ingredient, a necessary part of the divine happiness.

Eros

One of C.S. Lewis's defined four loves is Eros. Eros is the love of a lover. For these reason it is perhaps the closest to Agape, or God to human, love. The Bible even uses this type of imagery when it says that Jesus is the lover of my soul. However unlike Agape love, Eros easily becomes manipulative, controlling, and harmful to the lover and the one who is loved, the lovee so to speak. Now Lewis makes a point of separating Eros from sexual desire that Lewis defines as Venus, in reference to the Roman God of sensual desire because he is speaking only of a lovers love and not the desire for the pleasure that is found in having sexual relations with a woman.

Eros is a hard thing to grasp for me although I have had many glimpses of it. This is because I am cautious, perhaps too cautious, about when and how my relationships form. The side effect of this is that I am not so sure that I have ever really fallen in love more like looked over the edge into the pool of love and stepped back rather than leaping. From what Lewis says, this seems to be a blessing, for the most part anyways, because if Eros is so strong I feel that a strong friendship should be there to support him and work as a balance to prevent Eros from becoming corrupt. Also Lewis says that Eros is perhaps the most mortal of all the Loves and this, to me, also supports the idea that one needs to have a foundational relationship for Eros to rest on otherwise he will be like a seed that is left out on the ground that has not been tilled. At the first rain, Eros will grow into a seedling, but will be unable to really break into the earth and so soon dies from a lack of the nutrients required to sustain itself. This is also an apt metaphor for Eros that has a strong relational foundation, but is not controlled and guided because it leads into C.S. Lewis's own saying that Eros is much like a garden that needs tending.

However we must not be too grave when dealing with such fickle things as emotions because emotions cannot and do not last as such we should be happy when they arrive and regard them as true, but not to believe their fickle promises of everlasting perseverance. If we want Eros to remain as much as possible, we cannot rely on him and him alone, as Lewis says, but it involves us fulfilling the promises we make while he whispers what to say in our ears. This is the truest expression of love. That of acting it out on a daily basis without any positive emotions to help nudge us along.

Chapter 4

Redemption. Such a pregnant term in modern day Christian theology especially amongst the church denominations that sprung out of the Reformation. Certainly as a Christian one knows that one needs redemption, but what is the essence of it? Plantinga says that it is the act of atonement for sins, that is to make us one with God. Now we must not be lulled into a false sense of security that says, "O Christ died for my sins so it does not matter what I do anymore because God will forgive me" this is a classic thing that Paul warns against when he says in Romans 6:1 "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Plantinga says it this way, that when we were still in slavery in Egypt, a parallel for sin, that God did not give us the Ten Commandments, but after we were freed from since then God gave the Ten Commandments to us so that we might not become slaves to sin once again.

This is when Redemption is truly evident. When human beings, who have been saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, take the initiative and begin living lives filled with the love of God because until that point, we are still unredeemed slave chained to a weight so great that we have no hope of dragging it along and unable to act as a free man should. When we begin to live lives like this, then we begin the work that God has set out for us, which is to help him redeem other lost sinners and all of creation. This is when redemption comes full circle and the redeemed becomes a part of the redeeming, which is much like what Lewis says in Weight of Glory, "The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses... shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness."