C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield were all Oxford Professors and part of a small intellectual group called The Inklings. We need to understand these mens' mind. All were experts in Medieval philosophy and literature such as Ptolemy and Dante's Inferno. Like his friends, Lewis believed the ancient mind was better. They believed in "a noble savage." Don't think of the "pre-historic homonoids" like Cro-magnans or Neandrathals - cave men and the like. But rather think of Lewis' Narnia and Tolkien's Middle Earth, both populated with "proper thinking" beings, elves, dwarves, talking trees, mountains with feelings, and Kings and Queens endowed with wisdom, true beauty and nobility. These Originals did not split the world into science and philosophy, like biology and Existentialism. The world was all a single unified Oneness. God was present and walked amongst the creation. There was no need for magic because nothing was impossible.
In The Chronicles of Narnia Lewis is attempting to educate the reader in the way humans are originally designed to perceive the universe. Of course the only way to properly educate anyone, The Inklings would say, is with "myth" or story, poetry and song - a Tale - thus, Narnia. To simply give a lecture about the primordial world would be just plain Dufflepud. Lewis wants us to correlate the Dufflepuds to Modern humanity, so full of "rational thinking," black and white politics, scientific facts and even "Atheism," as though a person could actually belief their is no God because they reasoned it out with their rational mind.
The noble savage could speak with trees not because they were magicians but because trees talk. The elves in Tolkien's The Lord of Rings don't understand when the Hobbits ask them if they are using magic. Magic? What is that? No, they learned the trees' language and spoke to them and taught them how to talk. In Narnia the animals speak because they are "awake," or rather the humans are awake.
So Dufflepuds... not too smart, eh? They cannot think for themselves. They only do what their tribal Chief tells them. Figuratively speaking, they are blind. Lewis' message is clear: "Modern man/woman is a fool. They've rationalized away God and the real universe." In thinking they are smarter and better than the past races of man, they only end up stupid Dufflepuds.
I reflect upon the November elections and the mudslinging and banal attacks candidates made against each other. It isn't that the politicians are all fools. But the candidates' campaign directors knew that the common Dufflepudder could be swayed by cheap personal attack strategies. We live in a beer-commercial world folks. Sound-bites, sex and bathroom humor sells to Dufflepuds, because we don't know how to think.
Garrett Lahey preached last Sunday at Lakeland about John's Revelation and 'the mark of the beast.' He said we already have the mark on our forehead and hand IF we've bought in to our culture's storyline for 'successful living...' affluence, greatness, power, dominance, comfort, fear, competition and compulsion (those are my words, not Garrett's). What we must strive for is a G-d worldview - that is, to see things as the unknowable G-d might see them. Jesus comes to show how this is done. He is the Star. He asks his followers to be Magicians - Seers, Wisemen/women, Wizards who have an integrated worldview where G-d is present everywhere because G-d is actually everywhere.
What if Narnia wasn't a story? What if Narnia was real? What if there was a different visible reality all around us that we just needed the proper vision to see? This much is certainly true: if G-d is here, then so is his reality. Pray for vision!
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. - Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13
Garrett - I know comments sections are for reflection and interaction and not empty praise but it must be said, that was a wonderful reflection on the Dufflepud island.
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