George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (3)

 

 

Lewis writes in his Preface to the Anthology, “This collection, as I have said, was designed not to revive MacDonald’s literary reputation but to spread his religious teaching. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of Unspoken Sermons. My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another: and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that is has given them great help – sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith.” (page XXXIV, italics mine).

 

Then we have (page XXXVII), “I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him. But it has not seemed to me that those who have received my books kindly take even now sufficient notice of the affiliation. Honesty drives me to emphasize it.” (italics mine).

 

I have read lots of books and articles about C. S. Lewis, and I have often seen the quote about Lewis regarding MacDonald as his master, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it emphasized in its context. In other words, Lewis didn’t write of MacDonald being his master in a passing fashion, but rather in the Preface to an anthology which was the result of hours upon hours over years of reading, pondering, selecting, and then presenting MacDonald’s work in order to “spread his religious teaching.”

 

And consider again, “My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another.”

 

Since C. S. Lewis was not given to hyperbole, since he was a careful writer with few missteps, (so few, I think, that when he does make them they are glaring – such as passages in The Four Loves), he must have meant what he wrote about MacDonald – but do we take Lewis seriously? For it isn’t just what I’ve quoted above that communicates Lewis’s debt to MacDonald, it is the entire Preface, and it isn’t just the Preface, it is the entire Anthology.

 

The quote about MacDonald being Lewis’s master does not do justice to what Lewis is saying, the entire Preface needs to be read, and reread, and reread again to gain the depth and texture of what that quote means, to see in some measure the force of what Lewis is writing.

 

And then consider that Lewis gives us a glimpse of how he engaged in evangelism – he gave MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons to people! We read above, “…and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it [Unspoken Sermons] acknowledge that it has given them great help – sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith.” (italics mine).

 

Again, in all my reading about Lewis, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this statement explored.

 

Would we like to know what book one of the greatest thinkers of the 20^th century gave to others to help them know Christ? It was Unspoken Sermons. But you see, dear friends, Lewis was more than a great thinker, he was a great lover, a lover of goodness, truth, and beauty – and it was as a lover that he came to know Jesus Christ, and as a lover (with a sharp mind!) that he lived, and taught, and wrote.

 

Therefore Lewis writes of MacDonald, “…but to speak plainly I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself” (page XXXV).

 

In MacDonald, Lewis finds “the Spirit of Christ Himself.”

 

It strikes me that neither Lewis nor MacDonald can be straightjacketed within a particular Christian tradition – as much as we might like to try. To be sure, there are those who would exclude MacDonald from the tent of Mere Christianity, but who would keep Lewis. Isn’t this a curious thing?  It is curious because if we believe what Lewis says about his debt to MacDonald, and if we accept his endorsement of MacDonald, then how can we accept and promote Lewis and reject MacDonald?

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I think Lewis was looking for Christ and he saw Christ in MacDonald – and here’s the thing dear friends, we can have finely-tuned beliefs and doctrines and miss Jesus Christ. We can have well thought out propositional truth, carefully crafted statements of faith, and not have Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. Jesus Christ is a Person and we are to live in relationship with Him, our life in Him is organic – His Divine Nature is either in us or it is not, we are either abiding in the Vine or we are not.

 

I can have…and we all do…imperfect doctrinal understanding but be organically in Christ. I can live Christocentrically and yet have elements of my understanding that are immature or misinformed. I can also articulate a well – developed system of Christian thought and doctrine and Bible knowledge, and yet not live Christocentrically, and I can even be outside an organic relationship with Jesus – not actually knowing Him. Nicodemus knew a lot, but what he didn’t know was that he needed to be born again.

 

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn. 3:8). What did this statement of Jesus’ do to Nicodemus’s well – defined rabbinical understanding?

 

MacDonald was a child of John 3:8. Of course we don’t much care for anything having to do with John 3:8, not really. After all, we can’t put the wind or the Spirit in a package, we can’t harness it (though we try), we can’t truly comprehend it, we can’t define it, we can’t control it, we can’t make it conform to our traditions – we can’t put new wine into our old wineskins. Better to drink flat soda than the fermenting lively wine of the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John 5:29 – 40).

 

What Jesus says about the Scriptures, also applies to orthodoxy and the traditions within orthodoxy. If what Jesus says is true of the Greater Thing – the Scriptures, it is most certainly true of the lesser things.

 

Do we take Lewis’s statements about MacDonald seriously?

 

In our next reflection, the Lord willing, we’ll look at how Andrew Murray’s Introduction to William Law is similar to Lewis’s Preface to MacDonald.

 

[Note: Unspoken Sermons is in the Public Domain and can be found on the Internet.]