George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (10)

 

 

“G. K. Chesterton paid deep tribute to MacDonald in an introduction to Greville MacDonald’s biography of his father, especially noting the effect upon him as a child of The Princess and the Goblin. He said it was a book that “made a difference to my whole existence, which helped me to see things in a certain way from the start…MacDonald had made for himself a sort of spiritual environment, a space and transparency of mystical light, which was quite exceptional…” (Christian Mythmakers, Rolland Hein, pp. 109 – 110).

 

Few writers have equaled the output of G. K. Chesterton in quantity, quality, breath of subjects, and genre. From the mysteries of Father Brown, to the apologetics of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, to numerous articles and essays on current culture, thinking, and events; to literary criticism, to biography, to fantastic fiction – what I have missed? – Chesterton takes his readers on a grand tour of life with challenges and observations and an insistence that we live as men and women who are awake and not dead. It is as if he is perpetually exhorting, with both shouts and whispers, “Awake you who are asleep and Christ will give you life.”

 

What particularly strikes me about Chesterton is his ability to see things from perspectives that I often miss, to twist the kaleidoscope and say, “Now take a look at this. What pattern do you recognize?”

 

He was also a man of courage, such as when he challenged popular notions of patriotism during the Second Boer War. Who is the true patriot? Is it the man or woman who blindly supports the actions of his or her country, or is it the person who seeks righteousness and justice? Is preserving the soul of a people more important than satisfying the greed of a people?

 

After just reading The Man Who Was Thursday, and experiencing the chase scene toward the conclusion of the book, I find myself once again asking, “Where does he come up with this? Where do these images come from? Do they pop out of a box on his desk? What am I reading?” (I recall the same thoughts and reactions when reading The Napoleon of Notting Hill and the opening pages of Manalive.)

 

Then I recall what Chesterton wrote regarding The Princess and the Goblin, that it “made a difference to my whole existence, which helped me to see things in a certain way from the start.”

 

C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton were first class intellects, not only standing in the first rank of their generations, but of many generations; how do we fail to see that they drank from the unseen waters of the True mystical – mythical that flow from the Throne of God in and through Jesus Christ – the Logos that we see in John 1:1 – 18? (Please remember that I am using “myth” and “mythical” in the technical and academic sense, not in the popular sense).

 

“Light is sown [like seed] for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.” (Ps. 97:11).

 

“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” (Ps. 36:9).

 

Chesterton and Lewis experienced “light” in MacDonald, and they pursued it – or as Reepicheep might say, “They took the adventure that Aslan gave them.” As Lewis wrote of the Curdie books and Phantastes, “the radiance, is incarnate in the whole story.” (We might say that with Lewis that the Light first pursued him, and then he pursued the Light.)

 

We can take the adventure that Aslan gives us when we trust Aslan. When we trust our Good Shepherd and the Holy Spirit to lead us, when we trust them to teach us to see beyond what is normally seen (2 Cor. 4:18), then we can begin to experience what it is to live as the daughters and sons of our heavenly Father, “For all wo are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14).

 

Our minds are renewed in Christ and His Word, (Rom. 12:1 – 2; 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16); and we teach and speak a wisdom that is grounded in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:2 – 3), for in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Our imaginations are baptized, so that when we read the Scriptures, we see Jesus Christ – whether we read Genesis or Proverbs or Isaiah or Revelation or Philippians – Jesus Christ comes to us and we come to Jesus.

 

In That Hideous Strength, Ransom and his cohort do not defeat social engineering and science run amok by arguing for a competing worldview – they do it by reaching back to the foundations of Logres and by participating in the unfolding cosmic victory by the Oyeresu – they participate in the “descent of the gods.”

 

When will we learn that the “weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh”? (2 Cor. 10:3 – 5).

 

It is when we behold Jesus Christ, that we experience Life and are transformed from glory to glory into His image. It is one thing to tell others about Jesus, it is another to show them Jesus. (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Col. 3:1 – 4; John 14:9).