Lewis’s Wager
Posted on Aug 02 2007 | Tagged as: Religion, Literature
Yesterday I found myself scribbling about the discrepancy between what those of a religious bent actually believe and what is written in their “holy” books, using CS Lewis as a fairly lighthearted example. (You’ll read it in good time, I’m sure.)
He’s a good choice, between the all-too-obvious Christian supposition in the Chronicles of Narnia and his trinity of apologetics, Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and Miracles. Christopher Hitchens describes him in God Is Not Great as “the most popular Christian apologist” and “the main chosen propaganda vehicle for Christianity in our time”.
Odd, then, that — as has just occurred to me — he might, in the strict sense, not have actually Believed, but taken Pascal’s wager.
In The Silver Chair, the sixth and penultimate book of the Chronicles series, the three adventurers — Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle — are held captive in an underground realm, along with the lost prince Rilian. Its Queen attempts to persuade them - with the help of a bit of magic, naturally - that the Sun, Aslan the Lion and Narnia are dreams or fabrications. Regaining his “senses”, Puddleglum responds:
“Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things — trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
Wish-thinking, pure and simple.
And in the final book of the series, The Last Battle — a Narnian apocalypse tale — Aslan is picking people worthy of entering Narnia 2.0, the paradise version. Among the saved is a soldier from Calormen, Narnia’s enemy to the south, who makes it to paradise despite worshiping a different god.
Given the above, one could read that as Lewis wrestling with his own doubts, reassuring himself that Unbelievers can still make it into heaven despite the biblical claim the only route to “salvation” is through Jesus — letting himself off for his own wavering.
Wish-thinking piled on wish-thinking.
(And all the more credible since Lewis was “rescued” from atheism by his devoutly Catholic friend Tolkien.)
Quite what I’m getting at, I have no idea. But the possibility that the most notorious Christian propagandist of our age was so doubtful is intriguing nonetheless.
on 02 Aug 2007 at 11:27 pm 1 Gary said …
I always find it a bit odd that when I first read CS Lewis at… actually I’m not sure what age, but I’m pretty sure at least a couple were before I was 10… that I managed to completely miss the Christianity in it. It just didn’t occur to me at all. All I found was a really gripping series (apart from The Last Battle, which was rubbish) that I couldn’t put down.
I’ve had a few people say that they’ve either boycotted or will not allow their children to read CS Lewis on the basis that his works are so overtly Christian. Those people are idiots, they’re missing out on some cracking stories, Christianity or no Christianity.