The Great Divorce - C S Lewis

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Faith and Books Course Welcome !

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Today’s Book…..

CliveStaplesLewis : 

CliveStaplesLewis

C. S. Lewis – A Short Biography : 

C. S. Lewis – A Short Biography Born on 29 Nov, 1898 in Belfast . Known as ‘Jack’ (after his dog!) Mother died when he was 10. Became very close to Warren his older brother. Studied English and philosophy at Oxford. Served in the military in WW1 and was wounded in Battle of Arras. Returned to Oxford where he graduated and was made a fellow of Magdalen College where he became a lecturer. A close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien and a member of the Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings". Later in life he was appointed to a professorship at Cambridge. Little Lea - Belfast Magdalen College, Oxford

C. S. Lewis – Journey of Faith : 

C. S. Lewis – Journey of Faith Raised in a church-going family in the Church of Ireland. Became an atheist at the age of 13, and remained as such until he was 31 years old. Influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien, and by the book The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton, he slowly rediscovered Christianity. “In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” After his conversion to theism in 1929, Lewis converted to Christianity in 1931 and became a member of the Church of England. A committed Anglican, Lewis upheld a largely orthodox Anglican theology, though he made an effort to avoid espousing any one denomination.

C. S. Lewis – Personal Life : 

C. S. Lewis – Personal Life For many years he lived with and helped support Mrs Jane Moore, the mother of his friend “Paddy” Moore, who had been his comrade in World War I. Eventually Warren Lewis lived with his brother as well. Late in life, after Mrs Moore’s death, Lewis became involved with an American divorcée, Helen ‘Joy’ Davidman Gresham. After Joy’s diagnosis with bone cancer they married in 1956. Joy's cancer soon went into a remarkable yet brief remission, and the couple lived as a family (together with Warren Lewis) until her eventual relapse and death in 1960. Lewis died at his home, on November 22, 1963 – the same day as Aldous Huxley and J. F. Kennedy. "The Kilns," in Headington Quarry

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C. S. Lewis wrote the book in response to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Blake’s philosophical belief that all roads lead to God (Universalism). Blake believed that the “roads of life” are like radii of a circle. This argument eventually renders even the most egregious evil into good. If any direction is as good as any other, then who can justifiably say anything is right or wrong in a society. The working title was Who Goes Home? was first printed as a serial in Anglican newspaper called The Guardian in 1944 and 1945, and soon thereafter in book form under the title The Great Divorce.

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The Latin word refrigerium literally means ‘refreshment’. In ancient Rome, the word refrigerium referred specifically to a commemorative meal for the dead consumed in a graveyard. The early Christian theologian Tertullian (C.160-220) used the term refrigerium interim to describe a happy state in which the souls of the departed are refreshed while they await the Last Judgment and their definitive entry into Heaven / Hell. Lewis encountered this idea through 17th century writer named Jeremy Taylor. While punishment in hell is never-ending, God in His grace grants intermittent periods of relief, a sort of Holiday from Hell. Refrigerium

What sort of Book is it? : 

What sort of Book is it? Theology Philosophy Fiction Fantasy Allegorical Symbolic “an imaginative supposal”

What is “imaginative supposal"? : 

What is “imaginative supposal"? For Lewis this description identifies stories that are not, strictly speaking, factual and yet that cannot simply be reduced to allegories. Allegory: a poem, play, picture, etc., in which the apparent meaning of the characters and events is used to symbolize a deeper moral, social, political or spiritual meaning. The characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Lewis's fiction generally attempts to imaginatively portray a possible reality rather than allegorically.

“Suppose….?” : 

“Suppose….?” The Great Divorce is a supposal because it is a story in which a possible or hypothetical reality is imagined. In The Great Divorce, Lewis is saying, "Let's suppose that people like you and me were to be given an opportunity to go to heaven. How would we respond to the opportunity? What would heaven seem like to us, given our human foibles and our weak and limited capacities?“

Grey Town : 

Grey Town What or where is Grey Town ?

WaitingIn The Bus Queue : 

WaitingIn The Bus Queue Who does Lewis meet? The waspish woman and her husband … The BIG man…. Two young people… What do you think about people reasons for leaving the queue? What do you think about Lewis’ reactions in the queue?

The BusArrives : 

The BusArrives How is the Driver & the Bus described? How do the passengers board the bus? Where does ‘Lewis’ go to sit and what could that indicate about him?

Characters On The Bus… : 

Characters On The Bus… The Tousle Haired Poet An apparent suicide who suffers from a belief that he was misunderstood and unappreciated throughout his life. He feels that same about having been sent to the Grey Town after his death. Very confident that he was not going to be returning on the bus.

The Fight On The Bus : 

The Fight On The Bus

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The cultivated man ("Episcopal Ghost") who sees the Grey Town as a lovely "spiritual" place, freed from matter and, with its half-light, always promising the dawn. Lewis is satirizing a view of "spirituality" that makes it less real and solid even than earthly realities. What is significant about these characters is that even in death they demonstrate the character flaws that plagued their lives. We see most of these characters again in heaven. The intelligent-looking man with the bulbous nose and bowler hat (“Ikey”). A salesman, who spent his life catering to people's material needs. Now finds himself out-of-sorts in a town where people can fill all their needs merely by thinking about them.

The Foothills of Heaven : 

The Foothills of Heaven How does this contrast to Grey Town?

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Bright Solid Hard as diamonds Large Sweet and fresh air Hills and mountains Trees and flowers Streams and waterfalls Loud Bright Spirits Happy and ‘in love’ Dawning Bright day approaching Dull and grey Raining Dingy lodging house Small tobacconists Stations without trains Posters in rags Windowless warehouses Full of buildings Inhabitants always fighting Selfish Sprawling emptiness Twilight Night approaching

The Ghosts’ Choice … : 

The Ghosts’ Choice … The each soul who choose to come to Heaven’s depot is met by the “Bright Spirit” of someone he or she had known on earth, someone whose abode is deep Heaven, one who is “in” love, one who lives in the presence of God. Sent as God-bearers to the damned, these Bright Spirits confront the ghosts with the choice to keep their pet sin and return to Hell or to reject it and stay in Heaven. In contrast to the insubstantial ghosts who find it extremely painful to walk on Heaven’s soft grass, the Bright Spirits shake the very earth upon which they walk.

The Big Ghost … : 

The Big Ghost … The Big Ghost meets and a Bright Spirit named Len. Len had worked in the Big Ghost’s factory and murdered a fellow employee named Jack. Throughout the conversation, the Big Ghost keeps repeating the word rights. After all, he declares, he was a good man: “I always done my best and I never done nothing wrong. And what I don’t see is why I should be put below a bloody murderer like you, Len.” He declares that he deserves to be in a better place than the grey town: he was a decent man, who never took any charity and always worked for what he got. Over and over the ghost demands his rights, constantly refusing Len’s plea that he accept what he calls “the Bleeding Charity.” The Big Ghost ends the conversation shouting, “I came here to get my rights, see? Not to go snivelling along on charity tied onto your apron strings. If they’re too fine to have me without you, I’ll go home.” And he does.

The Episcopal Ghost : 

The Episcopal Ghost Next we observe the meeting of the ghost of an Anglican bishop with a former college classmate, a Bright Spirit named Dick. Like the Big Ghost, he demands his rights—in this case, the right to intellectual freedom. Though this ghost claims to have been honest and courageous in his convictions, in fact he went along comfortably with the popular views of his time. The Episcopal Ghost illustrates the dangers of turning religion into a self-involved intellectual exercise. He resists anything "literal," "superstitious," or "mythological" in Christianity because he wants "free play of mind"- in other words, he wants to be in charge of creating his own reality made up of lovely ideas and sentiments instead of submitting himself to a reality outside himself. By conversation’s end, the Episcopal Ghost decides he cannot stay in Heaven, for he must go back to the grey city and present a paper at a meeting of a theological society on what would have been Christ’s “mature views” if he had lived a long life.

Stealing The Apple : 

Stealing The Apple Who is the major character? Ikey, guy with the hat who wants to set up shop in hell with real stuff. What is major characteristic or agenda of the character? Wants to get an apple to take back to hell so that he can sell it. This will create demand and community. What attempts are made to save him? Water giant says, "fool, put it down. Stay and learn to eat the apples up here." A call to embrace reality as opposed to fantasy. No room for the apple in hell. What does the he finally decide to do? Take the apple - “He set off down his via dolorosa to the bus carrying his torture”.

The Teacher : 

The Teacher George MacDonald

George MacDonald (1824-1905) : 

George MacDonald (1824-1905) Wrote many literary works including a symbolic fantasy novel Phantastes, which Lewis read at age 16. … an event that "baptized" his "imagination“ by conveying a sense of "Holiness," and especially connecting it with everyday life, the book helped prepare Lewis's imagination for his eventual conversion to Christianity. George MacDonald was in Scotland and grew up within Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism. In 1850 he was appointed pastor of Trinity Congregational Church, Arundel, but his ‘Universalist’ views got him into trouble! After a time in Algiers he settled in London. He came to know the leading literary figures of the day and in particular was a friend of and influence on Lewis Carroll.

The Teachers Role… : 

The Teachers Role… In The Great Divorce Lewis has Macdonald explain the nature of heaven and hell… He explains that it is possible for a soul to choose to remain in heaven despite having been in the grey town … … doing so implies turning away (repentance); or as depicted by Lewis, embracing ultimate and unceasing joy itself… …and the goodness of heaven will work backwards into their lives, turning even their worst sorrows into joy, and changing their experience on earth to an extension of heaven. These explanations are not actual quotations from the real Macdonald - in fact, they are closer to what Lewis believed than to Macdonald's ideas. But Lewis was very influenced by Macdonald.

The Controlling Wife : 

The Controlling Wife Who are the major character? The ghost of the controlling wife and Hilda the bright Spirit. Robert – topic of the ‘monologue’ What is major characteristic or agenda of the ghost character? Wants to see her husband Robert as she misses him greatly. Bullied and controlled her husband. All for “his good” but really for her ends. Bitter and self-obsessed. What attempts are made to save her? Hilda doesn’t get a chance to get a word in edgewise! What finally happens? The ghost which had towered up like a dying candle-flame suddenly snapped. A sour, dry smell ….. no ghost. "I must have someone to - to do things to."

The Red Lizard : 

The Red Lizard One ghost stands out from the rest: a ghost with a red lizard on his shoulder that keeps whispering into his ear. A Bright Spirit appears, asking the ghost if he would like him to quiet the lizard. “Of course I would.” The Spirit, now called an angel, asks to kill the lizard. The ghost is shocked. “Kill him? No! Silence him, yes, but not kill him”. As the angel comes closer to the ghost, “Get back! You’re burning me. How can I tell you to kill it? You’d kill me if you did.” The angel answers, “I never said it wouldn’t hurt you. I said it wouldn’t kill you.” The lizard reminds the ghost that the angel could in fact kill it. But who, then, the lizard asks, would whisper sweet dreams in the ghost’s ear? Tormented by the lizard, the ghost screams to the angel to kill the creature. The Oily Man &

Transformation…. : 

Transformation…. When it dies, the lizard changes into a silvery white stallion and carries into deep Heaven the transformed ghost, who is now a solid man. Unlike the other ghosts, this ghost chooses to give up his “rights,” to give up that which pleases him, and by so doing, enters deep Heaven.

The Tragedian : 

The Tragedian Who are the major character? The Dwarf and the chained Tragedian Sarah Smith – “one of the great ones” What is major characteristic or agenda of the ghost character? The dwarf is the real Frank. The "Tragedian" as the way Frank habitually presents himself to others, the dramatic embodiment of his sense of being wronged and self pity. What attempts are made to save him? Sarah tries repeatedly to convince him to embrace joy. What finally happens? The dwarf Frank, becomes smaller and smaller and eventually disappears. Having resisted Sarah invitation he is ‘consumed’ by his own self-pity.

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Heaven Hell Earth Solid Transparent Shadows Selfless Selfish Both Strength Weakness Both Brightness Dullness Both Large Small In-between “All Hell is smaller than one pebble of your earthly world: but it is smaller than one atom of this world, the Real World. Look at yon butterfly. If it swallowed all Hell, Hell would not be big enough to do it any harm or to have any taste.”

Just a dream … : 

Just a dream …

The Final Word…. : 

The Final Word…. ‘But what of the poor Ghosts who never get into the omnibus at all?’ ‘Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.’ All of us are thus presented with a choice: to abandon to Christ all our so-called “rights” and obtain Heaven in the process, or to keep our “rights” and thereby choose ourselves and earn our spot in Hell.