C.S. Lewis, Platonism, and Enchantment
Jun. 7th, 2023 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanctuaryofroseandchaliceToday's post is predominately a thoughtful reflection on a post from another blog that caught my attention. I encourage you dear reader to read it for yourself, please see the attached link: https://ashtarbookblog.blogspot.com/2023/05/some-strange-reflections.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1bvLY_66DbLqQ7MHggqoWHWilfJXy1WFAOtbzF7VS79WeiLvW39YwiB6E
(Accessed June 7, 2023).
In this post the author discusses the enchanted worldview of C.S. Lewis, and on how Christianity might possibly only make since in such a weltanschauung. I'm largely in agreement with what he has to say, that Christianity only makes since in an enchanted and holistic world of spirit-matter, which we do live in. However, I have a few qualms about his reflection which need to be addressed. The first of which is his opening paragraph which I have included in its entirety below:
"C S Lewis [sic] wasn´t really an “orthodox” Christian. He was probably a crypto-Anglo-Catholic pseudo-esotericist paganizer. Which isn´t necessarily a bad thing! His mainline apologetics constituted the exoteric message, his Neoplatonism was the “mesoteric” message, and the esoteric message…well, you probably have to go to Charles Williams or even Dion Fortune for that one!"
Admittedly, I haven't read everything written by Lewis (and I dare call myself an Anglican), but I would be hard pressed to declare that he wasn't theologically orthodox, he surely must have considered himself as such. The only ones who would deny him his qualification as orthodox would be those fundamentalists and other puritans who object to his inclusion of magic and pagan numina (gods, nymphs, fauns, etc.) in his fiction. These being the same ignoramuses who brand any and all works of fantasy as categorically satanic. I'm also curious that the author claims that Lewis' "esoteric" message is summed by the works of Williams and Fortune. I would love this to be true, but would also expect at least some citation for this claim. Having read both the Cosmic Trilogy and the Narnia Chronicles it seems highly likely that Lewis possessed some background knowledge of occultism; whether this was strictly theoretical or experiential remains to be seen, but either way he would have had to of kept this knowledge close to his chest. (See The Magical World of the Inklings by Gareth Knight for details).
My other main criticism is the author's identification of the enchanted worldview with paganism. Which "paganism" are we talking about? The traditional polytheism and animism of pre-Christian societies? The umbrella of Contemporary Paganisms ranging in scope from hard polytheism to atheopaganism, and from the Radical Left to the Alt-Right? Or, as I suspect, is the author claiming that the enchanted worldview is "pagan" because it denies the rationalist materialism of Modernity, which is deist at most and atheist at default? Thanks to the combined efforts of the Swiss Reformation (i.e. Calvinism), the Scientific Revolution, and the so-called Enlightenment the enchanted worldview of the pre-Modern/pre-Reformation world is viewed as the superstitious nonsense of the "Old Religion" (both traditional polytheisms and pre-Tridentine Catholicism alike). Many Modernists fail to realize that their own perception of reality is a socially constructed weltanschauung; John Michael Greer explains this wonderfully in his latest blog post:
https://www.ecosophia.net/the-myth-of-modernity/ (Accessed June 7, 2023).
On a final note, I find the author's conclusion where he doubts the world's enchantment in the first place. At least on this physical plane of reality which is "one long Kali Yuga," and suggests that enchantment only exists on some higher "astral-daimonic plane." This seems odd for a self-described Pseudo-Neoplatonist to say. Perhaps he is more influenced by a Plotinian current of Platonism rather than an Iamblichian current; the former a contemplative approach which seems at best indifferent to this material plane, while the latter is a theurgical approach which seeks the divine through the material (By analogy, think of the difference between Protestantism's Sola Fide approach verses the Sacramental approach of Catholicism and Orthodoxy).
I may need to return to this when time permits. Good night, and peace be upon you all.
(Accessed June 7, 2023).
In this post the author discusses the enchanted worldview of C.S. Lewis, and on how Christianity might possibly only make since in such a weltanschauung. I'm largely in agreement with what he has to say, that Christianity only makes since in an enchanted and holistic world of spirit-matter, which we do live in. However, I have a few qualms about his reflection which need to be addressed. The first of which is his opening paragraph which I have included in its entirety below:
"C S Lewis [sic] wasn´t really an “orthodox” Christian. He was probably a crypto-Anglo-Catholic pseudo-esotericist paganizer. Which isn´t necessarily a bad thing! His mainline apologetics constituted the exoteric message, his Neoplatonism was the “mesoteric” message, and the esoteric message…well, you probably have to go to Charles Williams or even Dion Fortune for that one!"
Admittedly, I haven't read everything written by Lewis (and I dare call myself an Anglican), but I would be hard pressed to declare that he wasn't theologically orthodox, he surely must have considered himself as such. The only ones who would deny him his qualification as orthodox would be those fundamentalists and other puritans who object to his inclusion of magic and pagan numina (gods, nymphs, fauns, etc.) in his fiction. These being the same ignoramuses who brand any and all works of fantasy as categorically satanic. I'm also curious that the author claims that Lewis' "esoteric" message is summed by the works of Williams and Fortune. I would love this to be true, but would also expect at least some citation for this claim. Having read both the Cosmic Trilogy and the Narnia Chronicles it seems highly likely that Lewis possessed some background knowledge of occultism; whether this was strictly theoretical or experiential remains to be seen, but either way he would have had to of kept this knowledge close to his chest. (See The Magical World of the Inklings by Gareth Knight for details).
My other main criticism is the author's identification of the enchanted worldview with paganism. Which "paganism" are we talking about? The traditional polytheism and animism of pre-Christian societies? The umbrella of Contemporary Paganisms ranging in scope from hard polytheism to atheopaganism, and from the Radical Left to the Alt-Right? Or, as I suspect, is the author claiming that the enchanted worldview is "pagan" because it denies the rationalist materialism of Modernity, which is deist at most and atheist at default? Thanks to the combined efforts of the Swiss Reformation (i.e. Calvinism), the Scientific Revolution, and the so-called Enlightenment the enchanted worldview of the pre-Modern/pre-Reformation world is viewed as the superstitious nonsense of the "Old Religion" (both traditional polytheisms and pre-Tridentine Catholicism alike). Many Modernists fail to realize that their own perception of reality is a socially constructed weltanschauung; John Michael Greer explains this wonderfully in his latest blog post:
https://www.ecosophia.net/the-myth-of-modernity/ (Accessed June 7, 2023).
On a final note, I find the author's conclusion where he doubts the world's enchantment in the first place. At least on this physical plane of reality which is "one long Kali Yuga," and suggests that enchantment only exists on some higher "astral-daimonic plane." This seems odd for a self-described Pseudo-Neoplatonist to say. Perhaps he is more influenced by a Plotinian current of Platonism rather than an Iamblichian current; the former a contemplative approach which seems at best indifferent to this material plane, while the latter is a theurgical approach which seeks the divine through the material (By analogy, think of the difference between Protestantism's Sola Fide approach verses the Sacramental approach of Catholicism and Orthodoxy).
I may need to return to this when time permits. Good night, and peace be upon you all.
