C.S. Lewis

Chuck Colson writes about the November 29 birthday of C.S. Lewis. Although he was born in 1898, and died 41 years ago, Colson suggests that Lewis saw our day:

Why was Lewis so uncannily prophetic? At first glance he seems an unlikely candidate. He was not a theologian; he was an English professor. What was it that made him such a keen observer of cultural and intellectual trends?

The answer may be somewhat discomfiting to modern evangelicals: One reason is precisely that Lewis was not an evangelical. He was a professor in the academy, with a specialty in medieval literature, which gave him a mental framework shaped by the whole scope of intellectual history and Christian thought. As a result, he was liberated from the narrow confines of the religious views of the day—which meant he was able to analyze and critique them.

In this, Colson strikes the root of a very important problem. It is "the narrow confines of the religious views of the day" that constrains our own understanding of religion. It is, in fact, our misunderstanding of religion that has us now at war with Islamofascism and deeply divided as a nation - the secularists vs. the religious majority.

C.S. Lewis, in his essay “Meditation in a Toolshed” (most recently appearing in Compelling Reason, 1998) illustrates a relevant type of divide that comes from viewing a single phenomenon from two different vantage points. Lewis likens the first experience to looking at a beam of light in his darkened toolshed. He sees the beam and the floating specks of dust illuminated by the light. The floating specks give frame and almost substance to the beam as the beam contrasts with the dark, monochrome shapes within the shed. Lewis characterizes this as looking at the beam.

Lewis contrasts looking at the beam by describing the experience as he looks along the beam. As he steps into the light and looks to the outside, he sees the leaves of trees, patches of blue sky, and even the sun, though it is millions of miles away. By stepping into this beam, he no longer sees the dark shapes of tools in his shed. He no longer even sees the contrast between the beam and the darkness – for all the relevant parts of his experience take place within the lighted beam.

His essay contrasts the two very different types of experiences, looking at something from the outside versus looking along that thing by stepping into it and experiencing it from the inside.

One of the obvious applications of this for Lewis has to do with religious experience. Lewis contrasts the religious experience as viewed from the outside, by someone detached and looking at the experience, and the religious experience as experienced from within, by someone involved and looking along that beam. The two experiences are remarkably different, just as were his two toolshed experiences.

Lewis’ essay illuminates the type of problems we face today when dealing with these extraordinary religious divides that dominate our current existence. The secularists view the experiences of the religious majority from the outside. They view the beam, they see the effects of the light, but they do not see along the beam. Their encounter with religion is something totally different from what is experienced by those within that light, from those that see along that beam to the brighter world and glimpse the ultimate source of light.

This is equally true of the Islamofascist view of the west and of democracy. They see, from the outside, the specs of dust within the beam. They see the dust and filth upon the floor. They take umbrage at that which is illuminated by democracy’s light. It is naïve of us to presume that they see the brighter world and freedom’s light.

At the same time we have no conception of their experience. Their brand of Islamic hatred must provide them some sort of counterfeit light, some twisted glimpse of a future that they esteem more highly than the deprivations and the poverty of their current plight.

Until we can bridge the disparity of these experiences, we are doomed to religious divides - and to the disruption that these cause to our lives. Perhaps we could at least get a few secularists to step into the light... That at least would be a big improvement.