by alcuin » November 8th, 2008, 10:26 am
Dear Stanley,
Thank you for sharing your background. I too have very strong conscious objections, like CSL, to the Mariology and the concept of Papacy within the Roman Catholic Church. I am myself an Anglican (Episcopalian in US terms), “erring on the side of Catholic” I usually put it, in that there is no one way as I would see it. I suppose most people would then add for me “Liberal” before the Catholic.
The “bigger on the inside” is of course similar to the Tardis of Doctor Who, and I would have seen that in just pure terms of sacramental theology, therefore your theotokos imagery of the womb is a very interesting avenue of approach. It is reminiscent of Kathleen Raine's poem 'Northumbrian Sequence', which, being on study leave, I have not got access to in order to quote from.
Perelandra was the first C. S. Lewis book I read, and I read it when I was in my early to mid-teens (in a paperback version retitled Voyage to Venus). The Narnia books I did not read until I was in my mid to late twenties.
I am very indebted to Lewis as a writer, therefore, in my own spiritual journey, although I would not subscribe to the actuality of the incarnation stories, for example, and I would very much see them as Lewis does allegory.
However the conceptualisation of evil with Weston becoming the Unman is something I can more readily relate to, both intellectually and also from experience.
The development of the understanding of Fall (or the non-Fall in Perelandra) is of great significance to post-Augustine western Catholicism. And obviously therefore of Lewis, who is definitley Catholic in his Churchmanship, and is shown indeed in his analysis and explanation of Milton's Paradise Lost in his Preface.
Within Perelandra , and indeed That Hideous Strength, I accept the nature of the Green Lady to the King, and indeed what Jane should be to Mark Studdock, but outside of the story I am not so enamoured by the nature of the 'hierearchy' proposed, which is not only medieval but also feudal.
It is stated in biological terms that the base model for humanity (and indeed mammalia) is the female XX chromosome, with the XY being the mutation. This I think should be addressed theologically, and I think new theological models other than those based on Christian Neo-Platonism need to be developed.
I apologise if this way off-beam for the subject topic, but it seems there is an interesting discussion to be had here, but perhaps in another thread.
Best wishes,
Alcuin