This forum was closed on October 1st, 2010. However, the archives are open to the public and filled with vast amounts of good reading and information for you to enjoy. If you wish to meet some Wardrobians, please visit the Into the Wardrobe Facebook group.

Funeral of a Great Myth

Comprising most of Lewis' writings.
Forum rules
Please keep all discussion on topic and in line with our code of conduct.

Funeral of a Great Myth

Postby gameld » December 3rd, 2008, 7:33 pm

Does anyone know when "The Funeral of a Great Myth" was written? I can't seem to find any source on it's date of authorship.
gameld
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 79
Joined: Nov 2006

Re: Funeral of a Great Myth

Postby Karen » December 3rd, 2008, 8:08 pm

In the Preface to Christian Reflections, where the essay is printed, Walter Hooper says that it's published in that volume for the first time, but doesn't say when it was actually written. CSL cites a work from 1943 in the essay, so we know it was written after that. One website I looked at said it was "probably written in the 1940's." We'd probably need a dated original manuscript to know definitively...or perhaps Sven, knower of all things related to CSL, can tell us!

I just looked and they don't seem to have it.
I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. -- Jorge Luis Borges
User avatar
Karen
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 3733
Joined: Jul 2002
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Funeral of a Great Myth

Postby Sven » December 3rd, 2008, 10:15 pm

I don't really know much more. Lesley Walmsley, the editor of C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces, briefly says that it is a development of a portion of the paper Is Theology Poetry?, which was read out at the Oxford Socratic Club in 1945. Lewis thought that he did a poor job in that paper, so he may have written The Funeral of a Great Myth in an attempt to improve on his 1945 effort. That's just speculation on my part.
Rat! he found breath to whisper, shaking. Are you afraid?
Afraid? murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet -- and yet -- O, Mole, I am afraid!
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.
User avatar
Sven
 
Posts: 2883
Joined: Aug 1996
Location: Greenbelt, MD, near Washington DC


Return to Apologetics & Other Works

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered members and 13 guests

cron