C.S. Lewis’ Fantasy is Our Reality

[corbe]

C.S. Lewis’ Fantasy is Our Reality

The British writer foresaw a few things that weren’t on Orwell’s radar.

Thu Aug 11, 2022
William Kilpatrick

William Kilpatrick is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.  His books include Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West (Ignatius Press), What Catholics Need to Know About Islam (Sophia Press), and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Jihad.

George Orwell’s prophetic novel 1984 has often been invoked for its ability to predict the increasingly arbitrary and tyrannical nature of our present society.

But three years before the publication of 1984, another dystopian novel which was in some respects more prescient than Orwell’s appeared in English bookstores.

Like 1984, only on a smaller scale, C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength describes a descent into tyranny that bears an eerie resemblance to our current situation.  However, Lewis foresaw a few things that weren’t on Orwell’s radar.

When Orwell reviewed That Hideous Strength shortly after its publication in 1945, he warned that “we are within sight of a time when such [monstrous] dreams will be realizable.”  But Orwell also criticized Lewis for bringing “supernatural elements” into the story because “they offend the average reader’s sense of probability.”

But if there are supernatural forces at work in the world, wouldn’t one be remiss not to mention it?  The dystopian society depicted in 1984 was based partly on Nazi Germany and partly on Soviet communism.  Yet, both regimes took a deep interest in the supernatural.  The Nazis hoped to replace Christianity with an occult religion centered on Hitler as savior.  And the Leninists and Stalinist wished to stamp out belief in God altogether.  They slaughtered tens of thousands of priests and nuns in the process.

Many Christians and some agnostics, as well, view our present culture wars in similar terms—as a conflict between those who believe in God and those who think that humans can shape their own destiny without any reference to God or his laws.

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https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/cs-lewis-fantasy-our-reality-william-kilpatrick/

[Smokin Joe]

But the purpose of science was to understand and explain the wonders of creation, not play 'can you top this?' with The Almighty.

Instead, the charlatans in lab coats are denying that which is and trying desperately to make that which isn't. Usually as a weapon.

[mountaineer]

But the purpose of science was to understand and explain the wonders of creation, not play 'can you top this?' with The Almighty.

I've recently purchased Nancy Pearcey's book, "Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity," and am about 90 pages in. That is very similar to something she wrote, discussing the influence of various philosophies on Christian thought, e.g., the Enlightenment's division of truth into objective and subjective, putting religion and values in the subjective category. (See also Francis Schaeffer's book, "Escape from Reason" and another Pearcey book, "The Soul of Science," about the history of science). Of course, science and Christianity are neither opposed nor incompatible.