Three
Letters by C. S. Lewis
The following letters are in the public
domain, and were written by C. S. Lewis to Sheldon Vanauken, who later wrote the
best-selling book A Severe Mercy.
14/12/50
Dear Mr. Vanauken,
My own position at the
threshold of Xianity was exactly the opposite of yours. You wish it were true; I strongly
hoped it was not. At least, that was my conscious wish: you may suspect that I had
unconscious wishes of quite a different sort and that it was these which finally shoved me
in. True: but then I may equally suspect that under your conscious wish that it were true,
there lurks a strong unconscious wish that it were not. What this works out to is that all
the modern thinking, however useful it may be for explaining the origin of an error which
you already know to be an error, is perfectly useless in deciding which of two beliefs is
the error and which is the truth. For (a.) One never knows all one's wishes, and (b.) In
very big questions, such as this, even one's conscious wishes are nearly always engaged on
both sides. What I think one can say with certainty is this: the notion that everyone
would like Xianity to be true, and that therefore all atheists are brave men who have
accepted the defeat of all their deepest desires, is simply impudent nonsense. Do you
think people like Stalin, Hitler, Haldane, Stapledon (a corking good writer, by the way)
wd. be pleased on waking up one morning to find that they were not their own masters, that
they had a Master and a Judge, that there was nothing even in the deepest recesses of
their thoughts about which they cd. say to Him `Keep out! Private. This is my
business'? Do you? Rats! Their first reaction wd. be (as mine was) rage and terror.
And I v. much doubt whether even you wd. find it simply pleasant. Isn't the truth
this: that it wd. gratify some of our desires (ones we feel in fact pretty seldom) and
outrage a good many others? So let's wash out all the wish business. It never helped
anyone to solve any problem yet.
I don't agree with your
picture of the history of religion. Christ, Buddha, Mohammed and others elaborating on an
original simplicity. I believe Buddhism to be a simplification of Hinduism and Islam to be
a simplification of Xianity. Clear, lucid, transparent, simple religion (Tao plus a
shadowy, ethical god in the background) is a late development, usually arising among
highly educated people in great cities. What you really start with is ritual, myth, and
mystery, the death & return of Balder or Osiris, the dances, the initiations, the
sacrificies, the divine kings. Over against that are the Philosophers, Aristotle or
Confucius, hardly religion at all. The only two systems in which the mysteries and the
philosophies come together are Hinduism and Xianity: there you get both the Metaphysics
and Cult (continuous with primeval cults). That is why my first step was to be sure that
one or the other of these had the answer. For the reality can't be one that appeals either
only to savages or only to high brows. Real things aren't like that (e.g. matter
is the first most obvious thing you meetmilke, chocolates, apples, and also the object of
quantum physics). There is no question of just a crowd of disconnected religions. The
choice is between (a.) The materialist world picture: wh. I can't believe. (b.) The real
archaic primitive religions; wh. are not moral enough. (c.) The (claimed) fulfillment of
these in Hinduism. (d.) The claimed fulfillment of these in Xianity. But the weakness of
Hinduism is that it doesn't really merge the two strands. Unredeemable savage religion
goes on in the village; the Hermit philosophizes in the forest: and neither really
interfaces with the other. It is only Xianity which compels a high brow like me to partake
of a ritual blood feast, and also compels a central African convert to attempt an
elightened code of ethics.
Have you ever tried
Chesterton's The Everlasting Man? The best popular apologetic I know.
Meanwhile, the attempt to practice Tao is certainly the right line. Have you read
the Analects of Confucius? He ends up by saying, `This is the Tao. I do not know if
anyone has ever kept it.' That's significant: one can really go direct from there to the
Epistle of the Romans.
I don't know if any of this is the least use. Be sure to write again, or call, if you
think I can be of any help.
Yours sincerely
C.S. Lewis
23 Dec.
1950
Dear Mr. Vanauken,
The contradiction `we must have faith to believe and must believe to have faith' belongs
to the same class as those by which the Eleatic philosophers proved that all motion is
impossible. And there are many others. You can't swim unless you can support yourself in
water & you can't support yourself in water unless you can swim. Or again, in an act
of volition (e.g. getting up in the morning) is the very beginning of the act itself
voluntary or involuntary? If voluntary then you must have willed it, ..you were willing it
already,..it was not really the beginning. If involuntary, then the continuation of the
act (being determined by the first movement) is involuntary too. But in spite of this we do
swim, & we do get out of bed.
I do not think there is a demonstrative proof (like Euclid) of Christianity, nor of
the existence of matter, nor of the good will & honesty of my best & oldest
friends. I think all three (except perhaps the second) far more probable than the
alternatives. The case for Xianity in general is well given by Chesterton; and I tried to
do something in my Broadcast Talks. As to why God doesn't make it
demonstrably clear; are we sure that He is even interested in the kind of Theism which wd.
be a compelled logical assent to a conclusive argument? Are we interested in it in
personal matters? I demand from my friend a trust in my good faith which is certain
without demonstrative proof. It wouldn't be confidence at all if he waited for rigorous
proof. Hang it all, the very fairy tales embody the truth. Othello believed in Desdemona's
innocence when it was proved: but that was too late. `His praise is lost who stays till
all commend.' The magnanimity, the generosity which will trust on a reasonable
probability, is required of us. But supposing one believed and was wrong after all? Why,
then you wd. have paid the universe a compliment it doesn't deserve. Your error wd. even
so be more interesting & important than the reality. And yet how cd. that be? How cd.
an idiotic universe have produced creatures whose mere dreams are so much stronger,
better, subtler than itself?
Note that life after death which still seems to you the essential thing, was itself a late
revelation. God trained the Hebrews for centuries to believe in Him without promising them
an afterlife, and, blessings on Him, he trained me in the same way for about a year. It is
like the disguised prince in a fairty tale who wins the heroine's love before she
knows he is anything more than a woodcutter. What wd. be a bribe if it came first had
better come last.
It is quite clear from what you say that you have conscious wishes on both sides.
And now,. another point about wishes. A wish may lead to false beliefs, granted.
But what does the existence of the wish suggest? At one time I was much impressed by
Arnold's line `Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.' But surely tho' it
doesn't prove that one particular man will get food, it does prove that
there is such a thing as food! i.e. if we were a species that didn't normally eat, weren't
designed to eat, wd. we feel hungry? You say the materialist universe is `ugly.' I wonder
how you discovered that! If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is
it you don't feel at homne there? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they
did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always, or wd. not
always be, purely aquatic creatures? Notice how we are perpetually surprised at
Time. (`How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up and married! I can hardly believe it!')
In heaven's name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something about us that is not
temporal.
Total humility is not in the Tao because the Tao (as such) says nothing about the Object
to which it wd. be the right response: just as there is no law about railways in the acts
of Q. Elizabeth. But from the degree of respect wh. the Tao demands for ancestors,
parents, elders, & teachers, it is quite clear what the Tao wd. prescribe
towards an object such as God.
But I think you are already in the meshes of the net! The Holy Spirit is after you. I
doubt if you'll get away!
Yours,
C.S. Lewis
17/4/51
Dear Vanauken,
My prayers are answered. No: a glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by
night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a vision of the
horizon. And there must perhaps be always just enough lack of demonstrative certainty to
make free choice possible: for what could we do but accept if the faith were like the
multiplication table?
There will be a counter attack on you, you know, so don't be too alarmed when it comes.
The enemy will not see you vanish into God's company without an effort to reclaim you.
Be busy learning to pray and (if you have made up yr. mind on the denominational question)
get confirmed.
Blessings on you and a hundred thousand welcomes. Make use of me in any way you please:
and let us pray for each other always.
Yours,
C.S. Lewis
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