Artist: Gentile da Fabriano
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask - half our great theological and metaphysical problems - are like that.Therefore, I would assert that it behooves us not to become too attached to our theological constructs. From our limited viewpoint, we can't really know if they actually make any sense or not.
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Hmmm. When I first read this I forgot that the C.S. Lewis quote ends when the green lettering ends, because you continued with the phrase, "Therefore, I would assert that it behooves us not to become too attached to our theological constructs. From our limited viewpoint, we can't really know if they actually make any sense or not." I agree with your comment more than C.S. Lewis's reasoning. If you ask a question that is nonsense the correct answer, from my point of view anyway, is to name the nonsense. But to ask "Why is yellow round?" is more than nonsense. It is a game that most intelligent humans would identify and dismiss as silly. I had started to say about the part where you respond at the end with "Therefore . . it behooves us not to become too attached to our theological constructs etc," by saying, "I wish Lewis had included that admonition in the conversation when he wrote, "That Hideous Strength," and most likely others of his books. For I found "That Hideous Strength" came across at a particularly vulnerable time in my life, as almost an imperative to adopt a fundamentalist world view. The point of view of "That Hideous Strength" seemed, at the time I read it, to brand intellectualism and even institutions of higher education as sinister tools of deception used by a literal Satan to lead astray the naive thinker. Such can, of course, happen if one has a manipulative teacher. I can imagine that it does happen in many "Fundamentalists" educational institutions of any stripe. It happens on Fox News. Rush Limbaugh practices such brainwashing. But in "That Hideous Strength," C.S. Lewis seemed to imply it was the norm in institutions of higher education. Could it be it was because he was experiencing among his colleagues at Oxford a challenge to his own inclinations to become too attached to newly formed theological constructs? Of course, to be fair, his conversion to Christianity probably did lead to tensions with his colleagues where the fault may have been on both sides. It would be typical of a new convert, particularly one with as keen a mind as Lewis, to set on edge the teeth of those who had known and befriended him as an atheist. And it would be equally typical for a new convert to react with suspicion and mistrust to challenges to his conversion. Could "That Hideous Strength" have represented such tensions in his life as an academic? Has anyone written a biography that might imply such a thing?
ReplyDeleteI had just returned to bed when I was struck once again by the quote from C.S. Lewis. Does not the question and answer he proposes, "Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think," - does not this question and answer assume a rather anthropomorphic view of God? I think so. But, on reflection, I must admit to having missed the truth in this quote: 'Indeed most of our theological and metaphysical problems are like asking, "Why is yellow round?"' Why did I miss that? Me thinks, as sometimes happens with me, my preoccupation with my own view got in the way. Nevertheless I assert once again, it is "my own view" that most of systematic theology is a practice in futility because it is focused upon defining how we should think about all manner of doctrines which originated in the mind of humans and may very likely bear little resemblance to any reality or metaphysics that characterize the truths of the divine realm.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tom, for that thoughtful discourse on the Lewis quote...I like the way you think and self reflect.
ReplyDeletesincerely,
annie c
Thanks Annie. I always appreciate you comments here.
ReplyDeleteYes, I like everything you've said about this C.S. Lewis quote, Tom. Actually, A.N. Wilson DOES go into Lewis's relationships with his academic colleagues in the book simply called C.S.Lewis: A Biography. I don't remember him tying that in with That Hideous Strength, however. But it's been quite a few years since I've read it. (The Wilson book, I mean.)
ReplyDeleteIt's an excellent biography, by the way, and I think you'd like it.
This post is amazing and made me laugh so hard: that quote is on the money entirely.
ReplyDeleteThe experience of my short life trying to walk humbly with my God is that on the all too rare occasions I get a glimpse of understanding His perspective, I find myself laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of us all. There is love and concern and compassion there too, but mostly it's a strange sort of ironic humour.
This quote managed to capture so much of the reason why. Maybe I should take up the CS Lewis challenge too!