C. S. LEWIS & CHRISTOLOGICAL PREFIGUREMENT.

This paper is an examination of the Christology and Pneumatology that C. S. Lewis read from the apparent prefiguring of elements of the Incarnation-Resurrection narrative in religious myths, and also his assertion that the incarnation-resurrection narrative operates on us both as fact and myth. After an initial examination of the term myth and mythopoeia, Lewis' writings on the myth that became reality (the Christ event) are discussed along with examples of prefigurement. Through his understanding of natural theology (rooted in that of Augustine, though fed by Lewis' daily reading of the Summa Theologiae) and his cautious respect for human imagination (from the poet, theologian and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and in contrast to his earlier deference for the conclusions of the Victorian religionist and social anthropologist James George Frazer, Lewis came to regard these prefigurements as the work of the Holy Spirit – intimations of God's salvific action in Christ – though Lewis' orthodoxy saw human imagination as flawed through original sin. This leads us to ask three questions: first, how do these prefigured ideas come to be in these myths and how do these intimations, splintered fragments of the true light, relate to Lewis' understanding of Christ as the light of the world; second, how does the Incarnation-Resurrection narrative act/operate on us as a myth, whether spoken or read (a baptized imagination is crucial here for Lewis in both the creation and receiving/hearing of such narratives); and third, is there internal evidence for a mythopoeic interpretation within the Incarnation-Resurrection narrative? Our conclusions can be illustrated by a brief examination of Lewis' own Christian myth – Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia– originally written for a Christian audience but now read by mainly non-Christian/post-Christian children and adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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