Christianity, paganism and literature

[methodius]

Every month a group of Christian bloggers post a "synchroblog" on the same topic. This month's topic is Christianity and neopaganism, and my contribution is on Christianity, paganism and literature, looking at the way in which Christians and neopagans respond to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Alan Garner and Charles Williams

Comments

[madrona]

Hm. Having been a neopagan of the solitary eclectic variety, and being now a Christian (also of the solitary eclectic variety) I find this interesting.

It is true that the work of the Inklings does provide a lot of common ground for these two groups. It is also true that there needs to be some translation and mediation between Christians and neopagans before they can even see common ground in the first place.

A couple of thoughts. First of all, I didn't find Tolkein's Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit to contain much "religious" content of any variety. What I got from them was what some people did and how they did them. Quite frankly, I think if the magic was changed to technology and Middle Earth swapped out for a futuristic setting on an alien planet, with elves going "beyond the Rim" a la Babylon 5, LotR could be almost entirely secular. I must admit that I had an easier time reading the Silmarillion than the Lord of the Rings trilogy because the subject matter interested me more. I noticed, reading the Silmarillion, that the first bit was very allegorical, and very much patterned after the Christian cosmos. Examples: Eru Iluvatar being God, Ainur being angels, harmony and obedience vs rebellion and the glorification of self, etc. On the other hand, the Valar share similarities with some popular neopagan deities, having genders and love and hatreds and spheres of influence and a heavy hand in the creation of the world and its peoples. Middle Earth did not have the power for me to offend or convert, being a fantasy realm far removed in setting and the speech and behaviors of its inhabitants from the world I know.

CS Lewis's wood gods, river gods, etc have actually made his work controversial amongst some arch-conservatives, and have not particularly softened the blow of the heavy Christian allegory of the Narnia chronicles for the neopagans. On the one hand, he uses the word god and does not shy away from it, nor does he explain exactly what he means by it. On the other hand, it is clear from their presentation that they are both creations and servants of Aslan. I don't think they were made to please either group. CS Lewis had a fondness for classical myth and seems to have just thrown mini-deities in because he thought they made for good fantasy. I could see how a neopagan could find these depictions patronizing, but as one I never did. I knew CS Lewis was a Christian and writing as such, and liked the story anyway. As a Christian now, I find Narnia a reassuring example of how one can create art without losing their core faith or constantly self-censoring. Modern authors often try too hard to keep their stories in keeping with a very narrow worldview, almost a worldview they think they should hold rather than their actual observations on how the world works.

As for the space trilogy, I thought the first two books were great stuff and that the third had some terribly silly sexual politics. Had I read "That Hideous Strength" as a neopagan, I probably would have chucked it against the wall in disgust. Even now I take what Lewis said about sexual identity (a female postgraduate student being unable to concentrate on her studies after marriage, evil bondage lesbian police officers, the same God who made a virgin conceive being unable to circumvent ordinary birth control, etc) with a heavy grain of salt.

Lastly, an interesting experience: Two years ago, my husband and I were at an SF/F convention of which I had been a regular attendee in the past. This convention has both a morning meeting for Christian fen and a midnight (or 10:30, now that the priest and priestess are getting older) neopagan ritual. I attended both, and made no secret of the fact that I am Christian, was neopagan, and keep a lot of aesthetic and philosophical remnants from that time. (The Goddess told me to love Jesus. It's weird, weird, weird, but I kind of owe her one.) I ended up as sort of a running messenger between the two groups, clearing up misconceptions. This has been true of other events we've been to as well, such as the time we went to a winter solstice celebration where the theme was "come as your favorite deity" and my husband went dressed as Jesus.

[methodius]

Thanks very much for that, it adds soe interesting ideas to the mix.

I disagree about the allegory, though. Tolkien disliked allegory, and though Lewis wrote some allegory (such as The pilgrim's regress) there's very little, if any, in the Narnia stories.

I'm not too keen on allegory myself. I've just finished reading The quest of the Holy Grail which is rather heavily laden with it, and I've tried twice (but failed) to read George MacDonald's Lilith. The trouble with allegory is that the story often depends on it, and is shaped by it.

[madrona]

Perhaps I used the wrong word.

Narnia had its moments of heavy-handed *something* though.