In his novel The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis depicts two settings: one of a grey town where whatever you want is provided for you and another of grand pasture. These settings, in the book, represent Heaven in Hell in a way, depending on which character's perspective the places are viewed from. However, the places that the main character visits and the journey that he takes is one that can be used to model the journey of our spiritual walk. Similar to how the protagonist starts in a bleak town then travels through a beautiful but harsh pasture towards the mountains, our lives start in the darkness of sin, but then we travel through the treacherous but worthwhile journey of faith towards eternity with God.
As humans, we are born into sin; from a Christian standpoint, it's a very bleak existence being of the world and attempting to satiate ourselves with temporary means of pleasure. This is similar to the start of The Great Divorce: the main character starts wandering in a grey town, an experience that he describes as "always in the rain and always in evening twilight." The protagonist comes to discover later that existence in the grey town can be described as "hell," from the viewpoint of the solid people. It's not difficult to see why; it's not uncommon to find a person who's "quarreled so badly [with his neighbor] that he decides to move." This quarreling implies a global sense of hatred for one another. As it says in 1 John 4:8, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." Furthermore, in Romans 3:23, scripture mentions, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." God and hatred/sin are mutually exclusive, and thus the grey town is an existence without God, similar to a life of sin. Note how the ...
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...repentant people are those who have sinned and suffered the most—murders, thieves, prostitutes, etc. In the novel, there is even a solid person— a murder in his earthly life—attempting to escort one of the ghosts. But the ghosts, as mentioned, make pitiful excuses because they've never had the feeling of complete brokenness and have never felt the need to completely surrender to Him. Therefore, I feel that Lewis is making a call to those who have had some semblance of faith their entire lives; he calls them to have the same passion for Christ that the more weathered sinners have when they first meet Him. In the same way that we wouldn't complain about our food options when we realize there are those who can't afford food, Lewis shows us that we shouldn't complain when following Him as there are those who had to go through hell on earth to fully appreciate His grace.
Are humans inherently sinful and in need of a Savior? In the case of Hazel Motes and Enoch Emory, the two could not escape their inevitable fates. Despite the attempts of Enoch Emory to be a normal teenager, he surrenders to his animalistic behavior he desperately fought so hard to suppress. Similarly, Hazel could not shake Jesus. He could not escape the truths his grandfather spent time shouting from his pulpit. Throughout the novel, Haze crafts idols in attempts to replace his idea of Jesus. O’Connor uses imagery and symbolism to vividly explain the conflicting sides of Haze: his humanly rebellious side and his spiritual side. Haze spends most of his time in Taulkinham convincing others that sin is a made up concept and that said sin does not need atonement. He preaches that there is no consequence for sin, yet, at the end of the book, tortures himself for his own transgressions. In Wise Blood, Haze is a dynamic character in that he gives in to what he spent so much time denying and finds repentance. He no longer views Jesus as a ragged man in the shadows, but the just Judge. Enoch, on the other hand, inherited his father’s “wise blood” and tried to prevent his deterioration into bestiality. However, as Enoch finds out, one cannot escape his destiny. In this novel, O’Connor uses irony, symbolism, and imagery to disguise the inevitable truth – you cannot escape what’s in your blood. As Haze and Enoch discovered, fate certainly does not wash out in the
For a moment, imagine being in young Hughes’ place, and hearing, “Langston, why don’t you come? Why don’t you come and be saved? Oh, lamb of God! Why don’t you come?” (Hughes, 112), being whispered into your ear by your aunt as tears rush down her face. Would you not take the easy way out? How could someone at the age of twelve understand the torment that follows such an event? Hughes learned that night just what he had done, and what it meant, as he mentions in his essay when he says, “That night, for the last time but one- for I was a big boy twelve years old- I cried. I cried, in bed alone, and couldn’t stop. I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me….I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, and that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me” (Hughes, 112). At the first moment he was alone in silence, he understood what he had learned, and what it meant. That not only did he lie to his aunt, and to the church, but in his time of need, no one was there to help. There was no God by his side as he knelt on the church
the most. Not only does the audience relate to him but so do the other
“What is sin?”(1), Dr. Hoenikker asks in the book “Cat’s Cradle.”(2) The Christian Bible describes sin as, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” (3) Sin has become the creator of fear throughout history. The fear that God will punish those who sin but, that fear is a false threat to control people. Sin creates the illusion that the universe is based on morals, when in fact it is completely amoral.
What a fascinating adjustment in perspectives, motive, and determination from the once deeply connected to God the unprofessed theologian. The man who we admired for his crafty dexterity to be a Christian Apologetic emerges to be torn from the foundations of his faith and experiences of how to respond to the unspecified. This book is openly troubling for the believer because all too often we know that this is a very real situation that our author is experiencing. However, while it may appear that a staunch believer has lost his way were hastily reminded that this not the case at all. In the book "A Grief Observed" by C. S. Lewis we see, what I call, a defining mature Christian transition, disruption to the norm, or bump in the road all Christians
Lewis is now talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness sounds easy until you find yourself having to forgive someone who has done you wrong. When forgiving someone you don’t have to like them or agree with what they have done, but you do have tell yourself to stop holding a grudge when you think about what that other person has done. But when forgiving someone you have said that you no longer hold that against them. Also God says that we should forgive others like he forgave us and we have done more wrong to him that the other way around.
Catherine Sedgwick’s A New England Tale is the story of Jane a young woman who is cast into a family where she is looked down upon, but through her trial and tribulations remains strong in her faith in God. Jonathan Edwards’ sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God focuses on those who lose faith and overlook the power of God’s hand, and by doing so will be sent to hell to repent their sins. Throughout the novel by Sedgwick and the sermon by Edwards it is the importance of moving forwards in life while staying faithful and true to God without sin remains the focus of the pieces.
is exemplified in No Exit. It is a portrayal that life in Hell is just
The term “Jerusalem Syndrome” refers to when a visitor to the city leaves with a full fledged belief that they are the messiah, an angel or the devil himself. Rebecca Kozak, a 17 year old Writing student based in Victoria can be said to have developed both San Francisco Syndrome and New York Syndrome in her travels. She takes herself as a Frisco Beatnik poet and a New York rocker girl all at once. The surprising thing is that she is correct on both counts! The Frisco side of her is an eccentric intellectual who can quote whole chunks from Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell, then segue into a spiel about the “Brechtian films of our times,” with references to Jim Jarmusch and Harmony Korine. This Kozak will make grandiose statements such as: “At
“Be not too quickly warm again. Lie cold; consent / To weariness' and pardon's watery element.” (11-12) Clearly, the speaker wants to let go of and put out the light which was mentioned in line five of the poem. Telling his body to consent, the speaker states his desire to no longer fight, to no longer go on in their rugged body, to no longer be tired. Because of the diction throughout the poem it gives the reader the image of someone who no longer controls their body, who sees death as a form of relief. Regardless of rather Lewis wrote this about his own experience of death, the feelings of contentment and hope reflect his beliefs. Being a christian would cause Lewis to not fear death, to be willingly to let go when his time came, feeling as though he lived a full
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis suggests that choices made on earth have a consequential effect towards our acceptance into heaven or our plummet into hell. In this book pride manifests itself in a hundred subtle ways as souls whine about perceived injustices or irrational motives. Thankfully, a few tourists do humble themselves, become transformed into marvelously real beings, and remain in heaven. But most don't, about which the great Scottish author George MacDonald, Lewis' heavenly guide, says, “They may not be rejecting the truth of heaven now. They may be reenacting the rejection they made while on earth”.
Ghostly characters of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce (1946) come to life as the reader unfolds each scene. The entry scene is dingy, Hell on earth, full of characters on a journey to find answers to the after-life, or is there more to the afterlife. Next, while on their journey they will find a separation of Heaven and Hell. In addition, each character struggles with choices, choices that will destine their path of everlasting; everlasting Heaven, or everlasting Hell. Moreover, Lewis formed his characters to replicate everyday people on the street, at church, work and at the park, that is exactly who they are. With this in mind, do
Growing up, you learn about God and his creations. He created everything in our world in six days. When God created humans he had a choice to make. He could either give us the power of free will or create us to already love Him and be forced to do His will. Obviously, He chose the first one. Originally there was no sin in the world and Adam and Eve lived happily in the Garden of Eden. God gave them one rule though, they were not allowed to eat of the tree in the garden. One day though, Satan disguised himself and tricked them into eating an apple. God was very disappointed and from then on he allowed sin in the world.
Early American society revolved around religion. Your destination was predetermined before you were even born. Whether you did good works or bad works on this earth it did not change the outcome of someone going to heaven or hell. The works by Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Jonathan Edwards show us the religion in early American culture. No matter how hard life gets you down these people never let that bother them, and they realized that God has a plan for everything. One’s past does not determine ones future and we learned that through the readings by Bradstreet, Taylor, and Wheatley.
Sin is an act of rebellion towards God from a responsible human (Giles). When a human commits a transgression against God, it is breaking the Israelite covenant bond. By committing a transgression against God, humans are violating God’s will, which is revealed through the Word of God (Giles). To continue, the conflict between human and Divine wills is the source of all sin (Giles). Ever since Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 ate from the tree of knowledge, the act of rebelling God has become a sin. The intent of the transgressor does not matter, the emphasis instead is placed on the act of sinning (Giles). For example, God forsakes Abimelech for taking Abraham’s wife Sarah. Even though Abimelech did not know she was married, taking Abraham’s wife was