the answers

[eyeonthehorizon]

C.S. Lewis was all set to be my new guru in a way, you know, the guy whose stuff I read all of and totally agree with, get really excited about and quote to everyone.

But, now I read some of his lesser-known works of fiction (his science fiction trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) and of course everything gets

Comments

[moon_side]

Then write your own book ;)

[mister_wolf]

I think that you may be reading Perelandra a bit litterally. I haven't read the space books in a long, long time (and I don't plan to again) but I remember the basic idea of the first two books was that life on other planets might not suffer from original sin. It is not an idea one can really explore without resorting to mythological imagry, but using that imagry doesn't neccessarily imply a belief in its literal truth.

That beings said, I would never have thoguht of Lewis as anything but very theologically conservative.

[eyeonthehorizon]

Yeah... you're right, Lewis is definitely very conservative, it's just that I guess I enjoy his writing so much that I want to "save" parts of it even though I'm much more liberal.

I have a big problem with the whole idea of Original Sin... I haven't read enough about it, probably because most of the people that I learned religion from were content to kind of ignore it because in many ways it leads to conservatism, I guess. I have come to view this world and this existence as a gift from God, and my job is to respect and enjoy it, and even add to it as best as I can. But Lewis makes you really look at our current world as something imperfect that we really need to get over, in a way, and it makes me uncomfortable. (This is what I mean by a literal reading of Genesis... taking it as a statement of the fundamental imperfection of mankind that is a fait acompli that we have to guiltily live with, instead of taking it as a metaphor for our daily chances to face temptations and failures.) I have to sort of unpack what I'm seeing here

I heard they were naked when they got busted...

[mister_wolf]

Heh. :) You know, I kind of feel that conservative !=wrong. A healthy worldview is probably going to have elements that are progressive, and elements that are conservative. And anyhow, I find it is important to be able to look past areas of disagreement and try and find what we can learn from another person

Re: I heard they were naked when they got busted...

[eyeonthehorizon]

Thanks for those recommendations... I'll check them out. Happy New Year!