Saturday, December 15, 2018

C. S. Lewis and the Real Presence


Leanne Payne was founder of Pastoral Care Ministries. She was a noted scholar of the writings of C. S. Lewis and participated in cataloging the letters of C. S. Lewis for the Wade Collection at Wheaton College. The following is from her book "Real Presence: The Christian Worldview of C.S. Lewis as Incarnational Reality"
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The Scriptures teach that Christ listened to the father; trusting the Holy Spirit, (Jn 14:16-17, Lk: 4:1, 4:14, 5:17, Acts 1:1-2) He taught and healed through the power of the Spirit. The apostles learned this from Him. This capacity to collaborate with the Holy Spirit is also given to us. Herein we see the artist and the Christian brought together. The artist to free the work, must get self out of the way; he must die to self. So it is with the Christian. To do the works that Christ commanded, he must first get self out of the way; he must die to the "old man." And, just as the Spirit gave form and beauty back to the earth which "was without form, and void" when "darkness was upon the face of the deep," so the Christian, listening to God and collaborating with the Holy Spirit, frees the souls of men. Chaotic, fallen, like the earth after the angelic fall, without form and void, the soul cries out to be delivered from chaos, to be given back its form and beauty. The Christian, proclaiming liberty to the soul held captive, calls forth the real person; he frees the prisoner as Michelangelo freed the “Moses”. The true artist and the true Christian collaborate with the spirit: "The spirit comes into us and does it.

This is Lewis’s mysticism.

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