A Cry Like a Bell.  Madeleine L\u27Engle. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson.
C.S. Lewis: The Man and His God.  Richard Harries. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christian.  Kathryn Lindskoog. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson.
The Screwtape Letters.  C.S. Lewis. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson

Patterson, Nancy-Lou

English

SWOSU Digital Commons (Southwestern Oklahoma State University)

Volume 14 Number 4 Article 15 Summer 7-15-1988 Reviews Nancy-Lou Patterson Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore  Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Patterson, Nancy-Lou (1988) "Reviews," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 14 : No. 4 , Article 15. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss4/15 This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact phillip.fitzsimmons@swosu.edu. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Online Winter Seminar February 4-5, 2022 (Friday evening, Saturday all day) https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/ows-2022.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract A Cry Like a Bell. Madeleine L'Engle. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson. C.S. Lewis: The Man and His God. Richard Harries. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christian. Kathryn Lindskoog. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson. The Screwtape Letters. C.S. Lewis. Reviewed by Nancy-Lou Patterson. This book reviews is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss4/15 MYTHLORE 54: Summer 1988A  M u sic  of M eaningMadeleine L’Engle, A Cry Like a Bel] (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1987), 110 pp. ISBN0-87788-148-0.One of the few twentieth century writers of devotional works, novels, and major children’s fan­tasies whose works can really be included in the same breath with C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams, Madeleine L’Engle is, like them, also a poet. The seventy pqpms contains in this volume record, as the title suggests, cries from the heart of humankind — Eve, Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Esau, Rachel, Leah, Jacob, Pharaoh, Moses, Gershom, Naasman, David, Mary, Andrew, Mary Magdalene, Simon of Cyrene, Barabbas, Salome, Thomas, Peter, Barnabas, Phoebe, Priscilla — intoning a litany of mingled pain and faith. Even the bleating of "The ram; caught in a bush" and the braying of "Bal­aam’s ass" are joined in the chorus. It is one long lament, one long prayer for light. It is also one of the most honest religious books ever written. And it is not a book to be taken lightly; it has been my companion over a whole series of early morning devotions, not gobbled at one reading but sav­oured, bitter-sweet as the little book which St. John ate in Revelation, from meditation to medita-Readers of Mythlore will of course be familiar with the poetic voices of Tolkien, Williams and Lewis: L’Engle’s voice most resembles that of Lewis, not because of her form but because of her tone, hers is a music of meaning; an example is "Pris­cilla’s response to the letter of the Hebrews." The verBes are arranged in two vertical columns like the thesis and antithesis of an argument; veering from "He is" to "He is not,” while the synthesis, the essence of God’s being, builds in the mind of the reader. Another is "0 wise and foolish virgins," in which the birth of Cain to Eve and the birth of Jesus to Mary are compared: the voices of the vir­gins close the poem:Now we await the final birth.The oil has spilled. No one is wise.The galaxies and out small earth labour in pain at time’s demise.Like her, I call,Come, Lord of all!This profoundly contemplative book contains no easy answers. Rather, it asks the ageless question,those which cut more deeply today than ever before.—  Nancy-Lou PattersonNot A  Tame Lion ?Richard Harries, C.S. Lewis: The Man and His God (Glasgow: Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1987) 93 pp. ISBN 0-00-627143-X.Expanded and "rewritten in places" from a series of "six talks on C.S. Lewis on BBC Radio 4," this book is a brief evaluation and critique of certain elements in Lewis’ theology as Richard Harries, now Bishop of Oxford, understands it. I should Bay at the outset that this is a much more humane and thought-provoking book than John Beversluis’ regrettable C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion, although it too depends very heavily upon the insights from the abyss which are recorded (or in George Mussacchio’s view, pre­sented) in A Grief Observed. Readers very familiar with Lewis will note that only one quotation from the mythopoeic cycles appears: the resurrectionromp in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and will understand the strong possibility of a skew in any interpretation of Lewis confined with this exception to his apologetic works. The books examined are Surprised by Joy, A Grief Observed, "The Weight of Glory,” The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, 6The Great Divorce, the Intro­duction to Screwtape Proposes a Toast, Poems, God in the Dock, Fern-Seed and Elephants, Christian Reflections, The Four Loves, and Letters to Malcolm. It is Lewis’ last book, the last-named above, which Bishop Harries (quite rightly) praises. Indeed, in all of these works he finds elements to praise, but he disagrees on certain major theologi­cal points, raising questions well worth discussing. I will mention them below but would point out again that without the mythopoeic works one does not by any means have the complete mind of Lewis, let alone his complete theology.Bishop Harries’ first objection is to Lewis’ statement, made about God in The Problem of Pain, that "He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration." (Quoted on p. 31) To this, he responds that "God does not demand our worship. He is simply there, like a mountain range perma­nently on the horizon, to be recognized— " (p. 32) Further, he suggests that Lewis "see[s] suffering as issuing from the hand of God" (based on A Grief Observed). The God in that book, Bishop HarriesMYTHLORE 54: Summer 1988says, "is not a God to whom we can give moral assent.” (p. 34)The second objection is to Lewis’ use of the figure of "the Devil": Bishop Harries opposes this classical demonology by arguing from within that demonology. But chiefly he objects because "it seems morally intolerable to have hordes of spirits hovering about leading us into sin." (p. 38) He concludes that "it is necessary to reject the idea not only of one devil but of all devils." (p. 39) The problems arise instead within the human psyche, in the case of "moral evil," and within the "whole of our environment [which] has this regular, fixed predictable character," in the case of "natural evils." (p. 46) He recommends to us his own favor­ite theologian, Austin Farrar’s Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited, a "difficult book but one with a touch of genius about it," (p. 53) as a corrective, and concludes that "accident and tragedy... are contrary to God’s will of love for us," and that "he invites us to co-operate with him in remedying them." (p. 54)After touching upon the role of myth and prayer in Lewis’ thought, Bishop Harries proceeds to his third objection. Lewis, he says, believed that "There is no need in God himself" for human love, (p. 76) No so: God "invites us to co-operate with him in the achievement of His purpose: he wants our positive response; he can be hurt as he can be made glad."In his concluding chapter, "Eternal Glory," Bishop Harries discusses the afterlife, which for him is the answer to the problems of evil and pain. It is here that he turns to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to answer the question, "how can we believe that the one in whom Jesus trusted really is a loving father?” (p. 82) The reply is the scene of the resurrected Aslan’s romp with Lucy and Susan: as Bishop Harries puts it, it is Christ raised from the dead [which is] the decisive sign of God’s goodwill towards us."In the short space of a review I cannot under­take to answer, either by concurrence or argument, Bishop Harries’ objections to Lewis. But I am intrigued by his comment in a footnote that Austin Farrar "was a more sensitive spirit than Lewis and had an even more subtle mind. Perhaps for these reasons he has not reached Lewis’ public." (p. 92) I think that Lewis’ public has been reached not such much by his demanding God and his intoler­able demonology, as by his evocations of the sup­ernal, not least in the figure of Aslan, who, while not a tame lion (and hence not like Bishop Harries’ God), is prepared to romp forever with His follow­ers "with his paws beautifully velveted."— Nancy-Lou PattersonK ay and JackKathryn Lindskoog, C.S. Lewis, Mere Christian (Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1987), 260 pp. ISBN 0-87788-543-5Although it contains substantially the same textas that of the "revised and expanded" version published in 1981 by Inter-Varsity Christian Fel­lowship (a version vastly expanded and improved over its original form of 1973), this handsome paperback version doeB contain significant addi­tions and changes, especially in the already  remarkably fine Appendices (pp. 229-245). These materials are brought essentially up to date in content and detail. The annotated chronological listing of C.S. Lewis’ books is substantially extended, the comments about the works are inter­estingly revised, and some intriguing questions are raised. These questions can be summarized as fol­lows: are all of the contents of the ever-lengthening list of works attributed to Lewis cor­rectly included in what might be called the "canon­ical" writings?The text of C.S. Lewis, Mere Christian, is a very good, clear, well-presented, appealingly writ­ten, and genuinely useful study of what LewiB wrote about God, Nature, Humanity, Death, Heaven, Hell, Miracles, Prayer, Pain, Love, Ethics, Truth, Sciences, the ArtB, and Education. A chapter is directed to each of these subjects and each chap­ter is assigned a well-chosen and excellent bibliog­raphy of his writings on that subject. When he read Kathryn Lindskoog’s early study (a thesis) on his work, C.S. Lewis wrote to her, "You know my work better than anyone else I have met." It is now more than thirty years since Kay had tea with Jack, but his judgement still stands.— Nancy-Lou PattersonScrewtape Strikes A gainC.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Introduction by Richard Gilman (New York: Mentor/New American Library, 1988). 134 pp. ISBN 0-451-62610-9I would imagine that a reader looking for a copy of The Screwtape Letters to tuck in a pocket for easy reference, would be glad to see an edition like this; it contains the original version of 1941 with all of its topical references (and their neces­sary touch, in a fantasy, of verisimilitude), as well as all its endless freshness, its originality, its capacity to touch the quick. Interestingly, it appears in a series entitled "The Best of Britain^ along with Moll Flanders, Silas Marner, and Oliver Twist In other words, it has become a "classic work," pace those who have wondered if Lewis' apologetic works might become passe.In his introduction, Richard Gilman, a Roman Catholic who is author of five books including a "spiritual autobiography,” praises "Lewis’s accounts and exegeses of Christian belief and doctrine" for the "logical nature of his arguments," (p. vii) which may come as a shock to certain quarters. He compares Lewis’ methods to Chesterton’s and Ber­nard Shaw’s for his use of "paradox, irony, and reversal as rhetorical instruments to throw light on what was conventionally opaque or denatured by familiarity." This is true in the 1980’s with our renewed interest in rhetoric as in the 1940’s when a writer was still expected to be logical.Continued on page 59MYTHLORE 54: Summer 1988Foster, Robert. The Complete Guide to Middle-earth. New York: Ballantine, 1978. An invaluable refer­ence work, meticulous and comprehensive.Krupp, Edwin C., ed. In Search of Ancient Astron­omies. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. A series of essays that serve as an introduction to archae­oastronomy. The opinion of the essayists on the astronomical ability of the ancients is very high, on the theories of Velikovsky and Von Daniken snake-belly low.Lockyer, J. Norman. The Dawn of Astronomy: A Study of the Temple-Worship and Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians. London: MacMillan and Co., 1894. Would very likely have been known to Tolkien. Lockyer also did some of the early archaeoastronomical work on Stonehenge.Marsden, Brian G. "Dorothy L. Sayers and the Truth About Lucan." Seven Volume 8 (1987), pgs. 85-96.Meeus, Jean. Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon, and Planets. Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell. Very detailed.Michels, Agnes Kirsopp. The Calendar of the Roman Republic. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967. Technical, specialist scholarly work. Good to demonstrate how easy it isn’t to design and implement a calendar in the real world. Also good for a laugh or two at the Romans’ expense, if you have a weird sense of humor like mine.Neugebauer, 0. Vistas in Astronomy, Vol. One, Arthur Beer, ed. New York: Pergamon Press. Archaeoastronomy, especially Egyptian.O’Neil, William Matthew. Time and the Calendars. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press,1975. Most valuable discussion of the nature of calendars in general, elucidation of the rele­vant astronomical concepts, and description of major ancient and modern calendars.Parise, Frank, ed. The Book of Calendars. New York: Facts on File, 1982. CoverB more ground than above, contains a lot of tabular material. Some information, even by my cursory examina­tion, is inaccurate (i.e. self-contradictory).Sandow, Stuart A. Durations. New York: Times Books, 1977. For the exact length of the year.Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. The Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. Page numbers refer to the hardbound edition (34th printing).---------------- . The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, HumphreyCarpenter, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Referred to by letter number and page.----------------- . The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1987, Collector’s Edition. This is the one-volume version with the "Note on the Text" by Douglas A. Anderson. References are by volume in Roman numerals (a curious holdover from the classic three-volume format, but still useful) and page.---------------- , The Lost Road, Christopher Tolkien, ed.Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Volume V in the ongoing series on the history of the writing of Tolkien’s fiction.----------------- , The Silmarillion. Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1977.---------------- , "The Awakening of the Quendi", unpub­lished ms. known at this point only from notes taken by Dr. Clyde S. Kilby in 1966. Dr. Kilbygave the author copies of these noteB for ana­lysis.Christopher Tolkien has confirmed the authenticity of the ms. in a letter to the author, referring to it as "an Elvish fairy tale"(!), but Mr. Taum Santoski reports to me in mid-1988 that Christopher Tolkien haB not yet located the ms. in his father’s papers.It is important to note that the citation by Dr. Kilby in his notes of the passage quoted indicates that he is summarizing, and not quot­ing verbatim. There is no doubt whatsoever, though, that the substance of his report is cor­rect.Continued from page 18The book, for those who, nearly half a century after it was written, have never read it, contains 31 purported letters from the senior devil Screw- tape to the junior tempter Wormwood, on the proper way to tempt his "patient,” and ordinary young Englishman in the darkest hours of World War II. Screwtape’s infernal advice is always the exact reversal of Christian teaching; he sees everything upside down and inside-out. This, far from being a mere device, becomes more and more penetrating as the book progresses, to the point where (dare I give away the plot?) the patient is saved. (Read it for yourself to find out how!)____________ _________________________________________ Page 59Poor Screwtape: he concludes his arguments in The Screwtape Letters by lamenting, "All that sustains me is the conviction that our Realism, our rejection (in the face of all temptations) of all silly nonsense and claptrap, must win in the end." Not while new editions of Lewis’ trenchant masterpiece come readily to hand!—  Nancy-Lou Patterson'BenefactorsBenefactors support the improvement and outreach of MYTHLORE by making donations beyond the price of subscription. For this much appreciated support they are listed for four issues. You are encouraged to become a Benefactor by writing the Editor, Glen GoodKnight (see page 2).Lloyd Alexander Drexel Hill, PAAngelee Anderson Westminster, CABonnie Callahan Pasadena, CARonald E. Crane Ayer, MAMark Fairfield Pasadena, CAGeorge Faxson Chestnut Hill, MAMichael E. Kochik Des Plains, ILLoretta Gallagher Washington Crossing, PARobert Hall, Jr. Ithaca, NYAlison Lewis Hayward, CAElizabeth Lower Springfield, ILDarrell Martin Wheaton, ILTed Nasmith Toronto, CanadaDiana Pavlac Chicago, ILDean Picton Dania, FLCordelia Sherman Newton, MAMary Shideler Boulder, COWendel Wagner, Jr. Hyattsville, MD

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