Journey into the Center of Reality. Moving towards the heavenly goal of spiritual journey according to C. S. Lewis
Abstract
This monograph focuses on a particular understanding of reality and human destiny as it is presented in the writings of C. S.
Lewis. This understanding is (more or less explicitely) expressed in Lewis' popular fiction, but it is also partially articulated in his scholarly works on literary history and in his books on Christian apologetics.
A key element of this understanding is a hierarchical and concentric view of reality, similar to the medieval cosmological model, as it combines Christian trinitarian-monotheistic framework with Neoplatonic thought and Aristotelian-Ptolemaic astronomy. The first part of the monograph summarizes Lewis' view of reality and discusses its most important components and theological implications.
The next two parts focus on several key influences, which helped to shape and develop Lewis' thought in this regard: platonic philosophy, Rudolf Otto's understanding of religious experience, George MacDonald's fantasy works, J. R.
R. Tolkien's theological understanding of imagination and literary art, Owen Barfield's complex idealist philosophy and Charles Williams' understanding of poetic language and its referentiality.
In the next part, the consequences of Lewis' particular understanding of reality and human destiny are discussed: in relation to the objective nature and value of Truth, Goodness and Beauty, in relation to theodicy and supranaturalism, in relation to Lewis' appreciation of medieval cosmology and to his critique of several aspects of contemporary post-Enlightenment Western culture. The last part of this monograph focuses on the complex relation between Lewis' understanding of reality and his eschatology.
It deals with his comprehensive eschatological vision of redeemed universe, including his understanding of heaven and hell, good and evil, salvation, damnation and of the final eschatological destiny of humankind and of all created reality. The main argument of this last part is that Lewis' eschatological vision is an essential element of his particular understanding of reality and of human ultimate destiny.