C.S. Lewis, best known for his works The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, liked to stir the water on some hot-button topics in the Christian world. The late apologist has earned his spot, rightfully so, in the apologist hall of fame. However, one of his lesser known writings, The Great Divorce, shows us a side of his theology that most Protestants would deem heretic. The question many wonder; did C.S. Lewis believe in Purgatory?
Let’s dive into a lesser-known book by Lewis, The Great Divorce. From this work we can learn a lot concerning Lewis’s imagination pertaining to the afterlife. I admit, and which is clearly stated by Lewis in the preface of the book. The Great Divorce is not meant to be a projection of what Lewis believes to take place after one’s death. Lewis wrote this concerning his work, The Great Divorce,
“I beg readers to remember that this is a fantasy. It has of course-or I intended it to have-a moral. But the transmortal conditions are solely an imaginative supposal: they are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually await us. The last thing I wish is to arouse factual curiosity about the details of the after-world.”
However, while I do agree the book’s focus is the condition of the human soul relating to sanctification. I believe his fiction work does indeed entertain his imaginations of life after death, an “imaginative supposal”. I will err on the side of caution not to bend Lewis's beliefs.
When we step back and examine the archive of Lewis's writings in its incredible vastness. I feel like the novella Leaf By Niggle could also apply to Lewis's dedication to theology. Leaf by Niggle is a novella written by J.R.R. Tolkien believed to be a story of Tolkien’s creative process and dedication to the creation of Middle Earth. The point is like the Tolkien’s work Lewis obsessed over every little leaf (every single detail of his writings). The only way to get the best view of his theology is to step back and examine the whole canvas.
I want to focus on a few of Lewis's works and how they tie together to highlight Lewis's imaginative depiction of the afterlife. First, The Pilgrim's’ Regress, a beautiful allegory of Lewis's journey to his faith in Christ. Second, The Last Battle, the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia series. Thirdly, Letters to Malcolm , a dialogue between Lewis and a fictional character Malcolm, similar style to the Screwtape Letters (essentially Lewis talking to himself). Lastly, The Great Divorce, which is the foundation of this piece.
I will open with a passage from Lewis's work, Letters to Malcolm.
‘On the traditional Protestant view, all the dead are damned or saved. If they are damned, prayer for them is useless. If they are saved, it is equally useless. God has already done all for them. What more should we ask?
But don't we believe that God has already done and is already doing all that He can for the living? What more should we ask? Yet we are told to ask.
"Yes," it will be answered, "but the living are still on the road. Further trials, developments, possibilities of error, await them. But the saved have been made perfect. They have finished the course. To pray for them presupposes that progress and difficulty are still possible. In fact, you are bringing in something like Purgatory."
Well, I suppose I am. Though even in Heaven some perpetual increase of beatitude, reached by a continually more ecstatic self-surrender, without the possibility of failure but not perhaps without its own ardours and exertions--for delight also has its severities and steep ascents, as lovers know--might be supposed. But I won't press, or guess, that side for the moment. I believe in Purgatory.’
Moving forward I would like to tie in his other fiction works to show you why I believe, The Great Divorce is his imaginative depiction of the afterlife (the Purgatory portion). Remember, Lewis is not making claim to enlightenment of any sort, just to clear the air.
Let’s shift our focus to Lewis's fiction work, The Last Battle. It would be an uphill battle to argue that Lewis's theology did not spill into his beloved Narnia series. Although he was never forward about it, his theology shaped the Narnians and their world.
Reading through the Narnia books I often find strong parallels to his theology especially in two books particular, The Silver Chair and The Last Battle. What I found intriguing was unlike the other books in the Narnia series, The Last Battle pulls it’s theology mainly from one source, The Great Divorce. Let’s examine a few of them. This first parallel will set the tone of my whole theory.
This scene in The Great Divorce is George Macdonald, Lewis's guide, having a conversation with Lewis about his present state of existence.
Mac: “Do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give.”
Lewis: “A Dream? Then-then-am I not really here, Sir?”
Mac: “No Son, It is not so good as that. The bitter drink of death is still before you. Ye are only dreaming. And if ye come to tell of what ye have seen, make it plain that it was but a dream. See ye make it very plain. Give no poor fool the pretext to think ye are claiming knowledge of what no mortal knows. I’ll have no Swedenborgs and no Vale Owens among my children.”
Now let’s examine what I believe is his parallel in The Last Battle. It’s a brief scene, but one that describes the same undertone. The character is Narnia’s last king in a dream-like state,
“And immediately he was plunged into a dream (if it was a dream) more vivid than any he had had in his life.”
In this small reference, I believe Lewis is making ties to The Great Divorce. Now, am I saying Lewis had a vision? No.
“See ye make it very plain. Give no poor fool the pretext to think ye are claiming knowledge of what no mortal knows. I’ll have no Swedenborgs and no Vale Owens among my children.”
The question we need to ask is, who is Swedenborg?
Emanuel Swedenborg was a theologian in the early 1700s who claimed to have visions from God which gave him enlightenment; that’s the cliff notes version.
Lewis was restating the stance he made in the preface of the book, making sure his audience did not read further into his story (in a sense he claimed to have knowledge of the afterlife). He did not want to be painted in the same light as Emanuel Swedenborg.
I don’t want to move away from the main point though, Lewis having a vivid dream or even a vision, I dare say, is not the focus. The focus is his stance on Purgatory. Is it reflected in his work The Great Divorce? I referenced the parallel above because it comes in chapters preceding more obvious parallels between the Great Divorce and The Last Battle.
The setting of The Great Divorce and the last few chapters of The Last Battle are remarkably similar. The characters in both fiction works behave in similar manners as well.
The parallels are as follows:
GD: Lewis appears in a grassy meadow at on the foothills of Heaven.
LB: Just after the end of the world (Narnian world). The main Narnian protagonists enter a door and they appear on a grassy meadow on the foothills of Aslan’s Country.
GD: Lewis was told God resided on the mountain. His main goal was to travel up the mountain to meet with him.
LB: Aslan’s Country was upon the mountain, Aslan told the protagonists to travel further up and further in.
GD: Not all characters wished to climb the mountain and meet with God. They could not let go of their personal hindrances. Either it was their disbelief and or harden hearts, they chose to go back to Greytown.
LB: The drawfs represented the stubborn characters who wished not to meet Aslan. Therefore they wandered around in their self-pity. The did not climb the mountain to be with Aslan.
These are the few similarities that I’ve noticed when reading and re-reading the two books. So why is this important?
I want to point out that both scenarios take place in a state of the afterlife. This is in no way a clear indicator of Lewis making a hard statement. However, when his fictional characters play-out after death scenarios in different books they’re similar.
Furthermore, we need to plug in one more factor into this equation, George Macdonald. Lewis had a strong admiration for MacDonald. Lewis wrote this concerning MacDonald,
"I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him."
He also said this concerning MacDonald,
“I know hardly any other writer who seems closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ himself.”
It would seem that Lewis from these quotes that Lewis not only admired MacDonald as a writer, but also a theologian.
George MacDonald was a theologian in the late 1800s. He was widely deemed a heretic for his eternal optimistic view. He believed that all souls will be won over by the grace of God. That no one shall perish, but the mercy of Christ will eventually win every soul. The kicker about MacDonald’s theology is that for this theory to be plausible, humans must have the ability to have free will after death. Which means the Protestant view of free will after death is challenged.
Interestingly enough, MacDonald's theology plays well into the story line of The Great Divorce and The Last Battle. The characters enter into an afterlife-like state and continue to choose whether or not they’d like to pursue God. Furthermore, Lewis intertwines MacDonald into The Great Divorce as one of the main characters.
Two things that are important to note. One, The Great Divorce’s Purgatory-like state is not what Catholics believe. The Purgatory-like state which Lewis creates is more aligned to what would support MacDonald’s theology. Two, Lewis was not an eternal optimist like MacDonald, he believed souls could end up in Hell permanently.
Although Lewis, like most people, struggled with the idea of Hell. In the Pilgrim’s Regress, he attempts to wrap his head around why it exists. At the end of the Pilgrim’s Regress, he writes this poem on his thoughts,
“God in His mercy made the fixèd pains of Hell. That misery might be stayed. God in His mercy made, Eternal bounds and bade, Its waves no further swell. God in his mercy made the fixèd pains of Hell.”
In Lewis's mind, Hell exists to house all the evil. It was in God’s mercy that he created a place where the horrors of wickedness were bound to. Not a place directly created to punish the wicked. It was made to bind the evil which exists.
This does not mean that there won't be punishment in Hell. Lewis paints the picture of self-inflicted punishment. The idea that everyone who ends up in that eternal state chose it, by their rejection of Christ. The misery of not being connected with God is enough to drive anyone mad, which is part of the anguish of the eternal fire.
The misery matches the characters mentality portrayed in the Great Divorce very well. In The Great Divorce Lewis arrives on the foothills of heaven with many others. All the characters which are followed in the storyline end up turning back from their journey to see God. They all have a personal hindrance that won’t allow them to continue. They believe their selfish matters are of more importance and ultimately don’t continue their journey up the mountain. They end up spiraling further away from God into self-inflicted misery. They’re doomed to fade into deep darkness in the prison of their mind.
Much like this interaction between Aslan and the drawfs (mentioned earlier) in The Last Battle,
"They will not let us help them," Aslan explained. "They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own mind, yet they are in that prison, and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out."
The Great Divorce and the Pilgrim's Regress run parallel on the theology of Hell. I do believe Lewis held to Biblical teachings of Hell. He just highlighted the worst part of Hell is not physical anguish but a spiritual, caused by eternal separation from the Father.
It’s one of the main themes in The Great Divorce which also can be seen in both The Pilgrim’s Regress and The Last Battle. All these fiction works touch on the afterlife in one way or another.
To the overall question at hand; did Lewis reflect his idea of a Purgatory-like state in The Great Divorce?
I don’t believe in the slightest Lewis wrote The Great Divorce from a vision he had. This is why he made such a blunt warning to the reader not to look further into the story. I don’t even believe he wrote it to make a claim on the existence of Purgatory. I do believe he wrote it to entertain his imagination of the Purgatory process. More so, I believe he wrote it to illustrate the condition of the human soul and the process of purification.
Focusing on the Purgatory idea. Looking at his admiration for MacDonald who would’ve supported the idea of free-will after death. Not to mention his close friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien who was a Catholic. His writings, fiction they may be, seem to entertain the idea of free-will after death, even if it be a fictional death. In his book, Letters to Malcolm, he wrote, “I believe in Purgatory”.
I didn’t even get into the Taarkan man in Aslan’s Country. Am I right? (That one is for the Narnia lovers.)
Yet, Lewis was brilliant, the master of apologetics, and the standard of all Christian fiction. The Scripture is infallible but those who read it aren’t, though this does not dismiss the seriousness of misinterpretation.
To wrap up my thoughts on Lewis. In no way should we condemn him a heretic. We of the Faith owe him a considerable debt for his contribution to Christian theology. Yet, I do believe he loved to entertain his imagination and it showed in his fiction works.