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the weight of glory
the weight of glory
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Book: The Weight of Glory
Essay: Is Theology Poetry?
If poetry contains truth in the form of emotions, and imagination, and if such
imaginations are attractive to humans because poetry satisfies these desires to be
emotionally stirred, then does it follow that Theology is simply an emotionally driven
belief system designed to satisfy the imaginations of its followers?
Lewis maintains that if Theology is only poetry, that it isn’t very good. The doctrines of
the faith are described in words that fall short of the warmth and grandeur of poetry.
Lewis in fact describes that “The majestic simplifications of Pantheism and the tangled
wood of Pagan animism both seem to me, in their different ways, more attractive.
Christianity just misses the tidiness of the one and the delicacy of the other.” Lewis
goes on to say that if Christianity is mythology, it is not the kind that he likes best.
The enjoyment of Theology for the Christian comes after it is accepted as true. Poetry
of this kind is the result of belief, not the cause of it. It is poetry because we believe it;
we do not believe it because it is poetry.
There are difficulties for some because of the similarities with other Pagan ideas. Lewis
suggests that if one begins with the assumption that Christianity is false, the
similarities will support such a claim. However if the assumption is that Theology is
true, the similarities point to the fulfillment in Christianity of what humanity has
searched for since the beginning. It is to believe that the sun has risen not simply
because we see it, but because by the sun, everything else becomes visible.
Essay: Is Theology Poetry?
If poetry contains truth in the form of emotions, and imagination, and if such
imaginations are attractive to humans because poetry satisfies these desires to be
emotionally stirred, then does it follow that Theology is simply an emotionally driven
belief system designed to satisfy the imaginations of its followers?
Lewis maintains that if Theology is only poetry, that it isn’t very good. The doctrines of
the faith are described in words that fall short of the warmth and grandeur of poetry.
Lewis in fact describes that “The majestic simplifications of Pantheism and the tangled
wood of Pagan animism both seem to me, in their different ways, more attractive.
Christianity just misses the tidiness of the one and the delicacy of the other.” Lewis
goes on to say that if Christianity is mythology, it is not the kind that he likes best.
The enjoyment of Theology for the Christian comes after it is accepted as true. Poetry
of this kind is the result of belief, not the cause of it. It is poetry because we believe it;
we do not believe it because it is poetry.
There are difficulties for some because of the similarities with other Pagan ideas. Lewis
suggests that if one begins with the assumption that Christianity is false, the
similarities will support such a claim. However if the assumption is that Theology is
true, the similarities point to the fulfillment in Christianity of what humanity has
searched for since the beginning. It is to believe that the sun has risen not simply
because we see it, but because by the sun, everything else becomes visible.
