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Talk:C. S. Lewis

24 bytes added, 12:37, August 6, 2005
An Anonymous Orthodox?
I appreciate the comments by [[User:Gavril_Berkowitz]] and I definitely think they're going in the right direction. Maybe this will help the folks who have voiced some concerns understand why this section is here and why Lewis is included in OrthodoxWiki. I'm mulling over the comments though, and I think they need some balance. The charicature of Roman Catholic teaching is too simple, the characterization of Protestants is too broad, ignoring differences both within and among Protestant churches. I'm also concerned that the comments on hell are not really correct. E.g. according to my understanding of both Lewis and Orthodoxy, hell (i.e. Gehennah, the final state of the damned) is much more than "a state of mind". Although used by some modern Greek theologians (e.g. ''The River of Fire'') to portray a sharp division between Eastern and Western teachings on soteriology and eschatology, [[Apocatastasis]] should not simply be taken as classical Orthodox teaching (this was an eccentric view not taught by most of the Fathers. One notable exception is St. Isaac of Ninevah, who was not technically Orthodox anyway), and the idea of divine retribution is absent neither from Holy Scripture nor from the Fathers of the Church (John Chrysostom being a prime - and very mainstream - example). The thesis cited on Lewis' universalism has some problems of it's own that need to be addressed - I do not believe it is a reliable resource in a number of significant ways. I'll try to make some incisive edits to address my own concerns, but in any case I think we're off to a good start with this section. Any comments? Thanks, [[User:FrJohn|Fr. John]]
*This is Gavvy. I would certainly appreciate you making my discussions of catholic and protestant theology more nuanced, Fr. John. That said, What I am saying about C. S. Lewis is true, and anyone would see it if you move back and forth from MacDonald to Lewis. Although the Orthodox do NOT say that hell is a state of mind, Lewis does explicitly in "The Great Divorce" and "Mere Christianity." As for Apocatastasis ton panton, it is pretty common among the Greek fathers, Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil, Maximos, as well as among modern theologians, Lossky, Bulgakov, etc.Finally, the Master's Thesis on Lewis is right on the mark, but no doubt could be corrected in places, but I honestly could not tell you where.
::Hi Gavvy, it's good to hear from you. Just a couple notes for now: 1. Regarding ''The Great Divorce'' and Lewis' theology, there is a problem of genre. Just because something is stated there does not necessaily mean he held to it literally. 2. I'm wary of apocatastasis not only because it was condemned by the church in it's full form in the teachings of Origen, and not only because of it's modern revival since Hans Urs von Balthasar's work ''Dare we hope for the salvation of all?'', and not because I delight in the thought of "eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord" (I Thes 1.9), but chiefly because I don't see how it squares with Holy Scripture. This is why Chrysostom and the less speculative theologians reject it, and I'm convicted to stand with them. I also think that a notion of Orthodoxy which excludes all sense of judgment can only be one-sided -- hence my suspicion of "The River of Fire" kind of stuff. Anyway, that's the thinking that motivated my comments. I'm sure many will disagree with me.

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