The Soul's Battle Psychomachia and C.S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was an Irish-born, Oxford-bred scholar and author. Known to some as a critic and medievalist, he has won greater fame as a lay theologican and writer of popular fiction. In three decades of authorship, he published several dozen volumes, including essays, major criticism, space fantasies, children's tales, autobiography, poetry, myth, allegory, apologetics, and correspondence. All of these, except for the scholarly works, have established his reputation as darling of "mere Christains" and self-styled apostle to the skeptics. Since his conversion in 1929, Lewis has waged constant war against the Spirit of the Age in the valley of Modernism. Steeped in classic and medieval tradition, he had a Chestertonian flair for presenting the Christian faith with a disarming freshness of style. He made it his mission to uphold the standard of the Church Militant against the shifting winds of doctrine. The term "dynamic," he remarked, "is one of the words invented by this age which sums up what it likes and I abominate." At the least, he ranks among the most celebrated anachronisms of our time. As Lewis has become almost a cult figure in some circles, he has provoked a rash of adoring criticism, with a corresponding hostility from the other side. But a few serious and balanced studies have appeared, and readers now have access to an authorized biography by Roger L. Green and Walter Hooper. Our bibliography lists the chief critical works on Lewis, with a short commentary on each. C.S. Carnell, Richard Cunningham, Charles Moorman, and Chad Walsh are especially recommended. But this study will approach Lewis from an angle which, to my knowledge, has not been previously explored. It will place him in the context of a traditional Christian form, the psychomachia, which after a long and varied history had fallen into neglect. The name psychomachia derives from a fifth century allegorical poem by Prudentius. It may be translated as "The Fight for Mansoul" (H.J. Thomsom, after Bunyan), or in less archaic terms, "The Soul's Battle." The authors of psychomachia view life as a spiritual war fought by, for, and within the human soul. Its standard forms are the conflict of Vices and the antagonism of God and Satan, or their representatives. The nature of this theme demands an allegorical or symbolic format, and implies some measure of tension between dogmatic and aesthetic aims. Lewis exemplifies both the militant outlook and the symbolic form, as well as the ambivalent intentions, characteristic of psychomachia. Because this theme has received scant critical attention, our study will require a fairly extensive background. The first chapter introduces the reader to Lewis through a study of symbolic form in his theory practice. It deals with a number of topics essential to an understanding of psychomachia: the practice of covert evangelism, the relation of form to content in Christian art, the tension between rational and romantic tendencies, the nature of religious language, and the different symbolic modes at the writer's disposal. The distinctions and inter-relations of myth, fantasy, symbolism, and allegory are explored. In the second chapter, the theory and history of psychomachia are discussed, with emphasis on three seminal figures in the tradition: St. Paul, Prudentius, and Bunyan. Since no comprehensive study of the psychomachia has been published, this material is drawn from various sources. The outline is meant to be schematic rather than exhaustive. Chapter III completes our background with a look at the factors in Lewis' career, temperament, and style which made the psychomachia a fitting vehicle for his talents. His two autobiographies, apologetic works, and early fantasies (The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce) provide ample material for such an analysis. The remaining sections deal with Lewis' fiction in the light of psychomachia. His well-known space trilogy, comprised of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength, develops the theme of spiritual warfare on cosmic, social, and personal planes, which are first juxtaposed and then combined in increasingly complex forms. The motif of existential choice, inexorably pulling the subject toward Hell or Heaven, emerges as a major theme. In the Chronicles of Narnia, known to most literate parents, a number of psychomachia are embedded in the picaresque framework of the series. Aslan, the Christlike lion, appears in all seven tales as a touchstone of spiritual adventure. The last novel Lewis wrote, Till We Have Faces, is a single and richly complex psychomachia based on a classical myth. Despite the diversity of form, Lewis' oeuvre is all of a piece, unified by his pervasive and outspoken faith. As one critic writes, "There is no need to read a 'world and life view' into or out of Lewis's fiction: it stares us in the face." That view should become apparent in the course of this study, as each work casts its light on all the rest. It is also hoped that, in connection with the psychomachia, two related facets of Lewis' work will emerge. One of these is the extent of medieval influence on his thought. It appears in his rationalism, his penchant for symbolism and allegory, his attempts to harmonize Christianity with classical thought, his theocentric, teleological world view, his perception of sin, and his emphasis on last things: death and judgment, Heaven and Hell. Specific analogues and debts to medieval literature will be observed from time to time. In the second place, the Oxford milieu in which he lived and worked was equally conducive to psychomachia. One reviewer describes it as a "combative and rumbustious ethos, confident in its power to intrigue and provoke opinion." Two of Lewis' closest friends, J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams, also wrote novels in the tradition of psychomachia, and had a considerable influence on him. Their theories will cast a faint silhouette over these pages.--leaves i-iii.