tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244060080311485037.post8637132215512526985..comments2023-07-25T05:57:08.683-05:00Comments on A Catholic Reader: Comment on Gilson' s Foreward to City of GodUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244060080311485037.post-1103545464827341132010-02-15T16:39:35.207-06:002010-02-15T16:39:35.207-06:00Jane, thanks for your comment. I'll be writing...Jane, thanks for your comment. I'll be writing more about the medieval use of allegory, which for Christians in those times was as natural as breathing, although it strikes most of us modern folk as rather strange. The average medieval Christian saw the world as being full (quite literally) of signs of God's presence and activity, so really almost anything could be used to signify that presence and activity -- even pagan gods.<br /><br />I have not read the Brueggeman work you mention -- would you recommend it? Why or why not?Lisa Nicholas, Ph. D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17350994312307258539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244060080311485037.post-23611175865237710592010-02-11T08:17:49.471-06:002010-02-11T08:17:49.471-06:00Dear Lisa
I am pleased you have chosen to focus on...Dear Lisa<br />I am pleased you have chosen to focus on this subject. With many others, Lewis' Narnia series has been instrumental in my thinking from a young age and since, as an adult, with the scifi series. <br /><br />I loved Michael’s book, appreciating so much his generous and bold scholarship in pursuing it. I recognised a true revelatory aspect within the concept and feel this is perhaps the kairos time for that revelation to be released. It was wonderful to read, although initially, I too had concerns about pagan gods being mixed into the foundations of the Narniad, although I understood what Michael was saying about how much Lewis loved the medieval literature and drew on it intellectually. <br /><br />I can’t fully say these concerns are allayed as yet but I do believe Lewis was not only intellectually brilliant but a seer for his generation. I think he saw far beyond his own day both backwards into history and forwards into the future. I also suspect he saw beyond where we see normally and was able to imagine and include what he saw in his fiction. (His description of Perelandra and his reference to ‘living jewels’ in The Silver Chair are for me, examples of this.) <br /><br />Focusing back to PN, I remember wondering, while I read Michael's brilliant digging into the Narniad foundations whether, like most fiction authors, Lewis had built these foundations from the beginning and loving medieval perspectives as he did, was perhaps seeking to bring a redemptive perspective to what are clearly pagan stories? <br /><br />Just a thought.<br />Jane<br />P.S. Have you read Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggeman?Janehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14493854641074576762noreply@blogger.com