Section 2 The Medieval Mind, Narnia, and the Ransom Trilogy

Question 1

Post-modernism with de Saussure

Answer 1

the “tyranny of language” (deconstruction); including Scriptural language

Question 2

Ogden and Richards

Answer 2

words don’t correspond to reality (a disconnect between words and things

Question 3

Marxism

Answer 3

all words are products of your social environment

Question 4

Lewis (on value of words)

Answer 4

words correspond to reality, the hero is a philologist, even the Marxist view is a product of its jaundiced view of reality

Question 5

The Fall

Answer 5

disconnect between God and mankind, mankind and nature, matter and spirit (and so also words and things)

Question 6

Lewis on medievalism

Answer 6

the medieval person saw a unity between matter and spirit; reason and imagination can close that gap

Question 7

Medievalism was opposed to the rationalism and scientism of Lewis’s day

Answer 7

It is no longer acceptable to refer to the Middle Ages as “the dark ages.”

Question 8

The Sources of Medievalism

Answer 8

The King Arthur stories, Chaucer, Beowulf, The Romance of the Rose, Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica , Dante’s Divine Comedy

Question 9

The Attraction of Medievalism

Answer 9

Its artistic and aesthetic splendor
The personalized society
The sense of order and hierarchy (e.g., Aquinas)
The bond between church, monarchs, and aristocracy (e.g., Dante)
A chivalric society tied to land and nature (e.g., King Arthur)
JH: A language that reflects reality

Question 10

Lewis’ Medievalism

Answer 10

“Renaissance”
The Allegory of Love (1936)—medieval love poetry
The Discarded Image (1964)—the medieval mind
Narnia (and the Ransom Trilogy) recovers some of that.

Question 11

What is medieval in Lewis’s fiction?

Answer 11

Language, dress, polity, geography & transportation, weaponry, cosmology, customs, creatures, astronomy, and clothing

Question 12

What is Medieval in Narnia

Answer 12

Language, Clothing, Polity, Geography, Cosmology, Astrology, Cartography, Buildings, Transportation, Weaponry, Creatures, Deities, Customs, Education

Question 13

Three Pitfalls in Medieval Studies

Answer 13

Unique: They did not pursue originality.
Monolithic: Ballad and romance (i.e. King Arthur) were minor points.
Inferior: Their ideals (courtesy, heroism, chivalry, kingship, etc.) have suffered decline with the passing of the Middle Ages. Chronological snobbery is the cause.

Question 14

Medieval Order of Space

Answer 14

Earth at the center, motionless
Surrounded by seven hollow, concentric globes
Lowest globe was the moon (next slide)
Then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the sphere of the Fixed Stars
Then the Primum Mobile
Then the Empyrean, or true Heaven
For example, Dante’s Divine Comedy

Question 15

Nine classes of angels

Answer 15

Seraphim closest to God
Cherubim look God-ward
Thrones contemplate the Divine essence; unconcerned with the created universe; associated with heat, burning

Dominations face God with backs to earth
Virtues responsible for general order of Nature
Powers potentially active

Principalities deal with destiny of nations
Archangels deal with individuals
Angels deal with individuals

Question 16

What is the advantage of having C. S. Lewis as one of the characters in the narrative of Perelandra?

Answer 16

no answer

Question 17

What biblical issues are addressed in chapter 2?

Answer 17

no answer

Question 18

How is faith illustrated in the book?

Answer 18

no answer

Question 19

How are the floating islands a parable of reality in Perelandra?

Answer 19

no answer

Question 20

What do you think is the symbolism of the coffin?

Answer 20

no answer

Question 21

How is beauty portrayed in Perelandra?

Answer 21

no answer

Question 22

What does Ransom mean when he says, “Oh, don’t you see . . . that there’s a difference between a trans-sensuous life and a non-sensuous life?” (p. 163)

Answer 22

no answer

Question 23

Why is Ransom hesitant to have more fruit, if it tastes so good?

Answer 23

no answer

Question 24

Why does Lewis say of the yellow globe fruits that Ransom could never say “whether it was sharp or sweet, savoury or voluptuous, creamy or piercing”? (p. 36 in the original book)

Answer 24

no answer

Question 25

What is meant by the Green Lady’s comment, “…in your world Maleldil first took Himself this form, the form of your race and mine”?

Answer 25

Jesus was born a man.

Question 26

What is said of free will in chapter 5?

Answer 26

no answer

Question 27

What is the impact of “young” and “old” in the Green Lady’s speech?

Answer 27

The Lady uses the ideas of “young” and “old” in terms of proper knowledge. She is younger than Ransom when it comes to breadth of perspective and knowledge of multiple viewpoints. However, the Unman (demon-possessed Weston) has a vast amount of knowledge but is younger because it is all misapplied. This is not a temporal relation but one in terms of “Spirit”.

Question 28

How is the temptation of Digory like the temptation of the Green Lady in Perelandra?

Answer 28

Firstly it is the original temptation of that particular world. The temptation is offered by one given over already to evil.

Question 29

What parallels exist between the creation of Narnia and the creation account in Genesis?

Answer 29

That the very word (song) of God was the power of creation.

Question 30

What does the garden on the high hill remind you of

Answer 30

Eden

Question 31

How does Digory learn the importance of honesty and confession of sin?

Answer 31

The Lion is before him, and while he tries to lie the Lion catches him on it, compelling him to be honest and confess what he had done.

Question 32

How does Digory learn obedience? How does he grow morally? How is the witch the opposite of Digory? How does Digory’s choice result in greater blessing than a selfish choice would have brought?

Answer 32

Because he obeyed Aslan, his efforts blessed Narnia and his world. He learned to deal with temptation. The witch however gave into temptation with great zeal. Aslan tells Digory that if he had given into temptation, the apple would have brought him nothing but sadness and destruction.

Question 33

What is the role of the housemaid?

Answer 33

To care for Digory’s mother.

Question 34

What role does curiosity play?

Answer 34

It starts the story (curiosity about each other, about the crawlspace, about the pools, about the bell), and it causes our sin by tempting Digory in Charn.

Question 35

What role does the cage in Narnia in which Uncle Andrew is housed play?

Answer 35

The trap of sin and the rejection of the Holy Spirit.

Question 36

How does a small thing cause a great thing?

Answer 36

The witch ate an apple which bans her from the garden for a long time. The planting of the apple in Narnia protects the country from the witch for 100 years.

Question 37

How is a greater good created out of evil?

Answer 37

Because in time the witch will kill Aslan, only to be defeated.

Question 38

Who was Mrs. Lefay?

Answer 38

Mrs. Lefay was the godmother of Andrew Ketterley who was known to be of fairy descent. Though she passed away long before travel began between Earth and Narnia, she did play a vital role in starting it off.

Question 39

How does Uncle Andrew offer a double standard

Answer 39

A rule for the mighty and “elite”, and rules for the common people.

Question 40

What is “the deplorable word”?

Answer 40

The magic word by which the world of Charn was destroyed.

Question 41

What book/poem was the basis of Perelandra?

Answer 41

John Milton’s Paradise Lost furnished the basic plot.

Question 42

Lewis’s main theme in Perelandra

Answer 42

The question is …how can a totally free person, without unfair manipulation by God, spontaneously carry out what God most desires, and find herself a destiny which God fully intends”

Question 43

Themes

Answer 43

Faith, Beauty, Pleasure, Temptation, Transcendence.
The Gospel: “It is not for nothing that you are named Ransom.”
The Gospel: “I will tell you what …”
If Ransom is Christ, what is his birth, baptism, temptation, death, resurrection, and ascension?