sweet-indigo's Full Review: C. S. Lewis - Great Divorce
"I'm having some problems with the doctrine of Hell," I said.
"You should read The Great Divorce," they replied.
After being recommended this book by four separate people - an Anglican, an Evangelical, a vicar's wife and a Universalist - I thought I had to take a look. It's quite a short read, and quite obviously meant to be a fable rather than simply a story, but I still found it very enjoyable.
The book opens with the narrator - who I assume is Lewis himself - waiting in a bus queue in a rainy, miserable town populated with miserable people. The bus departs the town and arrives in a beautiful landscape, so bright and real that the bus passengers are mere ghosts beside it, finding the grass as hard as diamonds beneath their feet. Presently, people arrive, looking as glorious and whole as the landscape, and attempt to persuade the ghosts to come with them.
By this point the reader will understand that this is a parable of Heaven and Hell. Lewis is clear that it is not to be taken literally, and perhaps because of this, the book does not feel preachy or heavy-handed. The narrator being a "ghost" like the occupants of Hell, and occasionally himself seemingly unsettled at the ways of Heaven, there does not seem to be a morally superior tone which I often feel in other Christian writings. The tone is thoughtful and honest.
The picture of Hell manages to be wretched yet somehow comical, a dreary, discordant, bleak, apathetic place, with poor proud souls desperate for ridiculous trifles. It's rather like a perpetual wet Wednesday afternoon. When the pathetic remains of people find themselves in Heaven, they don't seem to understand or grasp the greater glory present. It's very clear that what keeps them from Heaven is not a failing of God's love or even being particularly awful sinners, but pride.
You will recognise the people present - you might even identify them with people you know or even with yourself. Lewis's writing is extremely perceptive - he notes the unforgiving man who would rather hold a grudge than let go and enjoy Heaven, the theologian so obsessed with questioning that he cannot face reality, even the grieving mother who enjoyed her role so much that she became obsessed with her dead child and ignored the living ones. They are not really unlikeable characters - in fact they're so familiar that you'd have to be very uncharitable not to like them, with all their faults. I felt sorry for them, but realised they had dealt their fate on themselves - wallowing in their pain instead of allowing themselves to be healed.
The narrator is helped through Heaven on the strong arm of the Teacher - one George MacDonald, whom Lewis greatly admired. Interestingly, MacDonald was a Universalist, although not one who did not believe in God's judgement. the Teacher makes many of the chief insights in this book, explaining some of the apparently stranger aspects of Heaven. Something I found most intriguing was his explanation of how people in Heaven can be happy with their loved ones in Hell.
Some may consider Lewis's theology a little over-generous - although he does not take the position of a Universalist himself, he does allow within the story a permanently available means of escape from Hell. Hell itself in this story is not demons and pitchforks, but if anything the "everlasting shame and contempt" mentioned in the book of Daniel - self-imposed misery without God.
The most beautiful thing about the book is its picture of healing as being possible, and the clever way it exposes the foolishness of people who would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Lewis's God is no tyrant who throws people into torture chambers for refusing to worship him - in fact the book presents repentance as an act of good sense, like the child who went to sulk in his room finally coming down to say sorry and enjoy time with his family again. God's love is available, and the only thing that can stop us from enjoying it is ourselves.
In The Great Divorce , C.S. Lewis employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory, this time exploring the question of heaven and hell. Using his...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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