God as a Friend

Son of Earth, shall we be friends?

(Aslan to Trumpkin, Prince Caspian)

Hopefully everyone has the opportunity to do something for C.S. Lewis reading day. Personally, besides the previous post, I had the chance to listen in to one of the Pints with Jack livestreams (the one that started before Shabbos). I even got to type in some answers which were noted by the hosts. Specifically, I mentioned that Lewis would certainly have considered Jesus as his best friend. And while I think that is true, I do not think the concept of God as friend is at all obvious.

In Prince Caspian, Trumpkin the dwarf plays a major role in establishing Caspian as the head of the rebels against the evil King Miraz. He helps rally the troops, quiet potential arguments, and even goes to search for whatever help may come with the blowing of the horn. Yet, he does not believe in the old stories or in Aslan the son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. It is only upon seeing Aslan with his own eyes is he persuaded at which point Aslan asks him the above question - shall we be friends?

How can someone be friends with God?

This was one of the topics I addressed in an article I wrote that I cited in the last post and Lewis helps us define what this could mean. In The Four Loves, Lewis comments, "Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest." Any love, according to Lewis, requires giving of oneself. What differentiates friendship from other loves is a shared common interest. Hence, to be friends with God one must share an interest with Him.

What interest can be shared with God?

In our world, God and the Jewish people share the quest of spreading the truth of the One God to all of humanity. Hence, Abraham who walks before God, is His friend. Abraham does not need God's to command him to spread His name. It is Abraham's quest as much as it is God's. Noah, to contrast, walks with God. He follows God's commands because God told him to do so. Noah is God's loyal servant, maybe even a son, but he is not God's friend.

In Prince Caspian, the common interest between Aslan and the Old Narnians was freeing Narnia from King Miraz enabling the Old Narnians to return as regular citizens. However, Aslan's interest was that the country should once again be faithful to the morality that he instilled, while others doubted that such morality even existed. That lack of overlap soured the friendship - what good is Narnia without its moral compass?

But Trumpkin learns to be Aslan's friend. He now knows that defeating Miraz is not sufficient and he has taken as his own to restore Narnia to its glory of, not only power and wealth, but of a moral society to be a light to the rest of the world.

Four Facets of the Love of God

Just in time for Rosh HaShanah my article "Four Facets of the Love of God," is now freely available on the Tradition website. While not Narnia related, the article utilizes the categorization and description of C.S. Lewis' "The Four Loves" (with some modifications), but applies them to the God-man relationship. Perhaps soon we'll take some time to discuss further. But for now, enjoy!  

Evil Disguised as Good

After many posts, we have finally identified the true enemy of Narnia, as seen in the Last Battle, and discerned how he operates. The true enemy is the devil, whose name in the world of Narnia is Tash. He operates through subtle trickery, posing as a force of good, taking control of innocent people (and talking beasts), and thus bringing them to evil. In Calormen we see a society that, to a great degree, has fallen to Tash. The society is strictly hierarchical. Children are sold as slaves and into unwanted marriages. Laws are created by the elite but apply only the peasants. Thus, the elite can act with no moral compunction as they are the law, and the peasant can likewise as they know that laws are simply instituted to control them.  

With the ascension of Shift, the process of evil posing as good began in Narnia. The first step was Shift convincing Puzzle that it would be good for society to pretend he was Aslan. This eventually gave Shift ultimate power to determine what was good for everyone. The next step was when the Calormenes (spurred by Tash) arrived on the scene. They provided Shift with the opportunity and excuse (to fill the coffers of “Aslan”) to sell slaves and murder trees all in the name of Aslan. Finally, Tash engineered the final step: conflating himself, evil, with Aslan. Given time to mature this would have eventually caused worship of Aslan to transform into worship of Tash. While the name on the lips of Narnians may have been Aslan (or some derivative), their worship would have been accepted by Tash (just as Emeth's was accepted by Aslan). As it is, Tash had other plans, and Narnia was conquered by those already loyal to him.       

As we saw in our previous post, the N.I.C.E. from That Hideous Strength follow the same pattern. It poses as a force of good for society while slowly taking over and deciding what is good for everyone. N.I.C.E. was also headed (literally) by the devil himself.

The theme of evil posing as good only to then gain the power to define what is good, is found in others of Lewis’ writings. An example is Mrs. Fidget, from the chapter on Affection in Lewis’ “The Four Loves.” Mrs. Fidget, we are told, lived for her family. In fact, she did so much for her family, that it was far beyond what any of them wanted or cared for. And what made it worse is, “They had to help. Indeed, they were always having to help. That is, they did things for her to help her to do things for them which they didn't want done.” One can only imagine Mrs. Fidget thinking what a wonderful mother and wife she was and feeling so superior due to the sacrifices she was making. When, actually, she was tricked into harming her family, performing evil deeds, and was completely governed by pride. 

Given Lewis’ idea of how evil operates, we would assume that true goodness should leave others to be and not do things “for their own good.” This appears explicitly in the aftermath of the first battle for Narnia. After the defeat of the White Witch, the two kings and two queens, “liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to live and let live.” This remarkable statement suggests that even the White Witch, unquestionably evil, was faulted - not only for making it always winter in Narnia and turning the innocent into stone - but also for not letting people do their own thing. 

We'll think a little more about this in our next post.

The Four Loves

My article entitled "Four Facets of the Love of God," was just published in Tradition (behind a pay wall for now). The article is based on C.S. Lewis' "The Four Loves" and attempts to demonstrate how the loves identified by Lewis should be applied to God. 

Any feedback would be most welcome!