PhelanVelvel wrote:It seems that Lewis was trying to rationalise his religion through his writing, and this is no exception. Even within christianity, if we're to use the bible as the basis for its doctrine, I struggle to find any compelling evidence of purgatory therein. The passage that is used to support the idea states " If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."
I think St. Paul may have been building on other themes present in the Bible with that passage, though. For instance, the
concept of refining fire is found in the Old and New Testaments. There is also
Mark 9:43-50, which seems to say (at least from my perspective) that there are those who either freely cast their sins into the fire and are thus purified, or those who are unwilling to let go of their sins and instead go with them into the fire. In that way, everyone will be "salted with fire." (Salt being a metaphor for purification.)
Phelan wrote:I'm having a hard time understanding how people made the jump from that to imagining this state of in-between death and purity of the soul where you literally burn in some kind of fire (or other painful torment).
I'm not an expert on Lewis's theology and I'm having a hard time digging up a quote to substantiate this impression, but my general understanding is that Lewis believed Hell was a state of psychological torment, not physical torture. It also may not even seem like torment to those who are experiencing it because they're so wrapped up in themselves, i.e. the blind and deaf Dwarfs in Aslan's Country. Obviously, they were not
happy, but their misery was entirely due to their own self-absorption and not some sort of external punishment imposed upon them.
Phelan wrote:From my understanding, the "baptism by fire" is more an invention of modern saints, and I wonder what limit can be put on such invention before people begin to wonder who is really right about what "God" wants.
Do you mean that the purgatorial interpretation of "baptism by fire" is a modern invention? The idea of baptism by fire itself is present in the Bible, in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and it prefaces the coming ministry of Jesus. This is
what Matthew wrote, quoting John the Baptist:
"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."Phelan wrote:I think it's not in The Last Battle, frankly, because Lewis didn't like it. He chose all the best parts of his religion and removed all the unpleasant, hateful ones and put them in the Chronicles, which is why people like me are able to enjoy them.
We kind of have to define what we mean by "his religion", though. Lewis strikes me as a man who became a Christian on his own terms; he studied the Bible, read many viewpoints on it, and eventually made up his own mind about how to view a lot of aspects of Christianity. (This would explain why we see him espousing more unusual views like purgatory.) While Lewis may have toned things down in CoN, seeing as they were children's books, I think he was also honest about his personal faith and views as well. At least, I can't think of anything I know about his own Christianity that he deliberately left out of the Chronicles because it wasn't "cozy" enough.
Phelan wrote:Only Aslan suffers, not the individual, which strikes me as similar to the belief that Jesus' death on the cross was purgatory enough for everyone; one of the many interpretations of purgatory I've read.
Hmm, that's possible! I'll have to give it some thought, though. Lewis seemed to be closer to the Christus Victor/Ransom theories of atonement, rather than Penal Substitution; that's primarily my reason for giving pause.
As I think about it, it also seems to me that it's not improbable to think that the Dwarfs might have been in Lewis's purgatory, because they were still just sitting on the grass after Peter closed the door to Narnia. No streaming into a shadow for them. It's quite possible that, with time, they would learn to open their eyes and ears to something other than themselves.