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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding The Real World Through The Eyes of Lewis, July 20, 2005
"There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven, but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else." The writings of C.S. Lewis have captivated the hearts and minds of many people, even spurring some to belief in the Son of God. He will be brought to the spotlight this fall with the theatrical release of the first Chronicle of Narnia. I've always found The Last Battle, the final volume of the Chronicles, to be the most rousing and magical, because of Lewis' creative perspective of Heaven.
Lewis considered the earthly life the Shadowlands. In Beyond the Shadowlands Wayne Martindale examines Lewis's thoughts on the afterlife, on Heaven and Hell. "In thinking about why I have been afraid of going to Heaven or have desired it so little, I have identified seven myths or false ideas I have held about it at one time or another and that Lewis's thinking has helped dispel." (16) He also examines six myths about Hell that Lewis brought clarity to.
In Part One (one chapter) of Heaven Dr. Martindale shows how Lewis took on each of the seven myths he once held. These include "Heaven Will Be Boring", "What! No Sex?", and "Just a Harp and Crown Trip." In Part Two (six chapters) he highlights Heaven in the fictional works of Lewis. As he puts it, after demythologizing the misconceptions, Lewis brings clarity by remythologizing the truths of Heaven into his writings.
In Part One (one chapter) of Hell Dr. Martindale shows how Lewis dealt with six common myths about Hell including- "A Good God Wouldn't Send Anyone to Hell," "A Physical Hell Would Be Cruel," and "No One Could Be Happy in Heaven Knowing Some Are in Hell." In Part Two (five chapters) he highlights Hell in the fictional works of Lewis.
There is also a chapter dealing with the issue of Purgatory in Lewis's writings followed by an Epilogue. I would say that in the chapter on Purgatory I learned the most about Lewis. I'd assumed that when Lewis mentioned Purgatory he meant in the "Romish" sense (as he put it), but he actually didn't like Rome's doctrine.
While this book is obviously focused on the works of C.S. Lewis, it felt more like a book on Heaven and Hell with a helpful friend pointing out the details and enriching perspectives (Lewis through Martindale). Extensive knowledge of Lewis's works are not required since Martindale sets up each work through summary and reflection. When I picked it up I was afraid that it would be merely a collection of Lewis quotes- that would be easier to read in his books. Quite the contrary, Martindale's created an independent work that brings Lewis back to life for a delightful interview on what really amounts to the good and evil around us. In relation to the growing collection of volumes written on the life and works of C.S. Lewis, Beyond the Shadowlands will long remain as an incredibly significant contribution to our understanding of Lewis.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Guide to Lewis' Portraits of Heaven and Hell, May 1, 2005
I re-read C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles every few years. There's something about Lewis' portrayal of Christ in the Lion, Aslan, that rings truer than any other description save those in the Bible itself. The same is true of Lewis' dramatization of how Christ relates to us, either as people of faith or of unbelief. There's a triumphant scene in "The Last Battle," for example, in which Aslan leaps joyously from one hilltop to the next, leading his followers deeper and deeper into his new creation with shouts of "further up and farther in!" Aslan's subjects experience the new creation as more "real" than the England and Narnia they've recently departed, and realize that they've been longing for this country all their lives. When I read this scene I experience those very pangs of longing for that brighter country, along with the thrill of realizing Christ's love, broader and deeper than I can comprehend, longs even more deeply to fellowship with me in that country.
If, like me, you're a fan of Narnia -- or of any of Lewis' work -- you'll relish Wayne Martindale's wonderful volume, "C.S. Lewis on Heaven and Hell -- Beyond the Shadowlands." Martindale serves as an experienced and loving guide to the landscapes Lewis painted of heaven and hell, primarily in fiction such as the Narnia and Perelandra books and the allegorical Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters.
Martindale's book is divided into two sections -- "Heaven" and "Hell" -- each of which opens with Martindale's summaries of popular "myths" about these destinations. Following the description of these myths, Martindale weaves in summaries from Lewis' work to show how it provides a more accurate and rich portrayal of Heaven and Hell. Once common myth, for example, is that "Heaven will be boring," a saccharine place of clouds, harps and fluffy angel wings. Lewis, in contrast, portrays a paradise that is perfectly real place of active delights, as in Perelandra, when the human character Ransom
"floats on the oceans, finding the water refreshing to drink; enjoys the help of the animals, who delight in aiding him; is dazzled by its colors, including a sky that suggests the aurora Borealis; and discovers a new genus of pleasure in the taste of its fruits and the refreshing baths of the bubble trees. . . ."
As Martindale observes, Lewis' treatment of Hell is equally robust. Heaven, in Lewis' work, is the full realization of human potential as God's image-bearers. In Heaven, people become all they were made to be. Hell, in contrast, is the full realization of the Human choice to reject God. In Hell, people achieve their desire to be "left alone," become something essentially sub-human, and find themselves tormented by that existence.
Martindale illustrates this theme with an episode from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in which Aslan explains to Polly the effect upon Jadis, the White Witch, of stealing a life-giving fruit:
"Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart's desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery, and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it."
For anyone who is troubled by common descriptions of Hell (as I am), Lewis' works are a balm. In Lewis' conception, Hell is not arbitrary. Its punishments are measured, proportionate, and just, and it holds no one within its walls who did not choose to go there.
Martindale obviously feels the same way, and in this lies the one failing of Beyond the Shadowlands. There is something of an Arminian streak in Lewis' thinking about Heaven and Hell, or at least a studied aversion of categories such as "Arminian" and "Calvinist." Even a "soft" Calvinist might wonder how God's sovereignty and human total depravity relate to a concept of Heaven and Hell that relies so heavily on human choices. Martindale recognizes this problem, but doesn't discuss it in any depth. Similarly, Martindale acknowledges a few other aspects of Lewis' thought that might be controversial for many Evangelicals today, including his belief in a sort of purgatory and his hope that some who never hear of Christ might somehow be saved, but does not analyze them thoroughly. It would be a useful and interesting exercise to place Lewis' views on these subjects into a more concrete, historical perspective, and to contrast them with the major positions held by Evangelicals today. But this is not Martindale's purpose, and perhaps that kind of more searching analysis is better deferred to other sorts of books.
What Martindale does provide is an outstanding guide to Lewis' portraits of Heaven and Hell. If the History Channel ever produces a biopic on Lewis and his works, I hope Martindale is the narrator and host. If you've read any of Lewis' fictional and allegorical works, read Martindale's volume and you'll find yourself visiting warm, familiar places with new insight. If you haven't read much Lewis, start with the Narnia Chronicles, follow along with Martindale as you read through the rest, and you'll begin to see the grace of Christ and the life of faith in fresh and pleasant ways.
Note: The book reviewed was provided by Mind & Media as a gift from the publisher.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Considering the Afterlife, July 26, 2005
In my younger years, I read almost all of the popular books C. S. Lewis wrote; and in the last several years, I've given many of them another run-through as my own children grow interested in them. Circumstances, too, have caused me to spend a lot of time recently thinking about the afterlife. I was pleased, then, to be given the chance to read and review a book that parallels my own interests so closely.
What did I learn? Well, for one thing, I understood more fully how extensively my reading of Lewis influenced my own view of the afterlife, particularly when it comes to how I envision heaven. For a long time, I've considered the fleeting experiences of true loveliness that we have in this life to be a brief glimpses into the heavenly realm; and the longing we have because those glimpses are lost so quickly is, deep down, a longing for the everlasting beauty of heaven. Heaven will give us what we long for; and the breathtaking beauty of a wilderness landscape, or a haunting piece of music, or even those moments when husband and wife understand and love each other so deeply that it hurts, point not to the beautiful wilderness itself or the music or the love, but beyond those things to the reality of heaven, when we will experience forever, always, steadily, the quality of perfect fulfillment for which those moments are but the briefest hints. These glimpses of heaven and the longing they cause are a theme found throughout Lewis's work.
Many of the other ideas I have about heaven may well have come from Lewis's writings, too. One of the things about myths and mythical stories is that we learn things without being so aware of it. They speak to us at a level below (or, more likely, above) the analytical one, and something that would have taken pages to explain to us in a didactic sort of writing--and even then we would not have gotten the heart of the matter--we understand fully, deeply, within our souls, with just one image. That's the greatest strength of imaginative stories: Through them we see and feel and know what we might not understand so completely otherwise.
And I suppose that's where the danger of mythical stories lies as well. It's easy for an imaginative image of things heavenly or hellish to become part of how we see the real heaven and hell without any thought on our part as to whether they are actually a helpful sort of image. Even when the image was meant to convey something right about heaven or hell, we may give little thought to whether the idea we carry away from that image is the correct one. For instance, in our mind's eye, we may see heaven as streets of gold and white angels and harps. If we take from that image the idea that heaven is a rich place, a pure place, and a joyful place, then the image has served us well enough, for it has conveyed real truth about the real heaven to us. If we see the image of golden streets, angels and harps, and we think "How unbearably boring!", then the image has not worked to give us the right idea about the real heaven, which will be the most exciting place ever--the sort of place for which all the Christmas celebrations and birthday parties and thrilling trips of our life have been the palest shadows.
Martindale shows us how C. S. Lewis has remythologized heaven and hell in his work. Lewis's work can help us see which of the ideas we have about the afterlife are wrong, and give us new myths to help us understand things more as they might be. Of course, we need to examine Lewis's myths as well to see if they are helping us grasp heaven as it really is or not. Martindale points to a few places where Lewis might have let what pleased his imagination stand over against what might be reasonably gleaned from scripture. Sometimes, perhaps, Lewis too easily let his love for an idea persuade him of the rightness of it.
There are times, too, when Martindale seems to accept the correctness of Lewis's thoughts when I wouldn't. For instance, there's the idea that predestination is simply historical events seen from the viewpoint of a timeless* God, who sees all of history laid out before him in one glance, and things that from our viewpoint are yet to come into reality are forever existing from his vantage point. It seems to me that this idea misses the boat because it misses the point that God intends to convey when he tells us that something was planned before the foundation of the world. When scripture tells us that something was predestined or planned outside of time, it is not telling us merely that God views that event "timelessly," and thus it is really a done deal before (or outside of) the experience of it by timelocked creatures; rather, it is also telling us something about the logical cause of that event. That event happens in time because God planned it, and God's plan brings it to pass. There may be other causes as well, like the choices of creatures in time, but the first cause is God's thought.
However, this is just a very minor quibble in comparison to the strength of the whole of this book. If you've read several books by C. S. Lewis, you'll probably find this book fascinating. All of his ideas about the afterlife gathered together in one book makes for a thrilling read. You'll be reminded why you long for the real heaven--a longing that is, above everything else, a longing for God himself. If you haven't read much from C. S. Lewis, I suggest you remedy that as soon as you can, and then read this book. We would all do well to think more on the substance of heaven and hell, for those who see the reality of the unseen--who, like the ancients, "desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one"--are those who live more nobly--more faithfully--upon this earth.
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