Longenecker’s Conflict
Inside Catholic’s got an interesting PIECE by Father Dwight Longenecker about what he percieves as the differences between Tolkien and Lewis.
The difference between Narnia and Middle Earth points to the underlying difference between the imagination of Lewis the Protestant and Tolkien the Catholic. For the Protestant, truth is essentially dialectical. It consists of abstract propositions to be stated, argued, and affirmed or denied.
For the Catholic, Truth, while it may be argued dialectically, is essentially something not to be argued but experienced. The Truth is always linked with the mystery of the incarnation, and is therefore something to be encountered.
I’m not sure I agree with all of that. The piece seems intent on creating an opposition between the two writers based on their religious beliefs, and that’s problematic to my mind.
I know Longenecker’s not trying to say “Tolkien Good, Lewis Bad,” but it does come across as “Tolkien Catholic (so, good), Lewis Protestant (so, less good).” And I think that has a lot more to do with taste than with the works themselves.
Longenecker’s “hot tub point” simply isn’t true for me. I find myself more moved by Lewis (both emotionally and rationally) than by Tolkien. Does that make me a Protestant? Or does it just mean that I prefer Lewis’ style and approach?
Nor do I think comparing The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings is particularly fair. The Space Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings, perhaps. But I don’t think Tolkien ever wrote anything intended for as young an audience as Lewis’ Chronicles. Some of the “simplicty” should be attributed to that, right?
He’s sticking his neck out too far. Your last point about the intended audience is the best one.
Tolkien did write the Hobbit more for children, so that part is fair. But on the bit about “experience” vs. “propositions”, maybe we should take Lewis’s _Till We Have Faces_ as a point of comparison. My read is that propositions kind of break down at the end of that story.
But when it comes to the Narnia chronicles, I think it only fair to say that Lewis got better with time. _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ is a great allegory but nowhere near as good a novel as the later volumes; if Tolkien based his criticisms off of this first publication, then I would have to agree with him for the most part.
Oh, and let me just add one thing.
The Protestant v. Catholic difference seems ridiculous to me. Are we going to say that propositions and reasoning are only for Protestants? Haven’t we heard enough bad homilies about “experiencing” our faith? And weren’t great allegories written before the Protestant Reformation?
Ignoramus, thanks for the faerlie true Revelation. Plato’s cave may have had an inferno, but I find allegory as delightful as paradise.
I’m going to purgatory for that lie. That’s what I’m Tolkien about.
Word. We need to talk about Till We Have Faces soon.
(I think. Trying to figure out what you guys just said.)
Fr. Barry, did you italicize “soon” on purpose? It looks like a new volume I haven’t read: “Till We Have Faces Soon”.
Warn me before we talk about it, though, so I can read (or reread, as the case may be) the book.
Ignoramus: No. Slip of the HTML tongue.
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