CONTRA-CATHOLIC AND BELFAST PROTESTANT PREJUDICE MOTIFS IN C. S. LEWIS [this was sent to me by my friend Greg Oatis, drawn from the 1988 Lewis biography Jack: by his good friend George Sayer]: At Wynyard [a particularly detestable public school the brothers suffered through], he (Clive) was taken twice every Sunday to Saint Johns, the Watford Anglo-Catholic church. His initial, extremely unfavorable reactions were typical of the northern Irish Protestant. It was, he wrote, a church that wanted to be Roman Catholic, but was afraid to say so, an abominable place of Romish hypocrites where people cross themselves [and] bow to what they have the vanity to call an altar. [pp. 61-62] * * * On pp. 230-231, we see this account of a later publication of Lewis book, Dymer: Two or three of the reviewers assumed that the author was a Roman Catholic, probably because of the introduction of Mother Kirk (Mother Church) and the rational defense of Christianity. This brought the book to the notice of Frank Sheed, of Sheed and Ward, the Roman Catholic publishing house. Dent printed an an additional 1,500 copies for them, and Sheed issued this second edition in 1935. Jacks letter to Arthur describing this event reveals that he was still very much a Belfast man: He did not like having a book of his handled by a Papist publisher but he submitted since they thought they could sell it and Dent couldnt. For doing this he was well punished, for without his authority Sheed printed on the inside of the dust jacket this blurb, This story begins in Puritania (Mr. Lewis was brought up in Ulster). This implied that the book attacked his own country and his own religion. He asked Arthur to tell anyone interested that he was not consulted and the blurb was a damnable lie told to try to make the Dublin riffraff buy the book. * * * I remember Dr. Havard [a physician and friend who treated both Clive and J.R.R. Tolkien] saying, Jack, most of your friends seem to be Catholic. Why dont you join us? Arent you tempted? Lewis replied that the important thing was to make ones submission to a Christian church. Which branch of the Christian church one chose was far less important. And he said he was not tempted to share what he called your heresies. Heresies! What heresies, Jack? Well, here are two -- the position you give to the Virgin Mary and the doctrine of papal infallibility. But he refused to discuss them. he attributed his prejudice against the Roman church to his upbringing in Northern Ireland… (p. 421) Related paper of mine: On Whether C. S. Lewis Belfast Childhood and Remnant Prejudices Therefrom Were a Key to Why He Didnt Become a Catholic (Kreeft, Pearce, Tolkien?, and Derrick Think So) socrates58.blogspot/2012/06/on-whether-c-s-lewis-belfast-childhood.html
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 20:28:45 +0000
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