Till We Have Faces. by C.S.Lewis
Contents
of this section.
1.General
Introduction.
2. A
brief summary of the story told in Till
We Have Faces.
3. Lewis’
explanation of his purpose in writing Till
We Have Faces.
4. Beauty from Ashes. An
introduction to Till We Have Faces, by
David Eastway
5. A
sample of the Bible Study section contained in Beauty from Ashes.
6. Purchase
and availability of Till We Have Faces.
7. Further
Reading.
1 General Introduction.
Till We Have Faces, is a complex and
detailed story written for adults in the mythical / fictional genre. It is
listed by Walter Hooper in his Companion
and Guide to C.S.Lewis, as a novel.
The
story is an adaptation of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. Lewis’ setting
for his adaptation is a pagan city on the edge of the Hellenistic World about
the third century BC. The plot helped me focus on the numerous personal and behavioral
challenges we face in our daily lives. He especially highlights the challenges,
difficulties and tensions which adversity can bring to faith, love and
relationships, when the people or possessions we love and treasure, are
suddenly taken from us. Published in 1956, it introduces in narrative form, the
Biblical teaching Lewis provides analytically in The Four Loves which was published four years later in 1960.
2 A brief summary of the story in Till We Have Faces.
Orual the eldest of three sisters was born
with an ugly face – a significant aspect of the plot. Her younger sister Psyche was very beautiful
and loved by everyone. When many citizens of their city named Glome suffered
from a plague, their panic, fear and hope for rescue, led the people to worship
Psyche as a goddess in the belief that she could stop the plague and save the
lives of those affected by it.
This upset the priest of the goddess Ungit
who demanded Psyche be sacrificed at the tree on the holy mountain to appease
the gods because, he claimed, she had caused the people to redirect their
worship from the gods to herself.
The
dramatic events which follow the rescue of Psyche, develop the plot
which focuses on Orual’s bitterness against the gods for what occurs within her
relationship with Psyche.
After her father’s death Orual becomes a
warrior queen and faces many personal issues. There is ongoing emotional
turmoil over Psyche. There are battles to fight and political issues to
resolve. She falls in love with Bardia,
the captain of the guard and this leads to conflict with Bardia’s wife over the
excessive demands Orual placed on him -
he was required to spend more time in her service than at home with his wife.
As Orual faces these deep inner conflicts, she has a great confrontation with
the gods in several visions. She
complains bitterly against the gods for being unjust, unfair, and treating
humans like pawns in a game. The gods gave her a sister to love and then took
her away. In Bardia they gave her someone to love but she had to endure the
agony of knowing he could never be more than a companion.
Orual is obsessed with a demanding love and
the belief she had the right to control the circumstances of her life in the
way she wanted. When things did not go her way she became abusive, angry and
manipulative.
Orual’s dramatic encounter with the gods and
finally “He”, described by Lewis as “The most dreadful, the most beautiful, the
only dread and beauty there is” … enables her to face the ‘ugliness’ of her own
nature. From her brokenness there emerges a transformation in which she
discovers the beauty of self giving love.
3 A summary of C.S.Lewis’ explanation of Till We Have Faces, given in a letter to
Clyde S Kilby on 10th February 1957.
( see Green
and Hooper’s biography of C.S.Lewis, page 266
or Letters. C.S.Lewis Geoffrey Bles Ltd,
1966 page 462 )
It is a fictional
story in which Lewis imagines what life might have been like in a little
barbarian state on the borders of the Hellenistic world, which was coming under
the influence of Greek culture. The descriptive detail is not meant to be taken
as allegory.
Orual, the main
character, serves as an example of human affection in its natural state: true
and loving but in the long run tyrannically possessive and ready to turn to
hatred when the one who is loved becomes independent and no longer able to be
controlled. This attitude occurs so often in families which are nominally
Christian. Someone becomes a Christian or decides to go to the mission field
and the other members of the family feel a sense of outrage. What they love is
being taken from them. Lewis expresses sympathy with the suffering of such
people who can become jealous and puzzled and explains that bitterness against
religion can arise out of this suffering.
Psyche in an example
of a good person in the Pagan world who makes the best of the Pagan religion in
which they have been raised, while being guided toward the true God.
4 Beauty
from Ashes
In
2009 while reading Green and Hooper’s biography of C.S.Lewis, I was fascinated
by their comment that Lewis considered Till
We Have Faces (TWHF) the most
important piece of fiction he had written, yet it was largely unknown and
unread. As I spoke to friends who were
keen readers of Lewis’ books I discovered that not many had read or even heard
of TWHF.
When
I read further about Lewis’ purpose in
writing the story ( see section 3 above
) I considered his purpose of such
significance that I set out to find a way of encouraging people to read TWHF and absorb its message into their
thinking and daily living.
This
intention led me to write an introduction to TWHF, a précis of the story, and prepare a series of Bible Studies based on the themes contained within the
story, so as to bring to life a work which I have personally found challenging,
inspirational, and enlightening. My aim was to make TWHF more widely known and
to encourage people to buy the book and read the story in its completeness. This
resulted in my writing a fifty page book titled Beauty From Ashes.
My
introduction seeks to deal with the complexity of the themes while placing the
overall message in a Biblical context. The précis summarises the story in easy
sections. The Bible Study and discussion questions provide Home Groups or
individuals with a basis for deeper reflection and contain numerous Scripture
references which relate to the many fascinating and challenging issues the story
raises about human nature. Its particular focus is on how broken lives can be
changed from the ashes of bitterness and selfishness to the beauty of love.
I
have included a sample of the Bible Study section, based on the first chapter
of my précis, in section 5 of this post. (see below)
My
hope is that what I have produced in Beauty
from Ashes, will help unlock the riches of the message contained in Till We Have Faces, so that its
importance and value may be more appreciated.
Its connection to The Four Loves is
in itself of great literary significance but is not widely known.
Enquiries
or orders for Beauty from Ashes may
be made by contacting me, David Eastway, through my email address: davideastway@gmail.com
Price
is $9 which includes postage. Postage and price will vary for multiple copies ordered for use in Home Discussion Groups.
I am
also available to conduct seminars based
on the message of TWHF.
5 A sample of the Bible Study section from
Beauty from Ashes
The following sample
is the first in the 9 Bible Studies I have prepared based on the story in TWHF. Each study begins with a brief summary of the
story in that section and leads into the discussion questions.
Chapter 1 Orual,
Psyche and the Fox.
At the beginning of
the story we meet Trom the king of Glome and his family. The eldest daughter
Orual, and the youngest daughter Psyche, are the main characters in the story.
Redival is the middle sister. The Fox, who becomes the girl’s tutor, speaks as
a Greek slave schooled in Platonic philosophy and expresses the ideas and
ideals such a person would hold. While at times his ethics are similar to a
Biblical morality, his thinking is rooted in the philosophy of his day. Trom wanted a son as an heir and was bitterly
disappointed about having only daughters. This had a massive impact upon his
attitude, and turned him into a cruel and sadistic tyrant to his daughters. The
questions in this first chapter focus on the negative impact that anger and
disappointment can have on a person’s character.
***
- Trom’s anger showed itself in cruelty toward his daughters. What other effects can anger have upon a person’s attitude and personality? Psalm 37:8, James 1: 20.
- How can we control our angry reactions to
other people?
Proverbs 15: 1, Ecclesiastes 7: 9, 1 Corinthians 13: 5. - Is there a place for anger which is not
sinful in the Christian life?
Exodus 11: 7-9, Ephesians 4: 26, Matthew 21: 12-13. - Consider the Foxes’ statement,
‘Everything is as good or bad as our opinion makes it.’ While it is appropriate to have personal
opinions about which sport, leisure activity, brand of car etc we prefer, how
does this differ from ethical matters where our personal opinion needs to
conform to God’s Word? What guidance
does God’s Word provide to assist us when it comes to ‘having an opinion’?
Psalm 119: 9-16, Proverbs 2, 1 Corinthians 1: 20-25, 2 Peter 1:19-21. - Read Acts 17:16-21 and observe how Paul preached the Gospel in a world influenced by Greek philosophy. What are the main philosophical ideas we confront in the 21st century as we share the news about Jesus with those who follow other beliefs?
6 Purchasing
Till We Have Faces.
There
are a number of second hand copies of the book available through a search of
the internet. I have seen it as an inclusion in a single volume compendium of
C.S.Lewis’ books. Koorong Books in Sydney do stock an edition published by
Harvest Books, Harcourt Inc. I purchased two copies in November 2011 for the
amazing price of $5.95 each
7 Further Reading.
Keen
readers of C.S.Lewis will obviously have their preferences as to which
biographies and books are their favourites. I would like to commend Alan Jacobs’
book - The Narnian, the life and imagination
of C.S.Lewis. Alan Jacobs is
professor of English and director of the Faith and Learning Program at Wheaton
College in Illinois. There are several sections in his book which deal with
various aspects of TWHF.
Among
the comments made about his book is this one :
“With
The Narnian, Alan Jacobs has written
the most brilliant, insightful, fascinating biography ever published on the
life and work of Lewis … a superb, in depth exploration of the mind and heart
of Lewis.” - Charlotte
Observer
.
No comments:
Post a Comment