An email exchange, C. S. Lewis, Dark Powers, spiritual warfare, general law, etc.

Here's a good quote from the Business of Heaven (the quote is from Mere Christianity) -

"One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."

Notice he says 'surprised' to find this in the New Testament. I'm always surprised to find it left out of most orthodox (small 'o') mainstream theological works.

Paul, you have been attracted to the Book of Job in the past. Thinking about the General Law as the Work describes it, and the spirit of Satan as a Christian learns of it from the Bible, the difference is the General Law plays out mechanically in the world. It works through sleeping, mechanical human beings. Yet there is also an element that seems to require a more active, conscious presence. The latter is like when the devil and his spirits (demons) may focus on you and try to tempt you and so on. Also, perhaps our deepest, ongoing suffering, things none of us really ever talk about, things from birth, or things that would make us seem like whiners or uncool - 'rule' type things that are given to us to help us separate from the world - these things seem like what we see in the Book of Job where the devil goes to God and says allow me to mess with this individual and let's see if they still give their allegiance to you. So God allows it. And we suffer. But the General Law type of phenomena is less personal and more mechanical and a result of the big forces (flowing away from the Absolute vs. flowing back towards the Absolute).

So here, without trying to, I've identified the famous three-front war in spiritual warfare: the world, the flesh and the devil.

The world is the General Law.
The flesh is the temptations and so on that come from our inner being, yet an inner being that has reins attached to it held by the devil and his army.
The devil is things like 'rules' that God allows the devil to give you, or to afflict you with, to try you.

It may have been wrong for me, using the Homeric analogy, to say that C Influence can sometimes be the source of needed friction. Yet, maybe not. That can also be a source. Athena slamming Odysseus' ship, giving him problems in his return. Then also being his main contact with conscious influence and help.

Basically you get it from all directions when you are in the process of awakening. And you must need to get it from all directions. - C.




--- On Thu, 11/11/10, c. t.
>I blow hot n cold with Lewis. (But at least he's consistent!) A Year With CS Lewis is good.

I know, probably any anthology of Lewis will give a similar impression. The Business of Heaven, though, I think is designed to address various Christian/religious subject matter.

Lewis of course is not literature that is deep language. It's surface knowledge. Really, what Lewis does is compliment and 'direct' one's thoughts and understanding. He plays around at foundational levels though which can be helpful even if you already know the foundational level. He usually ends up residing on middle ground, or a common sense ''what is all the fuss?", we're still in the flesh, leave extreme reactions and find the middle road and stay to it, etc.

He can also 'norm' you after you may have come into contact with some sneaky off-the-mark influence, or you have drifted.

In that sense he seems like an old teacher that is maybe good to run into every now and then but holds no potential for further, deep, being development.

For that you need to take in language. Higher visual language. Living language. Language inspired by the Holy Spirit. I mean regarding words on a page. Lewis would say, "Read Euripides, don't read me." Or Homer. Or the Bible. Which I'm doing now. I'm securely into my 7th complete reading currently on chapter 25 of Genesis. I've read Genesis like 3 times in a row now in aborted starts on my 7th complete reading, but this time I will plow on.

- C.

--- On Mon, 11/8/10, quickeningspirit

I blow hot n cold with Lewis. (But at least he's consistent!) A Year With CS Lewis is good.

I've just started Euripides. That's 8 plays. Completes the trilogy with Aeschylus and Sophocles. I also note that it bags the first 7 works in the Mortimer/Adler Great List. Not that I was ever thinking of doing that.

If you are doing India for the umpteenth time, you might as well change tack and pick out some of the Mahabharata - it'll keep you busy. I imagine if you can hone in on the right books, it could be revealing and an interesting contrast to some of the works that you have tackled previously.

BTW Mawsynram is a nice village I can recommend for you to visit. It's in the north east and I think very much to your liking. ; -)