C. S. Lewis and the Ordered Universe Within

Jack King ⎮ Spring 2011

Like many Christians who have been influenced by C.S. Lewis, I was introduced to Lewis’ theological writings in college. But my introduction was very different from the traditional doorways by which one encounters Lewis’ thought. I didn’t read Mere Christianity first, though I knew that was the best place to begin. For me, the first C.S. Lewis book placed in my hands was The Four Loves. I probably comprehended 10% of the subjects Lewis described, but I was moved, inspired, and captivated within, despite my inability to appreciate all the rich textures of Lewis’ meditation of Christian love. With pencil in hand, I marked each chapter like a textbook and have used it as a reference book ever since.

Ten years since that initial introduction, I’m surprised that one of my favorite sections in The Four Loves is neither a passage I underlined in the first or subsequent readings, nor is it any words that Lewis wrote himself. I discovered the profound treasure Lewis gave me on the title page when he quoted a fragment from John Donne’s poem, A Litany: “that our affections kill us not, nor die.”

John Donne, an Anglican priest, spoke these words in the form of a prayer, and in the true spirit of lex orandi, lex credendi, we are given insight into the way Anglicans understand the nature of desires from this heart-felt prayer. Affections, desires, and loves are potent energies within our souls. By the baptism of the Spirit, we have been given loves for family, friends, a spouse, and children. The same creative Spirit inspires us to make music and poetry; to create just and godly businesses; to educate the next generation of students. The Spirit is the author of the loves and passions within our hearts.

Anglican lay theologian Dorothy Sayers famously defined the image of God as the innate desire to participate as a co-creator with God. Thus we are stirred to participate with God in the renewal of creation, whether through arts, sciences, education, or the raising of a family. As Sara Groves sings, we desire to “add to the beauty” which we have witnessed in God’s redemptive story. The question remains whether these good desires will be surrendered at the foot of Jesus’ cross for his glory, or if we will choose our own pleasure and glory.

The place where our souls are most vulnerable to shipwreck are not located within our enmities, it is within our loves. Without the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our affections will lead us into dangerous habits with damaging consequences for our relationships, our work, and our lives. If lesser loves replace the supreme love that God alone deserves, good and holy endeavors will become distorted monuments to our names. Remember that human gifts and ingenuity built both the Tower of Babel and Solomon’s Temple. Yet, whereas human ambition built the Tower of Babel, the Temple’s foundation was the worship of God, not humanity. The words “not to us, O Lord, but to Your name give glory,” sanctified the Temple, ordering its worship for the glory of God alone.

As we recognize the distorting effects of disordered loves within, we always must acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is not the author of unholy fear regarding our God-given passions. “It was for freedom that Christ has set us free.” The soul’s energy and passion are powerful forces, but they are no longer dangerous when ordered under the Spirit’s guidance. The Spirit is not the source of apprehensive fear and timidity within our souls. Perpetual neglect of our good, holy longings is a tragedy. Self-deprecation is not holiness. We must be watchful of our souls, ‘for the heart is deceitful above all things.’ Nevertheless, watchfulness does not mean soul paralysis. The force of Donne’s prayer is not in the first phrase, but the second: ‘that our affections kills us not, nor die.’

The Holy Spirit is the divine Person who gives spiritual gifts to the church and these good desires, passions, and affections are given so that we might participate in Jesus’ new creation work. If our affections die, something precious dies within our souls, a sacred gift is withheld from the church.

While Donne cautions against both extremities of unbridled desires and neglected affections, the pendulum need not swing too far in either direction. The wisdom of the ancient church fathers envisioned a different path through the energies of the soul: the ordering of our loves. St. Augustine’s plumb line regarding the affections is trustworthy counsel: “he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less.”

Because God has “first loved us” in Jesus Christ, how can we offer him anything less than our heart’s supreme, first love? Not only is God the supreme love above all other loves, He orders the affections of our hearts. Without the ordering of our loves and affections, anyone may become a rival for our supreme love of God—our spouse, our child, our dearest friend. More than once in the Gospels do we hear Jesus requiring total allegiance of one’s heart above any other human relationship. Yet the mystery we discover through the sanctification of the Spirit is that our relationships are not lessened when they are ordered in Christ—they are enriched and fulfilled.

When I consider the Holy Spirit’s ordering of our affections, I’m often drawn back to the first introduction that we have of God the Spirit in the Scriptures. Before the worlds were formed, the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters, ordering that primeval chaos into God’s beautiful universe. How wonderful it is that the same Spirit would order the chaos of our hearts into a well-ordered universe, a temple for God’s own dwelling? St. Marcarius keenly recognized the need for this ordering, seeing that our hearts are “rough, uneven paths and gaping chasms.” But he continues his reflection in hope and joy: “there likewise [in the heart] is God, there are the angels, there life and the Kingdom, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace: all things are there.” May it be so that our ordered hearts will enthrone the Triune God above all, revealing a prophetic vision here and now of the heavenly city that will descend on earth when Jesus comes again.