Aslan
Warning: If you have not read C.S. Lewis’ book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe then this post will not make sense to you.
In the midst of all the discussion that has been going on over justification, salvation, sanctification, etc. on this blog and on other blogs on which I have posted, I found myself remembering one of my favorite books, C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. And, as I remembered it, it struck me that C.S. Lewis had given a very good fictional representation of the Eastern Orthodox emphases on some of the issues concerning salvation.
1. The Early Church Fathers had a very strong emphasis on the Incarnation and that emphasis was hooked to salvation. More than one Church Father insisted that it was not simply the fact that our Lord obeyed the Law that made his incarnation important, nor just the fact that he is God come to dwell among us. Rather, the very fact of the Incarnation means that human nature has been taken up and sanctified already in a very special way. And because that has happened, all creation is also on that path.
To us, the process of justification began with the Incarnation, even more than for the West (which also says the process began with the Incarnation, but with less emphasis than we give it). 1 Cor. 15:45 says, “So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.” And Rom. 8:19-21 says, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Notice that as Aslan advanced into Narnia, the thawing reached out and reached out far ahead of his advance. His simple presence (incarnation) into Narnia was sufficient to begin the process of freedom from the old.
2. When we get to the death scene there is a set of interesting subtexts that are happening. First, of course Aslan substitutes for Edmund. No one is denying that. (In real life, Jesus substituted for all of us, but it is a fiction book, after all). However, note what the reason is that Aslan gives for the necessity of his death:
“Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?” asked the Witch. “Let us say I have forgotten it,” answered Aslan gravely. “Tell us of this Deep Magic.” “Tell you?” said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly shriller. “Tell you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones on the Secret Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the scepter of the Emperor-beyond-theSea? You at least know the Magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill.” “Oh,” said Mr. Beaver. “So that’s how you came to imagine yourself a queen, because you were the Emperor’s hangman. I see.”
Note that the Emperor over the Sea is not pictured as demanding retribution. Rather, the creation is built as a moral universe, and the failure to follow through on the implications of the moral universe could damage the very fabric of it, if the retribution is not claimed. However, the retribution is not claimed by the Emperor over the Sea, but by the Witch. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
It may interest you to know that St. Augustine, himself, as well as St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory the Great, and Peter Lombard, among many others held the view that the ransom was paid to Satan. It was not until St. Anselm (1033-1109) that a concerted attack is mounted by him to argue that the ransom was paid to God the Father. St. Thomas Aquinas, the heart of medieval scholastic Roman theology agreed with him. And, that view has become the dominant view in the West, but not in the East. We still agree with those Early Fathers.
3. The ransom was paid to the Witch by Aslan’s death, but the Witch does not realize that she has made a terrible mistake. 1 Cor. 2:7-8 say, “No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” That is the Deeper Magic which Scripture calls, “God’s secret wisdom.”
“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
4. Though salvation has substitution as a necessary sub-theme, the argument is that the main theme of salvation is not juridical atonement. Rather, the main theme of salvation, and therefore justification, is the victory of Christ over Satan and over death. We are justified by grace through faith, not as a simple juridical pronouncement but as the prizes of a great victory won by our God. Ephesians 4:7-8 says, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.'”
5. So, the Eastern Orthodox, by and large, do not tend to talk as much about faith vs works, because we do not see even Jesus himself as paying a legal price for our atonement, but rather as ransoming us and then winning the great victory over Satan, as the main theme.
6. This is why it is so tough for Eastern and Western believers to understand each other. Works are not related to atonement. Death, resurrection, victory are related to atonement.
===MORE TO COME===
Fr. Ernesto,
A college prof. of mine did his dissertation on C.S. Lewis, a man everyone wants to claim at some point. I asked him about it. His answer is C.S. Lewis was Anglican as only an Anglican can be, borrowing here discarding there. At one point I thought he might even be Lutheran. I like him to a point.
But for the sake of continuing this conversation. I might go into a diatribe here over whether the ransom was paid to Satan or God. However I just don’t care. It makes no difference to me who got the payment as long as I am free. And you half way make my point for me by quoting Augustine, who was adamant about election, and faith justifying. (Luther was an Augustinian monk, Augustine has had great influence on our church. However, we Lutherans have always felt free to disagree with either of these two figure heads where they are in conflict with scripture.) Here is the deal, as I have said before the Scripture uses many different analogies and terms to deal with our salvation. But in each one it is Christ that is doing the work not us. It was God who died on the cross and made our salvation possible.
Now I have nothing against anything you say about the incarnation, the sanctification of human nature, or Christ’s victory on the cross. You can find many Lutherans who talk of it in the same way, even in our official confessions.
What I want to know here, is how any of this allows justification by faith and works? How does any of this nullify the Sola’s?
Perhaps though it is how you view the salvation of the world. You look at it as that thawing out, you compare it to rehab, physical therapy. Take a look around you Fr. Ernesto, as I said two weeks ago in one of my sermons, this world is an orgy of maggots feasting on the festering corpse of a dead sewer rat. If anything it is getting worse not better. It has been devoted to destruction, it will be completely and utterly destroyed, burned to a crisp. It will then be recreated, and we will enjoy the new heavens and the new earth.
Father Ernesto, have you read anything by N.T Wright, Anglican Bishop of Durham? I may be misunderstanding, but what you expressed in your last comment sounds a lot like some things he’s been saying.
I do like N.T. Wright and have read him. However, if you do an online search, you will find out that I am not the first one that has proposed a relationship between C.S. Lewis’ book and the Early Church Fathers.
Bror, as usual, I am more busy as a parish priest than I expect. I have not forgotten you post, but will comment that (and are you surprised?) the Orthodox would have a different anthropology than you mention in your post.
Anthropology? That is only part of it Fr. Ernesto, I think we are dealing with cosmology here. We view the world differently. I think you look at the world as something that can be salvaged, along with man kind, if man would just work for it. I view the world as cursed, and our sinful flesh with it. That is condemned.
Hmm, could you be confusing my cosmology with my eschatology? I admit to having a tinge of post-millenialism in my thinking, but just a tinge. I do not view the world as something that can be salvaged, but I also do not view it as a given that we are in a pre-millenialist inevitable slow downward which can neither be reversed nor stopped nor even slowed. I think that there can be a reasonable presence of the Kingdom of God in this world as a downpayment of what we shall receive. Having said that, saying that there can be does not mean that there will be.
Well Fr. Ernesto, I meant cosmology, however you are correct that where the rubber meets the road is in your eschatology. Which you cosmology effects, same as your anthropology effects your soteriology.
Ever heard of Amillenialism? It isn’t an either or hear Fr. Ernesto. me not being a post millenialist does not make me a Premillenialist. Of the millenial camps I fall closer to A, not pre, or post.
I have no idea what you mean by you “believe there can be a reasonable presence of the Kingdom of God in this world as a down payment of what we shall receive.” First off God isn’t paying us anything. He is giving us. I always believed the Church gathered around the gospel and the sacraments is the kingdom of God on earth. Where we receive a foretaste of the feast to come, but not a down payment. A down payment would imply God owes us something.
i don’t say there can be or there will be. I say there is, and it is the church. The kingdom of God breaks through into this world where ever and whenever the Gospel is proclaimed in its purity and the sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution.
meant here, not hear. Except that I do hope you hear me.