The Vision In A Dream

Yesterday, in Scarcity, I discussed my rereading of The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. The Great Divorce is an allegory that is an incredible example of Lewis’s imagination and deep thoughts about Heaven and Hell. Interestingly, Lewis puts himself in the book as narrator of the bus trip from Hell to Heaven. For this post I want to hone in on who Lewis picked to be his spiritual guide, or “Solid People”, as they are called in the book – George MacDonald.

MacDonald had a huge effect on Lewis from age 16 when he read Phantastes so was a fitting character for Lewis to pick. Lewis later said, “Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later, I knew that I had crossed a great frontier.” Lewis also said that, MacDonald’s Phantastes “baptized his imagination.” Having read Phantastes myself, I get it – amazing!

Lewis was born toward the end of MacDonald’s life, but the two’s path’s never crossed. Yet, here is a man, George MacDonald, who had a profound impact on Lewis’s faith as well as influencing him as a writer. In The Great Divorce, the narrator says, “…I tried, trembling to tell this man all that his writings had done for me” (p. 66). This is quite the reminder that we never know who we might be influencing. Lewis, who died the year I was born, has had a profound influence on me. If I could pick a spiritual guide in heaven, it would be C. S. Lewis.

As you can imagine, in The Great Divorce the narrator is asking MacDonald many questions. I believe through his answers Lewis is trying to help us understand there will be things we don’t know the answers to and we need to be okay with that. I loved it when MacDonald said, “Ye saw the choices a bit more clearly than ye could see them on Earth: the lens was clearer. But it was still seen through the lens. Do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give” (p. 144). That last sentence is powerful and emphasizes the limitations of our understanding and perceptions, especially in spiritual contexts, but also in our hopes and dreams for the here and now. We must remember that our dreams can provide insights or reflections on deeper truths, but they are not reality itself.

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