Bright Shadow of Reality: Spiritual Longing in C. S. Lewis

by Corbin Scott Carnell

Overview

The writings of C. S. Lewis often stir in readers a profound sense of spiritual longing, a desire for joy lying beyond the offerings of this world. This special kind of longing, known to the Romantic tradition by the German word Sehnsucht, has been a recurrent theme in some of our most powerful works of literature.

Bright Shadow of Reality, first published in 1974, remains the best available study of this idea of spiritual longing, especially as it functions as a key to understanding the writings of C. S. Lewis. Corbin Scott Carnell explores Lewis's life, theology, and literary legacy- looking in particular at Lewis's science fiction trilogy and Till We Have Faces-and evaluates Lewis's own reflection on the concept of Sehnsucht and its relation to the human quest for joy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802846273
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/12/1999
Edition description:	1999 ED
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Corbin Scott Carnell, the author of numerous articles and essays on C. S. Lewis and his work, is professor of English at the University of Florida — Gainesville.

Table of Contents

I. Sehnsucht

Sehnsucht and the numinous
Sehnsucht and romantic longing
Ecstatic wonder
Causeless melancholy
The Blue Flower motif
The relation of Sehnsucht to Romanticism
The origin of Sehnsucht

II. Lewis' Early Development: The Search for "Joy"

What manner of man
Childhood in Ireland
Early schools
The young atheist
"Preparation for Public Life" at Wyvern
"The Great Knock" and another frontier
In the Infantry
Student days at Oxford
Fellow and tutor of Magdalen

III. The Baptized Imagination: Lewis' Later Work

The Inklings
Charles Williams' "Romantic Theology"
The impact of Owen Barfield
The influence of older literary works on Lewis' theology
Lewis' basic theological orientation
Lewis' approach to Biblical images
Lewis' later years

IV.Opulent Melancholy and the Quest

The quest
Longing on other planets
Dominant images of longing in Lewis' work
The world of faerie
The significance of "Joy-Melancholy" in Lewis' work

V. Britain and Logres: Nature and Arch-nature

Arch-nature and the numinous
Critical reaction to the trilogy
Lewis as mythmaker
Surreality in Till We Have Faces
Sehnsucht and the emptying of the universe

VI.The Location of Joy

Sex and Sehnsucht
Sehnsucht and Romantic art
Other things which Joy is not
The Pagan vision
Sehnsucht and the masks of God
The object of "Joy"

VII. Sehnsucht and the New Romanticism

Lewis' theory as a death-blow to Romanticism
How Lewis' concept meets recent theology and aesthetics
The survival of Romantic art
Contemporary modifications and aberrations of Romanticism
The value of Lewis' concept

VIII. Epilogue

Lewis as a Christian theorist
The function of Sehnsucht

Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Paul L. Holmer
— Yale Divinity School
"Carnell's book attacks with the help of Lewis an invidious academic prejudice concerning the rift between feelings, emotions, and passions on one side and intellect, reason, and thought on the other. . . Intrinsically important."

Christian Scholar's Review
"It is valuable to have this, the first and fullest study of Sehnsucht, in print, and it will be important reading for any serious student of Lewis."

Nathan A. Scott Jr.
— University of Chicago
"In his account of the special kind of spirituality that controlled the thought of C. S. Lewis, Carnell has produced a genuinely fresh assessment. . . Surely the most penetrating and absorbing book on Lewis yet to have appeared."

Choice
"A valuable book, for both an understanding of Lewis and an appreciation of Sehnsucht in the Romantic tradition. . . Important and recommended."

From the Publisher

A valuable book, for both an understanding of Lewis and an appreciation of Sehnsucht in the Romantic tradition. . . . Important and recommended.

Choice

It is valuable to have this, the first and fullest study of Sehnsucht, in print, and it will be important reading for any serious student of Lewis.

Christian Scholars Review