Katelyn Joyce- Free Will in the Great Divorce

 In The Great Divorce, Lewis presents the notion of free will. In this book he shares that the only way for an individual to enter Heaven is through them using their ability to freely choose, being free will. In the Great Divorce, he sets up the understanding of free will that may be contrary to the common Christian perspective of it. In this book, free will is still able to be exercised once the individual is in Hell. Because of this, they are able to decide whether or not they wish to remain in Hell or to accept Christ and enter Heaven. This is different from the common Christian perspective as they see your decision on earth as absolute. You are able to exercise free will on earth, but when you die, you no longer can change your decision. At first when I read that free will is able to be utilized in Hell, I was confused and a little bit defensive. It didn’t line up to my previous way of thinking. I saw an individual not masking the choice on earth and ending up in Hell as set in stone and a reasonable punishment for not believing. Then, I remembered previous doubts I had associated with belief in God. I wondered how it was possible for an all gracious and good God to send people to Hell without a way out. I imagined Hell as being a place full of regret. They had already been able to experience the glory of God and see his power. I could only imagine that Hell would be full of individuals longing for forgiveness and to be with God. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem like it is in God’s character to deny salvation to those who desire it, regardless of the choices they made in the past. It would make sense for him to extend free will into Hell, giving them the opportunity to come to him. Also, when extending it into Hell, we can see for certain that our actions on earth was not what brought us to Heaven. It wasn’t our good works or the act of going to church. The only real way to come to Christ is through our free will. I am not completely sold on changing my perspective just yet. There is still more research I must do, but this book definitely opened my eyes to this possibility and prompted me to study free will in greater depth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jack Snowdon: Danger in the Lake

I will readily admit that I may have procrastinated a bit much in regards to working on my blog posts, waiting for that perfect moment of inspiration to strike, when I should have been working to flesh out my own ideas rather than just letting them come to me. However, with that concession in mind, I am glad to say that something exactly like I had hoped for happened while reading the discussion between Ransom and Hyoi in Chapter 12 of Out of the Silent Planet . The discussion revolves largely around the concept and experience of love and appreciation among the hrossa, and sees Ransom struggling to understand how they can content themselves with valuing the memories rather than replicating the actions, as well as questioning why that can be the way it is with such dangers as the hnakra dwelling in the local waters. Though he does struggle to comprehend them, Hyoi has an answer every step of the way, culminating with the line, "...And I say also this, I do not think the forest woul...
Read more

Katelyn Joyce- The Magician's Nephew & Biblical Parallels

  When reading The Magician's Nephew, I am not sure why I was so shocked at all of the connections that can be made back to scripture. As this is a common occurrence in Lewis’ writing, it should not surprise and excite me as much as it does when I first grasp what is being said and I begin to make those connections. I think it will always catch me off guard and amaze me how intertwined the two storylines can be without them being identical. This is especially true in The Magician’s Nephew. You can see a clear parallel between this book and the book of Genesis in the Bible. Digory is sent to an area of Narnia closed off from the rest and surrounded by a golden gate to retrieve a fruit. He is tempted to use the powers of this fruit to his benefit, but he does the right thing and presents it to Aslan as requested of him. This is similar to the trees and the fruit in the Garden of Eden. There lies a tree with the power to give understanding to good and evil. Eve is tempted and takes th...
Read more

Samuel Swenson-Reinhold: Naming & Knowing

 Once again, I'm going to be referencing my favorite book of all time, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the key elements of Kvothe's character is his desire to learn the 'name' of things - when you learn the name of something, you have control over it. However, learning the name of the wind, for example, is something incredibly difficult. You have to understand the nature of the wind, you have to know it. So knowing the word "wind" doesn't mean you have power over it. It requires this almost Heideggerian conception of listening and knowing the world and nature.  Kvothe grows in his understanding of the world and at one point learns the name of lightning and the wind, allowing him to wield immense power. This particular aspect of Rothfuss' fantasy had me thinking about our conversations in class about how we 'name' and label things in the prosaic. We think we "know" something, but really we are making an observation. It...
Read more