medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I wasn't saying either of those things. I was referring to what another
writer was saying, as it is provocative and interesting.
C. S. Lewis's reasoning has on occasion been called misogynistic as one
interpretation of it would be to say that, as masculinity is what God is
like, then those who are more masculine are more Godly. So, as men are more
masculine than women in general, they are more Godly. In order for that to
be misogynistic, one has to equate, or at least conflate, feminine with
female/woman, and masculine with male/man. As I understand Lewis, he takes
pains to avoid doing that. He also states unambiguously that for practical
purposes, the masculinity of a man is as feminine as that of a woman
compared to that of God. I also think that his world-view was such that
feminine did not arise by virtue of being ungodly, but that a
complimentarity was instilled into the universe at creation, and that both
masculine and feminine, being transcendent concepts, are not to do with
"fallen" or "Godly" ideas.
Lewis explores the transcendent thing in "The Great Divorce", where the
people arriving at "heaven" (?) find themselves to be insubstantial in
comparison to the "realness" of the place. They are as thin as air, compared
to the place. He has the idea that transcendence is actually super-real, as
in ultra-real, or highly real (not just "beyond real" or "above real"). It
would not be so much that the universe *is* feminine, but rather that
compared to the transcendent, it is so illusorily and scarcely masculine as
for the difference between feminine and masculine in the base to be
irrelevant, compared to the difference between the transcendent and the
base. It's a slightly difficult (sophistrous?) tightrope for him to walk
isn't it?
The quote I provided was more with relation to feminine and masculine (and
angels as per the thread, although it was from fictional/allegorical
writing), and not about God Himself. The obvious flaw in Lewis stating that
God is transcendent masculine such as to femininise all of creation, is that
it seems to circumscribes the all-being nature of such a God (God is
incapable of being feminine). I don't believe he offered an explanation of
that.
That said, I have no idea whether Lewis, or anyone else for that matter, has
explored gendering of all the persons of the Trinity itself. I wondered
whether Lewis's ideas were derived from earlier orthodox (with a small "o")
beliefs, as he tended to state unequivocally that his theology was never
novel, and was always rooted in tradition. Needless to say, also, that Lewis
propounded a God of distinct "personhood", and railed against a "sea of
spirit" interpretation of God. It is easier to impute a characteristic such
as a gender to a person than to a sea of spirit.
I have no views on the matter personally, but was sharing an idea which has
been expressed in order to open discussion - I hope that is appreciated on
this list.
Rob Howe.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eliana Corbari" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 2:50 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] angels and gender
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear Rob
>
> if you are saying that transcendentally God is masculine and creation
> is feminine, are you also implying that, at a transcendental level,
> masculine is perfect and feminine imperfect? What do you think are
> the implications your interpretation?
>
>
> Quoting Rob Howe <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>> culture
>>
>> Courtesy of C. S. Lewis in "Perelandra / Vogage to Venus". He argued
>> in this
>> book that all men, and all the universe, by comparison to God's
>> masculinity
>> (not maleness) is feminine (not female); a principle of transcendence
>>
>> explored more fully in general in "The Great Divorce". Is this
>> grounded in
>> patristic/Bilical teaching?
>>
>
> ---------------------------
> e. corbari
> [log in to unmask]
>
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