The book was published in 1959 and so has to be understood
in the context of this era. It is a book about religious experience
but he comes from a position of scepticism of religious experience.
He acknowledges its existence and that it has to be accepted as reality,
but would rather people interpreted their everyday experiences religiously
than to seek for deeper, mystical, or paranormal experiences.
Religion
Religion is about Truth and is not to be perceived as "fiction"
although he accepts that truth and fiction are not necessarily opposites,
but that fiction can hold truth and be a means of expressing the truth.
Basically he is implying, in the face of 1950/60's "secularism"
that Religion is not to be easily dismissed as illusion but is reality.
However Religion is only of importance and of substance for those
who believe it, follow it or "seek" it. To those who find
it irrelevant in life then it is of no importance and can be considered
as fiction.
Religion is defined in terms of "core facts". These are
ideals or beliefs that follows will assent to. He also defines religion
in terms of rituals that are acted out. Both of these aspects will
influence the lives of the believers. Hence Religion is defined in
cognitive and ritualistic terms, but is understood to influence the
whole of life. Consequently Religion is in the same categories as
ideologies and in the same way it is recognised that religion can
be nominal or notional.
Religion is part of being human, without the concept of religion
we become "sub-human" (p73), and in this sense it is associated
with morals, ethics and art.
Religion is considered to be institutional as Lewis struggles with
the concept of individual religion. While he is willing to accept
the need for personal and individual conversion and experience of
God, he cannot accept that such encounters are simply of the personal
variety. They need to be expressed communally. Hence Religion has
the task of "setting the boundaries" of what is acceptable
in belief and what is not.
"The task of maintaining and developing true religion is thus
two-fold, on the one hand to maintain the integrity of the specific
religious factors in religious experience, and on the other to refine
the material which is indispensable for it in such a way as to lead
a better cultivation of the whole religious experience". (p 95)
Religion also has the task of providing the "images" that
can be used to express and understand religious experiences. Images
come from experiences but are also used to give insight into experiences.
They become the "normal" for all experiences so long as
they are able to reflect religious experiences (p 135) Presumably
when this is no longer the case they become irrelevant and are considered
archaic. Yet he notes the great ability of images to re-create and
redefine themselves. Worship is largely dependent on images to create
the right "environment", emotions, feelings etc. and as
reminders of the essence of the religion (e.g. for Christianity that
"God is with us")
Religion provides dogma which can prevent abuses of religion and
abuses of experience, and can lead to hypocrisy. Dogma leads to institutionalisation
, which while often a negative factor is necessary to control the
great variety and variations of belief and experience. (p154)
Belief
Lewis is influenced by Descartes and so understands belief as belief
in the "force of existence", which he is able to call God.
God is mysterious and transcendent as well as immanent. He accepts
that to have belief necessitates tow things - knowledge of God and
experience of God. (knowledge about and encounter with), which are
inseparable.
Experience
"The core of religion is religious experience" (p65), so
Lewis claims that we need to understand religious experience, because
it is this that will influence the rest of our lives. "rest"
meaning all aspects of our lives rather than a period of our lives.
Indeed he might claim that experiences are foundational to our lives.
Experience is not illusion or to be dismissed as "psychological".
It is "fact". All experiences are real, but they are only
religious when there is a particular religious feature about them.
This he does not clearly define, but will limit such experiences as
those that clearly represent an encounter with the Divine and that
are significantly influential in history and society. (p150)
Religious Experience
Scripture, particularly the OT is not so much a history (how much
historicity is there in the patriarchal stories?) but a collection
of personal and distinctive experiences (p109). He acknowledges the
distinctiveness of religious experiences but then the rest of the
book deals with experiences which are considered to be "everyday"
occurrences, which can be interpreted religiously. Lewis seems happy
to accept that "everyday" experiences can be interpreted
religiously but struggles with the concept of "deeper" experiences
which he terms "preternatural". Therefore he is willing
to accept experiences in the physical but not in the metaphysical
region. Such experiences as those of the paranormal, of dreams, and
the like. It suggests that he has not had such an experience and so
he is sceptical about their value and purpose, although he would want
all experiences to provide a "greater understanding of God"
(p222)
While religious experience is normally of an individual nature, it
has to be tested by the "Church". When this is done it can
become part of the permanent deposit of faith and a shared experience
of the faith community. (p237)
The goal of all individual religious experiences and the understanding
of them has to be integrated with "our total religious impressions
as they disclose to us the character of God and of his dealings with
us which are much more vital for our relationship with God than any
incidental feature of the setting in which they may appear".
Spirituality
Lewis does not use the term spirituality or spiritual in the book,
preferring the term religious.
Conclusion
The book is hard going and laboured in places, and if it was written
today would have to be much shorter and snappier. The reader needs
to plough through quite a lot of adding and repetition to get to the
gems and the basic position of the author.
