A Realist of Distances

"There are ages when it is possible to woo the reader; there are others
when something more drastic is necessary" (820).
Flannery O'Connor's "Some Aspects of the Grotesque
in Southern Fiction" (1957; 1965)

Points for Reflection

The Bible: Matthew 5:17-48

1. How many times does Jesus mention heaven in this section of the Sermon on the Mount?
2. Do the words of Jesus Christ suggest that his teachings supersede those of the Old Testament law (found in books of the Torah like Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy)?
3. Does Jesus suggest that it is quite possible to follow every iota of the law and thereby gain entry to heaven based on one's own merits (v.19-20)?
4. Do Jesus' words on murder and adultery expand, soften, or refute Old Testament (O.T.) teachings on murder and adultery (v.21-30)? Do his own teachings make it harder, or easier, to fulfill the requirements of the Old Testament law to which he alludes?
5. Why does Jesus recommend relational reconciliation so highly (v.23-26)? Is it for spiritual reasons, material reasons, or both?
6. Consider the tone of Jesus' teaching about lust (v.27-30). Is he being comical, hyperbolic, sarcastic, or dead serious? Also, is he being figurative or literal?
7. Though the NIV and some other translations separate Jesus' teachings about divorce and oaths under separate, topical subheadings, let's mash them together for a moment. What is Jesus suggesting about the importance of the words we utter, whether in a marriage ceremony, a business dealing, or in the midst of everyday interactions with acquaintances?
8. What of Jesus' lesson on vengeance (v.38-42)? In this passage, is he expanding, softening, or refuting O.T. teachings on justice?
9. In the sixteenth-century, Italian thinker Niccolo Machiavelli claimed in The Prince (1532) that many of Christianity's core principles are incompatible with political pragmatism. "Many men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; for a man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good" (chp. XV). Machiavelli likely had in mind teachings like Jesus' in verses 38-48. What do you think? Is Christ's call to turn the other cheek and love one's enemies inane? Is it a teaching nice to bandy about but impossible to practice?

Robert Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (1855), PDF

1. Does Childe Roland correctly assess the character of the man who provides him directions in the opening to "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"?
2. What now motivates Roland as he continues to push forward on his long quest?
3. What is the epic simile of stanzas 5-6 (ll.25-36) intended to illustrate?
4. Do any events in the poem appear unrealistic, fantastic even?
5. What does Nature, personified by the narrator, say is the only cure for the wasteland?
6. Why does the narrator respond with hate to the horse he encounters (stanzas 13-14)?
7. How helpful do Roland's memories prove in motivating him to push forward?
8. Do the river and opposite bank across which Roland travels provide a respite from the depressingly wasted terrain through which he has been trudging (stanzas 19-24)?
9. Just after Roland notes a black bird flying overhead and wonders whether it is the guide he has been seeking, he realizes he has arrived at the tower. What else might the bird represent, besides a guide?
10. Is the noise which surrounds Roland at the poem's close a product of an actual bell being tolled, or a function of his imagination?
11. Is Roland actually surrounded by the spirits of dead adventurers in the final stanza?
12. Does the poem conclude on a triumphant or tragic note?
13. Do the various surroundings through which the narrator has traversed reflect the narrator’s emotional state? Do they ever provide a point of contrast for his thoughts?
14. What might be the significance of the "dark tower"? What of the journey itself? Does the poem lend itself to allegorical interpretation?
15. From what play by Shakespeare was the title of this poem drawn? Does knowing the play and its contents inflect the way you read this poem?

C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain (1940), chp. 8 ("Hell"), PDF

1. Which does Lewis attempt in chapter eight, to make Hell appear “tolerable” or “moral” (121)?
2. Does the detailed sketch of a sinful man provided by Lewis (122-23) feel fantastic, or does it have the ring of reality?  Does the portrait seem parodic and hyperbolic, or grounded and familiar?
3. Do you agree w/ Lewis’ claim that forgiveness, to be complete, must not only be offered but accepted (124)?
4. What does Lewis mean by the suggestion that perdition might be an already present reality as much as it is an imposed judgment and relocation (124-25)?
5. According to Lewis, does offering someone forgiveness ensure that forgiveness is "complete" (124)?
6. Lewis links the very capacity for enjoying good to the taste for what (125)? What does he mean by this?
7. Does Lewis conceive of eternity as a line, plane, or solid (125)?
8. Which does Lewis privilege when conceiving of Hell: visions of torture and suffering, or utter destruction and privation (127-28, 128-29)?
9. In Lewis’ imagination, are the doors to Hell locked on the outside or from the inside (129-30)?
10. What do you think of Lewis’ recommendation that any consideration of Hell remain personal—that we always consider the possible damnation not only of easy, exterior targets, but of ourselves (130-31)?

C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain (1940), chp. 10 ("Heaven"), PDF

1. What does Lewis mean by the claim that "Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire" (149).
2. Lewis argues that humanity's longing for heaven is irrefutable, woven into our unfulfilled desires and inexplicable, unmet longings--we each hunger for a unique, custom-made thing that remains tantalizingly out of our reach (149-52). Can you identify yearnings in your own life, "unattainable ecstasy[ies]" (152) that fit this criterion?
3. Does Lewis believe that, in heaven, God celebrates the diversity of humanity, or remolds it into infinite sameness (151-52, 154-55)?
4. Lewis likens life on earth as training for life eternal, which he compares to what two, particular forms of revelry (158-59)?
5. Lewis often draws attention to the incompleteness and limitations of his own ideas, as well as to his ignorance (82-83, etc.) Do these kinds of admissions endear him to you, or prompt you to respect him less?

C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters (1942), chps. 18-20, PDF

1. Note: references to "Our Father" point to Satan, and "the Enemy" reference God. The demon Screwtape is our narrator, and he is writing letters to his pupil, a demon named "Wormwood."
2. According to Screwtape, Hell rests on the principle of competition, and the notion that "one thing is not another" (81). In what ways does The Bible challenge such binary thinking?
3. Screwtape makes broad claims about the enduring consequences of sexual activity.  Do modern values and culture concur?
4. What does Screwtape suggest about the ramifications of sexual activity (83)?
5. Does the human tendency to fall "in love" work decidedly in the Devil's favor (83, 88-89)?
6. Does Screwtape believe God capable of loving humans (86-87)?
7. From Screwtape's perspective, what matters more than anything else (87-88)?
8. How have these demons manipulated humanity’s sexual standards and desires (92)?
9. How does Screwtape characterize the two "imaginary women" by whom the male patient/target might be haunted (93)?
10. In his preface to The Screwtape Letters (1942), Lewis reminds his readers that the devil is a liar, and that not everything Screwtape says should be considered true even from his own perspective (4).  Which of the things Screwtape writes ring true, and which do you consider false?

The Endless Enigma (1938)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dali

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu