The Great Divorce

On Thursday, January 10, our class discussed Lewis’ The Great Divorce. In this story, individuals from Hell are brought on a bus to the outskirts of Heaven. Heaven is so real, that the individuals are nearly invisible ghosts by comparison. Also, their actions have virtually no affect on this new world. The grass does not move when the step on it (in fact, it cuts through their feet), foam floating atop water is able to bruise, and a leaf is so heavy that a ghost is barely capable of even slightly lifting it. While in this new world, solid spirits (residents of Heaven) come and implore the ghosts to stay. They describe the marvels of Heaven and claim that the ghosts will become solid if they remain. Most of the ghosts, however, are so void of a true concept of good that they choose to return to Hell (which they do not actually realize is Hell) rather than remain in Heaven. Lewis utilizes the conversations of the ghosts and the spirits to explain a vast array of spiritually issue that range in complexity.

The first discussion which sparked my interest addressed intellect and the search for truth. The ghost in this conversation claims that truth is impossible to discover. One can never hold tightly to any idea. There is no finality, he argues, inquiry must always have free reign. The spirit responds that “thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you now call the free play of inquiry has neither more nor less to do with the ends for which intelligence was given you than masturbation has to do with marriage.” He goes on to state that intelligence was given that we might discover the Lord… and know Him. Lewis addresses the danger of stopping after the discover of God in a later chapter: “There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself… as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist!” In the modern world we put so much emphasis on the pursuit of intelligence that we often confuse the importance of the ends with the much less important means. In a competitive liberal arts college, this is an easy mistake to make and one that I am often guilty of. By realizing this tendency, I will hopefully be able to better avoid it in the future.

Towards the end of the story, Lewis describes a spirit of particular beauty and importance. Another spirit then explains to one of the ghosts that she “is one of the great ones.” He then, however explains that fame is quite different in Heaven than on Earth. He illustrates this by describing the woman’s life:
“Every young man or boy that met her became her son... Every girl that met her was her daughter… But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer, to their own wives… Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them… Already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead thins of the universe into life.”
I enjoyed this passage because it reminded me of one of my friends, and I had a deeper appreciation for her after reading this chapter.

By the end of the story, only one of the ghosts chose to remain in Heaven. While the spiritual corollaries were strong and insightful, I found it slightly saddening that so few of the ghosts chose to remain. I believe that this too draws a parallel to real life, where so many give up the true glory of the Lord for cheap imitations.

Post by Hayes Modlin