Bright Shadow of Reality : Spiritual Longing in C. S. Lewis

by Carnell, Corbin Scott

• ISBN13: 9780802846273
• ISBN10: 0802846270
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

The writings of C. S. Lewis often stir in readers a profound sense of spiritual longing, a desire for joy lying beyond the offerings of this world. This special kind of longing, known to the Romantic tradition by the German word Sehnsucht, has been a recurrent theme in some of our most powerful works of literature. Bright Shadow of Reality, first published in 1974, is the best available study of the concept of spiritual longing, especially as it functions as a key to understanding the writings of C. S. Lewis. Corbin Scott Carnell explores Lewis's life, theology, and literary legacy, giving special attention to the works of his that reflect most powerfully on the human quest for joy.

Author Biography

Corbin Scott Carnell, the author of numerous articles and essays on C. S. Lewis and his work, is professor of English at the University of Florida-Gainesville.

Table of Contents

Preface	11	(2)
Sebnsucbt	13	(17)
Sebnsucbt and the numinous	15	(3)
Sebnsucbt and romantic longing	18	(1)
Ecstatic wonder	19	(1)
Causeless melancholy	20	(1)
The Blue Flower motif	21	(3)
The relation of Sebnsucbt to Romanticism	24	(4)
The origin of Sebnsucbt	28	(2)
Lewis' Early Development: The Search for ``Joy''	30	(30)
What manner of man	31	(3)
Childhood in Ireland	34	(3)
Early schools	37	(3)
The young atheist	40	(2)
``Preparation for Public Life'' at Wyvern	42	(3)
``The Great Knock'' and another frontier	45	(4)
In the Infantry	49	(1)
Student days at Oxford	50	(6)
Fellow and tutor of Magdalen	56	(4)
The Baptized Imagination: Lewis' Later Work	60	(17)
The Inklings	61	(2)
Charles Williams' ``Romantic Theology,''	63	(2)
The impact of Owen Barfield	65	(2)
The influence of older literary works on Lewis' theology	67	(3)
Lewis' basic theological orientation	70	(3)
Lewis' approach to Biblical images	73	(1)
Lewis' later years	74	(3)
Opulent Melancholy and the Quest	77	(18)
The quest	80	(3)
Longing on other planets	83	(4)
Dominant images of longing in Lewis' work	87	(4)
The world of faerie	91	(2)
The significance of ``Joy-Melancholy'' in Lewis' work	93	(2)
Britain and Logres: Nature and Arch-nature	95	(26)
Arch-nature and the numinous	100	(3)
Critical reaction to the trilogy	103	(2)
Lewis as mythmaker	105	(5)
Surreality in Till We Have Faces	110	(6)
Sebnsucbt and the emptying of the universe	116	(5)
The Location of Joy	121	(22)
Sex and Sebnsucbt	124	(3)
Sebnsucbt and Romantic art	127	(5)
Other things which Joy is not	132	(2)
The Pagan vision	134	(2)
Sebnsucbt and the masks of God	136	(1)
The object of ``Joy''	137	(6)
Sebnsucbt and the New Romanticism	143	(17)
Lewis' theory as a death-blow to Romanticism	147	(1)
How Lewis' concept meets recent theology and aesthetics	148	(3)
The survival of Romantic art	151	(3)
Contemporary modifications and aberrations of Romanticism	154	(3)
The value of Lewis' concept	157	(3)
Epilogue	160	(5)
Lewis as a Christian theorist	160	(2)
The function of Sebnsucbt	162	(3)
Selected Bibliography	165	(9)
Index	174