Is it reasonable to consider Clive Staples Lewis from the viewpoint of Christian Postmodernism? The answer to this question depends on the definition of the ambiguous term ‘postmodernism’. The first merit of Kyoko Yuasa's book, the outcome of her doctoral research, consists undoubtedly in having circumscribed a useful description of postmodernism in order to re-read C.S. Lewis's Works in a new way. In other words, Yuasa shows how Lewis is still relevant in the twenty-first century, because he can be considered as a ‘harbinger of Christian postmodernism’ (p. 1).
If postmodernism is read as a nihilistic way of thinking, a high-cultural expression of the same relativism which emerges from contemporary consumerism, Lewis is far from being a postmodern writer. But if we consider postmodern thought as a deep criticism of modern prejudices, then we can understand Yuasa's hermeneutics. Proceeding from the approach described in A Rhetoric of Reading: C. S. Lewis's Defence of Western Literacy (1986) by Bruce L. Edwards, author of the Foreword to her book, the Japanese scholar understands Lewis's anti-modernism in postmodern terms. This hermeneutic turn indicates the propositional attitude of The Chronicles of Narnia’s author and relaunches his message for today's Christians. In Yuasa's words: ‘As postmodernism does, Lewis deconstructs the modernist's single interpretation of the truth – elevating reason (word) over faith (image) – and instead advocates the multiple perspectives of the world as well as what they transcend. He deconstructs the interpretation commonly accepted by the previous generation, stating that human interpretation is influenced by our cultural models in each time period’ (p. 2). Reading Lewis's books, we are led beyond strict genre boundaries, as defined by modern thought, between science and fiction, history and myth, reason and feeling, natural and supernatural. Criticism of Darwin's empiricism, Freud's reductionism and Marx's rationalism goes hand in hand with criticism of Bultmann's exegesis of the New Testament. Lewis, in fact, criticizes the dilution of Christian message caused by the demythologization of the Bible that sunders natural from supernatural. For Yuasa, this position is not only a mere reaction against modernity. Based on his knowledge of the Middle Age, Lewis's re-evaluation of perspectives overlooked by modernist thought constitutes a real anticipation of the postmodern way of thinking, here characterised above all by its methodological assumption of multiple worldviews. Looking at his ‘apologetic’ essays, for example, Lewis's interpretation of miracles ‘contributes to a reconciliation of modernist conflicts between science (naturalism) and religion (supernaturalism) and promotes the postmodernist coexistence of both views in the twenty-first century’ (p. 26). As a novelist, instead, the former Oxbridge scholar – compared to postmodernist authors such as Iris Murdoch, Muriel Sparks, Doris Lessing and John Fowls – employs ‘vague borders of fact and fiction’ in order ‘to doubt the modernist's dualistic dominance of reason over faith, naturalism over supernaturalism (p. 46).
Yuasa argues for this interpretation, searching out in Lewis's reading experience the roots of his postmodernist approach. Consequently, from the viewpoint of the Japanese scholar, the Bible, mythology (Greco-Roman, Irish and Nordic), Western Classics (Arthurian literature, Dante's Commedia and other selected works), and female writers (Julian of Norwich, Dorothy L. Sayers and Joy Davidman) influenced the alleged anticipations of Christian postmodernist style in Lewis's writings. According to Yuasa, for example, Lewis writes his last novel in order to lead the reader ‘closest to having an imaginative experience that ‘incarnates’ the abstraction of death, life, and ‘God is love’ when they read, or ‘taste’ as Lewis phrases it, the story of myth. He uses the novel as a tool of truth in the same way as mythology’ (p. 143). In other words, ‘he empowers story-telling through he postmodernist literary approach of creating transcendent understanding through a story within a story. […] Ignoring modernist critics who sideline science fiction and fantasy novels from literary genres, Lewis reconstructs these genres and rehabilitates mythological story-telling from the viewpoint of Christianity’ (p. 174).
The heart of the matter with Lewis's postmodernist mythology consists in overcoming the modern split between word and image, without destroying neither one nor the other. From a theological viewpoint, this peculiar storytelling is close to the Christological style of preaching. Jesus Christ is both ‘Word of God’ (John 1:1-18) and ‘Image of the unseen God’ (Col 1:15). Even if Jesus employs scenes taken from everyday life, his parables can be understood only if readers place themselves beyond every modern separation between word and image. In a similar fashion, Lewis re-reads the Western mythological and literary heritage, in order to re-tell the Gospel. According to Yuasa, ‘in his fiction, Lewis never uses even one theological word of Christianity, but instead re-tells a mythological story of pagan gods, dead and risen, in order to relate the story of Christ's death and resurrection’ (p. 174). As a Dominican friar, I would recommend reading this book on Lewis's style and intellectual experience, to preach today ‘suggesting that reality lies beyond the limitation of human language’ (p. 178). Day after day, it becomes all the more urgent to evoke an ‘imaginary’ favourable to the gospel message. In fact, this is necessary in order to remove the cultural obstacles interfering with the work of grace. Lewis's postmodernist story-telling, as it is described in this book, opens an effective path in this direction. To dissolve any doubt about it, one can consider, for example, how frequently the former Master of the Order of Preachers, Timothy Radcliffe, quotes C. S. Lewis in his popular spiritual writings. Despite some didactic naivety, Yuasa's work can be useful to anyone who wishes to tell the story of our salvation through an effective and highly imaginative theological language.
