C.S. Lewis: His Theology and Philosophy - Lesson 29

Dr. Michael Peterson
C.S. Lewis: His Theology and Philosophy
ap530-29
Problem of Pain (Part 9)
Lesson Transcript

But we don't have a lot of time. I'm amazed at how much time went by with the movie and the breaks we had. But we can pick this up next time. But I thought before we leave, are there any really impressive points in the movie? I can see a couple that are really worth mentioning before we leave. Anybody have any ideas? Yeah. The scene where the boy was disappointed in finding Narnia. He says that you should. If you feel where you should feel the way. Yeah, he says I'm no good at. And in the end, it's almost like an exclusive. They have that conversation. Yeah. When he says to Douglas that you should go. That's right. Ironic. You know, you said that. Yeah, she said you got to let me go. And he said, I don't think I can. Actually, I thought the movie, the more that point, along with several other points, the movie kind of plays off of oppositions or some apparent dichotomies, doesn't it? Reading we read to know we're not alone. We love to know we're not alone. Reading Safety. Love. Risky possibility. Being hurt. So played off of that, you know. And at the end of the movie, as they're walking through that valley, that lush green valley, he and Douglas, he says. A place in my life. I've had to make a choice. Once, as a boy, I chose safety. And the other the other choice I made was to choose pain. And so by choosing pain, having consciously choose pain, no, he chose to love. And included in that is the choice of pain. Quite. And so included in that is the choice of pain that it helps accentuate my point of help. Debra Winger has got nothing on me dramatically, but that was an opposition.

We need to know we're not alone. Earlier on than we love to know. We're all these really interesting oppositions that they play off of the safety of one, the risk and possible hurt of the other. Another point I thought was really interesting was, well, I won't say any other observations before I say what I maybe my my most favorite part. I think it's also fascinating that just coming. Comes in your sink through is what she calls the defense mechanism. Yeah, I knew he had built this wall. Yeah. First of all. That's right. In Oxford. Behind the walls of Oxford. Yeah, that's true. Piece of trivia. His room was not showroom looking out. It was farther down to the right. And there was put a red geranium on the windowsill because so many tourists asked which ones. Anyway, that's a little more than you needed to know. But the movie had to have that corner room. I think the movie had to have one child instead of two. She had two sons, that kind of thing. Charles was I can't remember the first name Charles David. That was. I can't remember. But you remember when they went to the Golden Valley and it was raining and they went into the hay barn there, and she's trying to get him to verbalize about the relationship and and where her health is going to go and her impending death. And she says this. He says, let's let's leave things alone. I'm happy now. And she says. The pain. Then is part of what she says now is the reality of happiness. Now. That's a tie. These are time references. And then pain, happiness are put in there. So in other words, happiness, they're saying, is not just total security and safety, but an ingredient of of a certain kind of happy.

An ingredient can be pain. Remember, they're driving along to that valley and she says, Jack, what kind of he's I'm perfectly happy for the content and not anxious for anything else. It's just what kind of happy are you? What kind of happy? I think this gets at that. That right now they're happy. But they can't pretend like the pain isn't there and that it isn't going to ultimately take her the pain and suffering. So pain is part of happiness, not dichotomous. Because he says right there, right before that, he says, I'm happiest now that I'm now no longer in the shadow. Yes, I am in this moment, she says. So that to you is happiness. And then she completely destroys that. Yes. Now, remember to later in the movie, there's another line and goes like this. I'll put it here again. Oh, I guess you can see it. The Does she say the happiness now? Or do the pain now is part of the happiness. Then when she's on the bed. Yeah, on the bed, she says the pain. I'm enjoying the pain now because she says, Because I can be quiet by thinking. Yeah. He says something very nasty. Yeah, but they reverse these, don't they. Also the happiness now. No. Is that what you said? Am I getting this correct? You know, the pain now is the same thing. It's just going to be happiness now. Yeah, That's what you said. Yeah. This is it. I'll get this right next week and we can edit. We can edit it, get it, get it. We can have this. But there's a really interesting juxtaposition of those two saying they're not the same statement. And my point and I did have one, too, I lost the statement here was I'm still crime.

So holding back tears. But no, but I think the reference to then the pain then is future in the barn, the rain in the barn, the pain. Then as a future reference as part of the happiness now. So knowing that it's coming, we've agreed to suffer together. We're we've joined our lives. We've. We've come to love each other. So the pain that's coming then in the future, with reference to the time in the barn is part of the happiness we have now. The happiness we have now. It's not just total security, no pain. That's not the way life is. But later there's a statement I think that goes to happiness. Now is part of the pain then. No, I don't think that's right. I think it's the pain now is part of the happiness then. That's right. That's right. Well, let. Let me take it. Okay. Okay. The pain now is part of the happiness there. So the pain of losing her, that whole event of surrounding her death, that pain, all that's involved now is part of the happiness, then I think that's a future reference to heaven. To the fact that even in heaven, so to speak, even when life, temporal life is over, the kind of happiness of heaven will not ignore, deny, forget. The pain in temporal life. But it will be some kind of an ingredient component of the kind of happiness that we know in heaven. It won't be the happiness of never having suffered or never having lost someone. It will be a different kind of happiness that can actually be conceived as including not excluding like, Oh, you can't be happy if you're in pain or it can't be. Happiness could never include pain. That's really not the message of those two juxtaposed comments.

How are we doing for time? Not good. It's time to quit. Don't cry. Don't cry anymore about it. But we'll pick it up after Thanksgiving because you'll forget all this won't be able to discuss after Thanksgiving. If you need that turkey, you know the tryptophan will get you.