Tool Alpha
C. S. Lewis’s Cosmology
Where Lewis’s heavens follow Scripture, where they come from the medieval picture of the cosmos, and where he made them up.
Tash is real
The Calormene god turns out to be an actual being, and he comes when he is called.
1 Corinthians 10:19-21, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: are false gods nothing, or something? The Ape said Tash was just another name for Aslan. He was lying, and the lie called up the real thing. Lewis lets a false god be an actual being. Whether that fits what the Bible says about idols is the question.
The Ape and the Calormenes claim Tash and Aslan are one, "Tashlan." Rishda Tarkaan starts to suspect "there might be a real Tash." Then Tash appears, vulture-headed and four-armed, says "Thou hast called me into Narnia," and seizes Rishda, until a voice orders him to take his lawful prey to his own place in the name of Aslan.
Paul says an idol is nothing, and then that what the pagans sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God (1 Corinthians 10:19-20). Deuteronomy 32:17 says Israel sacrificed to demons, to gods they had not known. Scripture holds both: the statue is nothing, and there is something behind it.
Lewis follows Paul closely here: the idolater is not dealing with nothing.
Tash's monstrous form is Lewis's own, and his name for Calormen's god is invented.
Not a claim that all religions worship the same God. The Ape's claim that Tash and Aslan are one is the lie the whole book is about.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/psalm-82\/","n":"Psalm 82","s":"God stands in the divine assembly and passes sentence on the elohim He put in charge.","r":"Psalm 82"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/deuteronomy-32-8-9\/","n":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9","s":"The Most High divided the nations, and the number He divided them by is where the whole argument turns.","r":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9"}
- Lewis, The Last Battle (1956), chs. 3, 9, 12
