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.
The descent of the gods
In That Hideous Strength the planetary rulers, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, come down to St. Anne's. They are on God's side.
Deuteronomy 4:19, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: what did Lewis do with the old gods of the planets? The names stayed, the jobs changed. Mercury, Venus and Mars were gods to the Romans. In Lewis they are great created spirits who serve Maleldil, and they come down to help a small household in England.
Ransom says the Oyéresu are his masters. In the chapter called The Descent of the Gods, the powers of Mercury (Viritrilbia), Venus (Perelandra), Mars (Malacandra) and then mightier ones, ancient eldils who steer giant worlds, come to St. Anne's: Saturn, called Lurga, and great Glund-Oyarsa, King of Kings, known to men of old as Jove. Lewis makes Mercury the source of language itself.
Deuteronomy 4:19 warns Israel not to worship the sun, moon and stars, the host of heaven, which God has allotted to the nations. Psalm 82 judges the gods of the nations for misrule. In Scripture the heavenly powers over the nations are the ones who went wrong.
The planetary characters are the medieval seven planets and their influences. In the novel Dimble says the Oyéresu are not exactly angels: technically, they are Intelligences, the medieval term Lewis took from Bernardus Silvestris in the first book. McGrath reports Michael Ward's argument, first made in 2008, that Lewis built the seven Narnia books on the same seven planets, which John Donne called the Heptarchy. Ward's reading is an argument about Lewis, not something Lewis said; McGrath finds it persuasive.
This is the sharpest departure in the tool. Lewis's planetary powers are loyal. In Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82, the powers allotted to the nations are corrupt and judged. Lewis's medieval heavens are cleaner than the Bible's.
Not paganism. Lewis's planetary powers are created servants of Maleldil, not gods. Dimble says that technically they are Intelligences.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/deuteronomy-4-19-20\/","n":"Deuteronomy 4:19-20","s":"Israel must not worship the host of heaven, which Yahweh allotted to all the other peoples.","r":"Deuteronomy 4:19-20"}
- {"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, That Hideous Strength (1945), chs. 9, 10, 13, 15
- McGrath, C. S. Lewis, A Life (2013), The Seven Planets: Medieval Symbolism in Narnia
- Michael Ward, Planet Narnia (2008), as reported by McGrath
