C.S. Lewis lecture

Dionysus in C.S. Lewis and Nietzsche

Oxford professor Jonathan Kirkpatrick came to Whitworth last Tuesday and gave a lecture on “C.S. Lewis and the Classics of Greece and Rome.” Specifically he discussed Bacchus, or Dionysus, in Narnia. Generally Lewis fans take The Chronicles of Narnia to be a purely Christian allegory. However, while it does contain a picture of what Christianity could look like in an alternate world, it also has numerous references to Greek and Roman mythology, especially to Bacchus, the god of wine. This interest in Bacchus is because Lewis believed that for religion to be real, it had to be a mixture of what he called ‘Thick’ and ‘Thin’ religion. ‘Thick’ religion, in Lewis’ opinion, was a religion like the African tribal beliefs—dark, mysterious, and filled with passion and blood. ‘Thin’ religion was the Christianity of Lewis’ day, very formal, exact, and completely passionless. Lewis at this point in his life was a Christian, but he did not approve of the watered-down religion of that time, and his answer was to bring in the passion of Bacchus.

Nietzshe also called himself a follower of Dionysus. However, unlike Lewis, Nietzsche did not believe that Dionysian energy should become part of Christianity, as Nietzsche rejected Christian beliefs. Nietzsche instead wants to meld Dionysian chaos with Apollonian systematic calmness. He also celebrates the Dionysian theme of suffering, death, and rebirth as true tragedy and therefore necessary. According to Nietzsche, Dionysus reminds us of suffering, and suffering is an inevitability that shows us that we are alive. In contrast to this view, Lewis believed that Dionysus’ theme of dying and rising again was a hint of the Christian resurrection and is therefore joyous.

Rachel Means