Have you ever read C.S. Lewis' space trilogy? Becky and I believe that is a misleading name for it. It is not about “space” in the sense that we use the term. If you haven’t heard of the trilogy, here are the names of the books; Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. These books have completely captivated us. In them, Lewis is able to portray certain Biblical truths in a way that enlighten our minds and cause our hearts to hunger for heavenly things. After reading the series through a few times I wanted to discover what inspired Lewis’ ability to convey divine truths with such potency. I learned that two books had been particularly influential for Lewis: Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton and Phantastes by George MacDonald. I set out to read them both. It didn’t take long before I completed Phantastes; and was converted. Like the surprising way in which Lewis found himself converted to Christianity, here I was converted to believing in fairies.
In Phantastes, a young man journeys through fairyland and makes both outward and inward discoveries. While reading, I was made my own discoveries. I was beginning to understand what C.S. Lewis meant when he said that to convey certain truths a person needed to use myths. As Lewis used the term, myths, convey divine truths in a manner that preserves their mysterious quality, similarly to poetry. A divine mystery stripped down by bare prose can miss the truth in a critical way. It can leave you like the modern scientist, thinking that you have mastered the object of your study. We think that we understand the phenomena “instinct” or “birth” because we have defined them with concise definitions. Yet, this scientific mindset has enslaved our brains to petty conceptions of reality rather than causing us to truly perceive reality.
C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald have taught me that there is truth to be found but it cannot be known in a manner that excludes mystery. It is here, in the humility before truth itself that we need to be like children and believe in the enchantment of reality.
Thus, I set out to encourage "make believe" play with my girls. Claire, more mature in this journey than I, led me on the way when I said we were going to the park to play "Fairies." But Natania, like her “black and white” thinking father, agreed to go on one condition: "I will play 'fairies'" she said, "but I will NOT believe in them." That was a start.
We all enjoyed looking for fairies at Creek Park, but when we came to the land of fairies and castles here in England I wondered what we might find. For me, the impact was keenly felt when I walked in the country garden (it would be better to think of it as an arboretum) at the cottages that Becky and I stayed at in Wales. The entire garden was enchanting, but one part of it was indescribably beautiful. It was like the land of the Elves in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." It had a stone stairway descending into something like a cathedral in a forest
In that cathedral I saw, felt, and smelled why people have told fairy stories. I was in the presence of beauty that exceeded the ability of my five senses to take in, let alone to adequately describe it with words.
Still skeptical about my conversion? I will leave you with one last dogmatic word. In a lecture (click here for the lecture), Peter Kreeft explains that the term "Dogma," which in recent times has come to mean a “hard and almost legalistic truth,” originally carried a meaning closer to the idea of “mysterious truth.” Truths, if they be truly known, will retain a holy mystery!
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