Are the messages in "The Great Divorce" and "The Last Battle" by C.S. Lewis compatible with Christian belief?

Question

In "the Great Divorce", people who are in Hell get a chance to go to Heaven. In "The Last Battle" a soldier who was following another religion and devout to a false God was able to go to Heaven because Aslan accredited his good deeds and works as though the soldier was following Aslan.

C.S. Lewis has been a renowned Christian author, but are the respective messages in these particular books compatible with Biblically-based Christian theology? Please be articulate because this area is really troubling me right now.

Thanks

Answer 1

The issue of compatibility with Christian doctrine is actually discussed to a degree IN "The Great Divorce", where the author (Note, the whole tale is wrapped as "a dream" as a deliberate parallel with "Pilgrim's Progress") has a conversation with one of the residents, the writer George Macdonald, who points out that the encounters depicted shouldn't be taken as simple second chances, or momentary choices. They are depictions, or summaries, of lives and decisions.
As for depicting the apparently damned visiting heaven, if that isn't allowed, what on earth (If you will pardon the miss-phrase) is going on in Job 1:6 and 2:1? If Satan can do it or, for the purposes of pointing out a message, the idea can be entertained...

"The Last Battle " is somewhat more difficult.
But C S Lewis is only struggling with what many have wrestled with: what is the fate of the sincere who have never heard the gospel?
The soldier of Tash was doing the best he knew.
Yes, some Christians would confidently state that all those not explicitly confessing Christ (or here Aslan as Christ-type) are lost. But is that compatible with God's love?
It's going to depend on how you integrate for instance Romans 2: 10-11, and 2: 14-16 where the non-Christians' thoughts "accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day [of judgement]" with other passages concerning faith and judgement, which appear to make the profession of faith in Christ essential.

Each is "a fairy tale with a moral" (as ronnlynn exactly has it),
and I know nowhere that states that these have to be theologically perfect. Read his talks and essays to see where C S Lewis stands in the range, and it is a range, of Christian understanding of salvation.

Answer 2

"The Great Divorce" is meant by C. S. Lewis himself not to be an actual depiction of what heaven is like, but more of a fairy tale with a moral.

I have several concerns with "The Last Battle" one of which you mentioned. I haven't done the research to know if it is as it seems or if I'm misinterpreting it.

Because I follow God and not C. S. Lewis, I'm okay with the fact that I don't agree with all of his theology. I can't think of a single author I agree with 100% outside of the Biblical text itself. I can still learn a lot from them, however.

Answer 3

While Lewis is a phenomenal Christian author (I love his works), you have to understand he is a man, and is, therefore, fallible. You must also understand that he was writing works of fiction, and in many letters, as well as interviews, he has said that Narnia was never meant to be allegorical in nature (though his Christian beliefs are surely evident in the writing). All I can say is that it is up to God, in regard to who goes to heaven, and who does not. I, personally, do not believe those in hell get a chance to move from hell to heaven (via the different levels of hell, and purgatory, etc.) as was the traditional Anglican belief.

Answer 4

I know only The Last Battle. I do not think that Romans 2, 10-16 contradicts other parts of the Bible, and I do not think that only by explicitly, consciously believing in Jesus can one go to heaven. Otherways all true men and women of the Old Testament went to hell, because they did not believe in Jesus, who was not even born those times. "...these times of ignorance God overlooked..." - said Paul to the pagans in Athens (Acts 17, 30). What times? For many persons around the world "those times" end only, when he or she gets a really creditable calling to follow Christ.

And Jesus said that the servant, who does not know, what his master wants, will get less punishment for the bad things he did (Luke 12, 47-48). So God recognizes personal circumstances, and takes them into consideration.

If one gets a clear invitation from God to accept and follow Christ and Christianity and rejects these, that might go to hell, but it is not our task to judge this. It is even less our task to decide whether our invitation was really creditable for the invited. It is known only by God, who knows everyone's past, personal ideas, problems.

Answer 5

Was Jesus a fundamentalist? The answer is no....if you are a fundamentalist you have to believe that Jesus sinned....he called the Pharisees hypocrites yet said you were in danger of hell if you said "raca" fool to someone. Jesus read into Scripture and found truth and freedom, many modern Christians want the Bible to be some kind of Rule Book.