Princess Frances
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Given the stirred hornet’s nest over THHB?
Lewis’s actual views on Islam?
- Thread starter Princess Frances
- Start date
Hermit of Archenland
Active member
The only mention Lewis made of Islam that I can remember is in Mere Christianity, where he maintained that Christianity and Hinduism are the only viable options among the world's major religions. He dismissed Buddhism as a Hindu heresy and Islam as a Christian heresy. Technically that's accurate as Islam can be considered a form of Ebionitism, a Christian heresy that maintains Jesus was not divine but just a human prophet.
Is there a new controversy?
Hi HoA! How lovely to see you still here. And thank you for this bit of scholarship! I didn't remember that from MC.
Do we believe the Calormenes are supposed to be a metaphor/or comparable to Muslims?
Hermit of Archenland
Active member
I think it's Mere Christianity, I haven't read it for a while so I might be getting mixed up with another essay but I know he wrote that somewhere.
I certainly don't think the Caloremenes are supposed to be a metaphor for Muslims. The Calormene religion is polytheistic, they practice human sacrifice and drink wine so there's little similarity there. Anyway Lewis didn't write that way. He just wanted an 'enemy' that was different from the Telmarines that he already used. So he invented an 'oriental' type country that certainly borrows elements from a lot of different cultures in the real world but that's all. Narnia and Calormen and all the rest are fictional countries in a fictional world. We can legitimately see real world influences in their creation but that's all they are; influences not intentional metaphors.
Interesting that he does not see Christianity as Jewish heresy. I mean, isn't Jesus just fulfilling the prophecy already told in the Old Testament? Without Genesis and the original sin, you really can't have Christ and the resurrection.
Welcome to the Nfans forum, aoteifa!
That certainly is exactly what Saul of Tarsus believed before he encountered the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus (he had been planning to arrest some Christ followers and persecute them for their faith). That dramatic encounter in Acts 9 was a transformational turning point in Saul's faith. He went on to be known as the apostle Paul, the missionary and author of 13 out of 27 books of theNew Testament!
Princess Frances
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Without Judaism there would be no Christianity or Islam as both began as heretical cults from Judaism.
jasmine tarkheena
Active member
Some may have criticize that CS Lewis's depiction of the Calormenes was anti-Islam.
Though it's no surprise. I've been listening to the audio drama of The Left Behind Series (which is a series of books about the end time prophecies... though I won't get into the theological aspect of it). Anyhow, one of Carpathia's cabinet, Suhail Akbar, is a Pakistani, and of course, Pakistan is strongly an Islamic country. It raised a controversy and criticism that he was being depicted as anti-Islamic.
So it may seem that the depiction of the Calormenes would be criticize for being anti-Islam.
So I guess I'm not surprise that there would controversy and criticism that anyone, let alone a group of people, being depicted as anti-anything, let alone anti-Islam.
Though it's no surprise. I've been listening to the audio drama of The Left Behind Series (which is a series of books about the end time prophecies... though I won't get into the theological aspect of it). Anyhow, one of Carpathia's cabinet, Suhail Akbar, is a Pakistani, and of course, Pakistan is strongly an Islamic country. It raised a controversy and criticism that he was being depicted as anti-Islamic.
So it may seem that the depiction of the Calormenes would be criticize for being anti-Islam.
So I guess I'm not surprise that there would controversy and criticism that anyone, let alone a group of people, being depicted as anti-anything, let alone anti-Islam.
Princess Frances
Active member
(Disclaimer: My half-family is Jewish)
The caricature of Lewis's personality and outlook by his modern far-left critics is this:
But the willingness of most of them in the last three months to excuse the 7/10 pogrom (including atrocities against INFANTS) shows the critics themselves to be this:
The caricature of Lewis's personality and outlook by his modern far-left critics is this:
But the willingness of most of them in the last three months to excuse the 7/10 pogrom (including atrocities against INFANTS) shows the critics themselves to be this:
jasmine tarkheena
Active member
CS Lewis probably would have known about all religions, including Islam. Then of course, he lived way before 9/11. Even some Muslims say that Allah and God are one and the same, similar to how Shift makes the claim that Aslan and Tash are one and the same.
Princess Frances
Active member
The Jewish god is the same as the Christian god as Christianity was originally a heretical sect of Judaism and it only really separated after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 AD.
So was Islam.
So was Islam.
Princess Frances
Active member
The most interesting propaganda by the useful idiots for Hamas and the PLO and other assorted Islamists/Arab nationalists in the last several weeks is the claim that the Palestinian Arabs are "the indigenous people of the area". Um, their ancestors conquered the area in the 7th century. They are no more the "indigenous" people than the descendants of the Telmarines that conquered Narnia between "Wardrobe" and "Caspian". Sorry I just can't believe progressives side with Islamists and Islamic culture that oppose everything progressives supposedly support. I guess it's the same as kid gloving pre-Columbian human sacrifice of babies and children to the gods to bring more rain - or indeed the decided lack of desire to tear down statutes of Ho Chi Minh etc during the Colson/Rhodes campaign. - crimes against humanity or POS human beings are ok if they are conducted by marginalised groups?