The Luminous Centre

C.S. Lewis and Ressourcement Thought

There’ll be a change of direction for this Substack from Pentecost Sunday onwards. From this Whitsun till next, we’ll be aiming at twenty-four reflective essays on the fictional world of C.S. Lewis (Narnia, The Cosmic Trilogy, Till We Have Faces, and The Great Divorce) as seen through the prism of twentieth-century Catholic and Orthodox ressourcement thought. We’ll be drawing inspiration from four theologians in particular - Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Paul Evdokimov, and Olivier Clément. Rowan Williams, I should add, will be there or thereabouts as well, as he has such an exceptional knowledge and understanding of Lewis's oeuvre.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to keep the Secret Fire name and URL. I’m also conscious that there are a couple of other Substacks with the words ‘Luminous Centre' in their titles. But if I could call the series this, then I would. Because these writers are a luminous centre - both Lewis himself, of course, and the above ‘back to the sources’ luminaries. As I wrote in a recent Substack Note on Evdokimov and Clément:

Reading and reflecting on their writing is like drinking from a well of pure, fresh water on a day of arid, lifeless heat. There’s a clarity, depth and intelligence on view that guides us away from the twin extremes of legalistic traditionalism at one end of the scale and vapid progressivism at the other, and towards the warm, radiant heart of Christian mystery, faith, and practice.

This is the strong, bright centre - the durable, fertile via media - that offers so much blessing and light in our scattered, antagonistic, hyperbolic age. These are the men of Mount Tabor and of what Balthasar called Herrlichkeit - The Glory of the Lord. No shabby compromise or middling ‘make do and mend’ for these thinkers. Their books are a burning bush, and like Peter, James, and John before us we stand on holy ground.

This will be the fourth iteration of this Substack, and by this time next May, please God, I’ll have been here five years. Maybe that'll be the time to step aside, but plenty of writing to come between now and then, and I hope you’ll stay with me to read and respond 👍

To make space for the new work, I’ll be removing many of my older posts over the next couple of weeks. All Lewis related writing will remain, however, and, as outlined above, you can look forward to a lot more over the coming year.

With thanks, blessings, and fine wishes to you all,

John (Secret Fire 🔥)