Juxtaposition

Today has been a weird day, theologically speaking.

I finished the book "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, and then read "The Great Divorce" by CS Lewis.
From a theological standpoint, there could not be two more different books.

In "Life of Pi", Piscine, the title character, becomes a follower of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. He follows all three, blending elements of them together, but refusing to strictly follow a single one. In essence, Piscine adopts a kind of universalism view of religion - an "all roads lead to heaven" and that all religions are equal.

In the Preface, Lewis states the major point of the book, "We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre."
Lewis argues that choices matter, and being a good person is not enough to get you into heaven. You must be willing to let go of yourself and accept the grace/mercy of God - and Lewis points out that letting go and accepting this gift is quite possibly the most difficult thing in the world for people to understand.

Lewis' conclusion is much harder for people to accept than Martel's. Martel gives a world where just devotion to the idea of God under the guise of any religion is enough. That trying to be spiritual is all you need in order to please God. To me, this ends up being ultimately a prideful and self-centered view - in essence, it allows a person to decide what/who God is. But it much easier to do that than to let go of yourself and give yourself up to God's grace/mercy.


And if I didn't have You as my guide, I'd still wander lost in Sinai
So I'll go ask Your forgiveness with every breath,

"Carousals" - mewithoutYou