SPACE ANGELS: ANGELOLOGY IN C. S. COSMIC LEWIS'S TRILOGY

Abstract

The Northern Irish author C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the outstanding Christian thinkers of the last century. A prolific author, he moved through different areas, such as literary criticism, youth literature, science fiction, and texts of theological exposition and of apologetics. In science fiction there is his remarkable “Cosmic Trilogy”: Beyond the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hid­eous Strength. In these three books, Lewis presents a vast array of themes. Among these is angelology,the systematic study of heavenly beings known as angels. The aim of this article is to present the major influences that Lewis used to build his angelology: old Jewish literature, exemplified in texts such as the Ethiopian Enoch (or the Book of Enoch or First Enoch), and the biblical tradition itself. The article will seek also to defend the hypothesis that, using fiction, Lewis builds an imaginative and suggestive theology that is a critique of the rationalism of continental theol­ogy of his day.