On Hope and Marriage [Part 1]

Theology and the Cosmic Trilogy of C.S. Lewis

Jan 03, 2023

In one of the more curious encounters in That Hideous Strength—C.S. Lewis’ “fairy-tale for grownups,” as he puts it—the newly awakened Merlin arrives at the manor house at St. Anne’s on a dark and stormy night to put Dr. Ransom to the test. Skeptical of Ransom’s claim to be the master of the house and a member of the College, he questions him with a riddle:

Who is called Sulva? What road does she walk? Why is the womb barren on one side? Where are the cold marriages?” Ransom replies: “Sulva is she whom mortals call the Moon. She walks in the lowest sphere. The rim of the world that was wasted goes through her. Half of her orb is turned towards us and shares our curse. Her other half looks to Deep Heaven; happy would he be who could cross that frontier and see the fields on her further side. On this side, the womb is barren and the marriages cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust. There when a young man takes a maiden in marriage, they do not lie together, but each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by devilish arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty in their dreams of lust. The real children they fabricate by vile arts in a secret place. [1]

*The Great Day of His Wrath* (1851). John Martin.

While we may be unconvinced by their mutual affirmation of the existence of a fallen lunar species, it would be a challenge indeed to deny the existence of the infernal realities ascribed to them.

The tragedy of course, is that this “accursed people” is us, as Lewis himself claims in proposing that the lunar situation is a result of sharing in Earth’s curse. The challenge before us, however, is to demonstrate that the experience shared by all too many—the “lunar” experience, if you will—is not in fact the truth of the matter; not that Lewis was wrong of course, but in the sense that when marriage, love, and procreation exist in this state, that they exist as a lie. If marriage is a reality from which hope springs, it would in fact have to be precisely the opposite kind of thing as is experienced by the cursed people of the moon. The lived experience of marriage as a source of sorrow and strife challenges the claim that marriage is a divinely instituted reality ordered to the happiness and perfection of—and thus a source of hope for—the individuals who enter into it.

As the unifying thread of the narrative, one of the most fascinating aspects of Lewis’ novel is the foundational role played by a variety of characters in differing stages of marriage. Friendship, love, and marriage are anchors for the overall thrust of Lewis’ narrative intention in telling of the cosmic battle that must be waged against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the humans in which these realities take root demonstrate the lived, existential truths which are elegantly laid out by Saint Thomas and two of his most influential modern disciples, Bernard Lonergan and John Paul II. This essay will address the specific theme of marriage as an eschatologically oriented state in life that is capable—through the grace of the sacrament—of empowering the spouses to confront sin, suffering, and even death precisely because of the healing and sanctifying grace provided by the sacrament of matrimony.

Our primary theological interlocutors will be Thomas Aquinas, Bernard Lonergan, and John Paul II, all of whom will be shown to stake out positions on marriage consonant with Lewis’ depiction of marriage in the novel, and who will be called upon to highlight explicit theoretical truths that Lewis proposes experientially in the lived mystery which the characters of his novel undergo. Lewis’ response to evil relies heavily on the lived experience of spouses who embrace the Christian vision of matrimony—true love between the best of friends, to paraphrase Aquinas—which is truly capable of providing a locus of hope for even the darkest of nights and the deepest of sufferings.

Marriage as Eschatological?

As defined by the council fathers in Gaudium et spes, the covenant relationship of marriage is characterized by two distinct, yet related, ends:

By their very nature, the institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the procreation and education of children, and find in them their ultimate crown. Thus a man and a woman, who by their compact of conjugal love “are no longer two, but one flesh” (Matt. 19:6ff), render mutual help and service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and of their actions. Through this union they experience the meaning of their oneness and attain to it with growing perfection day by day. As a mutual gift of two persons, this intimate union and the good of the children impose total fidelity on the spouses and argue for an unbreakable oneness between them (§48.1).

In essence, Gaudium et Spes is merely echoing the age-old teaching of the Church that marriage is ordered primarily to the procreation and education of children, and secondarily to the mutual help of the spouses. The Catechism speaks of marriage as “by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring” (CCC, §1601). Though the vocabulary is different, and more elaborative, what Gaudium et Spes describes is the outworking of the teaching which Aquinas offered seven centuries prior (and which someone like Augustine offered eight centuries prior to Aquinas).

Though absent from his treatise on the sacraments in the Tertia Pars of the Summa Theologiae—an unfortunate accident occasioned by his untimely death—St. Thomas speaks eloquently of marriage in his other masterwork, the Summa Contra Gentiles:

Now between husband and wife, there would seem to be the greatest friendship [maxima amicitia], for they are made one not only in the act of fleshly union—which brings about a pleasant association even among animals—but also in the fellowship of the whole way of life within the home (SCG III.2, 123.6).

I propose that Aquinas speaks of what the Catechism calls the “good of the spouses”—and what Gaudium et Spes calls variously “mutual help,” “intimate union,” and “mutual gift”—under the category of friendship. While almost completely absent from the Council’s otherwise marvelous treatment of the sacrament of marriage, the nature of marriage as friendship is of profound importance.

The single mention of married friendship is, however, quite important, and goes to show just how enlightening a sustained treatment of the topic could have been. Gaudium et spes §49.2 states the following:

“This love is an eminently human one since it is directed from one person to another through an affection of the will; it involves the good of the whole person, and therefore can enrich the expressions of body and mind with a unique dignity, ennobling these expressions as special ingredients and signs of the friendship distinctive of marriage. This love God has judged worthy of special gifts, healing, perfecting and exalting gifts of grace and of charity. Such love, merging the human with the divine, leads the spouses to a free and mutual gift of themselves, a gift providing itself by gentle affection and by deed, such love pervades the whole of their lives: indeed by its busy generosity it grows better and grows greater. Therefore it far excels mere erotic inclination, which, selfishly pursued, soon enough fades wretchedly away.”

Building on the previous comments regarding the ends of marriage and the friendship which characterizes the bond between the spouses, it remains to be seen precisely how the matrimonial covenant is oriented, in the words of John Paul, towards “eschatological hope.”

Theology & Reality

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