{"id":70258,"date":"2019-02-26T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=70258"},"modified":"2020-01-06T22:36:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T05:36:22","slug":"pints-with-jack-s2e7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2019\/02\/26\/pints-with-jack-s2e7\/","title":{"rendered":"PWJ: S2E7 – TGD 5 – “The Episcopal Ghost”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today we meet my favourite character in The Great Divorce<\/em>, the extremely frustrating Episcopal Ghost<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S2E8: \u201cThe Episcopal Ghost\u201d <\/strong>(Download<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually<\/a>, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes<\/a>, Google Play<\/a>, Podbean<\/a>, Stitcher<\/a>, TuneIn<\/a> and Overcast<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Time Stamps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In case your podcast application has the ability to jump to certain time codes, here are the timestamps for the different parts of the episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

06:33 \u2013 Chapter 150-word Summary<\/em>
07:40 \u2013 Chapter Discussion<\/em>
37:53 \u2013 Haikus<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Show Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Following positive feedback on Twitter, for the time-being episodes will be between 30 and 40 minutes long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The quote-of-the-week is said by the Bright Spirit to the Episcopal Ghost:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur opinions were not honestly come by. We simply found ourselves in contact with a certain current of ideas and plunged into it because it seemed modern and successful\u2026[we] were playing with loaded dice\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)
<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The drink-of-the-week was Buchanan\u2019s DeLuxe<\/a>. Matt was drinking Lemon-flavoured La Croix because he\u2019s currently doing Exodus 90<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I spoke about my interview on Fore Catholic radio show<\/a>. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 We also discussed my interview with Joseph Pearce<\/a> about C.S. Lewis and the Catholic Church which should be being published in a few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Matt shared about the retreat he recent went on, whose theme was “Intimacy in prayer”<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I announced that I would be speaking at the SKYAC Conference<\/a> in March about theosis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Matt shared a 150-word summary of the current chapter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack encounters one of the Bright Spirits, Dick, talking to The Episcopal Ghost. The ghost laughs that his friend, while on earth, believed in a literal Heaven and Hell. Dick responds by asking the ghost where he thinks he’s been\u2026 <\/p>

Dick explains that he was sent to Hell for apostasy. The ghost objects that they were his “honest opinions”, but Len explains that the \u201copinions were not honestly come by\u201d. Dick invites him to repent and believe, but the ghost protests that he already believes. He wants some assurances concerning life in Heaven, but Dick refuses to give them. <\/p>

The ghost speaks for some time about how he finds “something stifling about the idea of finality\u201d and “ready-made truth”. He then suddenly remembers that he can’t go to Heaven, as he’s scheduled to present a paper at the grey town\u2019s Theological Society and leaves to return to the bus.<\/p>150-word summary of Chapter 5 of The Great Divorce
<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The chapter begins with a strange scene involving some lions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo velvet-footed lions came bouncing into the open space, their eyes fixed upon each other, and started playing some solemn romp\u2026 Not greatly liking my company, I moved away to find [the] river\u2026\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We suggested that Lewis included this incident to help with his world-building, the conflicting impression of majesty and danger. Matt suggested that it might be alluding to Isaiah 65:25<\/a>. A listener, Patty suggested that this land might be a CS Lewis crossover, the same place which Jill visited in The Silver Chair<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Lewis sees a ghost who was with him on the bus, the “fat, clean-shaven ghost”<\/em> who claimed that it would never become night in the grey town and how also decried anything physical as “materialism”. Lewis is going to call him The Episcopal Ghost<\/em>. because he’s a bishop. Lewis telegraphs this by commenting that he’s wearing gaiters, standard dress for Anglican Bishops in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Episcopal Ghost<\/em> meets a Bright Spirit named Dick, whom he knew on earth. It turns out that Dick’s father was in the grey town so he asked why The Episcopal Ghost<\/em> didn’t bring him along. The Ghost gives this assessment of his father:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c…to be quite frank, he’s been getting a little eccentric lately. A little difficult. Losing his grip\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Ghost recalls that Dick had become rather “narrow minded” towards the end of his life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI expect you’ve changed your views a bit since then. You became rather narrow-minded towards the end of your life: but no doubt you’ve broadened out again… [you were] coming to believe in a literal Heaven and Hell!\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dick points out that the grey town is Hell! Although it might seem shocking that Lewis puts a bishop in Hell, Dante put Popes there in The Inferno<\/em>! It is a timely reminder that our clergy are not sinless and are in need our prayers! I encouraged listeners to read Bad Shepherds<\/a> by Rod Bennett, which chronicles some of the worst clergy in the history fo the Catholic Church and how the laity responded during those troublesome times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Although the grey town is Hell, Dick explains that its identity might change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You have been in Hell: though if you don’t go back you may call it Purgatory.”<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This statement doesn’t neatly fit into either Catholic or Protestant theologies. I reminded the listeners that this is a work of fiction! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I explained the logic of Purgatory, that the process of sanctification needs to be completed before we can step before the throne of God. Matt and I talk more about this in S1E39<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We discussed why Lewis describes the town in this way. I suggested that it was related to Lewis’ understanding of suffering and sanctification:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favorite image on this matter comes from the dentist\u2019s chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am \u2018coming round\u2019,\u2019 a voice will say, \u2018Rinse your mouth out with this.\u2019 This will be Purgatory. The rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. But . . . it will [not] be disgusting and unhallowed.\u201d<\/p>Letter to Malcolm<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I went on to explain that suffering is a component of both Purgatory and Hell, but that the suffering has difference purposes, the former being purgative, the latter being punitive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read the classic Biblical text for Purgatory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the work which any man has built on the foundation [of Christ] survives, he will receive a reward. [However,] If any man\u2019s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire\u201d<\/p>1 Corinthians 3:11-15<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The grey town, the inhabitants suffer the consequences of their sin. If they wallow in it, the place is Hell, but if it cleanses them and motivates them to get on the bus, it will have been Purgatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Episcopal Ghost <\/em>asks why he was sent to Hell. The Bright Spirit says that it’s because he was an apostate. The Ghost responds: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Do you really think people are penalised for their honest opinions? Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that those opinions were mistaken.”<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dick says that it all turns on what one means by “honest opinions”. The Ghost is actually rather proud of his opinions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c…not only honest but heroic. I asserted them fearlessly. When the doctrine of the Resurrection ceased to commend itself to the critical faculties which God had given me, I openly rejected it. I preached my famous sermon. I defied the whole chapter. I took every risk.”<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t think that St. Paul would be very impressed by a Christian preacher denying the Resurrection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain\u201d<\/p>1 Corinthians 15:14-19<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dick says that there was little risk involved:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What risk? What was at all likely to come of it except what actually came – popularity, sales for your books, invitations, and finally a bishopric?”<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 We might think that this is just a caricature, but Lewis wrote this in one of his essays: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce the layman was anxious to hide the fact that he believed so much less than the vicar; now he tends to hide the fact that he believes so much more\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism (1959)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Back in August 2002, two thousand Church of England vicars were surveyed and it was found that a third didn’t believe in the Resurrection and half didn’t believe in the Virgin Birth! Having said that, this nonsense can be found in every denomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Bright Spirit then offers the central rebuttal of this chapter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet us be frank. Our opinions were not honestly come by. We simply found ourselves in contact with a certain current of ideas and plunged into it because it seemed modern and successful\u2026 saying the kind of things that won applause. <\/p>

When, in our whole lives, did we honestly face, in solitude, the one question on which all turned: whether after all the Supernatural might not in fact occur? When did we put up one moment’s real resistance to the loss of our faith?.. You know that you and I were playing with loaded dice\u2026 <\/p>

Having allowed oneself to drift, unresisting, unpraying, accepting every half-conscious solicitation from our desires, we reached a point where we no longer believed the Faith\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Dick explains that the Ghost can still be saved: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne wrench and the tooth will be out. You can begin as if nothing had ever gone wrong. White as snow\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Matt and I talked about creating a CS Lewis drinking game: take a shot every time he talks about teeth or the dentist!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All he has to do is take John the Baptist’s call, repent and believe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have seen Hell: you are in sight of Heaven. Will you, even now, repent and believe?”<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Spirit invites him to trust him and join him in the journey to the Mountain. The Ghost wants some guarantees concerning life there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI should want a guarantee that you are taking me to a place where I shall find a wider sphere of usefulness-and scope for the talents that God has given me-and an atmosphere of free inquiry-in short, all that one means by civilisation and-er-the spiritual life.”<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, Dick offers him no such guarantees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can promise you none of these things. No sphere of usefulness: you are not needed there at all. No scope for your talents: only forgiveness for having perverted them. No atmosphere of inquiry, for I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God\u201d<\/p>C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (Chapter 5)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Episcopal Ghost <\/em>does not believe in absolute truth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not? \u2026to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Spirit encourages him to return to a time when he asked questions because he wanted to know the answers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Once you were a child. Once you knew what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Become that child again: even now”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Ghost annoying cherry-picks a Bible verse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.<\/p>1 Corinthians 13:11<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The ghost accuses him of intellectual masturbation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You have gone far wrong. Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you now call the free play of inquiry has neither more nor less to do with the ends for which intelligence was given you than masturbation has to do with marriage.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Dick asks the Ghost if he even believes in God, but he dodges the question, asking what “existence” even means. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Dick asks the Ghost if he desires happiness, which he dodges as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Ghost realizes that he cannot possibly stay as he is presenting a paper at the theological society in Hell in a few days. Using Ephesians 4, he will be asking what Jesus’ mature views would have been and how this shows us what a disaster the Crucifixion was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Ghost wanders back to the bus humming the hymn City of God How Broad and Far<\/a>, ironic since he’s actually leaving<\/strong> the City of God as he’s doing so. I would have ended the chapter there, but Lewis has another paragraph where he talks about walking on the solid river. Matt and I discussed some hypotheses as to why Lewis includes this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Concerning the Ghost’s apostasy, I was reminded of a <\/a>Casting Crowns<\/a><\/em> song<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s a slow fade when you give yourself away\u2026 when black and white are turned to gray\u2026 thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day It’s a slow fade\u201d <\/p>Casting Crowns, Slow Fade<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I ended the discussion by quoting Archbishop Fulton Sheen<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people\u201d <\/p>Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The haikus for this chapter were arranged in the form of a conversation between the Ghost and the Spirit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why was I in Hell? Honest opinions aren\u2019t sins! I can\u2019t believe that!<\/p>The Episcopal Ghost<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We used loaded dice, Abandoned orthodoxy\u2026 Repent and believe!<\/p>Dick, The Bright Spirit<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

No finality! Anything but stagnation! No final answers!<\/p>The Episcopal Ghost<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You were once in Hell, Or maybe purgatory? Stay here in Heaven!<\/p>Dick, The Bright Spirit<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we meet my favourite character in The Great Divorce, the extremely frustrating Episcopal Ghost. <\/p>\n

Click on the episode title for Show Notes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3111],"tags":[5012,5199,2969,2137,217,4438,873],"class_list":["post-70258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-c-s-lewis-2","tag-episcopal-ghost","tag-featured","tag-learning","tag-purgatory","tag-the-eagle-and-child-podcast","tag-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Mr-Collins-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70258"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73747,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70258\/revisions\/73747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}