Forever Seeking

 Humanity has always sought to understand divinity and sought ways to understand God’s complexity through mortal reason. One mechanism humanity has used in an attempt to understand divinity and the existence of God in literature. Authors such as C.S. Lewis, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Dante sought to explain the supernatural realm through literature, enabling their audience to better comprehend the religious lessons embedded in the texts. These different literary works are all reflective of the challenges mortal minds face when attempting to rationalize the divine. Lewis’ approach to the divine showcases the shortcoming of man’s greed and focuses on their often-self-centered view of the universe. Similarly, Sartre explores the divine in the negative by depicting Hell and showcasing characters with different sinful natures. Dante seeks to understand the divine by creatively depicting the existence of Heaven and God to a mortal man, discovering. Discovering that man cannot describe Heaven accurately. These authors all discussed religious ideals and values in their works in an attempt to understand the divine nature of God through mortal reason. However, none were completely successful in fully providing all the answers. The true issue with these literary works is that no matter the views of the author and the structure of their arguments, humanity will never fully understand the complexity of the divinity of God, however, humanity must never stop seeking to understand the divine.

C.S. Lewis wrote his book Out of the Silent Planet as a work of fiction that follows the interplanetary journey of Dr. Ransom, addressing, addressing Christian morals and values through the lens of imagination and the lightheartedness of science fiction. This work of fiction is Lewis’ attempt to combat the dehumanization in science and provides a religiously oriented text that secular society would willingly read. The first example of the religious ideas present in Lewis’ work is when Ransom becomes a Christ figure for a young boy, Harry when the child is attacked by two men (14). Ransom approaches the men, Devine and Westen, as they are attempting to grab Harry. Ransom’s presence causes Westen and Devine to tell Harry he can return home, and the two men then turn their attention on Ransom (15). This interaction illustrates that Ransom is a Christ figure throughout the book. Ransom is never intended to take this, but as a result of his decision to substitute himself for Harry, he is thrust into a space adventure. Similarly to Ransom, the death of Jesus was not intended when God created the universe. However, due to the fall of humanity, it was necessary that Jesus come to earth and sacrifice Himself for mankind to be saved. Consequently, Ransom is not entirely sure if he is dead, sleeping, or dreaming during his adventure into space with Westen and Devine (27). Ransom immediately notices that space is more magnificent than he imagined and that mankind had been wrong to describe it as dark and cold. Rather, Ransom decides that “light was paler and more intense than he had seen, the light was the palest of all imaginable golds” (31). This is one example of Lewis illustrating how humanity has a flawed view of the cosmos and consequently the nature of God. By challenging the majority’s view of space, Lewis is pushing for a shift in mankind's understanding of the divine. Rather than viewing mankind as the center of the universe, Lewis is pushing for a view that turns attention to a higher and more divine being, such as God. Once the group of adventurers arrives at the planet Malacandra, it becomes apparent that the primary difference between these characters is the interaction they have with the planet. Ransom is, at first, scared of the strange planet, but he quickly learns how to interact peacefully

with the inhabitants, learning “that Malacandra was beautiful” (43). Conversely, Westen, and Devine cause only chaos and violence for local beings. Ransom accepted the differences of Malacandra and sought to understand them, unlike Westen and Devine, who never attempted to understand them. Ransom meets the hrossa and sorns and even forms relationships with these higher species (60-61), learning the ways of the hnau and the spiritual rules of Malacandra (69). The existence of the Hnau is Lewis’ attempt to rationalize the existence of the divine and to downplay the supernatural so mortal reasoning can understand some level of divinity. Ransom becomes “ashamed of his ignorance” while he converses with the hrossa about the hnau, as he is realizing that mortal men are not divine beings (71). This enlightenment Ransom experiences reveals humanity’s need for self-realization, an acknowledgment that mankind is limited in our understanding. More specifically, The natural hunger for knowledge Ransom displays emphasizes the importance of seeking to further our understanding of divinity and Christ.

Dante’s, Paradise follows the character Dante on his spiritual journey through Heaven with his guide, Beatrice. Despite its beautiful depiction of eternity, the overarching theme of Paradise is that mankind cannot understand divinity by purely reasoning alone. Dante’s lack of understanding from Dante sets the tone for the rest of Paradise since Dante needs Beatrice to understand what he observes throughout the journey. The poet Dante wrote his character's limitations clearly so that readers would be forced to address the meaning of the relationship between man and a spiritual teacher. It is possible Dante’s limitations of his understanding stem from inhabiting a mortal body while being in Heaven. Dante says, “with our weak powers on earth one may not do what one may here- thanks to the special place” (1.55-56). Dante realizes that he can not use his powers of Earth i.e. his human senses to understand Heaven because his human senses are the product of a fallen world and are not equipped to comprehend the divine. Dante cannot fully understand what he observes in Heaven due to his weak power of human reasoning and his mortality. Dante is limited in his perceptions of Heaven due to his finite reasoning and misunderstanding of how Heaven functions (1.88-90). The poet Dante wrote on the limitations of human reasoning and humanity’s senses so readers could understand that humanity is not the highest being and we cannot understand everything that God does. However, Beatrice explains to Dante that he should not seek to understand the divine using only his mortal sense saying “senses cannot spring the lock of truth for mortal man” (2.52-53). Beatrice teaches that humanity must still seek to understand the divine but they cannot rely only on their human senses, in order to fully comprehend the divine humanity must interact with a divine being. This interaction is why the relationship between Beatrice and Dante is so integral to the story of Paradise. Furthermore, the relationship between Dante and Beatrice is a representation of all believers' relationship with Jesus. Humanity is unable to understand the divine nature of God and Heaven due to the limitations of our mortal perceptions and senses. 

Consequently, the relationship between Dante and Beatrice demonstrates that humans cannot fully understand the divine nature of God without a spiritual guide. As Beatrice leads Dante higher through Heaven Dante himself says “I cannot fathom it, divine” (3.61). Dante needs to understand his native powers, the power of his eternal soul, for the man’s mind to comprehend any divine intellect (4.41-42). Dante says that divinity cannot be understood unless God gives grace when it is due to man’s intellect (4.123). As Dante grows closer to God, his understanding becomes more insightful and his sight turns pure and whole when he looks at the source of all Light (33.52-54). Dante the poet, thus, attempts to teach readers that we cannot rely on our human senses and mortal reason when it comes to understanding the spiritual realm. Writing on human reasoning and the necessity of a spiritual guide Dante implores his readers to reevaluate human reasoning and their understanding of the divine.

The poet Dante uses Beatrice as the tool by which the pilgrim Dante can truly comprehend spirituality and divinity. By comparison, Dante is showing his readers that they need to use Jesus as their spiritual guide, along with their mortal reasoning, to understand divinity. Throughout the journey, Dante must ask Beatrice to explain what he sees in the spheres, and Beatrice always proves able to guide him to the truth. Dante’s frequent speechlessness often precedes Beatrice’s admonition that she will free his mind if he heeds her words of the truth (7.19-22). Beatrice tells Dante she wishes to fill his intellect with light and truth, the light and truth of God (2.110-112). The poem ends with Dante having arrived at the center of Heaven realizing what true divinity is. However, readers receive no explanation of what Dante sees or what he experiences because Dante writes “here ceased the powers of my high fantasy, the truth smiting my mind like lightning” (33.140-142). Dante himself could not accurately describe Heaven because mortal minds simply cannot grasp what it will be like in all of its unfiltered greatness. 

Not only has humanity been curious about Heaven, like in Paradise and Out of the Silent Planet, but also about the nature of Hell. Consequently, Jean-Paul Sartre describes Hell in his play, No Exit, claiming that rather than being tortured by medieval devils and cliche monsters, Hell consists of other human beings. The play is set in a second empire style drawing-room and includes three characters who slowly begin to drive each other mad. Garcin is described as “no talker and is a peaceful sort of fellow” (9). Inez is described as “not polite” and quickly bothered by Garcin’s mannerisms (10). Estelle, the final character, enters the drawing-room in a rather hysterical fashion, screaming “No, don’t look up. I know you have no face!” (10). Estelle’s immediate reaction illustrates she was expecting some form of faceless demon to be awaiting her rather than two human beings. Estelle went into the afterlife with a preconceived idea of what would be awaiting her but she vastly misunderstood what eternity would bring her. Consequently, Estelle is immediately concerned that the sofas in the room are hideous and their placement in the room is absurd (11). All three of these characters came into Hell with the expectation that they would be tortured (8). Sartre reverses our cultural expectations of Hell to showcase that humanity has formed inaccurate ideas about both holiness and evil. 

However, instead of simply saying that humanity cannot comprehend the divinity of Hell, Sartre paints Hell in a different light than how humanity regularly depicts it. Instead of fire, torture, and demons, Sartre places three different people in a room and allows their sinful natures to be revealed. Sartre approaches the divine by seeking to understand the nature of humanity and how our sinful natures affect each other. This attempt to rationalize Hell shows that humanity cannot understand the divine unless they are willing to admit that humanity is selfish and has a sinful nature. Through his characters’ misunderstandings of Hell Sartre demonstrates that humanity’s expectations of the divine are flawed. The fact that the characters demand peace shows that humanity cannot comprehend the true essence of eternity, the characters have a desire for peace that illustrates humanity has a natural drive for divinity. Even though these characters are already in Hell, they have an innate desire for God and the peace His divinity brings. Garcin says “leave me at peace” (21), clearly not comprehending that he will never experience peace again. Sartre illustrates humanity’s lack of true understanding of the supernatural realm and the shortcomings of our capabilities.

In conclusion, humanity has always sought to understand the divine existence of the supernatural realm. However, mortal men cannot fully comprehend the existence of the divine, because we are finite, fallen, creatures. Without a spiritual guide that reveals the divine to man, we are unable to understand things of the spirit. Lewis’ work teaches on the sinfulness of man when we are not open to the divine and when we refuse to release our preconceived ideas of divinity. Dante’s work provides a fictional journey that is a powerful illustration of Heaven and how a soul can prepare themselves to be in the presence of God. Sartre’s play is a powerful lesson into the sinful nature of mankind and forces readers to address the lesser talked about the subject of Hell. Throughout time mankind has wrestled with the supernatural and the divine, and we are no closer to understanding its true essence. However, through these works of literature mankind is better equipped to wrestle with the discussion of the divine and for handling the challenges of understanding the supernatural.