| CS Lewis, while an avowed atheist and before investigating the gospel stories himself, agreed with you, and had always considered them simply another of the myths you refer to. Quoting from The Question of God, page 83, "However, an event happened that had a 'shattering impact.' One of the most militant atheists among the Oxford faculty, T.D. Weldon, sat in Lewis's room one evening and remarked that the historical authenticity of the Gospels was surprisingly sound. This deeply disturbed Lewis. He immediately understood the implications. If this 'hardest boiled of all the atheists I ever knew' thought the gospels were true, where did this leave him? He had considered the NT stories to be myth, without historical authenticity." After reading them, CS Lewis had this to say regarding equating the gospel stories with mythological stories, (quoted in The Question of God, Nicoli, p. 86) "I was by now too experienced in literary criticism to regard the Gospels as myths. They had not the mythical taste." He observes that they were different from anything else in literature. "If ever myth had become fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this." Many of these myths, such as those of Balder, Adonis, and Bacchus, contained stories similar to the one in the Bible--of a god coming to earth, dying to save his people, and rising again from the dead. Before studying them himself in Greek, Lewis had always considered the New Testament story simply another one of these myths. If they were true, he realized, all other truth faded in significance." Quite an interesting chapter on CS Lewis opening himself to investigate the question of God, and the intellectual process he underwent. At first he committed himself to theism, non-personal, pure and simple. Later, to Christianity. The Question of God is a pretty interesting discussion between Freud and Lewis, theism and atheism. |
