Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-65tv2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-18T14:34:49.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Worship, veneration, and idolatry: observations from C. S. Lewis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2014

JASON LEPOJÄRVI
JASON LEPOJÄRVI*
Affiliation:
St Benet's Hall, Oxford University, 38 St Giles' Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3LN, UK e-mail: jason.lepojarvi@stb.ox.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What does it mean to love God ‘more’ than people? This article engages the difficulty of defining worship, veneration, and idolatry, by looking at C. S. Lewis's observations on the subject. Lewis offers helpful nudges towards more than a merely conceptual distinction, but he does not consistently apply his love principles to cover human love for the saints (Mary in particular). The article concludes with eight follow-up questions that benefit philosophers and theologians alike as they seek to formulate more focused definitions of worship, veneration, and idolatry.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 543 - 562
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, Robert (2002) Finite and Infinite Goods (New York: Oxford University Press [1999]).Google Scholar
Adams, Robert (2008) A Theory of Virtue (Oxford: Clarendon Press [2006]).Google Scholar
Barton, Stephen C. (2007) (ed.) Idolatry: False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism, and Christianity (London: T. & T. Clark).Google Scholar
Beale, G. K. (2008) We Become What We Worship (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press).Google Scholar
Beversluis, John (2007) C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion (New York: Prometheus Books [1985]).Google Scholar
Bloesch, Donald G. (1960) review of The Four Loves, in Christian Century, 77 (14 December 1960), 1470.Google Scholar
Chesterton, G. K. (1909) Orthodoxy (London: John Lane Company).Google Scholar
Chesterton, G. K. (1914) The Wild Knight and Other Poems (London: J. M. Dent & Sons).Google Scholar
Clarkson, David (1864) The Works of David Clarkson, vol. II (Edinburgh: James Nichols).Google Scholar
Doob Sakenfeld, Katherine (1992) ‘Love (OT)’, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, IV (New York: Doubleday), 375–381.Google Scholar
Dorsett, Lyle (2004) Seeking the Secret Place (Grand Rapids MI: Brazos Press).Google Scholar
Fromm, Erich (1995) The Art of Loving (London: HarperCollins [1957]).Google Scholar
Harbetal, Moshe (2012) On Sacrifice (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Harbetal, Moshe & Margalit, Avishai (1992) Idolatry (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Hooper, Walter (1982) (ed.) Of This and Other Worlds (London: Collins [1966]).Google Scholar
Hooper, Walter (1996) C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide (London: HarperCollins).Google Scholar
Hooper, Walter (2004) (ed.) C. S. Lewis: Collected Letters, II (London: HarperCollins).Google Scholar
Hooper, Walter (2006) (ed.) C. S. Lewis: Collected Letters, III (London: HarperCollins).Google Scholar
Hooper, Walter (2013) (ed.) C. S. Lewis: Image and Imagination (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Jacobs, Alan (2010) ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, in MacSwain, Robert and Ward, Michael (eds) The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 265–280.Google Scholar
Jeanrond, Werner G. (2010) A Theology of Love (London: T. & T. Clark, 2010).Google Scholar
Keller, Timothy (2009) Counterfeit Gods (London: Hodder & Stoughton).Google Scholar
Lepojärvi, Jason (2015, forthcoming) ‘Praeparatio Evangelica – or Daemonica? C. S. Lewis and Anders Nygren on Sehnsucht’, The Harvard Theological Review.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1942) The Screwtape Letters (London: Geoffrey Bles).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1952) Mere Christianity (London: Geoffrey Bles).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1953) Voyage to Venus: (Perelandra) (London: Pan Books).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1960a) The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bles).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1960b) Miracles, revised edn (London: Collins/Fontana).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1961) An Experiment in Criticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1964) Letters to Malcolm (London: Geoffrey Bless).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1976) The Allegory of Love (Oxford: Oxford University Press [1936]).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1998) The Problem of Pain (London: HarperCollins [1940]).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (2001) The Great Divorce (New York: HarperCollins [1946]).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (2008) Studies in Words (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [1960]).Google Scholar
Loades, Anne (2010) ‘On gender’, in MacSwain, Robert & Ward, Michael (eds) The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 160–173.Google Scholar
MacSwain, Robert & Ward, Michael (eds) (2010) The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Mastrolia, Arthur (2000) C. S. Lewis and the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lima OH: Fairway Press).Google Scholar
McGrath, Alister (2014) The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell).Google Scholar
Meadors, Edward P. (2006) Idolatry and the Hardening of Heart (London: T. & T. Clark).Google Scholar
Meilaender, Gilbert (2003) The Taste for the Other (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans [1978]).Google Scholar
Milward, Peter (1995) A Challenge to C. S. Lewis (London: Associated University Presses).Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha (1990) Love's Knowledge (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
O'Donovan, Oliver (2007) Forward to the 1991 edition of John Burnaby, Amor Dei (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock).Google Scholar
Outka, Gene (1972) Agape: An Ethical Analysis (London: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Rosner, Brian (2007) Greed as Idolatry (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2007).Google Scholar
Rougemont, Denis de (1940) Passion and Society, Belgion, Montgomery (tr.) (London: Faber and Faber).Google Scholar
Smilde, Arend (2014) ‘Review essay: McGrath's biography of C. S. Lewis’, The Journal of Inklings Studies, 4 (2014), 143–151.Google Scholar
Vaus, Will (2004) Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis (Downers Grove IL: Inter-Varsity Press).Google Scholar
Walmsley, Lesley (2000) (ed.) C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces (London: HarperCollins)Google Scholar
Walsh, Chad (1965) ‘Impact on America’, in Gibb, Jocelyn (ed.) Light on C. S. Lewis (London: Geoffrey Bles), 106–116.Google Scholar
Ward, Michael (2011) ‘The tragedy is in the pity: C. S. Lewis and the Song of the Goat’, in Taylor, Kevin & Waller, Giles (eds) Christian Theology and Tragedy (Farnham: Ashgate), 149–166.Google Scholar
Ware, Kallistos (2011) ‘C. S. Lewis: an “anonymous orthodox”?’, in Wolfe, Judith and Wolfe, B. N. (eds) C. S. Lewis and the Church (London: T. & T. Clark), 135–153.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. N. (1990) C. S. Lewis: A Biography (New York: Norton).Google Scholar