“Christmas Sermon for Pagans”: Viewpoints, Nature; and Hope

First two pages of 'A Christmas Sermon for Pagans', C. S. Lewis, Strand Magazine Vol. 112, Issue 672 (December 1946). Illustrations by Ronald Searle. via Breathe, the blog of Crystal Kirgiss December 23, 2022 - Breathe the blog of Crystal Kirgiss - ckirgis
“A Christmas Sermon for Pagans”, C. S. Lewis, The Strand Magazine. (December 1946)

One, maybe two, articles by C. S. Lewis reappeared about a half-dozen years back.

Not that they’d been invisible. Collectors had the articles in their copies of The Strand Magazine, but “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans” and “Cricketer’s Progress” hadn’t made it into lists of work by Lewis.

Maybe it’s just one new ‘Lewis’ article. “Cricketer’s Progress: A Famous Reputation and What Became of It”, was written by a “Clive Hamilton”. Sure, Lewis published his first book under the Clive Hamilton pseudonym. But Lewis isn’t known as a sports journalist.1 And that’s another topic.

Anyway, I’ll be talking about “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans” this week. Or, rather, I’m sharing a few excerpts; and talking about whatever comes to mind.


“A Christmas Sermon for Pagans”: No Longer Forgotten

Page from 'A Christmas Sermon for Pagans', C. S. Lewis, Strand Magazine Vol. 112, Issue 672 (December 1946). Illustrations by Ronald Searle. via Breathe, the blog of Crystal Kirgiss December 23, 2022 - Breathe the blog of Crystal Kirgiss - ckirgisThe Strand Magazine’s December, 1946, issue included an article by C. S. Lewis. Post-war paper rationing limited the size and physical quality of that issue.

That may be why almost everyone forgot about “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans”.

In any case, in 2014, someone found an English bookseller’s online ad for a first-edition C. S. Lewis article that wasn’t in Walter Hooper’s exhaustive “C.S.Lewis : A Companion and Guide” (1996).

Odds are that “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans” dropped off the radar because it had been published only once, on paper that was eminently biodegradable. And that the December, 1946, issue of The Strand Magazine’s had a limited print run — thanks to post-war regulations.

I figure there’s quite a story behind all that. But partly because it’s almost Christmas, I didn’t feel like jumping down that rabbit hole.

Instead, like I said, I’m sharing a few excerpts from “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans”.

And I recommend reading the whole thing — I found the complete text on Breathe, the blog of Crystal Kirgiss.2


“… ‘Objective’ Right or Wrong….”

Image by galileus (?): Anglo Saxon farming in the Middle Ages. From KnightsTemplar.co, used w/o permission.
Farming in the Middle Ages.

Law code of Hammurabi, recorded on a clay tablet.It’s been a while since I talked about natural law, ethical principles written into reality’s source code. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1954-1960)

It — and they — are the “‘Objective’ Right or Wrong” that Lewis talked about:

C. S. Lewis: ‘A Christmas Sermon for Pagans’” (December 1946)
via Breathe, the blog of Crystal Kirgiss (December 23, 2022)

“…Now the real Pagan differed from the post-Christian in the following ways. Firstly, he was religious. From the Christian point of view he was indeed too religious by half. He was full of reverence. To him the earth was holy, the woods and waters were alive. His agriculture was a ritual as well as a technique. And secondly, he believed in what we now call an ‘Objective’ Right or Wrong. That is, he thought the distinction between pious and impious acts was something which existed independently of human opinions: something like the multiplication table which Man had not invented but had found to be true and which (like the multiplication table) he had better take notice of. The gods would punish him if he did not.

“To be sure, by Christian standards, his list of ‘Right’ or ‘Wrong’ acts was rather a muddled one. … but he also thought they would punish him for turning his face to the wrong point of the compass when he began ploughing. But though his code included some fantastic sins and duties, it got in most of the real ones.
[emphasis mine]

This was written in 1946. But the idea that “right” and “wrong” is completely subjective was still taken quite seriously a couple decades later, when I was getting fed up with ranting radio preachers.

Folks who acted as if their personal taste in music, their version of American patriotism, and the unchanging will of God, were equally important — helped make the idea of objective right and wrong look silly. My opinion.

As I see it, driving on the right side of the road doesn’t make me morally superior to folks living in Australia.3 Thinking about it, I’ve never heard someone denounce left-hand traffic as “Satanic”: so I suppose some things are too silly for even the most daftly devout.

Fed up as I was with Bible-thumpers, I couldn’t take ‘everyone makes their own truth’ seriously; except maybe as an explanation for why some folks don’t like vanilla ice cream. How much that’s still in vogue, I don’t know.

It’s been decades since I heard an explicit assertion that we make up our own versions of what’s right and what’s wrong — and that this is right.

Maybe I haven’t been hanging out in the right echo chamber. Or maybe too many folks started thinking about the assertion’s implications.

At any rate, I like the “multiplication table” comparison Lewis made. Two times two equals four, no matter how I feel about it. And some things I can do are wrong, no matter what. Not all that many, and that’s yet another topic.

“…Nature is … A Kind of Machine for Us to Exploit…”

18th century engraving by an unknown artist, '...Wherein Rear Admiral Beaumont was lost on the Goodwin Sands....'
The Great Storm of 1703: bad news for England.

Getty Images, via BBC News: 'Many of the protesters in Hamburg were demonstrating against Donald Trump's position on climate change' (BBC News; 2017) used w/o permission.Again, Lewis wrote “A Christmas Sermon for Pagans” in 1946.

Western civilization, or at least the English-speaking part of it I rub shoulders with, has changed a bit over the last 77 years.

For example, there’s the way many of us now see nature. Which is a mix of good news and bad news.

Back to “A Christmas Sermon….”

“And this leads us to the third great difference between a Pagan and a post-Christian man. Believing in a real Right and Wrong means finding out that you are not very good. … When he asked himself what was wrong with the world he did not immediately reply, ‘the social system,’ or ‘our allies,’ or ‘education.’ It occurred to him that he himself might be one of the things that was wrong with the world. … And the Pagan dealt with this situation in a rather silly way. His religion was a mass of ceremonies (sacrifices, purifications, etc.) which were supposed to take away guilt. But they never quite succeeded. His conscience was not at ease.

“Now the post-Christian view which is gradually coming into existence—it is complete already in some people and still incomplete in others—is quite different. According to it Nature is not a live thing to be reverenced: it is a kind of machine for us to exploit. There is no objective Right or Wrong: each race or class can invent its own code or ‘ideology’ just as it pleases. And whatever may be amiss with the world, it is certainly not we, not the ordinary people; it is up to God (if, after all, He should happen to exist), or to Government or to Education, to give us what we want. They are the shop, we are the customers: and ‘the customer is always right.’…”
(“C. S. Lewis: ‘A Christmas Sermon for Pagans’” (December 1946))
[emphasis mine]

The Century Magazine's page 325 illustration of 'The Monitor,' used for hydraulic mining in California. (January 1883) from the United States Library of Congress, via Wikipedia, used w/o permissionI remember when seeing nature as “…not a live thing to be reverenced…” but “…a kind of machine for us to exploit…” was giving way to a less destructive attitude.

Since I think paying attention to long-term consequences makes sense, I see that as good news.

Replacing Industrial Age disdain for workers, wildlife, and other exploitable resources with a Hollywood version of what my ancestors believed?

  • “Jennifer Lawrence calls hurricanes ‘Mother Nature’s rage and wrath'”
    Christian Holub, Entertainment Weekly (September 8, 2017)
  • “Forget ‘saving the Earth’ – it’s an angry beast that we’ve awoken”
    Clive Hamilton, The Conversation (May 27, 2014)

The rekindled reverence for nature may have encouraged more careful use of resources. But I can’t see personifying nature as a good idea. Not when it’s sliding toward old-school nature worship.

On the other hand, maybe a factory reset is what it’ll take, for Western civilization to acknowledge that reality is real — whether we like it or not. I hope not. That sort of thing tends to be messy.4

An Uncomfortable Viewpoint

Chris 73's photo: the Aqua Claudia (ca. 2009) via Wikipedia, used w/o permission.Lewis said that back when Roman roads were making regional trade easier, folks in my ancestral homelands knew that the world wasn’t working right. And they realized that the world’s problems were also theirs. The man behind the plow —

“…knew he had sinned. And the terrible thing was that he thought the gods made no difference between voluntary and involuntary sins. You might get into their bad books by mere accident, and once in, it was very hard to get out of them.…”
(“C. S. Lewis: ‘A Christmas Sermon for Pagans’” (December 1946))
[emphasis mine]

It’s a distinctly uncomfortable viewpoint, not all that different from handcrafted Christianity knockoffs I’ve seen.

Syncretism, American spirituality, Voodoo, and arguably-subversive Spanish missions in the Americas5 — are yet again more topics, for another time. Other times, more likely.


“…Sing and Feast Because a God has Been Born….”

James Tissot's 'The Adoration of the Shepherds.' (ca. 1886-1894) European Art collection via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.
“Adoration of the Shepherds,” James Tissot. (ca. 1890)

Carl Bloch's 'The Shepherds and the angel' (1879)Small wonder, then, that news of a man whose birth had been announced by otherworldly beings — who had defeated death — and who offered eternal life to those who accepted him — was seen as very good news, indeed.

“…All of the world (even in Japan, even in Russia) men and women will meet on December 25th to do what is a very old-fashioned and, if you like, a very Pagan thing—to sing and feast because a God has been born. You are uncertain whether it is more than a myth. Well if it is, then our last hope is gone. But is the opposite explanation not worth trying?…”
(“C. S. Lewis: ‘A Christmas Sermon for Pagans’” (December 1946))
[emphasis mine]

Christmas Glitz, Glitter — and —

François Rejeté's photo: 'A Christmas tree in a public space'. Marunouchi's Christmas tree. (December 23, 2006) Probably in the KITTE Marunouchi shopping complex, part of the annual Marunouchi Illumination: Marunouchi area of Tokyo, Japan.
A Christmas tree in Tokyo: part of the annual Marunouchi Illumination. (December 23, 2006)

Two millennia after our Lord’s birth, it’s still good news.

Which may help explain why Christmas-themed winter solstice celebrations like the Marunouchi Illumination are so popular. I’ll grant that my native culture’s colorful traditions make for shopper-friendly displays.6

But glitz and glitter aren’t “the true meaning of Christmas”. Not for me. Although I enjoy seeing an extra helping of light and color during the darkest days of our year.

This is the season when I, we, celebrate the Son of God’s birth. As the angel said, that’s —

“…Good News of Great Joy….”

James Tissot's 'The Angel and the Shepherds', 'L'ange et les bergers'. (between 1886 and 1894) From Brooklyn Museum, via Wikipedia, used w/o permission
“The Angel and the Shepherds”, James Tissot. (ca. 1886-1894)

“The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.

“The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

“For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.

“And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’

“And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

“‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.'”
(Luke 2:914)

Reid Wiseman's photo (NASA): 'Sunrise From the International Space Station'. (October 2014)Two millennia later, that baby’s birth is still a big deal. A very big deal.

“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
“He was in the beginning with God.
“All things came to be through him,
“and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be
“through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
“the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.”

(John 1:15)
[emphasis mine]

I’ve talked about that, and related matters, before:


1 An author, a pseudonym, and an academic discussion:

2 More background:

3 Directional traffic — or — sometimes left is right:

4 Beliefs, an awkward (at least) period, and remembering our past:

5 Beliefs and history, not necessarily what you’ve seen in the movies:

6 ♫ “It’s Christmas Time in the City”:

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About Brian H. Gill

I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
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2 Responses to “Christmas Sermon for Pagans”: Viewpoints, Nature; and Hope

  1. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to take the post-ism word format seriously, not even in university, unless it was being roasted. Thinking about it some more now, it makes everything in between that prefix-suffix combo sound like it’s being described as a stereotypical juvenile period. I guess stuff like that is also why Matthew 11:25 and Luke 10:21 happened and are still worth remembering: We grown peeps who like to think ourselves wise aren’t really as wise as He wants us to be, and at the same time, our youths and our past aren’t really as disposable as we proud advocates often like to think. And again, I’m glad that God’s here to remind us about that through His birth here on earth as well.

    • Re. Matthew 11:25 and Luke 10:21 – There is wisdom in remembering that ‘God’s God and I’m not. 😉 And that there’s always more to learn.

      Your reference to “the post-ism word format” has me stumped. Which is fine, but – well, after learning that one “ISM” is the IOSA (International Air Transport Association) Standards Manual, I realized that this week’s post won’t get done if I keep exploring that rabbit hole. So I’d better get back to work now.

Thanks for taking time to comment!