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

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
• “… ‘Objective’ Right or Wrong….”
  • “…Nature is … A Kind of Machine for Us to Exploit…”
  • An Uncomfortable Viewpoint
• “…Sing and Feast Because a God has Been Born….”
  • Christmas Glitz, Glitter — and —
  • “…Good News of Great Joy….”

“A Christmas Sermon for Pagans”: No Longer Forgotten

The 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….”

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…”

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]

I 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

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….”

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 —

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….”

“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 2:9–14)

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 1:1–5)
[emphasis mine]

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

• “Advent 2022: Remembering the Big Picture“
  (December 22, 2022)
• “Just Who is This Jesus Person, and Who Does He Think He is?“
  (October 8, 2022)
• “Jesus, Human on His Mother’s Side: the Incarnation“
  (December 25, 2021)
• “Advent 2021: Another Year of Our Long Watch“
  (December 4, 2021 )
• “Joy and Shadow, Free Will and Something Silly“
  (December 12, 2020)

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

• Wikipedia
  • C. S. Lewis
  • The Strand Magazine
  • Spirits in Bondage (first published work by C. S. Lewis, written under Clive Hamilton pseudonym)
• “Is C.S. Lewis the Author of The Strand Magazine’s ‘Cricketer’s Progress’? Or: a Pretence [sic] for Discussing Lewis’ Use of Pseudonyms“
  Stephanie L. Derrick, Journal of Inklings Studies, Edinburgh University Press (October 7, 2019)
• “New Old Things from C. S. Lewis“
  Breathe, the blog of Crystal Kirgiss (September 13, 2018)
• “Christmas and Cricket: Rediscovering Two Lost C. S. Lewis Articles After 70 Years“
  Stephanie L. Derrick, Christianity Today (December 15, 2017)

² More background:

• Wikipedia
  • Ronald Searle (a satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer, and illustrator: who I didn’t talk about this week)
  • The Strand Magazine
  • Walter Hooper
• “C. S. Lewis: ‘A Christmas Sermon for Pagans’“
  Breathe, the blog of Crystal Kirgiss (December 23, 2022)
• “Discovering ‘A Christmas Sermon for Pagans’“
  Joel D. Heck, Christopher Marsh; VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center, pp. 51-56; Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College Vol. 34 (2017) via JSTOR

³ Directional traffic — or — sometimes left is right:

• Wikipedia
  • Left- and right-hand traffic

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

• Wikipedia
  • Ancient Celtic religion
  • Industrial Age
  • Late Bronze Age collapse
  • Old Norse religion
• I’ve talked about this before, too
  • “Green Sahara, Environmental and Climate News” (July 30, 2022)
    • We’re Not Doomed?!
    • Dominion, Not Ownership
    • Making Sense and Other Alternatives
    • Climate Change: Little Ice Age and a Green Sahara
  • “Sifting Through the Ash Heap of History” (October 30, 2021)
    • Late Bronze Age Collapse: Unburied Corpses, Lost Records
  • “Cyclone Tauktae, COVID-19 and the Siloam Lesson” (May 22, 2021)
    • Mother Nature’s Gonna Get You?
  • “St. Patrick’s Day: Prickly Problems, Shamrocks and Saints” (March 13, 2021)
    • New and Improved Folklore
  • “Pentheus, Pwyll and Pan Twardowski: Fairly Faustian” (February 8, 2021)
    • Pwyll, Rhiannon’s Hasty Husband

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

• Wikipedia
  • African diaspora religions
  • Dominican Vudú
  • Haitian Vodou
  • Louisiana Voodoo
  • Spanish missions in the Americas
    • Franciscans
    • Future United States territory
  • Syncretism (a “needs additional citations for verification” page)
  • Voodoo in popular culture
  • West African Vodun

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

• Wikipedia
  • Christmas decoration
  • Christmas lights
  • Christmas tree
• “Winter Illuminations in Tokyo“
  japan-guide.com
• “Marunouchi Illumination“
  Tripadvisor
• “Marunouchi Illumination“
  TimeOut (November 1, 2023)
• “Silver Bells” Lyrics and sound
  AZLyrics.com