The Pitfall of Questioning (March 24, 2009)

In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis sets up a story in which a busload of people come from Hell to take a ride through Heaven. Throughout the book, several of the "ghosts" (those who are on the bus tour) are met by individuals they had known on earth who are now in Heaven--referred to as "Spirits." These latter are bright and beautiful, and more real--as is the land in which the bus has now brought those from Hell--than any of the ghosts. As they talk, the Spirits are seeking to show the ghosts the way to life and Heaven, and as the readers we can listen in on their conversations.

Though the whole book is powerful (and well worth the read), one conversation/interchange stood out to me more than the others, especially in light of the postmodern fascination with questions. Before I quote the passage below, I will say that I do see some value in certain postmodern concepts, and I do believe that it can be harmful to never be able to hold any questions in tension in this life. We are fallible, and we do not possess all truth; however, God in His grace has revealed truth to us, and it is this that is especially relevant in the following interchange between a ghost and a Spirit. Here, the ghost is responding to the Spirit, who just intimated that Heaven is a place of answers:

(Ghost) ‘Ah, but…The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not? “Prove all things”…to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.’
(Spirit) ‘If that were true, and known to be true, how could anyone travel hopefully? There would be nothing to hope for.’
(Ghost) ‘But you must feel yourself that there is something stifling about the idea of finality? Stagnation, my dear boy, what is more soul-destroying than stagnation?’
(Spirit) ‘You think that, because hitherto you have experienced truth only with the abstract intellect. I will bring you where you can taste it like honey and be embraced by it as by a bridegroom. Your thirst shall be quenched.’
(Ghost) ‘Well, really, you know, I am not aware of a thirst for some ready-made truth which puts an end to intellectual activity in the way you seem to be describing. Will it leave me the free play of the Mind…?’
(Spirit) ‘Free, as a man is free to drink while he is drinking. He is not free still to be dry…Listen!...once you knew what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Become that child again: even now…Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you now call the free play of inquiry has neither more nor less to do with the ends for which intelligence was given than masturbation has to do with marriage.’ (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 40-41)

When are we--perhaps caught up in the intellectual challenge of argument and discussion--avoiding actually accepting truth? It is far easier (and I know this because I do it too) to discuss and debate than to live and truly believe the truth. In saying this, I am not denigrating debate or discussion: they are often necessary for us to better understand the truth as we are challenged by others and not simply left to form our own personal worldviews (that we too easily shape in the image of our own fallen selves or our own sin). However, discussion and debate, when rightly applied, should not only result in a better understanding of truth, but then a better application and living out of this truth. I may know every text in Scripture that reveals Jesus as the Messiah, Savior of the world, but unless I truly live this truth out by trusting in Him and what His death accomplished, I am a fool.

Questions are good, but they ought to lead towards truth...towards God.