Perelandra
Summary
The sequel to C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet and second installment of his space trilogy, Perelandra, is a blunt, breathtaking, and intricately crafted allegory on the temptation of sin and retelling of the Biblical story of Eden.
Assessment
Written at the height of World War II, Perelandra is an unashamed and wickedly blunt look into temptation, human nature, and God’s provision over all things. In it, Elwin Ransom, philologist and reluctant lynchpin to the fate of the cosmos, must contend with the devil as he tries to tempt the new Eve on the paradise planet of Venus.
The key phrase to this book is immediately evident: spiritual warfare. From the first chapter when C.S. Lewis’ self-insert character (literally himself) is on his way to visit Ransom, to Ransom’s days long argument with a devil-possessed scientist, to how the characters are forced to navigate the mostly water world of Venus, each of these have at least one if not more layers of symbolism.
The book falls somewhere between a thinly-veiled allegory and a direct parable. Parts of the theological message are more obscured than others, wrapped up in either the worldbuilding of Venus or the interactions between all of the characters. However, much of the book is a plainly read and understood parable, presented honestly to the reader.
Writing style, characters, and worldbuilding all take a solid second place to the theology of the story. Through at through, the book’s message is on wrestling with the devil, — quite literally — resisting temptation, and fighting spiritual battles. All this as it plays (respectfully) around with the idea of a second Eden, a chance for humanity to avoid repeating the fall in Genesis.
Light-o-Meter
Writing Style: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Plot: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Worldbuilding: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Characters: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: 7 out of 7 Little Lights
Overall: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Talk
Perelandra may be one of my absolute favorite pieces of Christian fiction ever. Is it perfect? Definitely not, especially towards the end, I wasn’t sure exactly where C.S. Lewis was going with Ransom’s final visit to the Venusian royalty. It was one of those cases where Lewis was either an absolute genius talking in symbolism far more complex than I was able to parse out at the time, or he got caught up in the story and writing and lost sight of the original plot.
That, however, is my biggest complaint and, I’m sure, if I took the time to sit down and parse out that passage, I’d be able to figure out at least a little of what Lewis meant. The book is full of layers upon layers of symbolism that are all woven together in this complex tapestry of strange new world goodness and spiritual warfare.
Turning to the spiritual warfare element of the story, I’ve got two main thoughts:
First, I definitely recommend the book for more spiritually mature audiences, but highly, highly recommend for those audiences. If you are new to your walk with Christ, I would say pray about it, but likely hold off for a little while. The story has what I see as a lot of good information on how temptations work, how the enemy operates, etc., but it is also like drinking out of a symbolism and spiritual warfare firehose. It’s a good idea to let God build up your faith foundation first!
The second thought is how fantastically the book depicts spiritual warfare on both the grand, symbolic scale — i.e. Ransom literally wrestling with Satan — and the more routine, day-to-day scale. In the beginning of the book especially, there is a part where C.S. Lewis’ self-insert character is plagued with intrusive thoughts and oppressive anxiety while trying to do something that he needs to do (get to Ransom’s house). The little spiritual attacks, the little attempts by the enemy to coerce us into doing something the Lord has warned us against or not doing something that the Lord has directed us towards. This is the far more common kind of warfare that even we in the spiritually-sanitized West can appreciate and understand.
I could absolutely go on and on about this book, probably to the point of finding the character limit for blog posts on this hosting site, but I’ll keep it at this…for now…
Wrap-up
Perelandra is the second instalment of C.S. Lewis’ science fiction trilogy. This book weaves itself like a tapestry around the main theme of spiritual warfare and temptation. Written so that the science fiction set dressing of the book takes a back seat as the story takes a deeper and symbolic look at some of the ways Christians struggle against the enemy and their own nature.
Where to Enjoy
Abebooks: Perelandra, First Edition - AbeBooks
Amazon: Perelandra (2) (Space Trilogy, Book 2): Lewis, C.S.: 9780743234917: Amazon.com: Books
Barnes and Noble: Perelandra (Space Trilogy Series #2) by C. S. Lewis | eBook | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
Books-a-Million: Perelandra by C. S. Lewis (booksamillion.com)
Christianbook.com: Perelandra, Space Trilogy Series: C.S. Lewis: 9780743234917 - Christianbook.com
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