Replies

Not so. Lewis and Tolkien both believed that as God created them in his own image, that the idea of creation was a integral part of mankind. They loved the idea of creation. Tolkien with language, Middle-earth was a spin-off of that. Lewis with the idea of stories and creative action.

What are these worlds that gamers play in other than stories that set the background for further creation? Those world-builders enable their creations to spur other people into creating. Tolkien and Lewis, while probably not sitting behind the keyboard themselves, would have been enchanted with the ideas of these games.

Creating is part of the image God that was imbued into humanity.

For the purposes of this conversation, I am more interested in clarifying the intention of Lewis, but I will point out that Tolkein was not exactly thrilled with the noteriety he received from his fantasy novels. Furthermore, he wrote the Hobbit and the first two books of the Lord of the Rings as a relatively young man, but waited almost thirty years to publish them.

Lewis frequently gets lumped in with Tolkein, because the two were friends, colleagues, and theological sparring partners. However, Lewis wrote “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” specifically as a Christian morality play for his niece. He later expanded the novel in to the Chronicles series, but his intent was, again, to make issues of Christian morality and theology accessible to young people. If you think that he would have been amused with adults obsessing over his fantasy or sci-fi universes, get the a copy of “Miracles,” “The Screwtape Letters,” or (especially) “Mere Christianity,” and start reading carefully.

The bulk of publications from both men was heavily non-fiction, and it is clear that that is what they would have chosen to be remembered for.