"Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous, so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against it would deter me. And I hardly know how the rest of my prayers would survive if those for the dead were forbidden. At our age, the majority of those we love best are dead. What sort of intercourse with God could I have if what I love best were unmentionable to him?- Letters to Malcolm, ch. 20I believe in Purgatory.
Mind you, the Reformers had good reasons for throwing doubt on the 'Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory' as that Romish doctrine had then become.....
The right view returns magnificently in Newman's DREAM. There, if I remember it rightly, the saved soul, at the very foot of the throne, begs to be taken away and cleansed. It cannot bear for a moment longer 'With its darkness to affront that light'. Religion has claimed Purgatory.
Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, 'It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy'? Should we not reply, 'With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleaned first.' 'It may hurt, you know' - 'Even so, sir.'
I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it. But I don't think the suffering is the purpose of the purgation. I can well believe that people neither much worse nor much better than I will suffer less than I or more. . . . The treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much.
My favorite image on this matter comes from the dentist's chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am 'coming round',' a voice will say, 'Rinse your mouth out with this.' This will be Purgatory. The rinsing may take longer than I can now imagine. The taste of this may be more fiery and astringent than my present sensibility could endure. But . . . it will [not] be disgusting and unhallowed."
You can see that despite his reflexive horror for the "Romish" targets of the Reformers, he is undoubtedly believing in the doctrine as taught (rather than the perversions of that doctrine that exercised the Reformers).
As for the "pagan", are you talking about Til We Have Faces? It's only pagan in the sense that any English student educated in Lewis's generation was steeped in Classical paganism - until P.P.E. came in.
I myself was a sixth-generation Anglican (my ggg grandfather was baptized at St. Giles Cripplegate) until they drove us away with their antics. The Anglican low-middle-high political solution worked fine until the atheists and radical leftists took over the church. (That low-and-lazy, middle-and-hazy, high-and-crazy quote is one of my dad's favorites! We were 'high' not to say ultramontane, or as dad also says, 'up in the rafters with the bats'.)
Maybe American Methodists are different, but I don't think so. I never mistook a Low Church service in England for a Methodist meeting. Around here there's no mistaking the difference -- John Wesley early in his life was pastor of a church in Georgia, Christ Church Frederica. It's your typical Southern 'low church' Episcopal parish - no smells, no bells, heavy on the preaching and light on the ceremony. When we were still Piskies we attended regularly while visiting my parents, who live there.
Now there's a huge Methodist conference center, Epworth, just down the road, I'm sure they put it there because of the association with Wesley. The tour buses loaded with Methodist pilgrims come through regularly and stop at the church. If their arrival happens to coincide with Morning Prayer they always come in and sit at the back. We just HAD to laugh because they were completely nonplussed at what was going on and couldn't understand why Wesley's church was holding some kind of weird non-Methodist service.
You are right. I stand corrected. Even so, that does not make him a Roman Catholic. There are many Anglicans that believe in purgatory, but that does not make them Roman Catholic. I will say this. Based upon Lewis’ book, “God in the Dock,” he would probably be Roman Catholic today. The Anglican church’s ordination of women to the Holy Ministry would have pushed him out of the Anglican communion.
Thanks for setting me straight on Lewis’ belief in purgatory.