Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A World Unmade • Deeper Heaven, by Christiana Hale
An excerpt from Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to Lewis's Ransom Trilogy by Christiana Hale
From Chapter 30: A World Unmade
Belbury & Babel
Lewis introduces the parallel between Belbury and the tower of Babel in the very title of the book: That Hideous Strength. This phrase comes from Sir David Lyndsay’s Ane Dialog where he describes the Tower of Babel, from which Lewis quotes on the title page:
The shadow of that hyddeous strength
sax myle and more it is of length.
With this quote, Lewis clearly establishes the connection between Belbury and the Old Testament story of Babel, a recurring image throughout the book.
At Babel, men attempt to unite in one body (against God’s order to multiply and fill the Earth) in order to build a tower to the heavens. The people at Belbury attempt a similar disobedience but with a different tactic. They are trying to remake humanity, to reject the physical existence that God has given mankind and move into a purely spiritual, bodiless existence, a realm of pure reason and thought. Succumbing to the same sin that has beset mankind since Adam, they are trying to be as God. But at Belbury, Lewis revises the judgment to be more commensurate to the tactic that Belbury employs.
At Babel, God confuses the languages of men, though the languages were still intelligible languages. Furthermore, we can assume that each man did not have each his own language, but rather that various individuals were given the same language, which led to the formation of tribes. At Belbury, in contrast, the language is entirely and completely garbled. It ceases to be language at all. It is turned into utter nonsense. These men and women have rejected humanity on God’s terms, trying to rebuild it on their own, and so this key part of their humanity (language) is taken from them. Merlin cries out: “Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis” (They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away). This judgment is in direct answer to their rebellion. This is another Babel, a reverse Pentecost, in which the languages of men are utterly confused. The name Belbury is a play on the words Babel and bury—a name that is itself a mixing of tongues: Hebrew and Old English.
The Bible is the Great Story and whenever we point back to it in our stories, we not only fill our written creation with ancient truths and wisdom, but we also revive our readers’ interest in things that have perhaps become commonplace and ordinary to us. This is the glory of filling our stories with Biblical archetypes. The truth always rings clear and bright, even if it is hidden deep beneath layers of sediment. Echoing through millennia, these stories and allusions resound with the truths of a thousand tales that all point, in the end, to Christ, the One who is the truth, the way, and the life.
deeperheaven.com
#CSLewis #lewis #RansomTrilogy #SpaceTrilogy
A World Unmade • Deeper Heaven, by Christiana Hale
An excerpt from Deeper Heaven: A Reader's Guide to Lewis's Ransom Trilogy by Christiana Hale
From Chapter 30: A World Unmade
Belbury & Babel
Lewis introduces the parallel between Belbury and the tower of Babel in the very title of the book: That Hideous Strength. This phrase comes from Sir David Lyndsay’s Ane Dialog where he describes the Tower of Babel, from which Lewis quotes on the title page:
The shadow of that hyddeous strength
sax myle and more it is of length.
With this quote, Lewis clearly establishes the connection between Belbury and the Old Testament story of Babel, a recurring image throughout the book.
At Babel, men attempt to unite in one body (against God’s order to multiply and fill the Earth) in order to build a tower to the heavens. The people at Belbury attempt a similar disobedience but with a different tactic. They are trying to remake humanity, to reject the physical existence that God has given mankind and move into a purely spiritual, bodiless existence, a realm of pure reason and thought. Succumbing to the same sin that has beset mankind since Adam, they are trying to be as God. But at Belbury, Lewis revises the judgment to be more commensurate to the tactic that Belbury employs.
At Babel, God confuses the languages of men, though the languages were still intelligible languages. Furthermore, we can assume that each man did not have each his own language, but rather that various individuals were given the same language, which led to the formation of tribes. At Belbury, in contrast, the language is entirely and completely garbled. It ceases to be language at all. It is turned into utter nonsense. These men and women have rejected humanity on God’s terms, trying to rebuild it on their own, and so this key part of their humanity (language) is taken from them. Merlin cries out: “Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis” (They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away). This judgment is in direct answer to their rebellion. This is another Babel, a reverse Pentecost, in which the languages of men are utterly confused. The name Belbury is a play on the words Babel and bury—a name that is itself a mixing of tongues: Hebrew and Old English.
The Bible is the Great Story and whenever we point back to it in our stories, we not only fill our written creation with ancient truths and wisdom, but we also revive our readers’ interest in things that have perhaps become commonplace and ordinary to us. This is the glory of filling our stories with Biblical archetypes. The truth always rings clear and bright, even if it is hidden deep beneath layers of sediment. Echoing through millennia, these stories and allusions resound with the truths of a thousand tales that all point, in the end, to Christ, the One who is the truth, the way, and the life.
deeperheaven.com
#CSLewis #lewis #RansomTrilogy #SpaceTrilogy
