The Discarded Image (Canto Classics): An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature

I recently enjoyed 'The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English' by Hana Videen. I thought I'd try another deep-dive language narrative. I was expecting a 'light read,' which is never the case in a CS Lewis. A grasp of the book requires your undivided attention. I'd consider this a necessary read for history explorers of the middle ages. Words and universal concepts morph over time. The example "Nature"… as the word concept we know first appeared textually in the modern concept in the 16th century. "Nature" is among the word-concepts Lewis explores that distance our mind's eye from those ages. Our words and concept of word meanings, our linguistic/mental paradigm, is contrasted with the model comprehended by the medieval mind. Our mind's eye is different, radically different, from those that went before. Christianity had the same effect on the discarded image of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian pagans who came before is understood and ordered radically differently. A medieval text can never be read the same. "Nature" was dark, feral, frightening, and hostile, a condition that demanded Man to intervene and care for as Adam. Nature was to be dominated in the spirit of God's purpose for Man. It's a read for the word lover. CS Lewis's "Discarded Image" is a fascinating tour into the mind's eye of its temporal residents. Surely our paradigm will be overcome in the future. The medieval worldview can be seen to fade through the 17th century. It would disappear by the late 19th century. Enlightenment, science, and philosophy would end its thousand-year paradigm encapsulating the universe. There is no other author of this era so steeped and learned in the language and translations of this antiquity. The sheer volume of recognized and 'obscure' texts and tomes Lewis commands to demonstrate the book's premise is off the charts.

When I heard for the first time medieval music in undergraduate school, I felt as though I was listening to something created on another planet. Organa, cantus firmi, and unrelenting parallel perfect fifths - my musical palette was surprised, and not particularly pleasantly, by harmonies alternatively and unpredictably bland and bitter. If my guide to the medieval mind had been C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Discarded Image, though he wrote not a word (to my recollection) about medieval music, I might well have been able to hear the ancient tones in a more sympathetic and perceptive way. The "discarded image" of which he wrote is a "model" of the universe embraced by the medieval mind. I would call it a worldview, and the medieval model was an attempt to harmonize and internalize a comprehensive understanding of astronomy, geography, biology, metaphysics, history, aesthetics (rhetoric), philosophy, and education in a single, complex, consistent, and beautiful model. His brief discussion on the seven liberal arts was the most illuminating I have read, and his observation of the medieval predilection with "triplets" and spheres I immediately considered relevant to the music I have heard. As I read his book this week, Lewis first stunned me with the breadth of his scholarship: references, quotes, and footnotes peppered the text throughout, which nonetheless flowed mellifluously along in his approachable and self-effacing voice. Details illuminated, rather than obscured, the big picture painted by the Cambridge professor of medieval and renaissance English. On every page, one sensed the delight with which Lewis approached his subject, and I will confess to having succumbed to his enthusiasm. With such a guide, I found that comparisons between the medieval model and our own worldview(s) were most illuminating. For example, in his brief discussion of the rational soul - in more modern thinking rationality consists mostly of logical argument while in the medieval model the rational soul included also a sense of morality - stimulated me to question the assumption of my own time. He noted, too, the medieval humility toward creative work, unleashing a sense of unstrained ease; and the more modern focus upon individual creativity, providing more of a constrained, and, on occasion contrived, sense of hard work in poetry and literature. A valuable work for any teacher of medieval history, this book provides wonderful insight into the medieval mind and worldview. For how are we to understand our own world unless we understand it in comparison with the alien and foreign medieval one, explained and illuminated so skillfully by this master teacher and scholar?

Joseph Campbell's book on myth, "Hero with a Thousand Faces" remains one of the most influential works for modern storytellers from Stanley Kubrick to Arthur C. Clarke to George Lucas. When a fellow writer asks me to recommend books on story building, Campbell's work is on my short list. Campbell's theory describes what he called the Monomyth, the idea that most ancient myths and epic stories contain the same character archetypes, structures and themes. This monomyth concept has become, in some writing circles, what a unified field theory would be for physicists; a central theory that explains everything. Another book I've been recommending lately to my fellow fantasy writers is C. S. Lewis' last book, a scholarly work titled "The Discarded Image. An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature." While Campbell's work gave me an understanding of the basic structure of my favorite fantasy stories, Lewis' book helped me to understand their texture, color and flavor: why Tolkien's elves and their longing for the lost lands across the sea spoke to me while the elves of so many Tolkien imitators seemed little more than guys with pointed ears who spoke funny: why Lewis' Merlin in "That Hideous Strength" is my favorite version of that character; why I enjoyed "The Chronicles of Narnia" while other fantasy stories aimed at kids left me flat. Lewis's book showed me the specific elements that gave depth to the fantasy novels I most enjoyed and made their stories resonate deep in my soul. Lewis called his theory of European thought as presented in the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance "The Medieval Model:" a worldview of man and the universe based on a mix of classical philosophers and Christian teaching. When I hear professors of medieval literature cite the novels of Lewis and Tolkien as excellent introductions to medieval literature for modern readers, it is this worldview, this "Medieval Model" that they are recognizing. If you wish to understand Lewis's novels then you should read "The Discarded Image." I found this book so useful that I have a blog dedicated to it, TheSwordofFireSaga. I'm glad to see this useful work republished in a new form. Now when will we see the Kindle ebook? Regards, William R. McGrath Author of The Sword of Fire series Asulon, Eretzel, Apocalypse

"The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature", by C. S. Lewis, has the benefit of the author's lifetime of study in two great ages: the Pagan Classical that perished, and the Christian Medieval that rose in its place. The latter cannot be understood properly without the former, and our current age is best known in understanding both. The author's objective is to instruct us in that understanding. I count Lewis among my favorite authors, but after being exposed to deeper and more orthodox writers over the years I've come to read him - if still very enjoyably - much more carefully. While I agree with the unanimous reviews that glowingly praise this work, he does strike some discordant notes. Lewis was a loyal member of that church "by law established" and its divines, including the heretic Cranmer and the latitudinarian Hooker, helped shape his thought. This is a High-Church Anglican's take on the Middle Ages. The first item that really stands out is that someone with no previous knowledge of the Middle Ages may get wrong notions about the relative importance of its writers. Milton is consulted much more often than Dante, even though the latter is the epitome of the Medieval poet, while Milton is considered by most to be a later, paler imitation. Aquinas gets a handful of mentions, about the same as Donne; Albert gets a nod or two, while Petrarch and Boccaccio are barely acknowledged. Bede is mentioned once in passing. Chaucer, Gower and Spencer are dominant. The heavy leaning on the English writers doesn't invalidate Lewis' view of the Medieval Model, but the reader relying primarily on him will miss a good portion of its detail. Another note of discord is that Lewis drops hints about misperceptions of the period, but he never follows up or explains their importance. For instance, in the section on Cicero's De Republica (page 28) Lewis says his attitude to the body was to be an "unfortunate legacy" for Medieval Christians. Exactly how was this problem unique to Medieval Christians? The idea of the soul being in exile in the (evil) body and being free upon death was a Gnostic heresy from the very birth of the Church. Manichaeism in subsequent centuries had a large following (St. Augustine before his conversion for one), and Catharism (which originated with the Bulgars in the east) was vigorously fought against by the Medieval Church. The puritanical idea of man's total depravity until this mortal coil is shed was a very much more unfortunate legacy for Reformation-era Christians than for Medieval ones. Along this same line, Lewis rather astoundingly says that the cult of the saints (more than that of the angels) was "a danger to monotheism in the Middle Ages." He doesn't elaborate further, but I will: veneration of the Blessed Virgin and the cult of the saints was part of Christianity since its beginnings; the relics in the catacombs and other archaeological findings speak to their importance dating to the 1st Century. As far back as the Old Testament, the bones of the patriarchs are treated with reverence. Interestingly, the Latin Christians received this practice from the East. It wasn't until the Islamic conquests of the seventh century that the shrines of the Holy Land and their relics were destroyed, and it was their influence that helped create the iconoclastic controversy among Greek Christians (I wonder how many Protestants realize their iconoclasm is at root a Muslim thing?) The idea that Dulia and Hyperdulia were a threat to monotheism is a Protestant invention. Richard II had consecrated England to Our Lady, calling his country "Mary's Dowry"; he knew, as everyone else knew, that the BVM and the saints were created beings not to be confused with God. The improperly understood doctrine of the Trinity is the real danger to monotheism Lewis should have mentioned - just ask any Arian, Sabellian, Docetist, Monophysite, Adoptionist, Nestorian, Socinian, or Unitarian. The Philosophy of History is another topic on which Lewis touches that doesn't ring true. To my chagrin, he deprecates the idea by explaining that it is not uniquely Christian since many cultures seemed to have employed similar philosophies, and that even if it were unique, it is not particularly meritorious. In one swoop Lewis wipes out the main thesis of St. Augustine's City of God, and renders Scholastic philosophers from Aquinas to Gilson moot. The problem is that Lewis is just plain wrong: it's one thing to have a sense of "destiny" or to think of oneself as part of a "chosen people" - that is not a philosophy - it's quite another to have worked out an entire Soteriological system that includes an event dubbed "the fullness of time" where God enters carnally into history and redeems sinful man for Himself. The bequeathing of a Philosophy of History to the world is very real, it is uniquely Christian, and there is not now nor has there ever been anything like it in the history of man. This is a big miss by Lewis. Lastly, in this giant bouquet thrown to the Middle Ages, could not a single rose be strewn at the door of the Catholic Church? It's true that when one speaks about Christian belief in Medieval times that one is speaking about the Catholic Church, but Lewis shouldn't assume his readers know that. He uses any form of the word "Catholic" but once - and that in reference to a book title on page 124, the "Catholicon Anglicum". How Lewis can delight in the beauty and order of the Medieval Model and not let the reader in on the fact that a key characteristic - its hierarchy - was basically a mirror of the Catholic Church is puzzling. When he discusses how the earth lays on the outskirts of the universal drama, which has its eternal center in God, Lewis missed an opportunity to make the obvious connection to the Catholic Mass. With its vicariousness and its making-present that eternal center on every altar in every Church in the world, Lewis could have drawn the Model more completely and more accurately: the Faith (and Reason) of the Medieval Age informed it's understanding of the physical world, and both of these elements were the foundation of its literature. In closing, I want to note where I think Lewis' deepest understanding of Medieval literature ultimately resided. In another and perhaps his most personal work, A Grief Observed , it is to Dante that Lewis turns to express the moment of his wife's death: "She said not to me but to the chaplain, 'I am at peace with God.' She smiled, but not at me. Poi si torno all' eterna fontana" [then towards the eternal fountain turn'd - canto XXXI, Paradiso] After challenging some of Lewis' assertions in the above paragraphs, I want to reiterate that there is still a great deal to love about this book. Most of those reasons have been highlighted in other reviews, so I'll have mercy on the reader of this review and simply stop right here.

G.K. Chesterton once said that the hidden feature of God is His mirth. Perhaps this, too, is Mr. Lewis' hidden feature. He had the last laugh in his last book. For most of his literary career, especially after his thunderous critique of what he called "modernism," which now is labeled "post-modernism," in The Abolition of Man, Mr. Lewis decried our reductionistic models of both man and the universe. Post-Christian views in science and literature, he argued over and over again, are brittle, hopeless, and utterly without joy. If we cling to our modernist (now post-modernist) models, we will not survive, he kept claiming. Of course, Mr. Lewis knew that to say this out-right would offend, so he carefully cloaked his message in such classic stories as The Chronicles of Narnia and Perelandra. The messages from stories are more easily received than a whack on the head. He told stories about how modern man was destroying himself by denying God and truth. Do you, dear reader, realize that Mr. Lewis was telling you another story across the entire book, The Discarded Image? He used the literature of the Medieval and Renaissance periods to let you know that your current models are wrong. Of course, he was aware that the details of the Medieval model were also wrong. Are all models wrong? Yes, because a model is an imperfect representation of reality. Our models will always be wrong, but we must keep trying to create better ones. The modern model is less effective than the Medieval one because today we repudiate tradition (see page 211) and with great pride we place ourselves at the top of the evolutionary hierarchy (as we condemn the idea of hierarchy!) (see this message repeated on pages 74, 85, 185, and 220. He was not repeating this theme for nothing. In contrast to the modern model of man and universe, the Medievalist humbly placed himself at the bottom of the hierarchy with God at the top. Though Mr. Lewis is clear that he does not want to return to the Medieval model of man and the universe, he challenges us to create the more complete post-post-modern model that restores God to His rightful place. There it is in black and white on page 221: "...when changes in the human mind produce a sufficient disrelish of the old Model and a sufficient hankering for some new one, phenomena to support that new one will obediently turn up. I do not at all mean that these new phenomena are illusory. Nature has all sorts of phenomena in stock and can suit many different tastes." Translation: If society is hell-bent upon finding evidence for the supremacy of man (philosophical, theological, scientific) it will be found. If society is heaven-bent upon finding evidence for the supremacy of God, it will be found. This is Mr. Lewis's final message to us: Open your heart to God and your mind will find the evidence and the models, that are developed in your society, will follow. I have to chuckle when reviewers praise this book because it is a "refreshing" departure from Mr. Lewis' Christian writings. On the contrary, he has just told you of his Christian beliefs cloaked in cogent analyses of Medieval literature rather than in stories for children. His mirth is showing.

I gave five stars because though I have only read a couple of pages, I'm already blown away by it.

This is one of Lewis's more difficult-to-find academic works. However, if you find it and read it, you will not be disappointed. I read the book on my own initiative while taking a master's class in Medieval literature. I probably learned as much from his book as I did from the whole class, and it opened up countless delightful possibilities for future enquiry. It also gave me a great idea for my final paper, which I'd been lacking the inspiration to write. What's more, this work is still respected in academia. Recently I was reading a Cambridge thesis on the subject of early printing (The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein) and came across a quote from _The Discarded Image_ (an uncited quote, which was annoying, but that's another story). Eisenstein quotes most authors in order to disagree with them, but she didn't disagree with Lewis (added to him, qualified him, but didn't disagree), which was unusual. Lewis was one of the few authors in her field that Eisenstein did not attack! I also passed _The Discarded Image_ along to one of my previous college professors and he decided to include ideas from it in his Survey of English Literature course. If you want to know how medieval men and women saw their world-their belief in supernatural beings intermediate between angels and devils, their admiration for all kinds of organization, their heavy reliance on the snippet of Plato to which they had access-read this book. You will never see the Middle Ages quite the same way again.

Because his theological writings and novels are so enjoyable to read and reread, I've wondered about tackling something of Lewis' "scholarly" work for a long time. His field, though, Medieval Studies, sounds so dry and disconnected from any context I have. This volume's subtitle, "An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature," basically reinforced that hesitation and aversion. Happily, I took the plunge, buying the book on the strength of prior reviews, and found a land that I do in fact have some connections to. A little Chaucer, a little Plato, a little Aristotle, a little Cicero..., (no Dante, yet, but he's on the list, now that I know how he fits in.) What I didn't have, and what Lewis supplies, is a map; the connections, the borrowings, the influences. And, it's all presented in the author's signature style, full of warmth and wit, making a complex study readily accessible and fun to read. Lewis presents the Middle Ages as a living age, not a remote island or time-locked apostrophe, as part of our own literary past, drawing from its own literary roots, sending out branches to our time that make a lot more sense to me now. Frankly, I never did really "get" Chaucer. Now, I'm thinking about rereading "The Nun's Priest's Tale." For me, that says it all about Lewis' "The Discarded Image." If you have even a casual interest in literature, or just enjoy reading CS Lewis, this one's worth your time. As one reviewer says, it may be his best.

I bought it as a gift for my husband and he loved the book, so deep, clear and insightful (as usual with CS Lewis!)

Lewis reconstrói claramente a cosmovisão comum à Idade Média. Apoiando-se em vasta literatura do período medieval, ele desmente várias mentiras sobre essa época e apresenta uma visão rica que o homem medieval tinha do Universo.

Mein altes Exemplar von The discarded image war total verschlissen. So oft lese ich und nehme ich es zur Hand um nach zu prüfen wie im Altertum, Mittelalter und Renaissance das All aussah. Wie die Erde gegliedert war (und vor allem nicht flach). Wie es um der Physiologie des Menschen bestellt war. Und vor allem wie genau gedacht wurde über Gott und die Welt. Das ganze Büchlein ist ein fundierter Korrektur auf die landläufigen Vorstellungen des MA.

Des mots, des paragraphes, des chapitres, en anglais. Exactement ce à quoi je m'attendais.

The discarded image consists of the essential material that Lewis addressed in his lectures on medieval and renaissance literature and philosophy at Oxford and Cambridge. In spite of Lewis' known status as a Christian apologist and writer, it is important to underline that this book, the last that was published during his life, only occasionally refers to matters of faith as one might expect of Lewis. Lewis literally presents a "discarded image" or world view, that of medieval and early renaissance Europe. There is much reference to the organization of the universe, of the earth, and the search of coherence between the two. The book is a fascinating incursion into both the topic and into Lewis' vision of this period of human history. A few points are worth underlining: First, the former, now discarded image, placed very little value in the empirical confirmation of different phenomena. Indeed, a number of different beings and processes are postulated to exist and to influence human life that could not possibly be investigated under what we would call the modern scientific method. However, this was not an issue to their probable existence. One of the first ideas that comes across from this book is that, while people knew that "you had to see it to believe it", it was not clear that everything of importance could really be seen. From an epistemological perspective, this is a clear and important difference in the way that we can know whether something is valid. The ease with which the ancients postulated different ideas was quite surprising, however, there was an internal coherence in the different proposals. In other words, if spirits existed, how might they affect human conduct? Where would they live?, etc. So, the first point concerns the idea that in a very real sense, there were many kinds of information that were accepted and whether they could be empirically verified or not was without consequence. Second, there is much knowledge that we now accept as "modern" that was also accepted in ancient times. Lewis goes to great lengths to show how the ancients really believed that the earth was really a small part of the universe, presumably to go against the common view that the ancients believed that the earth was really the centre of the cosmos - and part of the book really drives home the idea that several new ideas are really not so new, that they are old ideas that have been perhaps transformed and adapted to present conditions. Third, an understanding of Lewis' appreciation for this old world view illuminates several aspects of stories and essays written by Lewis. For example, the ancient belief that the planets had an impact on human personality, thought and endeavors is brought out at the end of "That Hideous Strength" where the representatives of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter appear on earth and meaningfully change the course of earthly events. The same can be said of the relation between epistemology and values - Lewis brilliantly shows how knowledge could not, in the ancient world, be dissociated from virtue and that such a separation inevitably led to moral bankruptcy, a point made again in the Abolition of Man and in the Narnia stories (perhaps most notably in the Silver Chair and The Magician's Nephew). Reading the discarded image also underlines how our thoughts about knowledge and its place in our world may be taking us in new directions. If it can be said that the ancients pursued knowledge to the best of their abilities but always wanted this knowledge to be submitted to virtue, the new knowledge knows no such boundaries. The new knowledge is arrogant. At the end of The Discarded Image, Lewis describes his fondness of the old model of the world, notably its imagination and it expansion of reality. The new world view, that reduces knowledge to only that which can be measured and mastered, while very practical, perhaps lacks in its appeal to the mind and soul. A fascinating read that will completely take you out of your comfort zone regarding the discarded, medieval world.