Published : 2024-12-30

Joy and Awe: Introduction to C.S. Lewis’s Fourth Anti-Naturalist Argument

Abstract

In the rich literature devoted to Lewis, three arguments against philosophical naturalism can be found in his publications. These include the argument from reason, the argument from morality, and the argument from Desire (or the desire for transcendence). The paper aims to demonstrate that Lewis also presented another anti-naturalistic reasoning that refers to the numinous awe described by Rudolf Otto. The characteristics the characteristics of Desire, as described by Lewis, and the various interpretations of Desire found in the literature, where it is juxtaposed with the experience of the numinous, are discussed. I argue that Lewis characterized Desire by writing about feelings of pleasure, longing, sadness, and unfulfillment. He emphasized the subjectivity of this experience, claimed that it is evoked by things in this world, and that it has a universal character. These characteristics distinguish it from the numinous experience. Unlike the numinous experience, it is also a sense of lacking something rather than the presence of God or a deity. Based on this, I argue that contrary to popular interpretations, the Desire that Lewis wrote about significantly differs from the experience of the numinous and, above all, from the experience of numinous awe. Given Lewis’ appeal to numinous experience in his anti-naturalistic arguments, we can identify a fourth such argument: the argument from numinous awe.

Keywords:

C.S. Lewis, philosophical naturalism, argument from Desire, numinous experience, Sehnsucht



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Roczniki Filozoficzne · ISSN 0035-7685 | eISSN 2450-002X
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