Living Hell, Literally

Hell is a state of mind, according to the Ghost Teacher in C.S. Lewis novel The Great
Divorce. Lowell L. Bennions essay speaks to those whose minds are subject to this state,
blinded to spiritual affairs by earthly preoccupations. Bruce C. Hafen warns against the
condemning use of logic and reason over faith. They support the idea that Lewis novel denotesHell is not fallen into. It is a method of living and a manner of thinking that results from a
limited, earthly perspective.
Those who search for concrete, easily understood answers trap themselves in a cage of
filtered learning, full of incomplete knowledge. Hafen explains that faith is necessary in order to
discover truth. It ultimately takes us beyond the boundaries of reason, discounting worldly
premonitions and allowing greater understanding. The Teacher in Lewis novel describes Lost
Souls as ones without faith. He exemplifies those who got so interested in proving the
existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself. Their overwhelming desire
for understanding from a worldly perspective skewed their eternal perception. These are the
same souls as Hafen describes, those who spend a lifetime trying to make sense of mortality,
searching for rational satisfaction instead of mere truth, wherever it may come from. Without
faith, the search for knowledge is unending and unanswered.
The Lost Souls in the novel reflect the audiences of Bennion and Hafen- humanity in
general- in the narrowness of their vision. Even the speaker, a far more reasonable man than the
other townspeople, could not understand the concepts his Teacher taught while in his present
state of mind. This presents the question: is the speaker in search of logical answers, or truth?
The truth about Heaven and Hell is hard for him to grasp. The other ghosts, however, completely
dismiss the Solid People and the answers they give without consideration or even a hint of
curiosity. They are in a hellish state, having shut up the creature within the dungeon of its own
mind, as asserted by the Teacher. Hafen refers to this state not as Hell, but being lost in some
dark night of the soul. Lost to reality, with no hope of finding truth, is truly a hellish way to live.
It is only when one is willing to step into darkness that Hell can be overcome, Heaven
within reach. Bennion pleads for his Saints to reach out to those beyond [their] eyesight that
are so often overlooked. Hafen beseeches his readers to go beyond the boundaries of reason in
order to find eternal answers. Answers related to Bennions weightier matters law,

judgment, mercy, and faith, are the kinds of truths that bring lost souls into reality. The Teacher
says that Heaven is reality itself. Those who find it are happy, which explains why everyone in
The Great Divorce is desperately looking for it.
In search of Heaven, one can easily find Hell. Lewis, Bennion, and Hafen all warn
against becoming lost in the pursuit of knowledge. Faith is required to obtain an eternal
perspective. Without it, earthly views and mortal reasoning taint the truth, or hide it, and all that
is left is the shut up creature in the dungeon of the mind, or in other words, hell.