Chapter 10 – C.S. Lewis in the Pulpit, or, What is Heaven About Anyway?

1. Discussing the nature of the Bible in Chapter 7, Neo distinguishes between the Bible as a book of answers and the Bible as the story of God and his people. In this chapter he clarifies further, stating that he was raised to believe that the central story of the Bible is the saving of individual souls. What does he mean by that? Is your experience similar to Neo’s? Is there an alternative story in the Bible, or even a different understanding of what salvation is? If so, what might it be?

2. Neo identifies several issues that are problematic for the view of salvation he was raised under: it is too selfish, it is too preoccupied with the individual, and its scope is all too otherworldy. What is missing, according to Neo, in this view of salvation? Do you agree or disagree? How might the modern culture of the West, with all that it emphasizes, produce such a view of salvation?

3. Neo articulates a more holistic and encompassing view of salvation: while affirming the spiritual and eternal aspects of salvation, he proposes that it has physical and temporal dimensions as well. Is there a danger associated with a view of salvation that emphasizes only the spiritual and eternal? What about the opposite extreme? Can you think of examples of these views in different theological traditions? Do you agree that the Biblical view of salvation is comprehensive of both?

4. If we are to have a different, more holistic, and comprehensive view of salvation, Neo asserts that we must have a better understanding of the kingdom of God and how the church relates to the kingdom. What is the kingdom of God? Is it different than the church? What are some of the metaphors Jesus used to describe the kingdom?

5. Some Christians believe the church equals the kingdom. Others disassociate the two completely. Neo again proposes a third option, an alternative to what he sees as two unacceptable choices. What is Neo’s third version? How is it consonant or dissonant with some of the metaphors Jesus uses to describe the kingdom?

6. Dan has to know: “Do you believe that people of other religions will go to heaven?” Neo responds by giving Dan a tape of a sermon he preached, called “Death.” Do you think Neo is proposing that heaven and hell are the same place? Why or why not? What would be the effect of believing that God is like Aslan as pictured in the C.S. Lewis story at the end of Neo’s sermon?