Human Words Reaching up to Heaven: The Theme of Prayer in the Dialogue with C. S. Lewis

Abstract

The aim of the article is to investigate the theme of words in prayer. In the dialogue with the work of C. S. Lewis, we ask how it is possible to overcome the limits of our words in order to reach God and reality. At first, we point to several possible ways in which our language is limited. After that we focus on the process of ‘gaining faces’, which is the main concept of Lewis’s novel Till We Have Faces but which can be complemented by the reading of his Great Divorce. This process is also demonstrated in the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. Last but not least, the article shows that the idea of overcoming the limits of words in our prayer cannot be separated from everyday life and that the principle of prayer should thus become the mode of Christian living.

Keywords

• language
• prayer
• c. s. lewis
• till we have faces
• great divorce
• samaritan woman