| This dissertation is a sympathetic philosophical interpretation of the popular apologetic of C. S. Lewis, focusing particularly on the concept of hierarchical authority. The burden of the dissertation is, first, to show that authority is a genuine feature of the cosmos, and second, to indicate how authority can be conceived as a liberating rather than as an oppressive reality.;Following the introductory material of Chapter One, Chapters Two through Four make the case for a hierarchical cosmology. I first trace Lewis's ethical theory, emphasizing his arguments for the objectivity of moral judgments, and then an analysis of common moral experience shows how objective moral obligation presupposes legitimate authority. I next attempt to formulate a theological cosmology that will account for the conclusions drawn from ethics by building on Lewis's provocative doctrine of God. A hierarchical understanding of the God-World relation is presented; it is rooted in "constitutive authority" (the intrinsically legitimate authority exemplified in the relation of a mind to the "world" that that mind imagines), and I argue that the juxtaposition of constitutive authority in the superordinate with genuine free will in the subordinate can make sense of the experience of moral obligation. Next, process theology is examined as the most articulate egalitarian alternative to this kind of hierarchical structure. I consider the work of Alfred North Whitehead, John Cobb, and Harold Oliver, testing their respective conceptual systems for the ability to explain moral obligation without appeal to hierarchy. Each in its own way is found wanting, and I conclude that hierarchical authority alone can account for moral experience.;The last two chapters address the reconceptualization of authority in positive rather than in negative terms. Exposition of Lewis's work reveals the possibility of delighting in authority in our experience of the numinous, in the political sphere, and in the relations between human beings and animals and between the sexes. Finally, I explore the ramifications of this hierarchical cosmology for an authentic understanding of selfhood and of the relation of the self to God and to the rest of the cosmos, especially appealing to Lewis's favorite image, the Eternal Dance. |
