Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Historical Theology

First Advisor

Timothy Dost

Abstract

Spina, Jordan, H. “Realizing Reality: C.S. Lewis and the Hierarchical Model of Christian Neo-Platonism.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2025. 253.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in C.S. Lewis’ intellectual relationship to the Medieval cosmological model. Scholars have demonstrated that, for Lewis, the Medieval cosmological model represented more than a scientific picture of earth in relation to other heavenly bodies. Its significance was not dependent upon the number of planets or the order in which they were positioned. Instead, it represented a philosophically robust view of reality

However, what has yet to be demonstrated is the roadmap by which Lewis came to find the significance of the Medieval cosmological model and how, in turn, the model shaped the mature Lewis’ view of reality.

Within this dissertation I identify and examine the four major models of reality which formed and reformed Lewis’ intellectual and existential understanding of reality—Romanticism, materialism, Idealism, and Christian Neo-Platonism.

Lewis came to see the necessity of something, or more specifically someone, that existed before space, time, and matter. This someone must have brought these elements into existence and ordered them according to their will. In Christ Lewis found the historical revelation of this personality. This line of thinking was deeply encouraged by his introduction to Christian Neo-Platonists such as Marsilio Ficino, Henry More, and Richard Hooker. These, and others like them, helped Lewis re-imagine reality within an ontological hierarchy.

From the time of his conversation in 1930, Lewis (both in his fiction and non-fiction) presented a repackaged hierarchical Christian Neo-Platonism that sought to help readers re-imagine reality in and under a personal creator God. While Lewis’ writings are often assumed to be broadly Christian, the linking element, once recognized as hierarchical Christian Neo-Platonism, becomes broadly recognizable.

Employing natural law theory (common to both Scholastic and Christian Neo-Platonic thought), Lewis identified humans as those who are made in and under God. Accordingly, humans either rightly align with their creator according to their design and therefore move toward actualization or reject their creator, their design, and their actualization. Lewis sought to help his readers understand that all humans are headed toward one of these two eternal ends in heaven or hell and are being invited to respond in faith.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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