Writing God and the Self: Samuel Beckett and C. S. Lewis by Sharon Jebb (review)

310 CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE Writing God and the Self: Samuel Beckett and C. S. Lewis. BySharon [ebb. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2111. ISBN978-1-60899-738-1. Pp. x + 281.$32.00 What is one's identity? In the age of Facebook, Twitter, social networking, avatars, how does one find one's "self"?Are we each a collection of "selves;'or do we each havea unique identity? Isit possible to experience one's"self"asan autonomous being if one does not believe in God? The question of how we know "the self" in relation to our knowledge of God, or lack thereof, is the central concern of Writing God and the Self. In this study, Sharon [ebb uses Samuel Beckett's trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable) and C. S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces to explore the theological, philosophical, and psychological influences on the respective authors. She argues that Beckett and Lewis held contrasting conceptions of the relationship between self realization and God. By using literature to explore theological concepts, [ebb attempts to provide what Trevor Hart calls "a valuable stimulus to further constructive conversation between theology and literature" (back cover). Writing God and the Self is Iebbs PhD dissertation, written at the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Scotland. The journal Word & World: Theology for Christian Ministry (published by Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota) and Christian Theological Research Fellowship (an academic society) are responsible, in collaboration with Pickwick Press, for the publication of [ebb's dissertation as one of six to date in the series Distinguished Dissertations in Christian Theology. In her introduction, [ebb provides an overview of her project and a description of her methodology. She positions her study in contrast to the work of Daphne Hampson, who held a chair in post-Christian thought at the University of St. Andrews in the early 2000s and who has published works on feminist theology, post-Christian theology, and the relationship between the self and God. According to Iebb, Hampson argues for a post-Enlightenment, autonomous self, which has freed itself from the confines of Christianity to become "a relational self, intune with 'all that is'" (5) and thereby coming to some awareness of God. [ebb, in contrast, sees her own position as originating in a pre-Enlightenment Christian tradition where knowledge of self and knowledge of God are integrally connected, the "double knowledge;' according to James Houston (cited on 6). Iebb is explicit about her intentions and methodology: Toexplore selected texts of Beckett and Lewis"teasing out the implications of their attitudes towards the self and God" (9). She sidesteps the charge of "intentional fallacy" (that we can know through a work of art what the author intended) by denying that her project is "a piece of literary criticism" (15); nevertheless, she asserts "that the narrative voice reflects something of the mind of the author" (15). In analyzing Beckett'stexts, [ebb says that she "approachjes] Beckett'swork somewhat impressionistically,believing that thoughtful reflection on the text will giveus an insight into the issues that were important to him" (11). Although [ebb acknowledges that neither Beckett nor Lewis BOOK REVIEWS 311 would condone reading their literary texts as reflections of their own thinking (16), [ebb not only considers her methodology as legitimate but also suggests that not to see the author in the text is "a symptom offragmentation and dis-unity" (17). Iebbs study itself is divided into three chapters on Beckett and three on Lewis followed by a concluding summary of the conclusions reached. The chapters on Beckett focus on "Self and Psychology;' "Theology;' and "Mysticism"; the chapters on Lewis are labeled "Psychology;' "Theology and Self;' and "Mystical Theology:' Although the structure of this study suggests that the treatment of Beckett and Lewis is intended to be equal analyses of searching for the self without God and the double knowledge of the self through God, the weight of the argument seems clearly on Lewis' side. Beckett's expository writing is extremely limited, and the work chosen to represent him-his trilogy-was published in the early 1950s.Ifone of [ebb's purposes is to delineate the artist's thinking through...