Sacramental Ontology in That Hideous Strength

Abstract

C.S. Lewis is known primarily as an apologist for the fundamental doctrines of traditional Christianity. As a committed Anglican, Lewis argued for a sacramental vision of creation, one that understands God’s grace to act through the natural world and its inhabitants. That Hideous Strength, the third novel in Lewis's Ransom trilogy, embodies a sacramental ontology that helps readers to make sense of the novel in insightful and provocative ways, synthesizing many of the threads within the novel into a cohesive braid. Toby F. Coley argues that interpreting the meeting places, meals, and protagonists’s marriage in the novel through this sacramentalism uncovers a wealth of insight into the narrative’s development.