If you are looking for the beginning of the study for C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find these in the Text and Note them in the Margins)
Despotism, Myth, Religion, Truth, Suffering
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
Describe the “rite of the year’s Birth.”
How did Orual describe the fate of the girls in Ungit’s temple?
Whose face did Orual see in Ungit as she looked upon the idol?
What did Orual inquire about Ungit as far as her being “the mother of all things?”
How did the “peasant woman” say she felt after making her offering to Ungit?
What did Orual observe about the common people’s demeanor as Arnom performed the rite of the year’s birth?
In her vision (or dream), what did Orual’s father make her do in the Pillar Room?
What did Orual find beneath the Pillar Room?
When Orual’s father asked her “Who is Ungit?” how did Orual respond?
What “way of ceasing to be Ungit” did Orual decide was out of her ability now?
What disguise did Orual adopt to go through the town unknown?
As Orual was about to fling herself in the river, what hindered her?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Why might it be “unlawful for a virgin to be present at the things which are done in the house” of Ungit on the night where “the rite of the year’s Birth” is performed?
In the paragraph that begins “I saw the terrible girls sitting in rows…” what seems to be Orual’s moral evaluation of the things that take place in the House of Ungit?
When Orual said, of Ungit, “I have said she had no face; but that meant she had a thousand faces” what did she mean by that?
Why might Orual have been inquiring of Arnom about the relation of Ungit to the god of the Mountain? What was she trying to discern about them?
Compare and contrast Arnom with the previous Priest of Ungit. What is different about them and what inferences should we make about them from those differences?
Orual observed the demeanor of the peasant woman who made her offering to Ungit and the other peasants at the celebration and said “it struck [her] in a new way.” What do you think it was that struck her in a new way? Why might this be important to the story?
Compare and contrast the House of Ungit as described in this chapter with Istra’s temple in the woods in Part One, Chapter 21. Why might these two temples be so radically different?
What meaning are we meant to draw from Orual’s dream/vision with her father and the two lower Pillar Rooms? What was C. S. Lewis trying to communicate through this imagery?
When Orual confessed, “I am Ungit” what did she mean? How is she Ungit?
Why did Orual determine to kill herself after her vision and realization that she is Ungit?
Orual said, “There must, whether the gods see it or not, be something great in the mortal soul. For suffering, it seems, is infinite, and our capacity without limit.” What did she mean by this?
What did Orual mean when she said, “If I were Ungit, I might be the Shadowbrute also?”
Why did the god of the Mountain intervene and stop Orual from killing herself? Why might we infer about him from this?
When the god said, “Die before you die. There is no chance after” what do you think he meant by that?
Orual said, after hearing “the voice of the god” that “there was no rebel in [her] now.” Why had this encounter so subdued her?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
In this reading we learned more about “the rite of the year’s Birth” (though it had been mentioned in brief earlier in the book) which is like Glome’s New Year celebration. Why do we celebrate New Year’s Day? Why might it be that virtually every historical calendar system in history included a marker for a year’s end and new beginning? Is it merely a matter of convenience for record keeping or does it speak to something far more significant? How might it affect society if we took no regard for the ending and beginning of each successive year?
Orual spoke of the “towsing of girls” which refers to sexual acts in worship of the deity Ungit (a.k.a. Temple prostitution) which is a common practice in ancient pagan religions. Why might pagans have intermingled sex with the worship of their deities? How does the Christian tradition of monasticism relate or contrast with this pagan practice? Do you think that was the appropriate counterbalance to paganism or an overreaction? In your understanding, what is the proper place of human sexuality as it relates to the practice of true religion? Do you think sex is fundamentally religious in nature? Why or why not?
How does the true God speak to his people today? Do you believe he continues to give dreams and visions? Does he speak audibly to us at times like the god of the mountain did to Orual in this chapter? Does God only speak to us now in the pages of Scripture? If the latter is so, why might things have changed from the past when the Scriptures themselves record even of God speaking personally and directly to individuals though appearances, through prophets, the dreams and visions, etc.? How ought we to determine what is and is not a true word from God in any particular form?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read John 14:1-14. How is this like and unlike the discussion Orual had with Arnom, the priest of Ungit, about the relationship of Ungit and the god of the Mountain?
Read Leviticus 19:29-30. What does God say about the relation of prostitution and religious worship?
Read Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1 Corinthians 7:1-5. What do these passages teach about sex and marriage and their relation to Christian life and worship?
Read Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 1 John 4:1-6, and 2 Timothy 3:16-17. How do these passages relate back to our third rhetoric question? Does this have any effect on your answer?