Let's Pretend

Big idea

Summary

Lewis opens with two fables, Beauty kissing the Beast until he becomes human, and a man whose mask of a better face eventually grows into his real one, to introduce the chapter's central claim: pretending, of a certain kind, can turn into the real thing. He applies this immediately to the Lord's Prayer. Saying 'Our Father' means placing yourself, however falsely, in the position of Christ, the true Son of God. Since none of us actually shares the Son's perfect unity with the Father, every recitation of that prayer is, in a sense, an act of impersonation that God himself has commanded.

To explain why God would ask for such apparent presumption, Lewis separates two kinds of pretending. The bad kind substitutes for reality, as when someone claims to be helping without actually helping. The good kind rehearses reality into being, the way acting friendly when you do not feel friendly can generate real warmth, or the way children's games of playing house and playing soldiers quietly build the skills of the adults they are pretending to be. Christian practice, he argues, belongs to this second, constructive category of pretense.

Once a person recognizes that praying is 'dressing up as Christ,' certain habits and inner attitudes become impossible to continue, not because conscience alone forbids them but because they plainly do not fit the character being rehearsed. Lewis compares creeping bad temper to rats hidden in a cellar: a sudden shock does not create the rats, it only reveals that they were always there. This leads him to a further discovery, that our chief problem is not particular sins but an underlying sinfulness, something no amount of willpower can directly repair and that only God working from within can change.

The chapter's final turn is the most striking: it is finally God who does the pretending, choosing to treat rebellious human beings as if they were already like his Son so that they might become so in fact. Human helpers along the way are real gifts, 'mirrors' or carriers who pass Christ's life on to others, sometimes without knowing it themselves, but Lewis warns against resting ultimate trust in any person, however good, since people fail and eventually die. The pretense is safe only because Christ himself, not a human substitute, is doing the transforming.

Key points

• Praying 'Our Father' is literally an act of pretending to be a child of God, since none of us naturally are.
• Lewis distinguishes bad pretending, which substitutes for the real thing, from good pretending, which leads toward the real thing.
• Good pretending, practiced with Christ's help, gradually reshapes character, similar to acting friendly until you become friendlier in fact.
• Christ himself works through this pretense at your side, steadily turning imitation into actual sonship.
• Human helpers who bring us to Christ are real 'carriers' of him, but must never be treated as substitutes for the ultimate source of grace.
• Two further discoveries follow: believers become aware of sinfulness itself rather than only isolated sins, and they realize it is finally God who does the pretending on their behalf.

Illustrations & analogies

• Beauty kissing the Beast as if he were already a man pictures how treating something as what it is meant to become can help it actually become that.
• A man's mask of a nicer face slowly grows to fit his real one, illustrating how sustained outward pretense can reshape inward character.
• Children's games of playing soldiers or playing shop are described as quietly training the very skills the pretend roles imitate.
• Bad temper is compared to rats hidden in a cellar: sudden provocation does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding in time.

Notable lines

To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ.

C. S. Lewis Book IV, Ch. 7 — Let's Pretend

Men are mirrors, or "carriers" of Christ to other men.

C. S. Lewis Book IV, Ch. 7 — Let's Pretend

Let us pretend in order to make the pretence into a reality.

C. S. Lewis Book IV, Ch. 7 — Let's Pretend

Related Scripture

• Matthew 6:9
• John 3:3
• Galatians 4:19
• 1 Corinthians 2:16

For reflection and discussion

1. Lewis distinguishes 'bad pretending,' a substitute for the real thing, from 'good pretending,' a rehearsal of it. Can you think of a time when practicing a virtue you did not yet feel actually produced the feeling?
2. What do you make of Lewis's claim that it is finally God who does the pretending, treating us as sons in order to make us sons?
3. Lewis warns against pinning your whole faith on any human being, however good. How do you hold gratitude for people who have helped your faith together with ultimate trust in Christ alone?