A Barfield Reader: Selections from the Writings of Owen Barfield

by Owen Barfield, G. B. Tennyson (Editor)

A representative selection from the major writings of the man C. S. Lewis called "the wisest and best of my unofficial teachers."

Owen Barfield was one of the most original and stimulating thinkers of the twentieth century, the man that C.S. Lewis said could not speak on any subject without illuminating it, the man whose writings have won praise from figures as diverse as T.S. Eliot and Saul Bellow, Walter de la Mare and Howard Nemerov, W.H. Auden and Marshall McLuhan. This comprehensive overview supplements major selections with numerous short supporting passages form the whole corpus of his writings and provides a short glossary of Barfieldian terms and useful primary and secondary bibliographies.

Genres: Philosophy, Poetry, Literature

231 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Arthur Owen Barfield was a British philosopher, author, poet, and critic.

Barfield was born in London. He was educated at Highgate School and Wadham College, Oxford and in 1920 received a first class degree in English language and literature. After finishing his B. Litt., which became his third book Poetic Diction, he was a dedicated poet and author for over ten years. After 1934 his profession was as a solicitor in London, from which he retired in 1959 aged 60. Thereafter he had many guest appointments as Visiting Professor in North America. Barfield published numerous essays, books, and articles. His primary focus was on what he called the "evolution of consciousness," which is an idea which occurs frequently in his writings. He is best known as a founding father of Anthroposophy in the English speaking world.

Barfield has been known as "the first and last Inkling". He had a profound influence on C. S. Lewis, and through his books The Silver Trumpet and Poetic Diction (dedicated to C.S. Lewis), an appreciable effect on J. R. R. Tolkien. Lewis was a good friend of Barfield since 1919, and termed Barfield "the best and wisest of my unofficial teachers". That Barfield did not consider philosophy merely intellectually is illustrated by a well-known interchange that took place between Lewis and Barfield. Lewis one day made the mistake of referring to philosophy as "a subject." "It wasn't a subject to Plato," said Barfield, "It was a way." Lewis refers to Barfield as the "Second Friend" in Surprised by Joy:

But the Second Friend is the man who disagrees with you about everything. He is not so much the alter ego as the antiself. Of course he shares your interests; otherwise he would not become your friend at all. But he has approached them all at a different angle. He has read all the right books but has got the wrong thing out of every one. It is as if he spoke your language but mispronounced it. How can he be so nearly right and yet, invariably, just not right?

Barfield and C. S. Lewis met in 1919 and were close friends for 44 years. Barfield was instrumental in converting Lewis to theism during the early period of their friendship which they affectionately called 'The Great War'. Maud also guided Lewis. As well as being friend and teacher to Lewis, Barfield was his legal adviser and trustee. Lewis dedicated his 1936 book Allegory of Love to Barfield. Lewis wrote his 1949 book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for Lucy Barfield and he dedicated The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to Geoffrey in 1952.

Reviews

[Peter Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an intellectual trip. It's like C.S. Lewis meets Carl Jung meets postmodern peeps. I'm afraid it won't all stay with me because of how difficult it is, but his concept from Poetic Diction about the ramification of meaning throughout Western history is fascinating.

I really dig. Only recommend for people interested in history, language, or poetry/creativity.

[Jason Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the hardest books I have read, largely due to the profound intellect of the author and the foreignness of the material. Nevertheless I deeply appreciated the insights Barfield shared into the nature of thoughts and knowing. The real gem to me was beginning to get my head around how the ancients not only had a different language, but also a different way of perceiving the universe and of thinking. I feel I have much more to learn about this, but the search will yield treasure.

Barfield’s large theme is that moderns now have language to describe the abstract but have lost the less formal ways of knowing. The ancient Greeks were poetic in their everyday conversation. They saw themselves as part of an enchanted world and Truth (the Logos) was outside them and fundamental to the structure of the universe. Now, argues Barfield, we have deconstructed the universe, almost to death. But all is not hopeless. Poetry and imaginative thinking can unite with this amazing analytical thinking and create a new path, far better than anything that proceeded it.

I struggle to understand what this difference in thinking means for reading of ancient literature, especially the Bible. At the very least, I am thankful to Barfield for pointing out what should have been obvious: people who had the same word for spirit and wind were comfortable with that. Why and how I still want to understand.