Divergent Paths: The Spiritual Friendship of C. S. Lewis and Dom Bede Griffiths

This essay argues that despite their parallel conversion journeys at Oxford and their lifelong friendship, C. S. Lewis and Dom Bede Griffiths ultimately came to different understandings about the relationship between humans and God and what it means to commune with God in what we commonly call prayer. Despite the frequent mention of prayer in their letters, their views of the way in which God was present within them and what communion with God entailed diverged in significant ways as Griffiths sought to integrate Christian and Hindu conceptions of God. Their own spiritual friendship may have survived this rift, but their divergent views on human communion with God have profound implications for spiritual formation in a time when Christians increasingly confront eastern conceptions about contemplative prayer.