The Discarded Image

Author C. S. Lewis, best known for The Chronicles of Narnia series, wore many hats in the literary world. He published The Discarded Image in 1964 after giving a series of popular lectures on medieval life at Oxford. The book covers the “Medieval Model” that all thinking was based on during medieval times. The book was the last one he wrote before his death in 1963.

Lewis starts by asserting that the book is a generalization of medieval thinking during the Middle Ages, and does not necessarily represent the thinking at every level of society. It also does not encompass other, larger, debates that were happening at this time such as Normalism and Realism. He also explains that to modern readers, medieval thinking might seem a bit primitive, but that much of their logic was actually based on informed writing and a passion for systematic categorization. Specific authors such as Cicero, Lucan, and Thebaid also influenced the model.

Before the year 205 AD, most medieval thinking was based on Pagan thought. After this time, however, until about 355 AD, Christianity started to dominate the mainstream thinking. Lewis refers to this time of great conflict as “The Seminal Period.”



In a section called “The Heavens,” Lewis explains medieval cosmology. Medieval people believed in a concept called “kindly enclyning,” which means that everything is constantly in motion but will always return to its original home. They did not necessarily believe that objects possess human qualities, but rather that the stars dictated all of the movement of everything on earth. In medieval thinking, there were four different levels of existence: mere existence (like stones), existence with growth (like vegetables), existence and growth with sensation (like animals), and all of these combined with reason (like humans). The four levels were also made up of Four Contraries: hot, cold, moist, and dry, which then combine to make the Four Elements: fire, air, water, and earth. There was also a fifth element called aether, but humans cannot experience it.

Furthermore, they believed in something called the Ptolemaic Universe, which was organized with the Earth at the center, surrounded by hollow globes, which were the planets Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Beyond Saturn was a layer called Stellatum, which holds the stars. Within this system, everything moved from top to bottom, starting with God and ending with the earth. In their ordered minds, they perceived the universe as a spherical shape, as though built by an architect, instead of a never-ending expanse. They were aware that the earth was not flat, but believed that the equator was too hot for human existence.

Lewis next explains that most Medieval people, although well educated in domestic and farm animals, still believed in the existence of creatures such as fairies and centaurs. They had very specific beliefs about the existence of fairies, believing that fairies were either a third species, were former angels, were dead creatures walking around, or that they were fallen angels or devils. Building on this, Lewis explains some more beliefs held by medieval people about various components of life on earth. Earth itself was immobile and therefore did not require guidance from a higher power such as a deity. Fortune acted as a guide for the earth from time to time but was not a permanent guide.



On earth’s surface, every living thing had a soul, but the soul was different depending on the being. For example, the Sensitive Soul was combined of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. The Vegetable Soul was in charge of involuntary processes such as growth. The Rational Soul was composed of the Vegetable and Sensitive Souls but added the ability to feel emotion. The Human Soul was composed of all the previous souls but also had the ability to reason. A medieval person thought that the soul and the body interact with the help of a messenger, kind of like a spirit. The human body was also more complicated than just its soul. It was composed of The Four Elements: sanguine, choleric, melancholy, and phlegmatic. Each person had different levels of these qualities. Whichever a person had the most of dictated their personality.

Lewis next explains the medieval approach to history and education. Medieval historians varied in that some of them were more scientific, but most historians tried to create a “picture of the past.” This “picture” was not necessarily based in fact and was meant more to entertain curiosity than to seriously inform. Educated people in medieval times, however, had a high standard for education composed of The Seven Liberal Arts of grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy.

In the last chapter, Lewis summarizes the influence of the Medieval Model. In general, the model was widely accepted, meaning that most people of the time conformed to the same way of thinking. The model, he reiterates, satisfied imagination and curiosity, but was not necessarily accurate or factual, specifically when analyzed by modern thinkers.