Abstract
In C. S. Lewis on the Final Frontier, Sanford Schwartz has proposed a bold alternative interpretation of Lewis's three science fiction novels. Rather than interpreting the Ransom trilogy as a clash between religious and naturalistic points of view, Schwartz argues that the stories should be read as a much more complex clash "between ‘archetype' and distorted ‘copy'" (p. 17). Schwartz also argues that even though the Ransom trilogy may have commenced without a master plan, it concludes as an integrated and systematically arranged series. Schwartz sees in the novels the use by Lewis of a literary device Northrop Frye described as an Augustinian strategy to accuse one's opposition of derivative doubling that merely bears a close resemblance or imitation of the real thing. Through his interpretation, Schwartz seeks to make the case that Lewis sought a critical engagement of philosophical interpretations of modern science rather than an antithetical conflict between religion and naturalism.