Reminds me of a reference in another of Lewis’ books, “The Great Divorce”, where the visitors to Heaven that had come on a bus for a visit from Hell. The visitors were screaming in pain as the grass was injuring their bare feet. They were too insubstantial to bend the grass. Therefore, the grass was like walking on nails.
Another Lewis reference I’ve always liked from “The Last Battle” describes the inside of something as being larger than the outside. I like that a lot.
Trying to recall instances of when an angel passed through a wall.
A rock going through air disturbs and displaces the air, not exactly like an angel passing through a wall. “More substantial” as in denser or more solid doesn’t seem to apply. A spiritual world that exists apart but connected to this one, only on a higher sort of level, makes more sense. Those in that one can see and manipulate our world, but we can’t touch or see theirs. In the book of Revelation, for example, events are explained through symbolic metaphors as the result of much greater spiritual forces, as if the physical world itself is only an afterthought. Perhaps analogous to the cosmological concept of dark matter, which is unseen by us but plays a greater role than actual matter in the structure and evolution of the universe.
Sure... If an angel were "more substantial" - i.e., had a density approaching that of, say, a Neutron Star - of course it could easily pass through a man-made wall. That ought to be evident to everyone!
'Course, that angel is gonna leave a pretty big hole in that wall! (Note to Lewis: Solid walls - unlike air or water - don't "close up" again).
Why take such a preposterous claim as the led (yes: led: a short summary serving as an introduction to a news story, article, or other copy) of an essay? It only makes everything that follows doubtful.
Regards,
Vanity of vanity, all things are vanity.
Just say’n.
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If that’s true, what keeps them from falling through the floor?
> ...the question of how angels (and such things) could pass through a wall.
Quantum tunneling writ large ?
>…for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18)
“Only things that do not possess a form
will be able to last in the river of time”.
From “Uta ni Katachi wa Nai keredo”
“Although My Songs Have No Form” by Doriko