   #copyright

C. S. Lewis

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Writers and critics

   CAPTION: C. S. Lewis

   Born: 29 November 1898
   Belfast, Ireland^1
   Died: 22 November 1963
   Oxford
   Occupation: Novelist, Scholar, Broadcaster
   Genres: Fantasy, Science fiction, Christian apologetics, Children's
   literature
   Influences: H. Rider Haggard, Christianity, Arthur Balfour, J.R.R.
   Tolkien, George MacDonald, H.G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, William Blake,
   Irish, Norse, and Greek Mythology
   Influenced: J. K. Rowling, J. I. Packer, Peter Kreeft, J.R.R. Tolkien,
   widespread
   ^1Belfast is now the capital of Northern Ireland.

   Clive Staples Lewis ( 29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly
   referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. Lewis is
   known for his work on medieval literature, Christian apologetics,
   literary criticism and fiction. He is best known today for his series
   The Chronicles of Narnia.

   Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of
   the Rings, and both were leading figures in the English faculty at
   Oxford University and in the informal Oxford literary group known as
   the " Inklings". Due in part to Tolkien's influence, Lewis converted to
   Christianity, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of
   England". (Lewis 1952, pp. 6) His conversion had a profound effect on
   his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of
   Christianity brought him wide acclaim. Late in life he married the
   American writer Joy Gresham, who died of bone cancer four years later
   at the age of 45.

   Lewis's works have been translated into over 30 languages and continue
   to sell over a million copies a year; the books that comprise The
   Chronicles of Narnia have sold over 100 million copies. A number of
   stage and screen adaptations of Lewis's works have also been produced,
   the most notable of which is the 2005 Disney film adaptation of The
   Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which grossed US$745,000,000
   worldwide.

Biography

Childhood

   Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland (now the capital of
   Northern Ireland) on November 29, 1898. His father was Albert James
   Lewis (1863–1929), a solicitor whose father, Richard, had come to
   Ireland from Wales. His mother was Flora Augusta Hamilton Lewis
   (1862–1908), the daughter of a Church of Ireland minister. He had one
   older brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis (Warnie). At the age of four,
   shortly after his dog Jacksie was hit by a car, Lewis announced that
   his name was now Jacksie. At first he would answer to no other name,
   but later accepted Jacks which became Jack, the name by which he was
   known to friends and family for the rest of his life. At six his family
   moved into "Little Lea", the house the elder Mr. Lewis built for Mrs.
   Lewis, in Strandtown, Northern Ireland.
   Little Lea
   Little Lea

   Lewis was initially schooled by private tutors before being sent to the
   Wynyard School in Watford, Hertfordshire, in 1908, the same year that
   his mother died of cancer. Lewis's brother had already enrolled there
   three years previously. The school was closed not long afterwards due
   to a lack of pupils—the headmaster Robert "Oldie" Capron was soon after
   committed to an insane asylum. Tellingly, in Surprised By Joy, Lewis
   would later nickname the school " Belsen".

   After Wynyard closed, Lewis attended Campbell College in the east of
   Belfast about a mile from his home, but he left after a few months due
   to respiratory problems. As a result of his illness, Lewis was sent to
   the health-resort town of Malvern, Worcestershire, where he attended
   the preparatory school Cherbourg House (called "Chartres" in Lewis's
   autobiography). It was during his time at Cherbourg at the age of 13
   that he abandoned his childhood Christian faith and became an atheist,
   becoming interested in mythology and the occult.

   In September 1913 Lewis enrolled at Malvern College, where he would
   remain until the following June. Later he would describe "Wyvern" (as
   he styled the school in his autobiography) as so singularly focused on
   increasing one's social status that he came to see the homosexual
   relationships between older and younger pupils as "the one oasis
   (though green only with weeds and moist only with fetid water) in the
   burning desert of competitive ambition. [...] A perversion was the only
   thing left through which something spontaneous and uncalculated could
   creep." (Lewis 1966, p. 107) After leaving Malvern he moved to study
   privately with William T. Kirkpatrick, his father's old tutor and
   former headmaster of Lurgan College.

   As a young boy, Lewis had a fascination with anthropomorphic animals,
   falling in love with Beatrix Potter's stories and often writing and
   illustrating his own animal stories. He and his brother Warnie together
   created the world of Boxen, inhabited and run by animals. Lewis loved
   to read, and as his father’s house was filled with books, he felt that
   finding a book he had not read was as easy as "finding a blade of
   grass."

   As a teenager, he was wonderstruck by the songs and legends of what he
   called Northernness. These legends intensified a longing he had within,
   a deep desire he would later call "joy". He also grew to love
   nature—the beauty of nature reminded him of the stories of the North,
   and the stories of the North reminded him of the beauties of nature.
   His writing in his teenage years moved away from the tales of Boxen,
   and he began to use different art forms ( epic poetry and opera) to try
   to capture his newfound interest in Norse mythology and the natural
   world. Studying with Kirkpatrick (“The Great Knock”, as Lewis
   afterwards called him) instilled in him a love of Greek literature and
   mythology, and sharpened his skills in debate and clear reasoning.

World War I

   Having won a scholarship to University College, Oxford in 1916, Lewis
   enlisted the following year in the British Army as World War I raged
   on, and was commissioned an officer in the third Battalion, Somerset
   Light Infantry. Lewis arrived at the front line in the Somme Valley in
   France on his nineteenth birthday, and experienced trench warfare.

   On 15 April 1917, Lewis was wounded during the Battle of Arras, and
   suffered some depression during his convalescence, due in part to
   missing his Irish home. On his recovery in October, he was assigned to
   duty in Andover, England. He was discharged in December 1918, and soon
   returned to his studies. Lewis received a First in Honour Moderations
   (Greek and Latin Literature) in 1920, a First in Greats (Philosophy and
   Ancient History) in 1922, and a First in English in 1923.

   While being trained for the army Lewis shared a room and became close
   friends with another cadet, "Paddy" Moore. The two had made a mutual
   pact that if either died during the war, the survivor would take care
   of both their families. Paddy was killed in action in 1918 and Lewis
   kept his promise. Paddy had earlier introduced Lewis to his mother,
   Jane King Moore, and a friendship very quickly sprang up between Lewis,
   who was eighteen when they met, and Jane, who was forty-five. The
   friendship with Mrs. Moore was particularly important to Lewis while he
   was recovering from his wounds in hospital, as his father refused to
   visit him.

Jane Moore

   Lewis was known to have had a close personal relationship with Jane
   Moore (1871/2-1951), although they never married. She was the mother of
   his friend, Paddy Moore (1898-1918). In keeping a promise to Paddy
   after his death in France during WWI, Lewis lived with and cared for
   Mrs. Moore until she was hospitalized in the late 1940s. He routinely
   introduced Moore as his "mother". Lewis, whose mother had died when he
   was a child and whose father was distant and demanding, came to draw
   affection from his friendship with Moore. "All I can or need to say is
   that my earlier hostility to the emotions was very fully and variously
   avenged", he wrote of her in his autobiography. He also said to his
   friend George Sayer: "She was generous and taught me to be generous,
   too." The nature of their relationship remains a mystery, though in his
   biography A. N. Wilson makes a good case for its being a sexual one.
   (Wilson, 58)

   In December 1917 Lewis wrote in a letter to his childhood friend Arthur
   Greeves that Jane and Greeves were "the two people who matter most to
   me in the world."

   In 1930, Lewis, Moore, her daughter Maureen and Warnie moved into "The
   Kilns", a house in Risinghurst, Headington. They all contributed
   financially to the purchase of the house, which passed to Lady Dunbar
   of Hempriggs (Moore's daughter) when Warren died in 1973.

   Moore suffered from dementia in her later years and was eventually
   moved into a nursing home, where she died in 1951. Lewis visited her
   every day in this home until her death.

"My Irish life"

   Plaque on a park-bench in Bangor, County Down
   Plaque on a park-bench in Bangor, County Down

   Lewis experienced a certain cultural shock upon first arriving in
   England: "No Englishman will be able to understand my first impressions
   of England," Lewis wrote in Surprised by Joy. "The strange English
   accents with which I was surrounded seemed like the voices of demons.
   But what was worst was the English landscape ... I have made up the
   quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England
   which took many years to heal."

   From boyhood Lewis immersed himself in Irish mythology and literature
   and expressed an interest in the Irish language, though he seems to
   have made little attempt to learn it. He developed a particular
   fondness for W. B. Yeats, in part because of Yeats’ use of Ireland’s
   Celtic heritage in poetry. In a letter to a friend Lewis wrote, "I have
   here discovered an author exactly after my own heart, whom I am sure
   you would delight in, W. B. Yeats. He writes plays and poems of rare
   spirit and beauty about our old Irish mythology." In 1921, Lewis had
   the opportunity to meet Yeats on two occasions, since Yeats had moved
   to Oxford.

   Surprised to find his English peers indifferent to Yeats and the Celtic
   Revival movement, Lewis wrote: "I am often surprised to find how
   utterly ignored Yeats is among the men I have met: perhaps his appeal
   is purely Irish—if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish." Early in
   his career, Lewis considered sending his work to the major Dublin
   publishers, writing: "If I do ever send my stuff to a publisher, I
   think I shall try Maunsel, those Dublin people, and so tack myself
   definitely onto the Irish school." After his conversion to
   Christianity, his interests gravitated towards Christian spirituality
   and away from pagan Celtic mysticism.

   Perhaps to help cope with his homesick feelings, Lewis occasionally
   expressed a somewhat tongue-in-cheek chauvinism toward the English.
   Describing an encounter with a fellow Irishman he wrote: "Like all
   Irish people who meet in England we ended by criticisms of the
   inevitable flippancy and dullness of the Anglo-Saxon race. After all,
   ami, there is no doubt that the Irish are the only people ... I would
   not gladly live or die among another folk."

   Due to his Oxford career Lewis did indeed live and die among another
   folk, and he often expressed regret at having to leave Ireland.
   Throughout his life, he sought out the company of his fellow Irish
   living in England and visited Northern Ireland regularly, even spending
   his honeymoon there. (The Old Inn 2007) He called this "my Irish life".

Conversion to Christianity

   Although raised in a church-going family in the Church of Ireland,
   Lewis became an atheist at the age of 13, and remained as such until he
   was 31 years old. His separation from Christianity began when he
   started to view his religion as a chore and as a duty; around this time
   he also gained an interest in the occult as his studies expanded to
   include such topics. Lewis quoted Lucretius as having one of the
   strongest arguments for atheism:

          Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam
          Naturam rerum; tanta stat praedita culpa (Lucretius)

          "Had God designed the world, it would not be
          A world so frail and faulty as we see."

   Though an atheist at the time, Lewis later described his young self (in
   Surprised by Joy) as being paradoxically "very angry with God for not
   existing".

   Lewis's interest in fantasy and mythology, seen as contradictory to his
   professed atheism, especially in relation to the works of George
   MacDonald, helped to lead him from atheism. In fact MacDonald's
   position as a Christian fantasy writer was very influential on Lewis.
   This can be seen particularly well through this passage in 'The Great
   Divorce,' chapter nine, when the semi-autobiographical main character
   meets MacDonald in Heaven:

          "...I tried, trembling, to tell this man all that his writings
          had done for me. I tried to tell how a certain frosty afternoon
          at Leatherhead Station when I had first bought a copy of
          Phantastes (being then about sixteen years old) had been to me
          what the first sight of Beatrice had been to Dante: Here begins
          the new life. I started to confess how long that Life had
          delayed in the region of imagination merely: how slowly and
          reluctantly I had come to admit that his Christendom had more
          than an accidental connexion with it, how hard I had tried not
          to see the true name of the quality which first met me in his
          books is Holiness."(Lewis 1946, pp. 66–67)

   Influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and friend J. R. R.
   Tolkien, and by the book The Everlasting Man by Roman Catholic convert
   G. K. Chesterton, he slowly rediscovered Christianity. He fought
   greatly up to the moment of his conversion noting, "I came into
   Christianity kicking and screaming." He described his last struggle in
   Surprised by Joy:

          "You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after
          night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from
          my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so
          earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had
          at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and
          admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that
          night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
          (Lewis 1966)

   After his conversion to theism in 1929, Lewis converted to Christianity
   in 1931. Following a long discussion and late-night walk with his close
   friends Tolkien and Hugo Dyson, he records making a specific commitment
   to Christian belief while on his way to the zoo with his brother. He
   became a member of the Church of England — somewhat to the
   disappointment of the devout Catholic Tolkien, who had hoped he would
   convert to Roman Catholicism. (Carpenter 2006)

   Although a committed Anglican, Lewis's beliefs were eclectic. In much
   of his writing he works to uphold an entirely orthodox theology (most
   notably in The Problem of Pain and Mere Christianity). In his later
   letters and essays, however, he proposes ideas such as salvation after
   death and purgatory (The Great Divorce) and mortal sin (The Screwtape
   Letters). It also should be remembered that the Calvinist view of
   eternal salvation is not a core belief in the Church of England, much
   less among all Protestants.

   Nevertheless, he considered himself an entirely orthodox Anglican to
   the end of his life, reflecting that he had initially attended church
   only to take communion and had been repelled by the hymns and the poor
   quality of the sermons. He later came to consider himself honoured by
   worshipping with men of faith who came in shabby clothes and work boots
   and who sang all the verses to all the hymns.

Joy Gresham

   In Lewis's later life, he corresponded with and later met Joy Davidman
   Gresham, an American writer of Jewish background and a convert from
   atheistic communism to Christianity. She was separated from her husband
   and came to England with her two sons, David and Douglas Gresham. Lewis
   at first regarded her as an agreeable intellectual companion and
   personal friend, and it was at least overtly on this level that he
   agreed to enter into a civil marriage contract with her so that she
   could continue to live in the UK. Lewis's brother Warnie wrote: "For
   Jack the attraction was at first undoubtedly intellectual. Joy was the
   only woman whom he had met ... who had a brain which matched his own in
   suppleness, in width of interest, and in analytical grasp, and above
   all in humour and a sense of fun." (Haven 2006) However, after
   complaining of a painful hip, she was diagnosed with terminal bone
   cancer, and the relationship developed to the point that they sought a
   Christian marriage. Since she was divorced, this was not
   straightforward in the Church of England at the time, but a friend, the
   Rev. Peter Bide, performed the ceremony at Joy's hospital bed in 1956.

   Joy's cancer soon went into a remarkable yet brief remission, and the
   couple lived as a family (together with Warren Lewis) until her
   eventual relapse and death in 1960. The year she died, the couple took
   a brief holiday in Greece and the Aegean in 1960; Lewis was fond of
   walking but not of travel, and this marked his only crossing of the
   English Channel after 1918. Lewis’s book A Grief Observed describes his
   experience of bereavement in such a raw and personal fashion that Lewis
   originally released it under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk to keep readers
   from associating the book with him. However, so many friends
   recommended the book to Lewis as a method for dealing with his own
   grief that he made his authorship public.

   Lewis continued to raise Joy's two sons after her death. Douglas
   Gresham is an active Christian and remains involved in the affairs of
   the Lewis estate, though David Gresham returned to his mother's
   original Jewish faith. The two brothers are now estranged. (Neven 2001)

Illness and death

   In early June 1961, Lewis began experiencing medical problems and was
   diagnosed with inflammation of the kidneys which resulted in blood
   poisoning. His illness caused him to miss the autumn term at Cambridge,
   though his health gradually began improving in 1962 and he returned
   that April. Lewis's health continued to improve, and according to his
   friend George Sayer, Lewis was fully himself by the spring of 1963.
   However, on July 15, 1963 he fell ill and was admitted to hospital. The
   next day at 5:00 pm, Lewis suffered a heart attack and lapsed into a
   coma, unexpectedly awaking the following day at 2:00 pm. After he was
   discharged from hospital, Lewis returned to the Kilns though he was too
   ill to return to work. As a result, he resigned from his post at
   Cambridge in August. Lewis's condition continued to decline and in
   mid-November, he was diagnosed with end stage renal failure. On
   November 22, 1963, Lewis collapsed in his bedroom at 5:30 pm and died a
   few minutes later, exactly one week before what would have been his
   65th birthday. He is buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church,
   Headington, Oxford. (Friends of Holy Trinity Church)

   Media coverage of his death was overshadowed by news of the
   assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on the same
   day, as did the death of Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World. This
   coincidence was the inspiration for Peter Kreeft's book Between Heaven
   and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S.
   Lewis, & Aldous Huxley. (Kreeft 1982)

   C. S. Lewis is commemorated on 22 November in the Anglican church
   calendar.

Career

The scholar

   Magdalen College
   Magdalen College

   Lewis taught as a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, for nearly thirty
   years, from 1925 to 1954, and later was the first Professor of Medieval
   and Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge and a fellow
   of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Using this position, he argued that
   there was no such thing as an English Renaissance. Much of his
   scholarly work concentrated on the later Middle Ages, especially its
   use of allegory. His The Allegory of Love (1936) helped reinvigorate
   the serious study of late medieval narratives like the Roman de la
   Rose. Lewis wrote several prefaces to old works of literature and
   poetry, like Layamon's Brut. His preface to John Milton’s poem Paradise
   Lost is still one of the most important criticisms of that work. His
   last academic work, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval
   and Renaissance Literature (1964), is a summary of the medieval world
   view, the "discarded image" of the cosmos in his title.

   Lewis was a prolific writer, and his circle of literary friends became
   an informal discussion society known as the " Inklings", including J.
   R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and his brother Warnie
   Lewis. At Oxford he was the tutor of, among many other undergraduates,
   poet John Betjeman, critic Kenneth Tynan, mystic Bede Griffiths, and
   Sufi scholar Martin Lings. Curiously, the religious and conservative
   Betjeman detested Lewis, whereas the anti-Establishment Tynan retained
   a life-long admiration for him. (Tonkin 2005)

   Of J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis writes in Surprised by Joy:

     "When I began teaching for the English Faculty, I made two other
     friends, both Christians (these queer people seemed now to pop up on
     every side) who were later to give me much help in getting over the
     last stile. They were H.V.V. Dyson ... and J.R.R. Tolkien.
     Friendship with the latter marked the breakdown of two old
     prejudices. At my first coming into the world I had been
     (implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming
     into the English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a philologist.
     Tolkien was both." (Lewis 1966, pp. 173)

The author

   In addition to his scholarly work, Lewis wrote a number of popular
   novels, including his science fiction Space Trilogy and his fantasy
   Narnia books, most dealing implicitly with Christian themes such as
   sin, the Fall, and redemption.

The Pilgrim's Regress

   His first novel after becoming a Christian was The Pilgrim's Regress,
   his take on John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress which depicted his own
   experience with Christianity. The book was critically panned at the
   time, particularly for its esoteric nature—as to read it requires a
   close familiarity with classical sources.

   In a footnote of the biography D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of
   Faith 1939–1981 by Iain Murray, Murray notes the following: "Lewis is
   said to have valued ML-J's appreciation and encouragement when the
   early edition of his Pilgrim's Regress was not selling well. Vincent
   Lloyd-Jones and Lewis knew each other well, being contemporaries at
   Oxford. ML-J met the author again and they had a long conversation when
   they found both themselves on the same boat to Ireland in 1953. On the
   later occasion, to the question, 'When are you going to write another
   book?', Lewis replied, 'When I understand the meaning of prayer'."
   (Murray 1990)

Space Trilogy

   His Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy novels (also called the Cosmic
   Trilogy) dealt with what Lewis saw as the then-current dehumanizing
   trends in modern science fiction. The first book, Out of the Silent
   Planet, was apparently written following a conversation with his friend
   J. R. R. Tolkien about these trends; Lewis agreed to write a "space
   travel" story and Tolkien a "time travel" one. Tolkien’s story, " The
   Lost Road", a tale connecting his Middle-earth mythology and the modern
   world, was never completed. Lewis’s character of Ransom is based in
   part on Tolkien, a fact that Tolkien himself alludes to in his Letters
   of J. R. R. Tolkien. The last novel in the Trilogy also contains
   numerous references to Tolkien's fictional universe, and can be seen
   partially as a homage to Tolkien. The minor character Jules, from That
   Hideous Strength, is an obvious caricature of H. G. Wells. Many of the
   ideas presented in the books, particularly in That Hideous Strength,
   are dramatizations of arguments made more formally in Lewis’s The
   Abolition of Man.

   Another science fiction novel, The Dark Tower, was begun, but remained
   unfinished; it is not clear whether it was intended as part of the same
   series as the completed novels. The manuscript was eventually published
   in 1977, though controversy arose about its authenticity.

The Chronicles of Narnia

   The Mountains of Mourne
   The Mountains of Mourne

   The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for
   children and is considered a classic of children's literature. Written
   between 1949 and 1954 and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, the series is
   Lewis's most popular work having sold over 100 million copies in 41
   languages (Kelly 2006)(Guthmann 2005). It has been adapted several
   times, complete or in part, for radio, television, stage, and cinema.
   The series has been published in several different orders, and the
   preferred reading order for the series is often debated among fans;
   though Douglas Gresham has stated that Lewis preferred that they be
   read in "Narnian chronology", not the order in which they were
   published. (Drennan 1999)

   The books contain many allusions to Christian ideas which are easily
   accessible to younger readers; however, the books are not weighty, and
   can be read for their adventure, colour and richness of ideas alone.
   Because of this, they have become favourites of children and adults,
   Christians and non-Christians. In addition to Christian themes, Lewis
   also borrows characters from Greek and Roman mythology as well as
   traditional British and Irish fairy tales. Lewis reportedly based his
   depiction of Narnia on the geography and scenery of the Mourne
   Mountains and "that part of Rostrevor which overlooks Carlingford
   Lough". (Guardian Unlimited 2005) Lewis cited George MacDonald's
   Christian fairy tales as an influence in writing the series.

   The Chronicles of Narnia present the adventures of children who play
   central roles in the unfolding history of the fictional realm of
   Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good battles
   evil. In the majority of the books, children from our world find
   themselves transported to Narnia by a magical portal. Once there, they
   are quickly involved in setting some wrong to right with the help of
   the lion Aslan who is the central character of the series.

Other works

   Lewis wrote a number of works on Heaven and Hell. One of these, The
   Great Divorce, is a short novella. A few residents of Hell take a bus
   ride to Heaven, where they are met by people they had known on earth.
   The proposition is that they can stay (in which case they can call the
   place where they had come from Purgatory, not Hell): but many find it
   not to their taste. The title is a reference to William Blake's The
   Marriage of Heaven and Hell, a concept that Lewis found a "disastrous
   error". (Lewis 1946, pp. vii) This work deliberately echoes two other
   more famous works with a similar theme: the Divine Comedy of Dante
   Aligheri, and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Another short work, The
   Screwtape Letters, consists of letters of advice from a senior demon,
   Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood, on the best ways to tempt a
   particular human and secure his damnation. Lewis’s last novel was Till
   We Have Faces — many believe (as he did) that it is his most mature and
   masterful work of fiction, but it was never a popular success. It is a
   retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the unusual perspective
   of Psyche's sister. It is deeply concerned with religious ideas, but
   the setting is entirely pagan, and the connections with specific
   Christian beliefs are left implicit.

   Before Lewis’s conversion to Christianity, he published two books:
   Spirits in Bondage, a collection of poems, and Dymer, a single
   narrative poem. Both were published under the pen name Clive Hamilton.

   Lewis penned A Grief Observed after the death of his wife (see Joy
   Gresham above).

The Christian apologist

   In addition to his career as an English professor and an author of
   fiction, Lewis is regarded by many as one of the most influential
   Christian apologists of his time; Mere Christianity was voted best book
   of the twentieth century by Christianity Today magazine in 2000. Lewis
   was very much interested in presenting a reasonable case for the truth
   of Christianity. Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and Miracles
   were all concerned, to one degree or another, with refuting popular
   objections to Christianity. He also became known as a popular lecturer
   and broadcaster, and some of his writing (including much of Mere
   Christianity) originated as scripts for radio talks or lectures. (Lewis
   1952, pp. v)

   Due to Lewis's approach to religious belief as a skeptic, and his
   following conversion by the evidence, he has become popularly known as
   "The Apostle to the Skeptics." Consequently, his books on Christianity
   examine common difficulties in accepting Christianity, such as "How
   could a good God allow pain to exist in the world?", which he examined
   in detail in The Problem of Pain.

   Lewis also wrote an autobiography entitled Surprised by Joy, which
   places special emphasis on his own conversion. (It was written before
   he met his wife, Joy Gresham; the title of the book came from the first
   line of a poem by William Wordsworth.) His essays and public speeches
   on Christian belief, many of which were collected in God in the Dock
   and The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, remain popular today.

   His most famous works, the Chronicles of Narnia, contain many strong
   Christian messages and are often considered allegory. Lewis, an expert
   on the subject of allegory, maintained that the books were not
   allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them
   "suppositional". As Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs. Hook in December
   of 1958:

          "If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in
          which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress]
          represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In
          reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to
          the question, 'What might Christ become like, if there really
          were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die
          and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?'
          This is not allegory at all." (Martindale & Root 1990)

Trilemma

   In the book Mere Christianity, Lewis famously criticized the idea that
   Jesus was merely a human being, albeit a great moral teacher:

          "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish
          thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus
          as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be
          God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely
          a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a
          great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level
          with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be
          the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man
          was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something
          worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and
          kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him
          Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense
          about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open
          to us. He did not intend to." (Lewis 1952, pp. 43)

   According to the argument, most people are willing to accept Jesus
   Christ as a great moral teacher, but the Gospels record that Jesus made
   many claims to divinity, either explicitly — ("I and the father are
   one." John 10:30; when asked by the High priest whether he was the Son
   of God, Jesus replied "It is as you said" Matthew 26:64) — or
   implicitly, by assuming authority only God could have ("the Son of Man
   has authority on earth to forgive sins" Matthew 9:6). Lewis said there
   are three options:
    1. Jesus was telling falsehoods and knew it, and so he was a liar.
    2. Jesus was telling falsehoods but believed he was telling the truth,
       and so he was insane.
    3. Jesus was telling the truth, and so he was divine.

   Lewis’s argument was later expanded by the Christian apologist Josh
   McDowell (in his book More Than a Carpenter). (McDowell 2001) The term
   " trilemma" (which Lewis did not use) is often used to refer to this
   argument. Although widely repeated in Christian apologetic literature,
   it has been largely ignored by professional theologians and biblical
   scholars.

   Lewis's trilemma appeared at a time when secular scholars, such as
   David Friedrich Strauss, had portrayed Jesus' miracles and resurrection
   as myths. The concept that Jesus was not God but a wise man had gained
   ground in academic circles. The trilemma opposes the idea that Jesus
   was not divine, without relying on miracles for proof. In accepting the
   premise that Jesus had claimed divinity, he contradicted a viewpoint,
   popularized by H. G. Wells in his Outline of History, that Jesus had
   made no such claim.

Legacy

   A statue of C.S. Lewis in Belfast, Northern Ireland
   A statue of C.S. Lewis in Belfast, Northern Ireland

   Lewis continues to attract a wide readership. Readers of his fiction
   are often unaware of what Lewis considered the Christian themes of the
   works. His Christian apologetics are read and quoted by followers of a
   wide range of religious denominations, including Roman Catholics and
   Mormons. (Pratt 1998)

   Lewis has been the subject of various biographies, a few of which were
   were written by some of his close friends, such as Roger Lancelyn Green
   and George Sayer); at least one play attributed to his life; and a 1993
   film, Shadowlands, based on an original stage and television play. The
   film fictionalises his relationship with Joy Gresham.

   Many books have been inspired by Lewis, including A Severe Mercy by his
   correspondent Sheldon Vanauken. The Chronicles of Narnia have been
   particularly influential. Modern children's literature such as Daniel
   Handler's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl,
   Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter
   have been more or less influenced by Lewis's series.(Hilliard 2005)
   Pullman, a critic of Lewis, considers him a negative influence.(Ezard
   2002) Authors of adult fantasy literature such as Tim Powers have also
   testified to being influenced by Lewis's work.

   Most of Lewis’s posthumous work has been edited by his literary
   executor, Walter Hooper. An independent Lewis scholar, the late Kathryn
   Lindskoog, argued that Hooper's scholarship is not reliable and that he
   has made false statements and attributed forged works to Lewis.
   (Lindskoog 2001)

   According to Lindskoog's research, after Lewis's death in 1963, Hooper
   began portraying himself as having been Lewis's "companion secretary."
   Although Hooper's only association with Lewis was between early June
   and late August of 1963, his published introductions to Lewis's works
   give the impression he knew Lewis for many years and had a very close
   relationship with him. Lindskoog's research and arguments are laid out
   in Sleuthing C.S. Lewis: More Light in the Shadowlands.

   A bronze statue of Lewis looking into a wardrobe stands in Belfast's
   Holywood Arches in front of the Holywood Road Library. (BBC News 2004)

   Lewis was strongly opposed to the creation of live-action versions of
   his works due to the technology at the time. His major concern was that
   the anthropomorphic animal characters "when taken out of narrative into
   actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare". This was
   said in the context of the 1950s, when technology would not allow the
   special effects required to make a coherent, robust film version of
   Narnia. Whether or not Lewis would be happy with the CGI creations of
   The Chronicles of Narnia film series, naturally, cannot be known.

   The song "The Earth Will Shake" performed by Thrice is based on one of
   his poems, and the band Sixpence None the Richer are named after a
   passage in Mere Christianity. Caedmon's Call also wrote a song based on
   The Great Divorce called "The High Countries". Christian alternative
   rock band Poor Old Lu are so named because of a sentence in The Lion,
   The Witch and The Wardrobe.

   The movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was based on his first
   installment in the Narnia series of the same name, and movies based on
   two other books he wrote, Prince Caspian and The Screwtape Letters are
   both to be released sometime in 2008.

   Several C. S. Lewis Societies exist around the world, including one
   which was founded in Oxford in 1982 (see their website) to discuss
   papers on the life and works of Lewis and the other Inklings, and
   generally appreciate all things Lewisian. His name is also used by a
   variety of Christian organizations, often with a concern for
   maintaining conservative Christian values in education or literary
   studies.

Criticism

   Despite its mass appeal, Lewis's work is not without its critics. The
   Chronicles of Narnia have variously been depicted as featuring
   religious propaganda, misogyny, racism, and emotional sadism.(BBC News
   2005)

   Criticism of Lewis's work is not limited to his Narnia books. In Losing
   Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist, former preacher turned
   atheist activist Dan Barker discusses Mere Christianity and takes issue
   with Lewis's belief in absolute morality, arguing "any morality which
   is based on an unyielding structure above and beyond humanity is
   dangerous to human beings. History is filled with examples of what
   religious 'morality' has done to worsen our lot".(Barker 1992)

   Lewis's Christian apologetics have also been extensively criticised by
   John Beversluis in C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion
   (1985, rev. 2007) and by S. T. Joshi in God's Defenders: What They
   Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003).

Books and Articles: Secondary Works

     * John Beversluis, C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion.
       Eerdmans, 1985. ISBN 0-8028-0046-7
     * Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien,
       Charles Williams and their friends. George Allen & Unwin, 1978.
       ISBN 0-04-809011-5
     * Joe R. Christopher & Joan K. Ostling, C. S. Lewis: An Annotated
       Checklist of Writings about him and his Works. Kent State
       University Press, n.d. (1972). ISBN 0-87338-138-6
     * James Como, Branches to Heaven: The Geniuses of C. S. Lewis,
       Spence, 1998.
     * James Como, Remembering C. S. Lewis (3rd ed. of C. S. Lewis at the
       Breakfast Table). Ignatius, 2006
     * Michael Coren, The Man Who Created Narnia: The Story of C.S. Lewis.
       Eerdmans Pub Co, Reprint edition 1996. ISBN 0-8028-3822-7
     * Colin Duriez and David Porter, The Inklings Handbook: The Lives,
       Thought and Writings of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles
       Williams, Owen Barfield, and Their Friends. 2001, ISBN
       1-902694-13-9
     * Colin Duriez, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship.
       Paulist Press, 2003. ISBN 1-58768-026-2
     * Bruce L. Edwards, Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual World of Narnia.
       Tyndale. 2005. ISBN 1414303815
     * Bruce L. Edwards, Further Up and Further In: Understanding C. S.
       Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Broadman and Holman,
       2005. ISBN 0805440704
     * Bruce L. Edwards, General Editor, C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and
       Legacy. 4 Vol. Praeger Perspectives, 2007. ISBN 0275991164
     * Bruce L. Edwards, Editor. The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C.
       S. Lewis as Reader, Critic, and Imaginative Writer. The Popular
       Press, 1988. ISBN 0879724072
     * Bruce L. Edwards, A Rhetoric of Reading: C. S. Lewis's Defense of
       Western Literacy. Centre for the Study of Chrfistian Values in
       Literature, 1986. ISBN 0939555018
     * Alastair Fowler, 'C.S. Lewis: Supervisor', Yale Review, Vol. 91,
       No. 4 (October 2003).
     * Jocelyn Gibb (ed.), Light on C. S. Lewis. Geoffrey Bles, 1965 &
       Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1976. ISBN 0-15-652000-1
     * Douglas Gilbert & Clyde Kilby, C.S. Lewis: Images of His World.
       Eerdmans, 1973 & 2005. ISBN 0-8028-2800-0
     * Diana Pavlac Glyer The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R.
       Tolkien as Writers in Community. Kent State University Press. Kent
       Ohio. 2007. ISBN 978-0-87338-890-0
     * David Graham (ed.), We Remember C.S. Lewis. Broadman & Holman
       Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0-8054-2299-4
     * Roger Lancelyn Green & Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Biography.
       Fully revised & expanded edition. HarperCollins, 2002. ISBN
       0-00-628164-8
     * Douglas Gresham, Jack's Life: A Memory of C.S. Lewis. Broadman &
       Holman Publishers, 2005. ISBN 0-8054-3246-9
     * Douglas Gresham, Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and
       C.S. Lewis. HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. ISBN 0-06-063447-2
     * William Griffin, C.S. Lewis: The Authentic Voice. (Formerly C.S.
       Lewis: A Dramatic Life) Lion, 2005. ISBN 0-7459-5208-9
     * Joel D. Heck, Irrigating Deserts: C. S. Lewis on Education.
       Concordia Publishing House, 2006. ISBN 0-7586-0044-5
     * David Hein, "A Note on C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters." The
       Anglican Digest 49.2 (Easter 2007): 55-58. Argues that Lewis's
       portrayal of the activity of the Devil was influenced by
       contemporary events--in particular, by the threat of a Nazi
       invasion of Britain in 1940.
     * David Hein and Edward Hugh Henderson, eds., Captured by the
       Crucified: The Practical Theology of Austin Farrer. New York and
       London: T & T Clark / Continuum, 2004. A study of Lewis's close
       friend the theologian Austin Farrer, this book also contains
       material on Farrer's circle, "the Oxford Christians," including C.
       S. Lewis.
     * Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide. HarperCollins,
       1996. ISBN 0-00-627800-0
     * Walter Hooper, Through Joy and Beyond: A Pictorial Biography of C.
       S. Lewis. Macmillan, 1982. ISBN 0-02-553670-2
     * Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis.
       HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. ISBN 0-06-076690-5
     * Carolyn Keefe, C.S. Lewis: Speaker & Teacher. Zondervan, 1979. ISBN
       0-310-26781-1
     * Clyde S. Kilby, The Christian World of C. S. Lewis. Eerdmans, 1964,
       1995. ISBN 0-8028-0871-9
     * W.H. Lewis (ed), Letters of C.S. Lewis. Geoffrey Bles, 1966. ISBN
       0-00-242457-6
     * Kathryn Lindskoog, Light in the Shadowlands: Protecting the Real C.
       S. Lewis. Multnomah Pub., 1994. ISBN 0-88070-695-3
     * Susan Lowenberg, C. S. Lewis: A Reference Guide 1972–1988. Hall &
       Co., 1993. ISBN 0-8161-1846-9
     * Wayne Mardindale & Jerry Root, The Quotable Lewis. Tyndale House
       Publishers, 1990. ISBN 0-8423-5115-9
     * Markus Mühling, "A Theological Journey into Narnia. An Analysis of
       the Message beneath the Text", Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen
       2005, ISBN 3-525-60423-8
     * Joseph Pearce, C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church. Ignatius Press,
       2003. ISBN 0-89870-979-2
     * Thomas C. Peters, Simply C.S. Lewis. A Beginner's Guide to His Life
       and Works. Kingsway Publications, 1998. ISBN 0-85476-762-2
     * Justin Phillips, C.S. Lewis at the BBC: Messages of Hope in the
       Darkness of War. Marshall Pickering, 2003. ISBN 0-00-710437-5
     * Victor Reppert, C.S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the
       Argument from Reason. InterVarsity Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8308-2732-3
     * George Sayer, Jack: C. S. Lewis and His Times. Macmillan, 1988.
       ISBN 0-333-43362-9
     * Peter J. Schakel, Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis:
       Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds. University of Missouri
       Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8262-1407-X
     * Peter J. Schakel. Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis: A Study of
       "Till We Have Faces." Available online. Eerdmans, 1984. ISBN
       0-8028-1998-2
     * Peter J. Schakel, ed. The Longing for a Form: Essays on the Fiction
       of C. S. Lewis. Kent State University Press, 1977. ISBN
       0-87338-204-8
     * Peter J. Schakel and Charles A. Huttar, ed. Word and Story in C. S.
       Lewis. University of Missouri Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8262-0760-X
     * Stephen Schofield. In Search of C.S. Lewis. Bridge Logos Pub. 1983.
       ISBN 0-88270-544-X
     * Jeffrey D. Schultz and John G. West, Jr. (eds.), The C.S. Lewis
       Readers' Encyclopedia. Zondervan Publishing House, 1998. ISBN
       0-310-21538-2
     * G. B. Tennyson (ed.), Owen Barfield on C.S. Lewis. Wesleyan
       University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8195-5233-X.
     * Richard J. Wagner. C.S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies. For Dummies,
       2005. ISBN 0-7645-8381-6
     * Andrew Walker, Patrick James (ed.), Rumours of Heaven: Essays in
       Celebration of C.S. Lewis, Guildford: Eagle, 1998, ISBN 0863472508
     * Chad Walsh, C. S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics. Macmillan, 1949.
     * Chad Walsh, The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis. Harcourt Brace
       Jovanovich, 1979. ISBN 0-15-652785-5.
     * George Watson (ed.), Critical Essays on C. S. Lewis. Scolar Press,
       1992. ISBN 0-85967-853-9
     * Michael White, C.S. Lewis: The Boy Who Chronicled Narnia. Abacus,
       2005. ISBN 0-349-11625-3
     * Erik J. Wielenberg, God and the Reach of Reason. Cambridge
       University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-70710-7
     * A. N. Wilson, C. S. Lewis: A Biography. W. W. Norton, 1990. ISBN
       0-393-32340-4

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