C. S. Lewis wrote a shelf full of books on theology and literary criticism, but he is probably best known for a series of children’s books. This is not surprising. The general reading audience is more readily attracted to fiction than to theology and literary treatises.
His seven-volume children’s fantasy series, The Narnia Chronicles, begins with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, featuring four children who enter the land of Narnia through a wardrobe. They encounter talking animals, including a lion named Aslan, who is generally understood to be a Christ figure.
Born in Belfast, Ireland, on this date, November 29, 1898, Lewis was a child of the church, who turned to atheism in his youth and then---with an intermediate stop in pantheism---found his way back to faith in Jesus Christ in his early 30s.
Clive Staples “Jack” Lewis studied at Britain’s Oxford University and taught there for 29 years. In the final years of his life, he taught at Cambridge.
On the faculty at Oxford, he was closely associated with a group of scholars, including J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of another fantasy classic, The Lord of the Rings. This group influenced Lewis to come back to Christian faith.
Inspired by the writing we looked at yesterday, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim's Progress, Lewis wrote The Pilgrim's Regress. He describes a young man reared as a Christian who went in search of something better but, in time, arrived at a point that was both identical with and different from, where he started.
Lewis published scholarly theological and philosophic works, but he also directed writings and lectures to the layman: During World War II, he delivered several series of radio talks which eventually were published in the widely-read Mere Christianity, presenting the basic elements of faith. Other books, including The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters, first ran serially in popular publications for general audiences.
Many Americans who had never read Lewis became acquainted with him through the stage play and movie, Shadowlands, which focuses on his marriage late in life to an American Jewish woman, Joy Davidman, who died of cancer after they had been married only four years. His book, A Grief Observed, is his moving remembrance of how he coped with her death.
Lewis’s intellectual and emotional struggle led him to a deeper Christian faith. In turn, he wanted to point others to faith in Christ. We give thanks in this season of thanks for his testimony of faith.
A Verse for Today
“Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am . . .” (Acts 26:28-29 KJV).
Each day through New Year’s Day, January 1, 2013, daily inspirational thoughts will appear on this website, in keeping with Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. These are from my book, Reflections for the Festive Seasons. © 2002. All rights reserved.
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