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C.S. Lewis in the 21st century Greg Clarke
These two works represent only a fraction of what C.S. Lewis offered the world. During the war years, he wrote The Screwtape Letters, broadcast three series of radio talks, which were later published as Mere Christianity, wrote his theologically speculative science fiction trilogy, and published a number of significant books of popular philosophy/theology including The Problem of Pain, The Abolition of Man and The Great Divorce. His impact on mid-century Britain, and extending to America over time, was remarkable. But how does Lewis travel into the 21st century? Which of his works endure, and which are getting that 'period piece' feel about them? Is he still worth reading? Lewis's reputation among many evangelicals in America is stronger than ever. This is partly due to the enormous work of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, where a major Lewis library and scholarly industry is maintained. In recent years, they have been responsible for dozens of new volumes on Lewis, examining his work widely and usually highlighting his virtues as an apologist, a popular theologian and a brilliant fantasy writer. Outside of US evangelicalism, there has been greater criticism. Biographer A.N. Wilson published a major biography of Lewis that was rather critical and 'warts 'n' all'. Feminist critics got to work on him, attacking the boy's club nature of the output of the Oxford don. And many critics have examined Lewis's Luddite tendencies, seeing in them a rejection of contemporary life and a mind fit only to live in a bygone age. Lewis famously argued that 19th century literature ought not to be on his English courses because it was far too recent.
In his essays, Lewis is best of all at pointing out the ways in which human hearts and minds deceive themselves—and this, of course, he does brilliantly in reverse in The Screwtape Letters. This ability to say to his readers ‘Look how silly you are being’ is coupled with what A. N. Wilson calls Lewis's ‘By Gum!’ approach to persuasion. He reveals the wonder of Christian doctrine and life, moving the reader to humble him- or herself before the Lord. Many people say that they like the 'tightness' of Lewis's mind − his fierce logic, rhetorical power and British commonsense. But I respond to the messiness of his mind − his imaginative attempts to wrestle with metaphysics and the nature of the life to come, his genuine struggles with grief, his ability to argue himself into a corner and then out of it again, and his Irish stubbornness of heart. It is dangerous to try to make Lewis too evangelical, because the evidence just doesn't add up. But it is also dangerous to dismiss him as an outmoded high-churchman, because he keeps championing the mere evangel, the Word himself. The biographical path into Lewis is a very valuable one, but the autobiographical one is better. It is a great experience to travel with Lewis in Surprised by Joy as he argues his way from atheism to theism (‘the most dejected and reluctant convert in the whole of England’), and finally to Christ, which he described as the experience of finally realising that one is awake. There is this constant tension in Lewis between apprehending and understanding the world, with all of our fine and subtle tools of reason and intuition, and simply waking up to find ourselves in the midst of it, in awe or shock or wonder at it all. Christianity ‘wakes us up to reality’, says Lewis, and his ability to act as a wake-up call, our crowing rooster, makes him well worth reading still. He writes, ‘I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.’ Dr Greg Clarke Director of the Centre for Public Christianity and Macquarie Christian Studies Institute Click here for a print friendly version of this page |
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