Remembering C.S. Lewis

Today, on the 50^th anniversary of his death, C.S. Lewis will be honored with a memorial stone in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. (I believe it’s still possible to donate to this cause if you wish to help with this.) Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia, said of this event:

To be memorialized in Poets’ Corner means you’ve received national recognition for your contribution to the arts. Westminster Abbey has been at the heart of religious and civic life in England for over a thousand years and is known as “the coronation church”. William the Conqueror was crowned there on Christmas Day 1066. Our present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, was crowned there in 1953. So, for C.S. Lewis to be memorialized in the Abbey is an indication of the respect in which he is held and an acknowledgement of his enduring place in the world of English letters.

It’s rare that I hear an apologist tell the story of how he or she became a Christian and that story doesn’t include reading Mere Christianity. That’s exactly how my story began, as well. Lewis’s impact on this world from just this one book is immeasurable. And he wrote many more.

Chances are, you’ve already read Lewis’s more popular works: Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and The Abolition of Man, so I wanted to recommend three more of his books that you may not have even heard of.

• Perelandra: This is the second book in Lewis’s Space Trilogy. If you read all three of these books, you’ll get much of Lewis’s philosophy, along with his warnings about the dangerous trajectory of our culture, in the form of a novel (which turned out to be quite prophetic). But you can also read this one book on it’s own. It’s the story of the devil’s attempt to bring about the fall of the first inhabitants of a planet, and Lewis’s skill in capturing the essence of evil in one of the characters continues to astound me. (I also suspect this book influenced the last season of Lost, but that’s a story for another time.)

• Till We Have Faces: This is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. What can I say about this book that would do it justice? Lewis knew how to write novels. This one is about selfish love, suffering, and the transforming love of God.

• The Pilgrim’s Regress: Lewis tells the story of a man’s spiritual journey through the world’s philosophies to Christianity in the allegorical style of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He does this brilliantly, as always.

Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

Comments

[Jojo Ruba]

I read A Grief Observed and the Problem of Pain when my grandparents died. That didn't just give me hope but made me realize I'm not the only one going through this. He helped me see that there are others who feel the same and need to know of that hope.

[Amy]

I think Lewis would be shocked to know how many people's lives he has affected.

[C]

Till we have faces is a favorite, and everytime I read it new meaning is found.

[Kirstine]

Well, I suppose now that I've long ago read 'Till We Have Faces, and the first two in the Space Trilogy, time to get on to Mere Christianity. By the way, I'm really enjoying Bible Gateway's C.S. Lewis Daily emails; they have tantalized my reading taste buds with bits of books yet unread.

[Sam]

I love the story of Cupid and Psyche, though I've never read Lewis' version. I named one of my cats after Psyche.

[Goat Head 5]

I found it very amusing that Rob Bell was vilified for writing "Love Wins", which was just a rambling, poorly written restatement of "The Great Divorce".

Yet Lewis gets a pass. No "Farewell, C.S. Lewis" from Piper.

Goat Head 5

[Son of Adam]

GH5:

In what way is "love wins" a restatement of "the great divorce"?

[Goat Head 5]

Son of Adam,

Have you read both? Both would suggest that souls have a choice after death. Perhaps many opportunities for a choice.

Goat Head 5

[WisdomLover]

GH5-

Lewis explicitly says he is not arguing that souls get a second chance after death. His point was that souls, by and large, would make the same choice even if given a second chance after death.

Lewis 'gets a pass' because he never said what Rob Bell said and actually says the exact opposite. In fact, if you wanted to give The Great Divorce another title, it could be:

Love Doesn't Always Win, Sometimes it Doesn't Even Tie
(Or Why the Marriage of Heaven and Hell Will End in the Great Divorce)

Rob Bell does not get a pass because he did say what Rob Bell said.

[WisdomLover]

From Lewis' Intro to The Great Divorce:

I beg readers to remember that this is a fantasy. It has of course-or I intended it to have-a moral. But the transmortal conditions are solely an imaginative supposal: they are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually await us. The last thing I wish is to arouse factual curiosity about the details of the after-world.

[scbrownlhrm]

Narrowing down C.S. Lewis quotes to one favorite is, well, to hard to do....

"Christians, then, believe that an evil power has made himself for the present the Prince of this World. And, of course, that raises problems. Is this state of affairs in accordance with God's will or not? If it is, He is a strange God, you will say: and if it is not, how can anything happen contrary to the will of a being with absolute power?"

"But anyone who has been in authority knows how a thing can be in accordance with your will in one way and not in another. It may be quite sensible for a mother to say to the children, "I'm not going to go and make you tidy the schoolroom every night. You've got to learn to keep it tidy on your own." Then she goes up one night and finds the Teddy bear and the ink and the French Grammar all lying in the grate. That is against her will. She would prefer the children to be tidy. But on the other hand, it is her will which has left the children free to be untidy. The same thing arises in any regiment, or trade union, or school. You make a thing voluntary and then half the people do not do it. That is not what you willed, but your will made it possible."

"Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on. If God thinks this state of war in the universe is a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings --- then we make take it is worth paying." (C.S. Lewis)

[scbrownlhrm]

"Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I'm dying of thirst," said Jill.

"Then drink," said the Lion.
"May I - could I - would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.

The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

"Will you promise not to - do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

"Do you eat girls?" she said. "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.

"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then." "There is no other stream," said the Lion.

(C.S. Lewis)

[Goat Head 5]

Wisdomlover,

Have you read "Love Wins" by Rob Bell?

Goat Head 5

[WisdomLover]

Yes.

I read it.

It was not hard.

But easy.

Each page had five words.

Or so.

[John]

CN* made him look to be a fool today on the web site. One would have thought he was a tool. But CN* is good about trashing anything Christian anyway.