Any C.S. Lewis fans out there?

[Fashina86]

ooo me! Call on Me! I LOVE HIS WORKS AND HAVE READ THEM ALL NUMBEROUS TIMES!

 

[Promotor_Fidei]

?? Lewis wasn’t Catholic–he was Church of England.

Perhaps. But Lewis believed in purgatory. He was solidly against birth-control, abortion, and women’s ordination. He was close to Catholic thought in lots of other ways. In fact, his assistant, Walter Hooper, an Anglican minister, converted to Catholicism some years back.

ignatius.com/PressRelease/CSLewisChurchPressRelSept2003.pdf

There’s not the remotest chance that Lewis would be Anglican today, given the current state of the Anglican Church.

 

[MattG]

RNRobert:

While Lewis certainly didn’t act puritanical- he was a sacramentalist, and he enjoyed a good smoke and drink (in moderation of course)- He was raised in an Irish Protestant household, and this may have influenced him in some way against becoming Catholic. But this is just speculation.

In C. S. Lewis’ Case for the Christian Faith by Richard Purtill, 1980 and 1985, Harper & Row; 2004 by Ignatius Press, the same point is presented while noting that even though he didn’t become Catholic himself, his writing led many to Catholicism.
Accept my apology for not finding the reference for this, but I read the book, if I finished it, some time ago. In proof of the former, a bookmark was discovered after the chapter, ‘Conclusion,’ that had this Lewis quote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” (from The Weight and the Glory and other Addresses[New York:Macmillian Publishing Co., 1980], p. 91
Since I am Catholic and enjoy C. S. Lewis, I tend to see ‘Catholic’ when Lewis has written ‘Christian’, unless he is discussing a particular non-Catholic Christian, of course.
Disclaimer: in the first paragraph of this reply, above, the last word, ‘Catholicism’, might also be or be instead ‘Christianity’, but in recognition of the penultimate paragraph, the disclaimer fails.

 

[catsrus]

C.S. Lewis work, The Great Divorce is my all time favorite. I’ve read it at least 4 times and have given it as a gift to several of my unbelieving family members.
Every time I read this book, I find something in it that I missed at my last reading.

 

[5SmoothStones]

I am also a very big Lewis fan.

There are many great books mentioned here (the classics of course, and God in the Dock). Everyone posting seems to have a good command of what Lewis wrote.

I might also suggest, if you are in the mood for something a little less prosaic, his Interplanetry Trilogy is science fiction, and as religious as the Narnia series. It has one of the best depictions of the devil that I have ever read. It might be worth a try!

 

[Fashina86]

5SmoothStones:

I am also a very big Lewis fan.

There are many great books mentioned here (the classics of course, and God in the Dock). Everyone posting seems to have a good command of what Lewis wrote.

I might also suggest, if you are in the mood for something a little less prosaic, his Interplanetry Trilogy is science fiction, and as religious as the Narnia series. It has one of the best depictions of the devil that I have ever read. It might be worth a try!

:yup: mmmmhmmmm

 

[RNRobert]

Little Mary:

My daughter and I are reading The Chronicles of Narnia right now. Has anyone else read these? Opinions?

btw - we are enjoying them!

It is my first book by Lewis and I am looking forward to reading the others. I think I’ll pick up The Screwtape Letters next.

I’ve read the complete set about two or three times, and I have my own boxed set. When I bought it at the bookstore (it was in the children’s section) the clerk said it would make a nice gift, and I said “yes, for myself.” He looked at me funny, but I didn’t care- as Lewis himself said, any book that could only be enjoyed by children is a bad book.

 

[RNRobert]

?? Lewis wasn’t Catholic–he was Church of England.

James is one of my coworkers. I had loaned him a couple Scott Hahn books in addition to one of Lewis’s. He just got his authors mixed up.