Any fans of C.S. Lewis here?

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In third grade we had silent reading time. I needed something to read and saw The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on the teacher’s bookshelf. The following Christmas my parents bought me all seven of the Chronicles. I haven’t read his adult works, but I do love those Chronicles.
 
Love him!
I have unfortunately read much less of him than I’d like (all of Narnia, The Four Loves, and Screwtape Letters), but much to my surprise, my brother recently bought a collection of his, which I hope to share with him!
Like you, Lewis was part of my journey home. My father, a Baptist pastor, loves him too. I figured he was pure Protestant (oxymoron?). But then I read he believed in purgatory. I was shocked, and it prompted me to look closer at the true Church.
Thanks for sharing your affinity for Lewis!
 
kill051 said:
when I converted to Catholicism, I found his writings most helpful, though he was nominally Anglican.
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An excellent way to put it.

Specifically, he was part of the Oxford Movement, which expected to see the Code back in communion with Rome in their lifetimes. That expectation is why he didn’t convert.

He was also a close friend of the very Catholic JRR Tolkien . . .

I just reread Narnia a couple of weeks ago.

For those who haven’t, when you do, read it in the order published, not the newer number which makes no sense. What they now label book 1 (Magician’s Nephew) is the creation story (Genesis) and doesn’t make sense without the prior five books. Similarly, The Horse and His Boy, though chronologically earlier, makes far more sense after the first four books.

hawk
 
Yes I am. I don’t pretend to understand everything he writes about Christianity though. I’m trying to think of the book which Peter Kreeft says is the best book he wrote. The Abolition of Man?
 
Delphinus said:
Yes, the guy is protestant and a pretty shameless Calvinist, but no one is perfect. 😉
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No, no, no. C.S. Lewis was Anglican. There wasn’t a bit of Calvinism in him. Sorry.

He is the one Christian writer who is beloved by not only his own Anglicans (and we proudly claim him as our own) but Evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics (some of whom claim him as THEIR own), and Mormons (who claim him as THEIR own!)
 
I too became a Christian when reading Mere Christianity. God definitely used that book. He also used the Narnia books to interest many young kids in Lewis, to draw them to Christianity later.
Aside from the Narnia books, I think his most important is The Abolition of Man. “The Abolition of Man is one of the most debated of Lewis’s extraordinary works. National Review chose it as number seven on their “100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century.””
 
“Delphinus said:
I LOVE CS Lewis. I have read just about everything he ever put on paper!
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There is actually quite a lot of Lewis I have not yet read: The Allegory of Love, The Discarded Image, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, &c. I really am more interested in his apologetics than in his medieval studies or his poetry.
 
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goodcatholic said:
I’m trying to think of the book which Peter Kreeft says is the best book he wrote. The Abolition of Man?
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I’m not sure, as I’ve not read any Kreeft. The Abolition of Man is, strictly speaking, not a work of apologetics proper. It is concerned with the biases and failures of the British educational system in the postwar era.
 
StephenBales said:
Like you, Lewis was part of my journey home. My father, a Baptist pastor, loves him too.
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Lewis apparently was quite amused by a remark made by a Baptist preacher once to a mutual friend, to the effect that he figured Mr Lewis was still a man of God even though he smoked and drank! 😂
 
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kill051 said:
Although he was Anglican, I have noticed a distinctly Catholic flavor to much of his writing.
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Absolutely. Lewis was a Catholic at heart. I always recommend his apologetic works to people who are thinking of turning to Catholicism, explaining to them that even though Lewis wasn’t technically a member of the RCC, nevertheless his “way of thinking” is what is at the heart of Roman Catholicism, and gives it its distinctive flavor.

Serving up the non-Catholic Lewis as a first “catholic” apologetic serves me well for two more reasons. First, I believe a proper introduction into Roman Catholicism should not start with theology, for it’s too abstract, and neither should it start with the gospel, for it’s too grim. Theology and the gospel are of course essential – but they’re not good openers into RC Christianity. Second, whoever is brought to RC through Lewis is likely never going to be a partisan Catholic (e.g. anti-other-denomination) – and I consider it a Very Good Thing not to be partisan.

Lewis was a great man, a great writer, and his works remain highly relevant to this day.
 
kill051 said:
The Abolition of Man is, strictly speaking, not a work of apologetics proper.
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True. Yet, precisely because this text does not explicitly set out to convince the reader of the value of Christianity, but rather points out a concrete problem in society, it is highly accessible – and all the more so because it is short. It’s only flaw is that it somewhat gratuitously (though not incorrectly) reaches out to the oriental concept of the Tao. When I suggest someone to read the Abolition of Man, and they read it and tell me they get it and agree with it – to me that’s a great indication they are essentially open to Catholicism.
 
For me, the great value of The Abolition of Man is in the appendix, where Lewis shows, through direct quotes from the holy books of several different faiths, just how much the religions of the world have in common with one another. This bolsters his contention that, while Christianity is the one religion with the fullness of truth, bits and pieces of that truth can be found scattered through several different faiths.
 
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I’m a fan of his non fiction but (running for cover) never got into his fiction. But then again (running for cover again) I’m not a fan of Tolkien either.
 
Zach said:
I’m a fan of his non fiction but (running for cover) never got into his fiction. But then again (running for cover again) I’m not a fan of Tolkien either.
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I’m not judging anyone for being uninterested in Narnia or Middle-Earth. My father was a brilliant man, and he couldn’t abide fiction of any sort. I myself suffer from a roaring disinterest in the Transcendentalists. Chacun à son goût!
 
I’m a big fan of the Space Trilogy.I’ve read them several times and every time I discover some additional context or reference that I previously missed. I heard That Hideous Strength actually inspired George Orwell to write 1984.

Narnia is OK. I liked them a lot as a child but now I find some of the books are better than others. Strangely, I now like the ones best that I disliked as a child.

I’ve also read Mere Christianity, which are actually the transcripts of a radio show Lewis did in the 1940s. It’s very good as a point of reference or to quote from, but when reading it from cover to cover I find he develops the arguments with painstaking slowness. I guess he was writing for as broad an audience as possible and didn’t want to take anything for granted.
 
I’m not sure there is any one Best book of Lewis. For the child, of all ages, there is Narnia. I benefited from being introduced, as an adult, but wish I had read it as a child.
For the person wondering about his own soul, the Screwtape letters. But if he is uncertain if there even is a Soul in the first place, Mere Christianity.
For the citizen, who wants to understand trends in education and government, go read The Abolition of Man and it’s fictional counterpart, That Hideous Strength. Back in the 1940s he described the world we now live in.
His other excellent books, about Miracles, Pain, Psalms, Love, and his essays, fill in the gaps Christians have in a particular area.

His works are a treasure! He did more for ecumenism than a hundred Ecumenical dialogues and conferences.
 
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I am also fond of his short stories. They are original and unique. One of them especially, Forms of Things Unknown, is a sort of mystery concerning space exploration. In the story, several manned flights to the moon have taken place, but once landing has been made, radio communication is soon cut off, and the astronauts are never heard from again. The solution to the mystery, when revealed, is ingenious and surprising, and with a mythological twist only a classical scholar like Lewis could have devised.
 
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