{"id":45426,"date":"2013-11-22T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=45426"},"modified":"2013-11-21T07:06:36","modified_gmt":"2013-11-21T13:06:36","slug":"50-years-ago-c-s-lewis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2013\/11\/22\/50-years-ago-c-s-lewis\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years Ago: C.S. Lewis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Two of the most influential voices in evangelicalism were not evangelicals themselves, though they have been claimed for evangelicalism and many younger thinkers can\u2019t imagine their not being evangelicals. Those two are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an orthodox Lutheran, and C.S. Lewis, an Anglican with the sensibility of a \u201cmere\u201d kind of Christianity. In their day neither was claimed by the kind of evangelicalism that then existed, which was more like the very conservative side of evangelicalism today. One could probably tally up a lengthy list of folks who are \u201cclaimed\u201d by some group but who in their day were not in that group.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s have a discussion on the most important book by C.S. Lewis and why.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What cannot be denied though is that C.S. Lewis has become a saint for evangelicalism. The focus of his biography is not on that dimension of Lewis, even if he has one of the better sketches of that story, but on the life, development, theology, and career of C.S. Lewis. I\u2019m speaking of Alister McGrath\u2019s exquisite new biography,\u00a0C.S. Lewis, a Life: Eccentric Genius. Reluctant Prophet<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. I can\u2019t say McGrath\u2019s two categories (eccentric genius and reluctant prophet) are addressed head-on but these two expressions certainly form deep structure themes in this book. Lewis was eccentric and he never did want the attention he garnered.<\/p>\n

I have read four other biographies of Lewis \u2014 Green, Wilson, Sayer, Jacobs \u2014 and McGrath. McGrath is now the best of the lot because it provides more perspective and critical interaction than the others. Wilson\u2019s remains too critical and suspicious while Green\u2019s is now the dated volume. Jacobs set out to do more of an examination of imagination but offered more of a biography than a thematic exploration.<\/p>\n

McGrath spent 18 months reading everything from Lewis in chronological order. He sorted through papers and pictures and documents and historical and university records, judiciously selected from the scads of noteworthy items and drops his discoveries into the text in clean and compelling ways. McGrath both keeps the story of Lewis\u2019 life flowing and yet pauses for critical reflection and theological interaction. This is the biography for the thinker even if the fan may found it a bit deep at times. If you love Lewis and want to know what was \u201creally\u201d going on, read McGrath first. Alister McGrath has a book due to be published next month called\u00a0The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis<\/em><\/a>,<\/strong> and I shall no doubt buy and read it in due course.<\/p>\n

Three features of McGrath\u2019s life of Lewis deserve notation here:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The biography is courageous<\/em>. Lewis was eccentric, if not weird. McGrath is not writing hagiography and so he tells the story of the weirdness of this man from Belfast. Lewis was beset by some sadomasochism in his life. McGrath does not delve into the \u201cChristina dreams\u201d issue, but is not afraid to talk about the weird, possibly intimate and maybe not, relationship with Mrs. Moore. He tells the story of Lewis\u2019 marriage of convenience to Joy Davidman, explores the possible reasons and the secrecy around the marriage, and then explains that Lewis eventually does fall deeply in love with Joy.<\/p>\n

McGrath courageously argues Lewis himself got the date of his own conversion wrong, and McGrath\u2019s case will be convincing to some. I\u2019m not yet sure because I think the letter to Greeves 1 Oct 1931 suggests a fuller embrace of christology, but you\u2019ll have to read McGrath to see what you think. McGrath, however, argues that Lewis got the inner world completely right in his descriptions. At one or two other places McGrath suggests Lewis\u2019 lack of concern with dates \u2014 confirmed by Warnie \u2014 creates some oddities in Lewis\u2019 own autobiography.<\/p>\n

In addition, McGrath pushes against Lewis\u2019 obsession with Malvern in his autobiography and lack of interest in far greater issues, like the world war.<\/p>\n

The biography is a critical apology<\/em>. Lewis has been criticized, justly McGrath thinks, for his social conventions and his perspective on women. McGrath takes this on several places in the biography but also explains Lewis\u2019 context and his conventional views. This is what I mean by a \u201ccritical apology\u201d: he\u2019s with Lewis but does not defend him. He explains him. McGrath\u2019s view is honest, critical, balanced, and unafraid.<\/p>\n

The same applies to Lewis\u2019 odd relations at the University of Oxford. Lewis was admired by some and hated by others; he was critical of the culture and of nothing-but-scholarship approaches and he wrote popular books and became world famous. Lewis simply refused to play their game, and then it is not surprising that on three occasions he was not promoted to professor because of this context. For years Lewis kept his relation to his \u201cfamily\u201d \u2014 Mrs Moore and Maureen \u2014 secret from the university. His relation to Tolkien fell apart, mostly on Tolkien\u2019s side according to McGrath. Lewis himself nominated Tolkien for a Nobel prize in literature, demonstrating his profound respect for Tolkien. The same cannot be said for Tolkien\u2019s view of Lewis.<\/p>\n

McGrath provides a convincing case for how the Anscombe-Lewis encounter in the Socratic club can be understood. AN Wilson once argued that Lewis got thrashed by Anscombe, so much in fact that Lewis abandoned apologetics at the rational level and opted to tell stories. This theory has been repeated by many. McGrath, who distinctively pulls in memories from John Lucas, contends Lewis was writing the Narnia stories before the famous Socratic debate, that he was already wearied with apologetics, and that he simply wasn\u2019t interesting in staying up to date in philosophy \u2014 so that the debate, while a temporary setback for Lewis, was not as life-changing as Wilson argued. Lewis in fact learned from that debate and adjusted his famous anti-naturalism argument. McGrath makes a good case but the follow ups in McGrath\u2019s own treatment make me wonder if there\u2019s not more to the Wilson theory than McGrath admits. Lewis said he was obliterated, Lewis said he was not up to date, and Lewis did not write another piece of apologetics. I side with McGrath on this one but I\u2019m open to further considerations.<\/p>\n

The biography is contextual<\/em>. What perhaps was most appreciated in McGrath\u2019s life of Lewis is that he connected everything \u2014 Lewis\u2019 childhood in Belfast, Lewis\u2019 private (or, as they put it, public) school education, Lewis\u2019 military service, Lewis\u2019 own entrance and success at Oxford, Lewis\u2019 academic career, and all of Lewis\u2019 writings and lectures \u2014 each of these is connected succinctly and illuminatingly to the historical, social, ecclesial, academic and theological contexts. One example. Lewis\u2019 beautiful story of Aslan\u2019s death is set in the context of Medieval ransom and atonement theories, and in Lewis\u2019 own statements about atonement theories, as well as into the narrative logic of the Narnia tales.<\/p>\n

We are indebted once again to Alister McGrath for bringing together so many loose ends and diverse facts into a compelling account of one of the 20th Century\u2019s delightfully eccentric characters.<\/p>\n

A repost.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of the most influential voices in evangelicalism were not evangelicals themselves, though they have been claimed for evangelicalism and many younger thinkers can\u2019t imagine their not being evangelicals. Those two are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an orthodox Lutheran, and C.S. Lewis, an Anglican with the sensibility of a \u201cmere\u201d kind of Christianity. In their day neither […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n50 Years Ago: C.S. 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