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<\/a>Full disclosure: I\u2019m an unabashed C.S. Lewis fan \u2013 so I\u2019m prone to gushing on the subject. Nevertheless, I think it\u2019s not at all overstating to say that reading Alister McGrath\u2019s new biography of C.S. Lewis is well worth your time. As far as biographies go, it\u2019s not terribly long at 379 pages, and with such a colorful narrative, Lewis\u2019s life is ready made for a biography such as this.<\/p>\nWhat makes McGrath\u2019s telling of C.S. Lewis\u2019s life stand out is that McGrath is not only a quality Christian historian, but also a world class theologian in his own right. His ability to portray the personal narrative and history alongside the development and assessment of content (Not only Lewis\u2019s, but especially with regard to the other writings of the time \u2013 who was holding sway and why), gives this work considerable depth.<\/p>\n
The well known movements of Lewis\u2019s life are all here in full force. His mother died when he was only nine years old. His father had no emotional intelligence at all and promptly shipped Lewis off to boarding schools where he was terribly out of place and likely abused physically \u2013 if not sexually \u2013 and emotionally. He escaped to Oxford and owing to his sheer genius, and despite his awkward social ability and eccentricities, found his way to the top of the intellectual and social heap of England in the 1940s and 1950s. His atheism and later conversion to Christianity are told with great detail. Lewis\u2019s relationship with Joy Gresham is particularly well treated. McGrath says that there is no doubt in his mind that she set out to seduce and marry Lewis before she had ever even met him. McGrath portrays Lewis as a somewhat reluctant apologist for Christianity, whose writings have stood the test of time, lasting into a post-modern culture with surprising force.<\/p>\n
McGrath pulled a few details in that I had not remembered from other works on Lewis\u2019s life. For instance, as a college student Lewis acquired a sort of fetish with bondage (sexual fantasy). He does great work on the odd relationship between Lewis and Mrs. Moore \u2013 the mother of an army buddy with whom Lewis seems to have had a sexual relationship despite the fact that she was much older. They lived together for decades and it was one of the most significant relationships of his life. Lewis\u2019s role in the genesis of J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Lord of the Rings was also well done. It seems obvious that the world would have never known about middle earth were it not for Lewis\u2019s friendship with Tolkien. McGrath\u2019s take on Lewis\u2019s lifelong friendship with Arthur Greeves was good. Greeves came out of the closet to Lewis (McGrath believes that Greeves hoped Lewis would come out as well \u2013 which he did not), but their unique friendship survived and remained one of the most important of his life. McGrath pulls no punches with brother Warnie\u2019s alcoholism.<\/p>\n
I believe that McGrath\u2019s is the first major biography written since the publication of Lewis\u2019s collected letters in 2006 \u2013 nearly 3500 pages of personal correspondence including cross-references. This means that McGrath\u2019s biography is perhaps the most accurate portrayal of C.S. Lewis\u2019s life to date.<\/p>\n
My only\u00a0disappointment\u00a0with the book is also one of its greatest strengths \u2013 it is written in a fairly dispassionate mode. McGrath\u2019s telling of the life of C.S. Lewis is rendered without a lot of heat. I often found myself thinking that McGrath was holding back a bit \u2013 as though he had more to say here, but it would have ventured into the realm of personal opinion and editorial commentary. He stayed away from that for the most part. Not to say that it is apathetic or cold \u2013 not in the least \u2013 but the book seldom makes a move toward judgment or commentary about Lewis\u2019 personal narrative. McGrath is such an expert in these matters, I would have liked to hear more about what he thinks personally \u2013 especially at several key points. Most of McGrath\u2019s passion is reserved for an assessment of Lewis\u2019 writings, which was clearly the strongest point of this work and where McGrath\u2019s biography is hands down the best I\u2019ve read. His ability to place Lewis\u2019s writings among their original context sheds new light on these old familiar texts.<\/p>\n
McGrath\u2019s big moment is that he is able to prove quite convincingly that nearly all other biographers of C.S. Lewis have the date of his conversion wrong. The reason for the mistake is that Lewis gave a date later in his life, but seems to have been confused. This is a pretty big adjustment in the world of Lewis-geeks. McGrath changed a significant date for Lewis studies. Here\u2019s the quote.<\/p>\n
\u201cLewis\u2019s subjective location of the event in his inner world is accepted, but his chronological location of the event is seen to have been misplaced\u2026 Lewis\u2019s location of this event in the external world of space and time appears to be inaccurate. Lewis\u2019s conversion is best understood as having taken place in the Trinity Term of 1930, not 1929. In 1930, Trinity Term fell between 27 April and 21 June.\u201d p. 14<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The book is well worth the price and the time it takes to read it. I\u2019m grateful to McGrath that he took on this enormous project and pushed through to what may well be the definitive work on Lewis\u2019s life to date.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Full disclosure: I\u2019m an unabashed C.S. Lewis fan \u2013 so I\u2019m prone to gushing on the subject. Nevertheless, I think it\u2019s not at all overstating to say that reading Alister McGrath\u2019s new biography of C.S. Lewis is well worth your time. As far as biographies go, it\u2019s not terribly long at 379 pages, and with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[587,30,590,589,588],"class_list":["post-1896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alister-mcgrath","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-the-chronicles-of-narnia","tag-the-lord-of-the-rings","tag-tolkien"],"yoast_head":"\n
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