Liceul ..

C. S. Lewis life and works

Prof.

BARNA MARIA

June, 2016

Tablee of Contents

I.

Introduction. Biography
1.Childhood, adolescence and the Irish heritage
2.First World War
3.Jane Moore
4. Second World War
5. Accomplishment at Cambridge University, marriage and death

II.

Christianity
1. Lewiss religious path
2. Surprised by Joy
3. Lewis's trilemma
4. Universal morality

III.

Literary activity
1. Scholar
2. Novelist

IV.
V.

The world of Narnia

Conclusions

VI.

Bibliography

I.

Intoduction. Biography

1. Childhood, adolescence and the Irish heritage

Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland, on 29 November 1898. His father, Albert
James Lewis (18631929), was a solicitor whose familiy came from Wales during the mid-19th
century. His mother, Florence Augusta Lewis (Flora), was the daughter of an Anglican priest. He
wasnt anonly child, he had an elder brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis. In his early childhood, at the
age of four, decided that his name wold be Jacksie, influenced by his dog Jacksie, that was killed by
a car. Later he accepted to be called Jack, the name by which he was known to friends and family
for the rest of his life.
At the age of seven his family moved to the Strandtown area of East Belfast, where was
"Little Lea", the family home of his childhood. This place facilitated his encounter with books, as
his fathers house was filled with it, ans so, reading became one his greatest pleasures at that age.
His fascination for that house is remembered even later, when witing Surprised by Joy: The New
House is almost a major character in my story. I am the product of long corridors, empty sunlit
rooms, upstair indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and
pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books.1
At first C. S. Lewis had private tutors, but in 1908 was sent to the Wynyard
School in Watford, Hertfordshire, soon after his mother's death from cancer. Because the school
closed due to a lack of pupils, Lewis went to Campbell College in the east of Belfast. Hee left this
institution after a few months due to respiratory problems. He was then sent to the health-resort
town of Malvern, Worcestershire, at the preparatory school Cherbourg House, known as "Chartres"
in his autobiography. During this perios of time Lewis changed his beliefs, giving up his childhood
Christian faith in order to become an atheist, with interests in mythology and the occult. In 1913, he
1 C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Jo: The shape of My Early Lyfe, Collins Fontana Books,
London, 1959, p. 8.

started his classes at Malvern College, where he remained until the following June. The next year,
leaving Malvern, began to study privately with William T. Kirkpatrick, his father's old tutor and
former headmaster of Lurgan College.
During all this time, mostly as a teenager, Lewis became more and more interested in the
songs and legends of what he called Northernness, the ancient literature of Scandinavia as he
discovered it it the Icelandic sagas. Also, for him this was interconnected with a passion for nature.
As a result, his creations at that were mostly concerned with epic poetry and opera, in the attempt to
express his new-found interest in Norse mythology and the natural world. In addition, he discovered
a love of Greek literature and mythology and sharpened his debate and reasoning skills. In 1916,
Lewis was awarded a scholarship at University College, Oxford.[6] Before he was allowed to attend
Oxford, Lewis was conscripted into the First World War, that horrifying experience confirming his
atheism.
As a true Irishman, Lewis found himself in an odd situation when facing England. He
experienced a certain cultural shock, as he states in surprised by Joy: "No Englishman will be able
to understand my first impressions of England. [] The strange English accents with which I was
surrounded seemed like the voices of demons. But what was worst was the English landscape [...] I
have made up the quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England which took
many years to heal."2
Even as a young boy, Lewis was interested in Norse, Greek, and, later, in Irish
mythology and literature and even in the Irish language. Also, he developed a particular fondness
for W. B. Yeats, in part because of Yeats's use of Ireland's Celtic heritage in poetry. It is true, though,
that after his conversion to Christianity, his area of interest shifted away from pagan Celtic
mysticism and towards Christian spirituality. Still, throughout his entire life, Lewis constantly
expressed his attachement to Irish culture an spirituality, always looking to be close to as many of
his Irish fellows even in England. He kept visiting Northern Ireland regularly, even spending his
honeymoon there in 1958. He used to call this "my Irish life".

2. First World War

2 Lewis, 1959, p. 17.

The First World War left its marks in Lewiss life as well. In 1917, he left school and
volunteered for the British Army. During the First World War, he was commissioned into the Third
Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. In April 1918, Lewis was wounded and two of his
colleagues were killed. He suffered from depression and homesickness during his convalescence,
but was demobilised in December 1918 and after that returned to his studies.
After the war Lewis returned to Oxrod University and received a First (First-class
honours) in Honour Moderations (Greek and Latin literature) in 1920, a First in Greats (Philosophy
and Ancient History) in 1922, and a First in English in 1923. In 1924 he became a philosophy tutor
at University College and, in 1925, was elected a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature
at Magdalen College, where he served for 29 years until 1954.

3. Jane Moore

A particular episode of Lewiss life is directly connected to his war experience. As a matter
of fact, during his army training, Lewis shared a room with another cadet, Edward Courtnay Francis
"Paddy" Moore. It is said that the two made a mutual pact that if either of them died during the war,
the survivor would take care of both their families. In 1918 Paddy was killed in action and Lewis
kept his promise. This was the beginning of an interesting friendship between Lewis and Paddys
mother, Jane King Moore, a woman that was twenty/seven years older than him. The friendship with
Moore was particularly important to Lewis while he was recovering from his wounds in hospital, as
his father did not visit him.
Because his birth mother had died when he was a child and his father was distant, demanding
and eccentric, Lewis developed a deeply affectionate relation with Moore. He lived with and cared
for Moore until she was hospitalized in the late 1940s. Jane Moore suffered from dementia in her
later years and was eventually moved into a nursing home, where she died in 1951. Lewis visited
her every day in this home until her death. He usually introduced her as his mother, and referred to

her as such in his letters. Critics and biographers often speculated on the nature of this relationship,
insinuating that they might have been lovers for a while.

4. Second World War

Lewiss contribution during The Second World War was somewhat different than the
previous one. Only 40 when the war started, he tried to re-enter military service, considering fit to
instruct cadets, but his offer was not accepted. He rejected the offer he received from the recruiting
office, that of writing columns for the Ministry of Information in the press as he did not want to
write things that would turn out to be lies in order to deceive the enemy. He later served in the
local Home Guard in Oxford.
Still, during all that time, from 1941 to 1943 Lewis spoke on religious programmes
broadcast by the BBC from London while the city was under periodic air raids. These broadcasts
were appreciated by civilians and service people at that stage. All those radio talks made between
1942 and 1944 were anthologized in a volume called Mere Christianity. From 1941, invited by
the R.A.F.'s Chaplain-in-Chief, Maurice Edwards, he spent his summer holiday weekends visiting
R.A.F. stations to speak on his faith.
In addition, during the same wartime period Lewis became, on invitation, first President of
the Oxford Socratic Club in January 1942, a position he enthusiastically held until 1954, when he
resigned because he was appointed to Cambridge University in 1954.

5. Accomplishment at Cambridge University, marriage and death

Indeed, 1954 was an important moment for the career Lewis proved to have. At that time he
accepted the newly founded chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College,
Cambridge, where he also finished his career. Even so, he maintained a strong attachment to the city
of Oxford, keeping a home there and returning on weekends until his death in 1963.

It is important to remember the fact that Lewis was named on the last list of honours
by George VI in December 1951 as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) but
declined this title in order to avoid association with any political issues.
Towards the end of his life Lewis corresponded with and later met Joy Davidman Gresham,
an American writer of Jewish background, a former Communist, and a convert from atheism to
Christianity. After her divorce from the novelist William L. Gresham, she came to England with her
two sons, David and Douglas. Her relation to Lewis was at first an intellectual one. Lewis
considered her to be a good friend and an agreeable intellectual companion, but later agreed upon
a civil marriage contract with her so that she could continue to live in the UK. This took place in
April 1956 and after that she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. After a while they decided to
have a Christian marriage in March 1957. Joys cancer went into remission, and the couple lived
together as a family, until 1960, when its recurrence caused her death. Lewis put his experience of
bereavement in a book, A Grief Observed, first released under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk to keep
readers from associating the book with him. After his death, his authorship was made public by
Faber's, with the permission of the executors.
In early June 1961, Lewis became ill, suffering from inflammation of the kidneys, which
resulted in blood poisoning. Although until 1963 his health continued to improve, in July that year
he fell ill and was admitted to hospital. The next day at 5:00 pm, Lewis suffered a heart attack and
lapsed into a coma, unexpectedly awaking the following day at 2:00 pm. After he was discharged
from the hospital, Lewis returned home, but he was too ill to return to work. Because of that, he
resigned from his post at Cambridge in August. His condition continued to decline, and in midNovember he was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure. He died on 22 November, exactly one
week before his 65th birthday. He is buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Headington,
Oxford. Media coverage of his death was almost completely overshadowed by news of
the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on the same day (approximately
55 minutes following Lewis' collapse), as did the death of English writer Aldous Huxley, author
of Brave New World.

II.

Christianity

1. Lewiss religious path

Lewiss background was significant for his choices in matter of religion. He was raised in a
religious family that attended the Church of Ireland, but this did not stop him to become an atheist at
age 15. Even so, he later confessed that, as a young boy, he was paradoxically "angry with God for
not existing". He started to feel that his religion was a chore and a duty and that is why he chose an
early separation from Christianity. Around this time, he also gained an interest in the occult, as his

studies expanded to include such topics. He even used to mention the Latin writer Lucretius, in
whose works he had found some of the strongest arguments for atheism (Had God designed the
world, it would not be/ A world so frail and faulty as we see.)
Later, Lewis found a new interest in the works of George MacDonald and this is what turned
him from atheism. He eventually returned to Christianity. The most important motifs for his choice
were the arguments with his Oxford colleague and friend J. R. R. Tolkien, whom he seems to have
met for the first time on 11 May 1926, and the book The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton.
Lewis vigorously resisted conversion, noting that he was brought into Christianity like a prodigal,
"kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape." [31] He
described his last struggle in Surprised by Joy: You must picture me alone in that room
in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work,
the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I
greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that
God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in
all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility
which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own
feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought
in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The
words COMPELLE INTRARE, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that
we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The
hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.3
As some biographers notice, Lewiss works are a clear image of his religious transformation.
In his C. S. Lewis A life, Alister McGrath states: His writings during the first half of the 30s
present Lewis in search of a certain order of life what the Greek philosophers would have called
arch not something imagined by the human mind, but something anchored in a higher reality. 4
So, after 1929, the moment of his conversion to atheism , Lewis marked 1931 as the year of his
convertion to Christianity, following a long discussion and late-night walk with his close friends
Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. He records making a specific commitment to Christian belief while on his
3 Lewis, 1959, p. 150.
4 Alister McGrath, C. S. Lewis A Life, Newordpress, Arad, 2015, p. 148

way to the zoo with his brother. Alister McGrath also advances a clear sequence of moments that
explain Lewiss transformation:
1. March June 1930:Lewis starts believing in God.
2. 19th of September 1931: Following a discussion with Tolkien, Lewis discovers that
Christianity is a true mith.
3. 28th of September 1931: On his way to Whipsnade Zoo, Lewis starts believing in the
divinity of Christ.
4. 1st of October 1931: Lewis tells Arthur Greeves that he passed from believing in God to
believing in Jesus.
5. 15 29 August 1932: Lewis describes his intellectual travel towards God in The Pilgrims
Regress, a book written in Belfast, during that time.5
In consequence, Lewis became a member of the Church of England even though this act
disappointed Tolkien, who had hoped that he would join the Catholic Church. Despite this choice,
Lewis was a committed Anglican who upheld a largely orthodox Anglican theology, though in
his apologetic writings, he made an effort to avoid espousing any one denomination. In his later
writings, some believe that he proposed ideas generally considered to be Roman Catholic teachings.
Amongst

them,

the

purification

of venial

sins after

death

in purgatory (The

Great

Divorce and Letters to Malcolm) and the mortal sin (The Screwtape Letters), although such thoughts
are also widely held in Anglicanism (particularly in high church Anglo-Catholic circles).
Regardless, Lewis considered himself an entirely orthodox Anglican to the end of his life, reflecting
that he had initially attended church only to receive communion and had been repelled by the hymns
and the poor quality of the sermons. He later came to consider himself honoured by worshipping
with men of faith who came in shabby clothes and work boots and who sang all the verses to all the
hymns.

2. Surprised by Joy
5 Alister McGrath, p. 155.

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life is a partial autobiography published by C. S.

Lewis in 1955. The book is a description of the author's conversion to Christianity which had taken
place 24 years earlier. Lewis' purpose in writing was not primarily historical. His aim was instead to
identify and describe the events surrounding his accidental discovery of and consequent search for
the phenomenon he labeled "Joy", his best translation of the idea of Sehnsucht (German: longing).
This Joy was so intense for something so good and so high up it could not be explained with words.
He is struck with "stabs of joy" throughout his life.
The book overall is not much of a typical autobiography. It contains less detail concerning
specific events, although it is not devoid of information about his life. Lewis recounts and
remembers his early years with a measure of amusement sometimes mixed with pain. However, he
does describe his life, but only as a secondary theme. The principal theme of the book is Joy as he
defined it for his own purpose.
In sum, Lewis ultimately discovers the true nature and purpose of Joy and its place in his
own life. The book's last two chapters cover the end of his search as he makes the leap
from atheism to theism and then from theism to Christianity. As a result, he realizes that Joy is like a
"signpost": I believe (if the thing were at all worth recording) that the old stab, the old bitter-sweet,
has come to me as often and as sharply since my conversion as at any time of my life whatever. But
I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, had never had the kind of
importance I once gave it. It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer. While that
other was in doubt, the pointer naturally loomed large in my thoughts. When we are lost in the
woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, "Look!" The whole party
gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few
miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority
that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars
are of silver and their lettering of gold. "We would be at Jerusalem."6
The title of the book has its own story. Surprised by Joy is an allusion to William
Wordsworth's poem, "Surprised By Joy Impatient As The Wind", relating an incident when
Wordsworth forgot the death of his beloved daughter:
6 Lewis, 1959, p. 157.

Surprised by joy impatient as the Wind

I turned to share the transport Oh! with whom
But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind
But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
To my most grievous loss? That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.7
It is also relevant to notice that the book has no connection with Lewis' marriage in later life
to Joy Gresham. This occurred long after the period described, though not long after the book was
published. That is why Lewis's friends and contemporaries were not slow to notice the coincidence,
frequently remarking that Lewis had really been "Surprised by Joy".
Not only this book, but his entire cultural activity, including his career as an English
professor and an author of fiction, made Lewis to be regarded by many as one of the most
influential Christian apologists of his time. As a result, Mere Christianity was voted best book of the
twentieth century by Christianity Today in 2000. Also, due to Lewis's approach to religious belief as
a sceptic, and his following conversion, he has been called "The Apostle to the Skeptics."
Through his works, Lewis was very interested in presenting a reasonable case for
Christianity. Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and Miracles were all concerned, to one
degree or another, with refuting popular objections to Christianity, such as "How could a good God
allow pain to exist in the world?". He also became known as a popular lecturer and broadcaster, and
some of his writing (including much of Mere Christianity) became scripts for radio talks or lectures.

7 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180628

A significant moment in the development of things is represented by a 1948 debate

with Elizabeth Anscombe, also a Christian. People like George Sayer consider that Lewis lost the
debate and that led him to re-evaluate his role as an apologist, and his future works concentrated on
devotional literature and children's books. On the other hand, Anscombe has a completely different
recollection of the debate's outcome and its emotional effect on Lewis. Another opinion is that of
Victor Reppert, who also disputes Sayer, listing some of Lewis's post-1948 apologetic publications,
including the second and revised edition of his Miracles in 1960, in which Lewis addressed
Anscombe's criticism.
Besides the autobiography titled Surprised by Joy, which places special emphasis on his own
conversion, Lewiss beliefs and ideas are also obvious in his essays and public speeches on Christian
belief, many of which were collected in God in the Dock and The Weight of Glory and Other
Addresses. In addition, his most famous works, the Chronicles of Narnia, contain many strong
Christian messages and are often considered allegory. Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory,
maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them
"suppositional".

3. Lewis's trilemma

Many were surprised, interested, astonished sometimes by some of Lewiss thesis. In a

much-cited passage from Mere Christianity, Lewis challenged the view that Jesus, although a great
moral teacher, was not God. He argued that Jesus made several implicit claims to divinity, which
would logically exclude this: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that
people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his
claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the
sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the
level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must
make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something
worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at
his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his

being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. 8 A similar
argument was used by the author in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Digory
Kirke advises the young heroes that their sister's claims of a magical world must logically be taken
as either lies, madness, or truth.
Starting that moment, this argument, which Lewis did not invent but developed and
popularised, is sometimes referred to as "Lewis's trilemma". This expression has been used by the
Christian apologist Josh McDowell in his book More Than a Carpenter. Although widely repeated
in Christian apologetic literature, it has been largely ignored by professional theologians and biblical
scholars.
Obviously, such a statement was controversial. Lewis's Christian apologetics, and this
argument in particular, have been criticised. Philosopher John Beversluis described Lewis's
arguments as "textually careless and theologically unreliable," and this particular argument as
logically unsound and an example of false dilemma. Theologian John Hick argues that New
Testament scholars do not now support the view that Jesus claimed to be God. Also New Testament
scholar N. T. Wright criticises Lewis for failing to recognise the significance of Jesus' Jewish
identity and setting an oversight which "at best, drastically short-circuits the argument" and which
lays Lewis open to criticism that his argument "doesn't work as history, and it backfires dangerously
when historical critics question his reading of the gospels," although he believes this "doesn't
undermine the eventual claim."

4. Universal morality

Another main theses in Lewis's apologia is that there is a common morality known
throughout humanity. In the first five chapters of Mere Christianity Lewis discusses the idea that
people have a standard of behaviour to which they expect people to adhere. This standard has been
called Universal Morality or Natural Law. Lewis claims that people all over the earth know what
this law is and when they break it. He even goes on to claim that there must be someone or
something behind such a universal set of principles: These then are the two points that I wanted to
8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis#.22Trilemma.22

make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in
a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way.
They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking
about ourselves and the universe we live in.9
His works of fiction were also a great opportunity to portray Universal Morality. In The
Chronicles of Narnia Lewis describes Universal Morality as the "deep magic" which everyone
knew.
Returning to Mere Christianity, in the second chapter of the book the author recognises that
"many people find it difficult to understand what this Law of Human Nature ... is". And he responds
first to the idea "that the Moral Law is simply our herd instinct" and second to the idea "that the
Moral Law is simply a social convention". In responding to the second idea Lewis notes that people
often complain that one set of moral ideas is better than another, but that this actually argues for
there existing some "Real Morality" to which they are comparing other moralities. Finally he notes
that sometimes differences in moral codes are exaggerated by people who confuse differences in
beliefs about morality with differences in beliefs about facts: I have met people who exaggerate the
differences, because they have not distinguished between differences of morality and differences of
belief about facts. For example, one man said to me, "Three hundred years ago people in England
were putting witches to death. Was that what you call the Rule of Human Nature or Right Conduct?"
But surely the reason we do not execute witches is that we do not believe there are such things. If we
did if we really thought that there were people going about who had sold themselves to the devil
and received supernatural powers from him in return and were using these powers to kill their
neighbors or drive them mad or bring bad weather, surely we would all agree that if anyone
deserved the death penalty, then these filthy quislings did. There is no difference of moral principle
here: the difference is simply about matter of fact. It may be a great advance in knowledge not to
believe in witches: there is no moral advance in not executing them when you do not think they are
there. You would not call a man humane for ceasing to set mousetraps if he did so because he
believed there were no mice in the house.10

9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis#Universal_morality
10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis#Universal_morality

III.

Literary activity

For C. S. Lewis literature became a way of life, a reason for his destiny and a means for a
better knowledge of the world and of the inner self. His beliefs on the matter were clearly explained
in On the Reading of Old Books, an essay written in 1944. The ideas included in this writing were
not just a simple statement, but they became grounds for Lewiss later literary works. Alister
McGrath sums it up: Lewis understands the habit of reading literature as a means of imagining and
entering into an alternative world, a world that may illuminate the objective world that we actually
live in. Often Lewis offers himself as a traveling guide for those who are pilgrims, just as he is.11

1. Scholar

Lewiss academic career followed a well designed path. He started as an undergraduate

student at Oxford University, where he won a triple first, the highest honours in three areas of study.
After that he was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he worked for nearly thirty
years, from 1925 to 1954. 1954 was also the year when Lewis was awarded the newly founded chair
of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University and was elected a fellow
of Magdalene College. Because he argued that there was no such thing as an English Renaissance,
most of his scholarly work concentrated on the later Middle Ages, especially its use of allegory.
His The Allegory of Love (1936) helped reinvigorate the serious study of late medieval narratives
like the Roman de la Rose. His activity as a literary critic wad highly appreciated. He wrote several
prefaces to old works of literature and poetry, like Layamon's Brut, and "A Preface to Paradise Lost"
11 Alister McGrath, p. 202.

is still one of the most valuable criticisms of that work. His last academic work, The Discarded
Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature published, in 1964, is a summary of
the medieval world view.
Writing books is not the only activity Lewis was known for. Besides being a prolific writer,
he had a particular relation to his fellows. His circle of literary friends became an informal
discussion society known as the "Inklings", including J. R. R. Tolkien, Nevill Coghill, Lord David
Cecil, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and his brother Warren Lewis. December 1929 is
considered to be the Inklings' beginning date. Lewis's friendship with Coghill and Tolkien has its
roots in those days when they were members of the Kolbtar, an Old Norse reading group Tolkien
founded and which ended around the time of the inception of the Inklings. At Oxford he was the
tutor of poet John Betjeman, critic Kenneth Tynan, mystic Bede Griffiths, and Sufi scholar Martin
Lings, among many other undergraduates. Memories of Tolkien are present even in Surprised by
Joy: When I began teaching for the English Faculty, I made two other friends, both Christians
(these queer people seemed now to pop up on every side) who were later to give me much help in
getting over the last stile. They were HVV Dyson ... and JRR Tolkien. Friendship with the latter
marked the breakdown of two old prejudices. At my first coming into the world I had been
(implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty
(explicitly) never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both.12

2. Novelist

His scholarly work represented only part of Lewiss intellectual activity, although a
significant and valuable one. In addition to it, Lewis became a most appreciated novelist. He wrote
several popular novels, some intended for adults, like the science fiction Space Trilogy, and some
for children, as the famous the Narnia fantasies. As expected, most of them deal implicitly with
Christian themes such as sin, humanity's fall from grace, and redemption.

12 Lewis, 1959, p. 142.

a) The Pilgrim's Regress

His first novel after becoming a Christian was The Pilgrim's Regress (1933), which depicted
his experience with Christianity in the style of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. The novel was
written over two weeks spent holidaying at the home of his childhood friend Arthur Greeves.
The Pilgrim's Regress charts the progress of a fictional character called John, through a
philosophical landscape in search of the Island of his desire. It deals with the politics, ideologies,
philosophy and aesthetic principles of the early 20th century. As such, the character faces the
modern

phoniness,

hypocrisy

and

intellectual

vacancy

of

the

Christian

church, Communism, Fascism and various philosophical and artistic movements. Like the Pilgrim in
Bunyan's allegory, John meets a fellow traveler, Vertue, and the two journey together. The land
through which John travels is composed of shires named Puritania (from where he starts),
Zeitgeistheim, Dialectica, Pagus. He also meets figures with names such as Mr. Enlightenment, Mr
Sensible, Drudge, Mr Neo-Classical, Mr Humanist, Neo-Angular and Mother Kirk. The characters
do not correspond to any in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, but Lewis uses the same literary model as
Bunyan.
Though allegorical the novel comprises for the most part of moral philosophy, and describes
the quarrel in John's soul, between The Rules (John's earlier instruction by the Steward), and The
Pictures (his imagination and the Island), and his search to reconcile these. On his journey he must
eschew the false philosophic trails and the imitations of Sweet Desire. Lewis' character finds that
many philosophical roads ultimately lead to a fascistic nihilism his explanation of the
flourishing Nazi movement at that moment and other fascist governments of World War II. This also
highlights his own attraction to paganism and Norse mythology as his first spiritual awakening that
led him to Christianity (as detailed in Surprised by Joy).
This book was poorly received by critics at the time, although David Martyn Lloyd-Jones,
one of Lewis's contemporaries at Oxford, seriously encouraged him. It initially received mixed
reviews, and did not sell well, subsequently it was taken on by several different Publishers. By the
third edition however Lewis had recognised the difficulties some of his readers were having and

wrote a critical and explanatory preface to clarify some the issues which seemed to him resulted
from unintentional obscurity and changes in the philosophic thought of the early twentieth century.

b) Space Trilogy (Cosmic Trilogy)

Another one of his writings, the Space Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy is a series of science fiction
novels. The hero of the first two novels is and an important character in the third is a
philologist named Elwin Ransom. The main subject of "Space Trilogy" (also called the "Cosmic
Trilogy" or "Ransom Trilogy") is what Lewis saw as the de-humanising trends in contemporary
science fiction. The first book, Out of the Silent Planet, was apparently written following a
conversation with his friend J.R.R. Tolkien about these trends. Lewis agreed to write a "space travel"
story and Tolkien a "time travel" one, but Tolkien never completed "The Lost Road", linking
his Middle-earth to the modern world. The second novel, Perelandra, depicts a new Garden of
Eden on the planet Venus, a new Adam and Eve, and a new "serpent figure" to tempt them. The
story can be seen as an account of what could have happened if the terrestrial Eve had resisted the
serpent's temptation and avoided the Fall of Man. The third novel, That Hideous Strength, develops
the theme of nihilistic science threatening traditional human values, represented by the legend of
King Athur. Although SF, the books are not especially concerned with technological speculation.
They seem to be more like fantasy. Adventures are combined with themes of biblical history and
classical mythology. Like most of Lewis's mature writing, they contain much discussion of
contemporary rights and wrongs. Many of the names in the trilogy reflect the influence of Lewis'
friend J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish languages.
Walter Hooper, Lewis's literary executor, also discovered a fragment of another sciencefiction novel by Lewis, The Dark Tower. Ransom appears in the story but it is not clear whether the
book was intended as part of the same series of novels. The manuscript was eventually published in
1977, though some doubt that it is authentic.
The action in Out of the Silent Planet (1938) is set mostly on Mars (Malacandra). In this
book, Elwin Ransom voyages to Mars and discovers that Earth is exiled from the rest of the solar
system. Far back in Earth's past, it fell to an angelic being known as the Bent Oyarsa, and now, to

prevent contamination of the rest of the Solar System ("The Field of Arbol"), it is known as "the
silent planet" (Thulcandra). Perelandra (1943) presents life on Venus, that is why the book is slso
known as Voyage to Venus. Here Dr Ransom journeys to an unspoiled Venus in which the first
humanoids have just emerged. At last, That Hideous Strength (1945) is set on Earth. Here, a
scientific think tank called the N.I.C.E. (The National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments) is
secretly in touch with demonic entities who plan to ravage and lay waste to planet Earth.
As a character, Ransom appears very similar to Lewis himself: a university professor, expert
in languages and medieval literature, unmarried, wounded in World War I and with no living
relatives except for one sibling. But Lewis also intended for Ransom to be partially similar to his
friend and fellow Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. In Out of the Silent Planet it is suggested that
"Ransom" is not the character's real name but merely an alias for a respectable professor whose
reputation might suffer from his recounting such a journey to the planet Mars. But in the following
books this idea is dropped and it is made clear that Ransom is the character's true name.
The entire universe Lewis imagines is a very special one and the characters that populate it
are just the same. For example, Ransom gets much information on cosmology from the Oyarsa
(presiding angel) of Malacandra, or Mars. Maleldil, the son of the Old One, ruled the Field of Arbol,
or solar system, directly. But then the Bent One (the Oyarsa of Earth) rebelled against Maleldil and
all the eldila (much as Morgoth rebelled against Eru and the other Valar in Tolkien's Silmarillion) of
Deep Heaven (outer space). In response to this act, the Bent One suffered confinement on Earth
where he first inflicted great evil. Thus he made Earth a silent planet, cut off from the Oyresu of
other planets, hence the name 'Thulcandra', the Silent Planet, which is known throughout the
Universe. Maleldil tried to reach out to Thulcandra and became a man to save the human race.
According to the Green Lady, Tinidril (Mother of Perelandra, or Venus), Thulcandra is favored
among all the worlds, because Maleldil came to it to become a man. In the Field of Arbol, the outer
planets are older, the inner planets newer. Earth will remain a silent planet until the end of the great
Siege of Deep Heaven against the Oyarsa of Earth. The siege starts to end (with the Oyresu of other
worlds descending to Earth) at the finale of the Trilogy, That Hideous Strength. But there is still
much to happen until the fulfillment of what is predicted in the Book of Revelation, when the
Oyresu put an end to the rule of the Bent Eldil and, on the way, smash the Moon to fragments. This,
in turn, will not be "The End of the World", but "The Very Beginning" of what is still to come. 13
Also,the eldila (singular eldil) are super-human extraterrestrials, science-fictionalized depictions
13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis#.22Space_Trilogy.22_novels

of angels, immortal and holy. Another interesting feature is a linguistic one. According to the Space
Trilogy's cosmology, the speech of all the inhabitants of the Field of Arbol is the Old Solar or HlabEribol-ef-Cordi. It is believed that only Earth lost the language, due to the Bent One's influence. Old
Solar can be likened to the Elvish languages invented by Lewis's friend, Tolkien.

c) The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is, perhaps, Lewiss most famous novelistic work. Is is a series of
seven fantasy novels for children and is considered a classic of children's literature. Written between
1949 and 1954 and illustrated by Pauline Baynes, the series sold over 100 million copies in 41
languages. It has been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, stage
and cinema.
The books return to Lewiss Christian beliefs. That is why they contain Christian ideas
intended to be easily accessible to young readers. In addition to Christian themes, Lewis also
borrows characters from Greek and Roman mythology as well as traditional British and Irish fairy
tales.

d) Other works

Heaven and Hell were also subjects that really interested Lewis. In consequence, he wrote
several work on the matter. One of these, The Great Divorce, is a short novella in which a few
residents of Hell take a bus ride to Heaven, where they are met by people who dwell there. The
proposition is that they can stay (in which case they can call the place where they had come from
"Purgatory", instead of "Hell"); but many find it not to their taste.
Quite interesting is also The Screwtape Letters, which consists of letters of advice from a
senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood, on the best ways to tempt a particular human
and secure his damnation.

Lewis's last novel was Till We Have Faces. It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and
Psyche from the unusual perspective of Psyche's sister. Religious ideas may be identified all over the
novel, but the setting is entirely pagan, and the connections with specific Christian beliefs are left
implicit.
Before converting to Christianity, Lewis also exercised his literary talent and wrote two
books: Spirits in Bondage, a collection of poems, and Dymer, a single narrative poem. Both were
published under the pen name Clive Hamilton. Other narrative poems have since been published
posthumously, including: Launcelot, The Nameless Isle, and The Queen of Drum. He also wrote The
Four

Loves,

which

rhetorically

explains

four

categories

of

love: friendship, eros, affection and charity.

IV.

The world of Narnia

V.

Conclusions

Especially today Lewis continues to attract a wide readership. Children as well as adults,
usual readers, scholars ar literary critics, Christians and atheists as well, all of them may find in

Lewis/s works something to be inspired by, fascinated by or even something that raises a lot of
questions and debates. Readers of his fiction are often unaware of what Lewis considered the
Christian themes of his works. At the same time, his Christian apologetics are read and quoted by
members of many Christian denominations,
Statistics and facts are also very much a proof of Lewiss value. In 2008, The Times ranked
him eleventh on their list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". 14 In 2013, on the 50th
anniversary of his death, Lewis joined some of Britain's greatest writers recognised at Poets'
Corner, Westminster Abbey. The floor stone inscription is a quotation from an address by Lewis: I
believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I
see everything else.
His great personality and his works made Lewis the subject of several biographies, some
written by close friends, such as Roger Lancelyn Green and George Sayer. Moments of his life
became of great interest as well, and such in 1985 the screenplay Shadowlands by William
Nicholson, dramatising Lewis's life and relationship with Joy Davidman Gresham, was aired on
British television, starring Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom. This was also staged as a theatre play
starring

Nigel

Hawthorne in

1989,

and

made

into

the

1993

feature

film Shadowlands starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. In 2005, a one-hour television
movie entitled C. S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia, starring Anton Rodgers, provided a general synopsis of
Lewis's life. Also, many books have been inspired by Lewis, including A Severe Mercy by his
correspondent and friend Sheldon Vanauken. Concerning his own books, Lewis was strongly
opposed to the creation of live-action versions of his works. His major concern was that the
anthropomorphic animal characters "when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn
into buffoonery or nightmare". Still, film adaptations have been made of three of The Chronicles of
Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of
the Dawn Treader (2010). Lewis himself is featured as a main character in The Chronicles of the
Imaginarium Geographica series by James A. Owen and he is one of two characters in Mark St.
Germain's 2009 play Freud's Last Session, which imagines a meeting between Lewis, aged 40,
and Sigmund Freud, aged 83, at Freud's house in Hampstead, London, in 1939, as the Second World
War is about to break out.
Perhaps the most notorious nowadays, The Chronicles of Narnia have been particularly
influential. Modern children's literature such as Daniel Handler's A Series of Unfortunate
14 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article2452094.ece

Events, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and J. K. Rowling's Harry
Potter have been more or less influenced by Lewis's series. Authors of adult fantasy literature such
as Tim Powers have also admitted they were influenced by Lewis's work.[95]
Proofs of Lewiss influence and great appreciation stand all around. For example, a bronze
statue

of

Lewis's

character

Digory,

from The

Magician's

Nephew,

stands

in

Belfast's Hollywood Arches in front of the Hollywood Road Library. Also, several C. S. Lewis
Societies exist around the world. One, founded in Oxford in 1982, has as its main purpose to discuss
papers on the life and works of Lewis and the other Inklings, and generally appreciate all things
Lewisian. His name is also used by a variety of Christian organizations, often with a concern for
maintaining conservative Christian values in education or literary studies.
Still, Lewis might be a controversial figure for quite a long time. Even Alister McGrath, in
C. S. Lewis A Life, admits the fact that some might blame Lewis for writing religious propaganda
disguised as literature, others might find in him to be a true visionary and a rational believer. Even
so, McGrath concludes: But most will simply see Lewis as a talented writer who brought many
people enchantment and opened their minds; and, most of all, honoured classical art and quality
writing, as a way to communicate ideas. For Lewis, quality art [] helps humanity in its search of
truth and meaning.15

VI.

Bibliography

C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Jo: The shape of My Early Lyfe, Collins Fontana Books,

London, 1959
Alister McGrath, C. S. Lewis A Life, Newordpress, Arad, 2015
www.cslewis.com/uk
www.poetryfoundation.org
www.thetimes.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org

15 Alistar McGrath, p. 400.