More C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’ books are selling better now than they ever have. But when I talk to other Christians, very few of them have actually read his works. They may mention The Screwtape Letters or The Chronicles of Narnia (though not all seven volumes). A few have read Mere Christianity. No one I’ve talked to has read Christian Reflections or The Weight of Glory or Miracles or The Pilgrim’s Regress. And this is a shame because Lewis represents the best of what a bridge writer should be. He takes the thoughts of theologians and philosophers and translates them for a lay audience, allowing the passing of a normally unpassable river of arcana with dry feet. Now, I certainly haven’t read all of his works. This will be a lifelong endeavour. I’m making it my goal to read everything Lewis ever wrote (or, at the very least, as much as possible).

Stories about Lewis, such as this one from Newsweek, are all over the place now thanks to the upcoming Narnia film. It’s interesting that he is embraced by Christians from all across the theological spectrum, but especially by evangelicals. The fact that many of his papers and even some of his furniture are housed at the Marion E. Wade Center at evangelical Wheaton College is a testament to Lewis’ influence on evangelicalism. The irony is that this Irish-born, Anglican, pipe-smoking, beer drinking Oxbridge scholar would not, in his day, have been allowed to teach at Wheaton.