November
29 1898 is the birthday of C.S. Lewis, or Jack to his friends--and that’s definitely
us. Well, me. It’s Brian here, the alleged captain of this
ill-fated fictional almanac, and I have to say that C.S. Lewis is one of my
all-time favorite writers and that he really did change my life. I consider him my mentor. Now just so you
know it’s coming, this is where you find out that I am in fact a
Christian. (I know, so much for that respect I was starting to earn, right?) There’s a lot of baggage with
that word (and history and beliefs), but don’t worry. We have additional contributors of other faiths who will share in coming weeks too. I’m not going to
get preachy. What I’m going to say is
that Lewis (I never could get a handle on calling him Jack) matters a lot to me
both in what he wrote and in how he lived.
Now, if
I were to rank the things that Lewis is commonly known for, they would probably look like
this:
- Being friends with Tolkien and the Inklings
- Narnia
- Writing faith-defending things (like Mere Christianity and doing radio shows)
- And maybe …he was a teacher?
You
know what Lewis did? He wrote things
that helped him understand what it means to be a Christian. The Chronicles of Narnia supposes a different
though analogous world to our own (NOT an allegory--Lewis was very clear on
that) and plays out what Creation and redemption would look like there. Lewis also wrote a science fiction trilogy to
explore this issue of sin and contamination, changing the scale of our thoughts
from global to universal. He talked on
BBC Radio about the core beliefs at the heart of Christianity.
But
he also lived a normal life. He had a scholarly
career as a professor of medieval literature.
He fought in the Great War. He got
married (to an American!) and raised a stepson. He became a widower. C.S. Lewis was a regular person who wanted to
know exactly what it meant to believe what he did in his time and place, and he
wrote so that he and others could learn from that. That’s why he’s my hero.
How
to Commemorate
- Read his books (out loud is better!)
- Eat Turkish Delight
- Shout "Narnia and the North!" when leaving a room
- Have a conversation about words (like a true philologist).
Normally
we have a Works Cited section here, but since we really love Lewis (and I’m the
alleged captain), here is a breakdown of a bunch of his books and why you might
want to read them.
Till
We Have Faces. Epic. This was Lewis’ favorite of his own writings. It’s an old-type story set in a backwater
Dark Age country. So bleak and detailed
and wonderful. It’s more Game of Thrones
that Narnia, so be ready. It’s one of my
own Top Five.
The
Chronicles of Narnia. Really, you haven’t
read these yet? Think of a Romanesque alien
world where animals talk. Enter humans
and …conflict! (Lewis suggested people
read them in the chronological order in which the stories take place, which is
how you often find them numbered in sets, but I prefer the order they were
written. Remember, he made his
suggestion way before prequels and such became popular.)
The
Space Trilogy. Start with Out of the
Silent Planet. Classic. The main character is a linguist who gets
kidnapped and taken to Mars where he has to journey across the world and
communicate with various species of Martians to get back home.
Letters
to Children. Think of Lewis replying to
fanmail from kids. Which is precisely what
this is.
The
Great Divorce. In the fashion of George
MacDonald (Lewis’ own literary mentor), Lewis writes from the perspective of
someone who journeys with a few other residents from Hell to effectively the
front yard of Heaven. "There will be surprises."
The
Screwtape Letters. An epistolary
collection of correspondence from one demon (high-up admin in Hell, you know)
to his nephew Wormwood (entry-level demon trying to corrupt this one regular
guy). Screwtape’s tone is gloriously condescending
and scathing, and it’s truly insightful to hear his comments about the world as
a sort of dark mirror.
Mere
Christianity. This was the most popular non-fiction book in the 20th
Century after the Bible, and I wish we would see its value in the 21st. Lewis just flat out discusses topics like
virtue, sin, sacrifice, pornography, and what is really at the heart of the
Christian religion.
The Indigo Dragon. Ok, Lewis didn’t write this one,
but he is one of the main characters along with Tolkien. And it’s a series!
And feel free to check out the Wade Center at Wheaton College, which is a primary research hub about Lewis as well as J.R.R.
Tolkien, George MacDonald, Owen Barfield, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and
Charles Williams.
