C. S. Lewis – A Life
Page 39
Since 1985, I have taught at summer schools in Oxford attended by large numbers of young American evangelicals. Lewis has been a topic of conversation throughout that entire period. At the time of writing, there is not the slightest sign of any loss of interest. On the basis of those extended conversations over a quarter of a century, I have come to my own conclusion about why Lewis appeals so powerfully to a rising evangelical generation in the United States: Lewis is seen to enrich and extend faith, without diluting it. In other words, evangelicals tend to see Lewis as a catalyst, who opens up a deeper vision of the Christian faith, engaging the mind, the feelings, and the imagination, without challenging fundamental distinctives. Lewis supplements, without displacing, evangelical basics. While this involves a selective reading of Lewis, this does not seem to cause any fundamental concern. Lewis is grafted on to evangelical essentials, engaging weaknesses without compromising strengths. For many young evangelicals, reading Lewis gives added depth and power to their evangelical commitments.
Yet some fundamentalist Protestant Christians in the United States continue to regard Lewis as a dangerous heretic. The strident tone of such criticisms of Lewis can be judged from the following:
C.S. Lewis was an imposter, who corrupted the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and led multitudes of victims into Hellfire with his doctrines of devils. Lewis used profanities, told lewd stories, and frequently got drunk with his students.766
Other fundamentalists argue that the modern evangelical admiration for Lewis is a sign that evangelicalism has lost its way and forfeited its birthright.767 While this is a minority viewpoint, it is indicative of anxiety on the part of some older evangelicals about the recent directions the movement has taken in America. Yet theology may be of secondary importance here; some would suggest that the real issue is power and influence. Lewis has displaced some who would see themselves as natural authority figures within the American evangelical movement.
Lewis as a Literary Landmark
It is Lewis’s imaginative works, particularly his Chronicles of Narnia, that now attract the greatest following, both in American culture at large and within Christian circles in particular. Chad Walsh’s 1965 intuition about Lewis’s possible future appeal can now be seen to have been justified. Lewis is now regarded as one of the finest authors of fantasy literature, standing alongside—and in most cases well above—J. M. Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaiman, Kenneth Grahame, Rudyard Kipling, Madeleine L’Engle, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, and J. R. R. Tolkien.
The literary convention of fantasy is not restricted to any specific ideology. It can be used to champion—or subvert—secular humanism or Christianity. As a secular humanist, the British writer Philip Pullman loathes Lewis, recently suggesting that he was “tempted to dig him up and throw stones at him.”768 This will probably strike most people as slightly weird, but it is completely consistent with what one critic has described as the “virulent theological hatred” that Pullman displays towards those he disagrees with.769
In fact, far from dismissing Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy implicitly recognises them as representing the definitive statement of the position he wishes to reject. The more Pullman criticises Lewis, the more he affirms Lewis’s cultural significance. In the end, Pullman’s appeal is parasitic, depending precisely upon the cultural impact of Narnia that he wishes to subvert. As recent studies have noted, Pullman offers “a kind of inverted homage to his predecessor, deliberately composing a kind of ‘anti-Narnia,’ a secular humanist alternative to Lewis’s Christian fantasy.”770
Literary scholars have pointed out how Pullman draws extensively on Lewis in many respects—for example, his affirmation of the importance of the story, his description of the creative process, his fascination with the mythic dimension of certain literary works, and his “high Romantic view of the imagination.”771 Lewis’s most strident critic, paradoxically, turns out to be one of the most important witnesses to his present-day influence and importance.
There is no doubt of Lewis’s current status as a literary figure and religious writer. Lewis’s books began to appear on the religion bestseller lists of secular bookstores in the early 1990s, and they have remained there ever since. The 1994 release of the Hollywood version of Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, generated a new interest in Lewis as a human being, leading to increased sales of his works.
By the time of the centenary of his birth—1998—it was obvious that Lewis was not merely back in business; he had reached new heights of influence. The British Royal Mail, for example, issued a set of commemorative postage stamps based on characters from Narnia. In 2011, they followed through with a further release of eight postage stamps featuring magical figures from British literature. Two of these stamps featured characters from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—Aslan and the White Witch.772
The production of successful blockbuster movie versions of the Narnia novels, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005, has raised Lewis’s profile still further, giving him a broader and deeper reach than before. The international success of the movies has led to Lewis’s more religious works being freshly translated or republished in languages other than English. In the United States, polls of American Christians show that Mere Christianity is regularly cited as the most influential religious book of the twentieth century, just as polls of ordinary readers continue to affirm the abiding popular affection for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and its canonical status in the children’s literature of the twentieth century.
Conclusion
So how are we to judge Lewis, fifty years after his death? Lewis himself had no doubt about the identity of the judge, or the criterion to be used in such an assessment. For Lewis, the only reliable critic of a writer’s value is time, and the only reliable measure is the enjoyment that results from reading that writer’s works. As Lewis himself remarked, nobody is ultimately able to “suppress” an author who is “obstinately pleasurable.”773 Lewis has made the most difficult transition an author can hope to make—being read by more people a generation after his death than before it.
What the next generation will make of him remains to be seen. Contrary to the expectations of the 1960s, belief in God has not gone away, and has become resurgent as a factor in personal and public life since about 2000. The recent rise of the so-called “New Atheism” has simply increased public interest in religious questions, creating a new appetite for discussions about God that simplistic and superficial slogans such as “God is a delusion” fail to satisfy. Lewis is thus likely to remain a controversial figure, in that he is now—and will be in the future—widely seized upon as both a champion and a villain in these new debates, pointing once more to his abiding importance. The volume and tone of the criticism of Lewis from fundamentalisms of the left and right is ultimately to be seen as a reflection of his iconic cultural status, rather than a reliable gauge of his personal and literary defects.
Some will doubtless continue to accuse Lewis of writing disguised religious propaganda, crudely and cruelly dressed up as literature. Others will see him as a superb, even visionary, advocate and defender of the rationality of faith, whose powerful appeals to imagination and logic expose the shallowness of naturalism. Some will hold him to defend socially regressive viewpoints, based on the bygone world of England in the 1940s. Others will see him as a prophetic critic of cultural trends that were widely accepted in his time, but are now recognised as destructive, degrading, and damaging. Yet whether you agree with Lewis or not, you cannot ignore his landmark significance. As Oscar Wilde once so shrewdly remarked, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
Most, however, will see Lewis simply as a gifted writer who brought immense pleasure to many and illumination to some—and who, above all, celebrated the classic art of good writing as a way of communicating ideas and expanding minds. For Lewis, the
best art hinted at the deeper structures of reality, helping humanity in its perpetual quest for truth and significance.
Let the last word go to a charismatic, young American president, who died shortly after Lewis on 22 November 1963. In a speech given at Amherst College four weeks before his death, John F. Kennedy, honouring the great American poet Robert Frost (1874–1963), paid a handsome tribute to the work of poets and writers. “We must never forget,” he declared, “that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”774 Lewis, I think, would agree.
TIMELINE
Note that all publication dates refer to the British editions of Lewis’s works.
1898
29 November: Birth of Clive Staples Lewis
1899
29 January: Baptised at St. Mark’s, Dundela, Belfast
1905
18 April: Lewis family moves into Little Lea
1908
23 August: Death of Flora Lewis
18 September: Begins studies at Wynyard School
1910
September: Begins studies at Campbell College, Belfast
1911
January: Begins studies at Cherbourg School, Great Malvern
1913
September: Begins studies at Malvern College, Great Malvern
1914
19 September: Begins private study with William Thompson Kirkpatrick at Great Bookham
1916
13 December: Learns he has been accepted at University College, Oxford
1917
25 April: Applies to join Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps
29 April: Takes up place at University College
7 May: Joins E Company, No. 4 Officer Cadet Battalion, stationed at Keble College, Oxford, and meets Paddy Moore
26 September: Commissioned as second lieutenant in 3rd Somerset Light Infantry
17 November: Crosses to France and joins British front line near Arras
1918
1–28 February: Hospitalised at Le Tréport, near Dieppe
15 April: Wounded in battle at Riez du Vinage
25 May: Repatriated to England for convalescence
1919
13 January: Returns to Oxford to resume studies at University College
20 March: Spirits in Bondage published
1920
31 March: Gains First Class Honours in Classical Moderations
1921
24 May: Wins Chancellor’s Essay Prize
1922
4 August: Gains First Class Honours in Literae Humaniores
1923
16 July: Gains First Class Honours in English Language and Literature
1925
1 October: Takes up tutorial fellowship in English Language and Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford
1926
18 September: Dymer: A Poem published
1929
25 September: Death of Albert Lewis
1930
23–24 April: Visits Little Lea for the last time, along with Warnie
10 October: Moves into The Kilns
29 October: Informs Arthur Greeves that he has begun to attend college chapel
1931
19 September: Realises, after a conversation with Tolkien, that Christianity is a “true myth”
25 December: Attends Holy Communion for the first time as an adult at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Oxford
1932
15–29 August: Writes The Pilgrim’s Regress while staying with Arthur Greeves
21 December: Warnie moves into The Kilns
1933
25 May: The Pilgrim’s Regress published
1936
21 May: The Allegory of Love published
1939
2 September: Warnie recalled to active military service
3 September: Britain declares war on Germany
1940
18 October: The Problem of Pain published
1941
6–27 August: Gives four live broadcast talks on the BBC Home Service from Broadcasting House, London
1942
11 January–15 February: Gives five more live broadcast talks on the BBC Home Service from Broadcasting House, London
9 February: The Screwtape Letters published
13 July: Broadcast Talks published
20 September–8 November: Gives eight more live talks on the BBC Home Service from Broadcasting House, London
1943
20 April: Perelandra published
1944
22 February–4 April: Gives seven more live broadcast talks on the BBC Home Service from Broadcasting House, London
1945
9 May: End of Second World War in Europe
15 May: Death of Charles Williams
16 August: That Hideous Strength published
1946
14 January: The Great Divorce published
1947
12 May: Miracles published
8 September: Appears on cover of Time magazine
1948
2 February: Elizabeth Anscombe criticises Lewis’s argument against naturalism at the Socratic Club
17 March: Elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
1950
16 October: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe published
1951
12 January: Death of Mrs. Moore
1954
4 June: Accepts professorship of Medieval and Renaissance English at University of Cambridge
16 September: English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama published
1955
7 January: Takes up residence at Magdalene College, Cambridge
July: Elected fellow of the British Academy
19 September: Surprised by Joy published
1956
23 April: Marries Joy Davidman in civil ceremony at Oxford Register Office
1957
21 March: Marriage ceremony to Joy Davidman in Churchill Hospital, Oxford, conducted by Reverend Peter Bide
1960
28 March: The Four Loves published
13 July: Death of Joy Davidman; Writes A Grief Observed
1961
24 June: Diagnosed with enlarged prostate gland
1963
22 November: Death of C. S. Lewis
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is always a pleasure to acknowledge indebtedness to others, especially since this represents a celebration of the collegiality of scholarship. My greatest debt is to archivists who have opened their collections to me, occasionally uncovering items for the first time. I owe particular thanks to the following: the BBC Written Archives Collection, Caversham Park; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Cambridge University Library; Craigavon Historical Society; Exeter College, Oxford; Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Oxford; Keble College, Oxford; King’s College, Cambridge; Lambeth Palace Library, London; Magdalen College, Oxford; Magdalene College, Cambridge; Merton College, Oxford; Methodist College, Belfast; National Archives (Public Records Office), Kew; Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps; Oxfordshire History Centre; the Royal Society of Literature; the Swedish Academy; University College, Oxford; and the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
I gratefully acknowledge the award of a Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant for 2011 at the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. I also wish to acknowledge helpful and perceptive conversations with leading Lewis authorities Walter Hooper, Don King, Alan Jacobs, and especially Michael Ward. I also benefitted from discussions with my editor, Mark Norton, as well as with Charles Bressler, Joanna Collicutt, J. R. Lucas, Roger Steer, Robert Tobin, and Andrew Walker. Among those who have helped me with archival work, I would especially like to thank Dr. Robin Darwall-Smith, archivist of both Magdalen College and University College, Oxford, and Laura Schmidt and Heidi Truty of the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College. I am also grateful for the help of many others in checking facts and tracing photographs and ot
her records, particularly Rachel Churchill, the Comité Départemental de Tourisme en Pas de Calais, Andreas Ekström, Michaela Holmström, Monica Thapar, the Ulster Museum, and Adrian Wood. Jonathan Schindler provided invaluable assistance at the copyediting stage. I myself remain responsible for any errors of fact or judgement.
The author and publishers gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce extracts from copyrighted material, as follows. COLLECTED LETTERS by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 2004, 2006; SURPRISED BY JOY by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1955; ALL MY ROAD BEFORE ME by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1992; ESSAYS by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 2000; THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1950; REFLECTIONS ON THE PSALMS by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1958; THE SILVER CHAIR by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1953; THE LAST BATTLE by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1956; THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1955; THE PILGRIM’S REGRESS by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1933; THE PROBLEM OF PAIN by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1940; A GRIEF OBSERVED by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1961; REHABILITATIONS by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1979; SPIRITS IN BONDAGE by C. S. Lewis, copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1984; illustrations by Pauline Baynes © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd 1950. C. S. Lewis’s unpublished letter of 16 January 1961, nominating J. R. R. Tolkien for the 1961 Nobel Prize in Literature (illustration 14.2), copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. The letters of J. R. R. Tolkien © The J. R. R. Tolkien Copyright Trust 1981, reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Archive material is cited with the permission of the warden and fellows of Keble College, Oxford; the president and fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford; the master and fellows of University College, Oxford; and the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.