High Plains Chautauqua
August 7-11, 2012
Courage and Conviction in America
C. S. LEWIS (1898-1963)
by Kevin Radaker
Clive Staples Lewis (known as “Jack” to his friends) is arguably the most highly acclaimed and popular Christian writer of the twentieth century. During his prolific career, he wrote more than 30 books in a variety of arenas: literary criticism, children’s literature, science fiction, fantasy literature, and popular theology. Since his death in 1963, sales of his books have grown more than tenfold (with several titles selling more than one million copies per year in some thirty languages). The sheer quantity of personal, biographical, and scholarly books and articles on Lewis published yearly and the popularity of the film productions of Shadowlands and Chronicles of Narnia attest to the ever-growing interest in the man and his work.
In the years after his conversion to Christianity in 1931, Lewis became increasingly well known as an articulate and robust former atheist who served as a brilliant “translator” and “popularizer” of Christian doctrine for a skeptical age. From 1941 to 1944, he was invited by the BBC to offer a series of wartime broadcasts on the Christian faith. Amounting to 26 talks in all, these speeches were eventually published as Mere Christianity (1952), the most widely read and purchased work of Christian apologetics of the last 60 years. In 1947, Time magazine featured his picture on the front cover and described him as “the most influential spokesman for Christianity in the English-speaking world.” Though he remained a notable and productive scholar during his 38 years as an academic at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Lewis was that rare public intellectual who could speak equally well to people from all walks of life and levels of education. Today, his religious writings continue to appeal to committed Christians as well as to those who are skeptical or wavering.
Lewis’ success and popularity, in his day and ours, may be attributed to several factors, but four emerge above all others. One, his writings are conscientiously clear, reflecting in part his commitment to translating Christian doctrine into language that unscholarly people would appreciate and understand. Two, he was willing to offer up arguments for Christianity, not merely as a respectable intellectual option, but rather as a more reasonable option than any other alternative. Three, his writings display a deep empathy for those in intellectual or spiritual difficulties, revealing the broad sympathies that grew out of the many difficulties and sorrows of his own life. Four, his impressive intellectual capacities were enhanced by a marvelous imagination, offering his readers memorable illustrations, metaphors, and fictional tales that illuminate a vast array of theological and philosophical points. In all of these ways, C. S. Lewis was a visionary, a “seer” by way of his reasoning powers and imaginative insights. Since his death almost 50 years ago, he has become an enduring voice that urges us to employ both our minds and our imaginations, both our head and our heart, in our search for truth.
KEVIN RADAKER
Chair of the English Department at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, Kevin Radaker (Ph.D., Penn State, 1986) began offering his portrayal of C. S. Lewis in the fall of 2009. Since then, he has presented his “Lewis” over 30 times in six states, and he will be taking it to Beijing, China, in early October. In addition, Professor Radaker has presented his portrayal of Henry David Thoreau over 350 times throughout the United States since 1991. He has published articles on Thoreau, Herman Melville, Annie Dillard, and Wendell Berry in academic journals and encyclopedias. For more information on his two portrayals, go to www.thoreaulive.com and www.cslewislive.com.
C. S. LEWIS
- The most highly acclaimed and popular Christian writer of the 20th century.
- His Mere Christianity (1952) is the most widely read and purchased work of Christian apologetics of the last 60 years.
- Lewis became very well known as an articulate and brilliant “translator” and “popularizer” of Christian doctrine for a skeptical age.
- In 1947, Time magazine described him as “the most influential spokesman for Christianity in the English-speaking world.”
- Chronicles of Narnia continues to be one of the most popular children’s fiction series ever published.
QUOTATIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF C. S. 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.” – “Is Theology Poetry?” (1944)
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions we make every day are of such infinite importance.” – Mere Christianity (1952)
“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our natural lives.” – The Four Loves (1960)
“We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.” – The Screwtape Letters (1942)
“Because God created the Natural – invented it out of His love and artistry – it demands our reverence.” – “Some Thoughts” (1948)
TIMELINE |
|
1898 |
|
1908 |
|
1914 |
|
1917 |
|
1918 |
|
1922 |
|
1925 |
|
1929 |
|
1931 |
|
1941-44 |
|
1942 |
|
1950-1956 |
|
1956 |
|
1960 |
|
1961 |
|
1963 |
|
RECOMMENDED READING
- Lewis, C. S. The Four Loves. HarperCollins, 1960.
- Lewis, C. S. A Grief Observed. HarperCollins, 1961.
- Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. HarperCollins, 1952.
- Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. HarperCollins, 1942.
- Sayer, George. Jack: C. S. Lewis and His Times. Harper and Row, 1988. The most detailed and authoritative biography on C. S. Lewis.