C. S. Lewis: Defender of the Christian Faith through Reason
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) continues to be one of the most read and beloved modern Christians, even though his death was more than half a century ago. As a prolific writer and speaker, Lewis’ contributions—from his children’s books and poetry to his theological and academic work—have influenced countless people searching for truth.
1898–1908
Childhood
Born Clive Staples Lewis to Albert and Flora Lewis on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Lewis spent his early years, in his own words, surrounded by “endless books.” His father was a lawyer and his mother a mathematician, who grounded him in Latin, French, and English. When he was five, he requested to no longer be called “Clive” but “Jack,” which stuck among family and friends. When just six or seven years old, the family moved to a house called Little Lea, and his time spent there proved formative to who he would become as a writer. It was here Lewis described his first experience with “joy”—standing by a flowering currant bush at Little Lea, he suddenly remembered the toy garden in a cookie tin that his older brother, Warren, had once created. Of this moment he would later write in Surprised by Joy:
There suddenly rose in me without warning, as if from a depth not of years but of centuries, the memory of that earlier morning at the Old House when my brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery. It is difficult to find words strong enough for the sensation which came over me; Milton’s “enormous bliss” of Eden . . . comes somewhere near it. It was a sensation, of course, of desire; but desire for what?
This theme of joy would resurface throughout his life and is evident in his literary works.
Lewis and Warren were close and spent their childhood days reading books, writing, illustrating stories, and creating a magical, make-believe world. They took over the family attic, and as English professor and C. S. Lewis authority Chad Walsh writes in The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis, “made it their world, where they exercised their imaginations.” Lewis remembers his life as “far from ordinary,” what felt like, for him, another dimension.
Private tutors schooled him until he was nine when his mother died from cancer, turning his idyllic world upside-down (he would wrestle with why God would let his mother die throughout his life). Just three weeks later, his father sent him to Wynyard boarding school in England—which he disliked terribly.
I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, indoor silences, attics explored in solitude. . . . Here my first stories were written, and illustrated, with enormous satisfaction. They were an attempt to combine my two chief literary pleasures: “dressed animals” and “knights in armor.”
—C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
Learn more about this period in C. S. Lewis’ life:
Becoming C. S. Lewis: A Biography of Young Jack Lewis
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The Literary Legacy of C.S. Lewis
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1909–1925
Teenage years and World War I
After Wynyard closed, Lewis was sent to a local boarding school, Campbell College in Belfast, Ireland. He left just a few months later due to respiratory problems and ended up at Cherbourg House at Malvern College, England (like his brother) when he was almost 15. But those years were difficult—Lewis experienced intense bullying, and it was during this season he abandoned his Christian faith. However, he would later describe those dark years in Surprised by Joy as “the most fortunate thing that ever happened to me” (128), for at Malvern, Lewis would be tutored by William Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick had tutored both his father and Warren, his brother, and would prove influential in developing Lewis’ artistic talents and framing his career.
In 1914 he met Arthur Greeves, who became, next to his brother, his “oldest and most intimate friend.” The two shared a love of Norse mythology. Greeves taught Lewis to embrace and explore his feelings and was a consistent influence for Christ (years later, it would be to Greeves Lewis first disclosed his conversion). In 1916 Lewis received a scholarship to University College, Oxford, but just six months later, enlisted in the British Army and settled into the trenches of the Western Front. He fought, almost died, and lost his best friend, Paddy Moore, on the field. His time in military service ended on Christmas Eve, 1918.
Lewis longed to be a poet, and in 1919, while yet a teenager (and still an atheist), his poetry was published as a collection titled Spirits in Bondage under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton. Spirits in Bondage offers important insights into Lewis as a young artist. Karen Swallow Prior writes in the book’s introduction that “Many of the poems were written or revised during the year Lewis spent in the trenches of World War I in France and during his recovery from injuries sustained there,” and the last poem, “Death in Battle,” would have “served as Lewis’ farewell had he not survived the war.”
Around 1920 he connected with Paddy’s mom (whom Lewis promised Paddy he would look out for) and went to live with her and her younger daughter, Maureen. In 1925 he was appointed English Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and he would spend the next 30 years there on a modest salary tutoring students in English language and literature. Those teaching years at Oxford are what gave him his writing “feet.”
Learn more about this period in C. S. Lewis’ life:
Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics
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The Making of C. S. Lewis: From Atheist to Apologist (1918-1945)
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1926–1931
Oxford and conversion
After publishing his narrative poem “Dymer” in 1926 (it didn’t sell well), Lewis set his dream of being a poet aside.
Also in 1926, Lewis met his friend and colleague, J. R. R. Tolkien—who shared his interest in myth and legend and played a key role in his return to the faith in 1930–1931. Lewis’ conversion happened first philosophically as he began to understand God and then through friendship, questioning, and contemplation as he discovered who Jesus is as God’s Son.
Tolkien and other philosophical and literary friends, like Dorothy L. Sayers (an English crime writer, poet, and Christian apologist) and Charles Williams (a poet, novelist, playwright, theologian, and literary critic), would deeply impact Lewis and transform his life. He and Tolkien continued their friendship, and by the mid-1930s, were spurring each other on in their academic and literary careers.
In 1930 he and Warren bought a home with Mrs. Moore called the Kilns, a large property in Risinghurst, Oxford, England. From here Lewis wrote many books (including the entire Narnia Chronicles; see below) and lived until his death. The Kilns (now known as the C. S. Lewis Home) became a transformative place for Lewis and is reminiscent of the worlds he created in his literature.
Learn more about this period in C. S. Lewis’ life:
C S Lewis: A biography of friendships
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Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis
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Mobile Ed: CS341 Influences on the Thought of C. S. Lewis (6 hour course)
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The Making of C. S. Lewis: From Atheist to Apologist (1918-1945)
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1932–1938
Academic career
In 1933 Lewis wrote his first book of popular fiction and theology, The Pilgrim’s Regress, but it wasn’t until 1936 that his academic career took flight with The Allegory of Love, which changed the way literary history was handled.
Also in 1933 Lewis and Tolkien started a literary group dubbed “The Inklings,” of which Williams was a part of too. The Inklings continued to meet for the next 16 years, and some of the most compelling literature in history would come from this group. In 1934 Lewis wrote English Literature in the Sixteenth Century for the Oxford History of English Literature series, which wasn’t published until 1954 but became classic.
Lewis published his first science fiction novel in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet, after a conversation with Tolkien. It voiced his concerns about evolutionism and affirmed his steadfast view that traditional belief in Jesus is what leads to salvation.
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1939–1945
World War II
It wasn’t until World War II that Lewis became known as a Christian apologist. Works like Problem of Pain, Mere Christianity, The Case for Christianity, and Miracles, all written during this period, spoke powerfully and with a Christian view into the dark, war-weary culture.
In 1941 The Guardian published 31 “Screwtape Letters” in weekly episodes, published in 1942 as a book by the same name. In those “letters,” he wrote as a senior demon writing to a junior demon. The Screwtape Letters made him famous, elevating him to a nationally and internationally known Christian writer.
He served as president of the Oxford Socratic Club during this season, which opened debates between Christians and atheists (he was a popular debater on the forum). Those conversations spurred such work as Miracles, first published in 1947, a persuasive essay in Christian apologetics. Lewis became the Christian voice on BBC (1941–1944), where he broadcasted four talks on the Christian faith, making him a familiar voice to millions of listeners. Those talks eventually became Mere Christianity (published in 1952), one of the most important and beloved books on Christian apologetics of all time.
Lewis also gave nine memorable addresses during this time, eventually curated into the book The Weight of Glory, titled after what might be the most moving of the addresses. In it Lewis presented a clear and compelling discussion on forgiveness and faith.
Learn more about this period in C. S. Lewis’ life:
A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word “darkness” on the walls of his cell.
1946–1960
Post WWII
From the Kilns (and while in poor health and exhausted), Lewis wrote the entire Narnian chronicles in just five or six years. These books dominated his life during this season, as did a woman named Joy Davidman, a Jewish American writer, former Communist, and convert to Christianity. Their friendship that started as pen pals deepened to love, and though Joy was not well (she was battling bone cancer), in what Lewis thought were her dying moments, he married her in 1957—but she recovered and went on to help reshape his career in his later years. Inspired by their relationship and her illness, he wrote several books, including a memoir Surprised by Joy (1955)—which, though a bit odd, reveals Lewis’ view of joy and how he felt drawn to God.
In 1954 he started work at Cambridge as a professor and chair in medieval and renaissance literature. This gave him more time to write the dozen or so books he published while there, including The Four Loves (March 1960). In it, he explores the four aspects of love (affection, friendship, sexual, and selfless), exposes the pitfalls in human love, and posits agape (selfless) love, the kind God has for men and women, is the kind that must be developed to nurture relationships.
A few months later on July 13, 1960, his wife Joy passed away from cancer, and though her death tested his faith, he remained steadfast in his convictions.
Learn more about this period in C. S. Lewis’ life:
Four Loves (audio)
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A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia
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1961–November 1963
After Joy
Shortly after Joy’s death, Lewis wrote A Grief Observed under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk—an honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith amid loss—as a way of surviving what he called the “mad midnight moment.”
He also wrote Studies in Words, An Experiment in Criticism, and Letters to Malcolm in that dark season after Joy’s death. He retired from Cambridge in 1963, just a few months before passing away on November 22, 1963, in his home in Oxford with his brother at his side. He was buried in the graveyard at Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.
Learn more about this period in C. S. Lewis’ life:
Nothing will shake a man—or at any rate a man like me—out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.
1963–present
Impact
Lewis wrote more than 40 books translated into more than 30 languages in various genres ranging from apologetics, cultural criticism, history, and spiritual growth to poetry, sci-fi, and fantasy.
But as Walsh writes in The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis, Lewis’ work is not a temporary phenomenon: “More than a third of a century after the American edition of Screwtape, the sales of his books are running higher than ever. Meanwhile, he has acquired whole new audiences, such as the children who read and reread the Chronicles of Narnia.” His books have sold over 200 million copies.
“Perhaps more than any other twentieth-century author,” writes Walsh, “C. S. Lewis has played a role in people’s understanding of the Christian faith akin to the one that hymns used to play. His strength lay in his use of the imagination rather than his expertise as either exegete or theologian.”
Lewis’ intelligence and his imagination, taken together, are more than equal to the sum of the parts. In his fantasies, one always senses barely beneath the surface a powerful mind controlling the movement of events. In the expository and argumentative books, when the tools of logic are at full strength, there are sudden epiphanies of “Joy,” so that the rules of reason are sweetened by fragrances from a different land.
—Chad Walsh,
The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis
Explore C. S. Lewis’ Life and Legacy with These Resources
Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics
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Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal, 14 vols.(2007-2020)
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Lewis on the Christian Life: Becoming Truly Human in the Presence of God (Theologians on the Christian Life)
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Walking with C. S. Lewis: A Spiritual Journey through His Life and Writings (A Companion Guide)
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Mobile Ed: CS341 Influences on the Thought of C. S. Lewis (6 hour course - audio)
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The Literary Legacy of C.S. Lewis
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Christian History Magazine—Issue 7: C.S. Lewis: His Life, Thought & Theology
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C. S. Lewis: Writer, Dreamer, and Mentor
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Bright Shadow of Reality: Spiritual Longing in C. S. Lewis
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C. S. Lewis and Friends: Faith and the Power of Imagination
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C. S. Lewis: Clarity and Confusion; A Balanced Introduction to His Writings
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The Restitution of Man: C. S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism
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C. S. Lewis and the Church: Essays in Honour of Walter Hooper
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A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia
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C. S. Lewis for the Third Millennium: Six Essays on The Abolition of Man
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Travel with CS Lewis: The Creator of Narnia and the Most Quoted Christian of the 20th Century
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Further Up and Further In: Orthodox Conversations with C.S. Lewis on Scripture and Theology
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Coming Soon
C. S. Lewis as Philosopher, 2nd Edition: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
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Splendour in the Dark: C. S. Lewis’s Dymer in His Life and Work (Hansen Lectureship Series)
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C. S. Lewis’s List: The Ten Books That Influenced Him Most
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A Philosophical Walking Tour with C. S. Lewis: Why it Did Not Include Rome
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Sources consulted:
- • Harry Lee Poe, Becoming C. S. Lewis: A Biography of Young Jack Lewis (Crossway), 2019.
- • The C. S. Lewis Foundation, “C. S. Lewis Timeline,” https://www.cslewis.org/resource/chronocsl/
- • Official Website of C. S. Lewis, “About C. S. Lewis,” https://www.cslewis.com/us/about-cs-lewis/
- • Brenton Dickieson, “A Life of C. S. Lewis: A Timeline in 20 Minutes,” https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2020/01/07/20-life/, 20 January 2020.
- • Chad Walsh, The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis (Wipf and Stock), 2008.
- • Christian History Magazine, Issue 7: “C. S. Lewis: His Life, Thought & Theology” (Christian History Institute), 13.
- • Harry Lee Poe, The Making of C. S. Lewis: From Atheist to Apologist (Crossway), 2021.