Voices and influences
C.S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) was an Oxford- and Cambridge-trained literary scholar, novelist, lay theologian, and broadcast apologist.
Summary
This site lists 8 works by this voice and holds no quotation yet.
- Lived 1898 to 1963, British.
C.S. Lewis
- Lived
- 1898 to 1963
- Nation
- British
- Tradition
- High-church Anglican
Own words
This site holds no quotation from C.S. Lewis yet. The reading list below is where to go for this voice's own words in the meantime.
Influence, on the record
On this site, 1 study draws on this voice.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) was an Oxford- and Cambridge-trained literary scholar, novelist, lay theologian, and broadcast apologist. Raised in Belfast in nominal Anglicanism, he became an atheist in adolescence, then converted first to theism (1929) and then to Christianity (1931) under the influence of friends including J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. He held the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at Cambridge from 1954. His BBC wartime broadcasts (1941–1944) were collected as Mere Christianity (1952), the most widely circulated lay apologetic of the 20th century. He published roughly 30 books across fiction (Narnia, Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces), apologetics (Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, Miracles), literary criticism, and devotional theology.
8 works
How to read this voice
Mere Christianity
1952; based on BBC broadcasts 1941–44
The most-read lay apologetic in modern English. The "mere Christianity" framing — what is held across orthodox traditions — is itself a methodological contribution.
The Problem of Pain
1940
Lewis's first major theological book; the philosophical case for the goodness of God in a world of suffering.
A Grief Observed
1961
The honest companion volume to Problem of Pain — the same questions, written from inside grief after the death of his wife Joy Davidman. Functions as a brake on triumphalist theodicy.
The Screwtape Letters
1942
The diagnostic anatomy of temptation and spiritual subversion in fictional epistolary form; a load-bearing text for Christian formation in the 20th century.
The Chronicles of Narnia
1950–1956
Imaginative theology — Christology, atonement, eschatology, and discipleship dramatized in mythic form. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe depicts a ransom/governmental atonement; The Last Battle renders eschatology in Platonic-Christian imagery.
Miracles: A Preliminary Study
1947
The philosophical case against naturalism; the foundational text for Lewis's argument-from-reason apologetic.
The Great Divorce
1945
Imaginative treatment of heaven, hell, judgment, and the persistence of self-chosen damnation; key text for Lewis's eschatological imagination.
The Weight of Glory
sermon, 1941; collection 1949
The single most concentrated statement of his anthropology and eschatology. The "weight of glory" image of the human destiny is widely quoted across traditions.