Entries that relate to C.S. Lewis and his work.
This is a very good and recent (2013) biography. One annotation I made (139): The fact that Lewis’s conversion was bifurcated — that is, first he became a theist, then a Christian — is “Interesting/reassurring” re my short essay (elsewhere on this site), “Why Am I Christian (and You Should Be, Too), in 600 Words.”
There are about forty excerpts from a Who’s Who of Christian theologians (Luther, Calvin, St. Thomas, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, etc.). Needless to say, there is some good stuff in here; there’s also a biography, bibliography, and questions for each. Note: I did not read the whole book (my notes don’t say why). I read the … [Read more…]
This is a very interesting selection (made by “Renovare,” by the way). First there is commentary and then there are excerpts from each. Some notes: Calvin is much more accessible than I would have thought. He also interprets Scripture with an eye on what is implicit as well as explicit in it; it’s very … [Read more…]
I read this because Professor Timothy Shutt of Kenyon College recommended it in an audiobook lecture as a great way to see what life was like in the provinces of the Roman Empire; because it’s the only surviving ancient Latin novel, and a rare documentation of life in the lower classes; and for the story … [Read more…]
Lewis regards MacDonald as his “master,” but in the preface acknowledges that sometimes MacDonald’s writing is not all that great (and so, by the way, I have not read beyond these selections). MacDonald seems to me to be more of a mystic, which is not really my cup of tea — but why should every … [Read more…]
This biography of C.S. Lewis by one of his stepsons is a short and enjoyable read. It doesn’t really offer any insight into his work, but it does make clear what a selfless man he was (and not just with Joy, but also with Janie More, Warnie, and others). Not very well edited; sometimes it … [Read more…]
This close reading of Mark is very good, though it drags a bit toward the end. The author says C.S. Lewis is his “favorite author”; he cites N.T. Wright, too. And he says that a key way to cultivate faith is to pray for if (cf. 56). “And straightway the father of the child cried … [Read more…]
This is a scene-by-scene/each-year-a-chapter biography by a Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Macmillan editor. I wasn’t really ready for another Lewis biography, having just finished The Narnian (in February 2012, discussed elsewhere on this site), so I just read the introductory material and chapter 1 (“1925”) and then all that piqued my interest from the index entries.
This is an excellent, sympathetic biography by, I am sure, a Christian (Jacobs is an English professor and director of the Faith and Learning Program at Wheaton College in Illinois). Lewis notes that some disputes about doctrine are not resolvable and/or don’t matter for us (214-15), a point I make elsewhere on this site. The … [Read more…]
First of all, note that these are letters not to Joy Davidson, but to another American lady. She’s a Southerner, older and frequently ill, which prompts Lewis to say that, though he has been critical of Britain’s welfare state, he likes the fact that everyone there has free healthcare — though he recognizes it means … [Read more…]