Customer Reviews

C. S. Lewis, Light-Bearer in the Shadowlands: The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis

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This excellent study looks at the impact of Lewis in the lives of others through his writings, such as the well known Christian writer Charles Colson, the Socratic Club of Oxford, posthumously through the movie "Shadowlands," and in other ways. Lewis described his writing, not as evangelistic writing, but as praeparatio evangelica in Latin (translated "preparation for the Gospel"). Other writers address the similarity of Lewis to the apostle Paul (editor Angus Menuge) and the usefulness of the writings of Lewis for addressing postmodern people. My recommendation: buy it!

The book is a collection of sixteen articles written by as many contributors, each focusing on the evangelistic import of the life and work of C.S. Lewis. These are dispersed under four headings, as follows: Pt.I The Motivation: The Influence and Potential of Lewis's Evangelism; Pt.II The Explanation: Why Was Lewis Such an Effective Evangelist?; Pt.III The Technique: Making Christianity Plausible; Pt.IV The Argument: Defending the Faith.

As I am not aware of any other book that so specifically approaches this angle of Lewis, I recommend it to all who are interested in learning more about the motivation behind the man. However, (with all due respect to Mr. Menuge, whose own article outlining certain similarities between the Apostle Paul and Lewis is interesting enough)... I feel that the book as a whole would have benefitted by more careful editing. For instance, there are quotations (some lengthy) which are repeated, and several instances when the reader is left to wonder "Hey, didn't I just read about this in a previous article?" ...Well actually, yes you DID !

On the redeeming side, the book opens with Wayne Martindale's excellent and much needed expose of the inaccuracies latent in the 1993 film "Shadowlands" which featured Anthony Hopkins in the role of Lewis. Martindale's research reveals that those most closely involved in the production of this (otherwise commendable) movie were not governed by portrayal of truth or fact. And those who are interested in Lewis's personal understanding of "longing" or "sehnsucht" will appreciate Douglas T. Hyatt's article entitled "Joy, The Call Of God In Man." Drawing much upon "The Pilgrim's Regress" Hyatt delineates Lewis's "argument from desire" and goes on to show how several other great thinkers like Augustine, Pascal, and even (horrors) Nietzsche, also taught on the concept of the "longing" that cannot be filled by any earthly thing.

The occasional less-than-magnificent article notwithstanding, this is still a book that is successful in showing how consistently Christ-centered Lewis was. And considering how weighty and memorable Lewis's pronouncements always were, one wonders whether Menuge's decision at repetition was intentional. If so, I add the fifth star.

Lewis would have been most interested in this work, a collection of essays by some modern thinkers engaged in discovering and sharing Lewis' approach to engaging with the tous exo, those outside the church.

These span the vectors of philosophy, literary, personal, etc. with the attempt in mind to explain why he was and remains so inviting to such an unbelieving secular age.

Having consumed just about half of these writings thus far, I found them to be engaging and enlightening. Especially delighted with Michael Ward's contribution: Lewis's Depictions of Conversion. He finds in Lewis the attitude which I concur with, that of getting the attention off of us knowing God, but that of God knowing us! As this quote from first Lewis' Narnia film recently shows in Eustace conversing with Edmund: "Do you know Aslan?," to which Edmund replies, "Well--he knows me." The chief end of man is not to love God but to be loved by God." Amen!

Well worth read for the Lewis fan.