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C. S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life

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Although there are many books on the thought of C. S. Lewis, most of them are concerned with specific and relatively small areas of his overall work (relative being the key term here, considering the great territory the man's thoughts took in). An Amazon search for books on Lewis will reveal books on Lewis' view of gen...der, his view of heaven and hell, the planets of the solar system within his Narnia books, his argument from reason within "Miracles," his philosophy of education--but to my knowledge, no attempt up till now has been made to comprehensively and systematically summarize Lewis' philosophy, let alone his philosophical development. Such an attempt would be daunting, indeed. And yet, Adam Barkman has attempted--and succeeded in--just that task in his new book, "C. S. Lewis and Philosophy as a Way of Life."

The book is divided into two halves, the first dealing with Lewis' development as a philosopher, and the second with Lewis' positions on specific areas of philosophy, such as metaphysics, ethics, and so on. Such an analysis might sound like it would be as dry as unbuttered toast--and it likely would be of most other thinkers--but two points must be remembered.

First, Lewis is the subject. Even the most amateur treatment would provide at least some interest solely based on the overwhelming interest of Lewis himself. (There is a reason why we are all still reading Lewis' books!) But Barkman's treatment of the subject matter is the furthest thing from amateur. A brief glance at the book's footnotes reveals that the author has done his homework.

Second, Barkman carefully and clearly explains Lewis' view of philosophy as being a "way of life." This means that Lewis' philosophy was not of the 'purely academic, intellectual hair-splitting' variety, of which would only be of interest to specialists and students of philosophy. Lewis' philosophy was concerned with how we live; it was concerned with truth, and, most importantly, with living by it. As such, the subject matter is of interest to everyone.

The book is expansive, at over 600 pages, but the length is justified. The wide scope of the book is testament not only to the breadth of Lewis' thought, but also to Barkman's admirable exploration of such a worthy topic. He draws from all corners of the Lewis library, and "Way of Life" serves as an introduction to many of Lewis' lesser known works. Also, one doesn't need to be a fan of Lewis, or even know much about Lewis to gain greatly from this book. Owing to the breadth of Lewis' philosophical interests and how well-read he was, and to the fact that Barkman has meticulously tracked down the sources of Lewis' ideas, this book serves as a great introduction for the neophyte to a very wide range of philosophy.

My personal favourite was the chapter on Myth, Myth being an essential part of Lewis' journey to becoming a Christian. This chapter epitomizes Barkman's ability to give the reader much of the richness of the ideas that influenced Lewis without diminishing them into mere asides because of their relation to his development and mature thought. Myth is just such an idea that deserves contemplation, especially by any lovers of story (e.g. anyone who loved "Lord of the Rings"). As I said before, this book could be read by someone ignorant of who the man C. S. Lewis was, and that same reader would be enthralled by the vitality and profundity of the ideas it contains. Lewis was a lover of truth, and I'm convinced that this book will transform many readers into the same.... See More

As someone who has always admired Lewis books, I felt like I kind of owed it to the man to try and understand more of the genius behind the pen. This book is a must for any fan of Lewis, and I can probably assume, an avid reader of the philosophy as well.

This book is excellent. Highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to explore Christian philosophy in an interesting new light.

C .S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life is a weighty tome that demands much of the reader and reaches more than 600 pages. It's no bed time reading or a missive for the sluggish of heart and head. Barkman has done his homework well, and he has convincingly demonstrated that Lewis was a philosopher of worth and note, and in his philosophical ponderings, Lewis engaged most of the important philosophical traditions of the past and in his time. Lewis never flinched from entering the lion's den of the modern world, and he did so with flair and insight. It was in the tensions and pressures that Lewis faced that made him the convincing apologist he was. Those with lesser commitments and discipline shrink from the challenges that Lewis dared to encounter as a way of life.

C.S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life is divided into two large sections: `Philosophical Definition, Journey and Identity' and `The Branches of Philosophy'. Each section probes and probes, in a relentless manner, the meticulous issues that Lewis lived and thought about in his rigorous philosophical journey and life. Lewis lives on when others falter and fall for the simple reason that he confronted the hard and fearful challenges that came his way. There are those that flee into a pietistic cocoon when the demands on mind and soul become too trying. Lewis never indulged in such a form of spiritual narcissism.

There are those who mostly know Lewis through his more popular science fiction, classics of literature for children and some of his more accessible missives and articles on Christian apologetics. Lewis has become, in some ways, a plaything and poster boy for the evangelical tribe, but when the life and thinking of Lewis is understood in its fullness, he would certainly question the evangelical ethos that has come to call him one of their own. A read through C.S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life is a must read and keeper for those that are interested in knowing Lewis at a much deeper and more philosophical level. The brilliance of this tome is the way that Barkman has proved, again and again, that Lewis was a philosopher who thought and lived the demanding issues of his time, and if we ever hope to seriously know Lewis, this is the path each of us must walk to grow into the fullness of faith in a world in which faith has turned to other gods.

Do read C.S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life. The faith pilgrimage will be much richer because of the journey taken with Lewis.

Ron Dart

This is what Victor Reppert, the author of C. S. LEWIS'S DANGEROUS IDEA, wrote about the book:

C. S. Lewis's work is certainly varied, from children's fantasy fiction, to science fiction, to scholarly writings in English literature, to Christian apologetics, and of course this is only the beginning. Most of this work has philosophical relevance to a greater or lesser extent. While some attention has been paid to Lewis as a philosopher in recent years, in general I would have to say that, for the most part, Lewis has been neglected even by Christian philosophers.

Some of Lewis's critics would attribute this to the fact that while Lewis was capable of powerful rhetoric, the philosophical thinking underlying his writings is shallow, superficial, and prone to fallacy. Such is the verdict of John Beversluis's C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion. Now, Beversluis apparently considers the Christian theism that Lewis defends to be in error. But other philosophers who indeed embrace Lewis's overall philosophical perspective often find him difficult to bring into contemporary philosophical debate. This is partly because Lewis's writings are not typically written for an audience of philosophers, and also because philosophical style and terminology is subject to change. A professional philosophical culture has developed in the Anglo-American world that was not present when Lewis was getting his philosophical training, and Lewis didn't consider it has calling to address that culture. This makes Lewis something of a misfit from the point of view of present-day philosophy. He is, I believe, closer to what we today would call analytic philosophy than he is to Continental philosophy, and yet his work doesn't fit the framework of contemporary analytic philosophy either.

People who want to make use of Lewis's work in the context of contemporary philosophy have to do a certain amount of translating. Lewis's argument from reason, for example, today meets with objections based on cognitive science, or supervenience theory, or functionalism, or eliminativism, all concepts that Lewis would not have known about in his time. Hence, in my work defending the argument, Lewis provides the basic idea and the starting point, but I have to develop the argument to make it responsive to current philosophical developments.

Some critical readers of Lewis's apologetics focus on certain sharply-worded passages which seem to make Christian apologetics look easy, indeed easier than it really is. Yet an acquaintance with Lewis's overall work leaves us firmly convinced that his convictions were reached at the end of a long, hard process. That process seems indeed to have been a process of long philosophical reflection. While philosophers such as myself have concentrated on bringing Lewis's arguments into play in contemporary philosophy, Adam Barkman has taken a different path, and that path primarily involves tracing out Lewis's philosophical journey, and trying to understand the philosophical positions he takes through the lens of that journey.

The first step in that process is to replace a narrowly professional conception of philosophy with the idea of philosophy as a way of life. It is this concept of philosophy that Plato would have understood, as opposed to the idea that a philosopher is someone who has a job with a philosophy department and delivers papers to APA meetings on a regular basis.

Barkman's second step is to trace out Lewis's philosophical journey leading up to his conversion to Christianity, a conversion he frequently described as an almost purely philosophical conversion. We now have access to a comprehensive set of Lewis letters, and other biographical material that Lewis scholars of previous generations could only dream about, and Barkman makes good use of them to reconstruct this story. Barkman claims that Lewis's own account of his conversion story in Surprised by Joy actually downplays the philosophical content of his conversion for the sake of his audience. (I should note that, in spite of this, you can see Lewis's philosophical wheels turning even in that book. For example, in Lewis's account of his rejection of what he there calls Realism we see the biographical basis of his Argument from Reason). The starting point for Barkman's study is from an account of Lewis's own development found in his preface to Pilgrim's Regress, he offers an account of the philosophical content of the stages of his conversion:

'On the intellectual side my own progress had been from 'popular realism' to Philosophical Idealism; from Idealism to Pantheism; from Pantheism to Theism; and from Theism to Christianity.

However, Barkman finds this summary somewhat incomplete. "Popular realism" has to be identified as a metaphysical materialism. Barkman also identifies a "metaphysical dualist" phase in 1918 which is left out of this account. Third, a distinction has to be drawn between Lucretian materialism and Stoical materialism. When Lewis became an idealist, he oscillated between subjective idealism and absolute idealism, identifying only absolute idealism with pantheism. In fact, he thinks there were seven stages on Lewis's way: Lucretian Materialism, Pseudo-Manichean Dualism, Stoical Materialism, Subjective Idealism, Absolute Idealism, Theism, and Neoplatonic Christianity.

At this point it pays to pause and consider how different the philosophical climate is today than it was in this time. Many debates in philosophy or religion are conducted between people who accept some version of materialism and those who accept some kind of theism, and idealisms of whatever sort are not currently on the map. When Lewis rejected materialism, he became, not a theist, but an idealist, and then after that found reasons for becoming a theist.

Once the template of these various positions is laid out, he proceeds to use them to trace Lewis's development as it concerns various ideas, such as heavenly desire, myth, culture, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics. The insights he provides from a chronological perspective are worthwhile certainly. Sometimes, he defends Lewis's central claims, such as when he defends the argument from desire. And sometimes, he is critical, as when he discusses the so-called "trilemma" argument, where he takes the view that the argument is at best very incomplete, since it merely assumes that Lewis made claims to his own divinity.

The book is long, (611 pages) and it takes work to get something out of it. But it will reward those who study it carefully.

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An excellent study of one of the most influential Christian writers of the past century.