The C.S. Lewis You Never Knew
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C.S. Lewis and Christianity fit nicely together in the same sentence. One of his most beloved works is even called Mere Christianity. The irony of Lewis is that were he alive today he would be the last person that you would suspect as an evangelical Christian. To read Lewis seeking doctrinal instruction is a fools errand and yet his value to Christian thought is inestimable.
Author, and pastor John Piper put Lewis into perspective in a recent lecture delivered at the Desiring God Pastors Conference. In his address entitled, Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul: Learning from the Mind and Heart of C. S. Lewis, Piper said:
“He doesn’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, and defaults to logical arguments more naturally than to biblical exegesis. He doesn’t treat the Reformation with respect, but thinks it could have been avoided, and calls aspects of if farcical. He steadfastly refused in public or in letters to explain why he was not a Roman Catholic but remained in the Church of England. He makes room for at least some people to be saved through imperfect representations of Christ in other religions. He made a strong logical, but I think unbiblical, case for free will to explain why there is suffering in the world. He speaks of the atonement with reverence, but puts little significance on any of the explanations for how it actually saves sinners…In other words, Lewis is not a writer to which we should turn for growth in a careful biblical understanding of Christian doctrine.”
So why is it that so many Christians even those who, like Piper and myself, are at odds with Lewis doctrinally find in him a sympathetic soul?
Piper explains,
“Which brings us back now to why that is. What was it about the work of C. S. Lewis that has helped me so much? The answer lies in the way that the experience of Joy and the defense of Truth come together in Lewis’s life and writings. The way Lewis deals with these two things—Joy and Truth—is so radically different from Liberal theology and emergent postmodern slipperiness that he is simply in another world—a world where I am totally at home, and where I find both my heart and my mind awakened and made more alive and perceptive and responsive and earnest and hopeful and amazed and passionate for the glory of God every time I turn to C. S. Lewis. It’s this combination of experiencing the stab of God-shaped joy and defending objective, absolute Truth, because of the absolute Reality of God, that sets Lewis apart as unparalleled in the modern world. To my knowledge, there is simply no one else who puts these two things together the way Lewis does.”
I strongly urge you to read the whole lecture which can be found at Piper’s website.
