C.S. Lewis: A Short Introduction

C.S. Lewis (1898-1953) was the most talented and lucid apologist for Christianity that the last century produced. In essays, critical studies, poems, novels and works of autobiography, he turned his formidable literary gifts to the task of re-presenting the Christian view of human destiny to a world bewildered by scientific materialism. He did not shirk the real difficulties that Christian belief encounters, nor did he down-play the cost of faith in an age of self-indulgence. Nevertheless, the radiant happiness and good sense that shine through his prose have never ceased to find new and eager readers, and his books remain part of the canonical wisdom of our culture. Philip Van der Elst surveys the whole of Lewis’s vast output and gives a clear and illuminating summary of his stance towards the outstanding questons of our civilisation. Setting the writings within the context of Lewis’s own painful life and striking conversion, he shows the enduring importance of a thinker whose vision of modern life was both comprehensive and profoundly optimistic. Van der Elst’s book provides a lucid and stimulating introduction; for those already familiar with Lewis’s writings it offers a challenging analysis of their meaning and of the continuous thread of argument which runs all through their various themes. An indispensable guide to an indispensable thinker.