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Book Review: A Deeper Look at Lewis

June 21st, 2008 at 10:33pm Albert McIlhenny

Narnia And Beyond: A Guide to the Fiction of C. S. Lewis – Thomas Howard Ignatius Press (February 2006) Topic: Literature; Christian Culture Summary: Analysis of the underlying themes in the fictional works of C. S. Lewis Rating:

C. S. Lewis is nearly half a century after his death stands as one of the most revered figures of the twentieth century Church. An atheist whose coversions to theism and then the Christian faith were arduous, Lewis is today much admired by figures across the ecclesial spectrum. Much of his popularity is based upon his works in apologetics, particularly the classic Mere Christianity, so it is often forgotten that the main thrust of his output was in fictional works. Given his output in fantasy and science fiction, two areas that have grown in popularity since his death, he has ensured himself new generations of readers and the quality of his writing has produced more than a few opportunities for professors of literature to examine his corpus.

Perhaps there is no single figure better able to grasp the interior meaning of Lewis’ writing than Thomas Howard. Although one cannot compare Howard’s status to that of Lewis, there are some similarities between the two men that give Howard some insight into Lewis’ thinking. Both men were figures in the field of English literature, both were outspoken defenders of the Christian faith. Both had ties to Evangelicalism, Anglicanism, and Catholicism. Most importantly, both men shared a worldview that argued that what passed as progress was not necessarily a bleesing to society merely on account of its novelty and that there while our knowledge of the natural world and our mastery of it has grown tremendously, the understanding of the things beyond the material – the things of the soul – has suffered immeasurable damage.

In Narnia & Beyond, Howard examines the fictional work of C. S. Lewis against the backdrop of this understanding and in so doing relieves us of many simplistic misconceptions of Lewis’ writing. Formost among these is to see Lewis solely as a Christian apologist. Such an approach is not surprising given the reaction to the recent film version of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe from Lewis’ series The Narnia Chronicles. Both Evangelical supporters and secular critics of the film were quick to point out the correspondences between Lewis’ tale and the Christian story and see this as Christian propaganda pure and simple with predictable reactions. Howard points out that while there are certainly similarities, such an approach overstates the case.

Lewis’ work, Howard argues, is primarily about what would in another time be called virtues: charity, valor, chastity, holiness, and a host of other concepts that sound to the ears of modernity like relics of a bygone era. These are ideas that are connected to what was called the natural law and was shared in all societies – Christian or not – to the degree of their conformity to an objective standard of what is just. These virtues reach their zenith in Jesus Christ and hence the more the subject approaches them, the stronger the relationship to the Christian story will naturally be. Here there are parallels to Lewis’ longtime friend J. R. R. Tolkien, whose own Lord of the Rings displays similar features.

So it is with each of the works Howard considers in the second through sixth chapters as Howard gets to the root of Lewis’ thoughts and places them in the context of his literary and philosophical influences. The contrasts that have dominated the thought of every great civilization prior to modernity: good and evil, valor and cowardice, charity and greed, chastity and liscentiousness, and others all play out in Lewis’ vision of things – a vision, Howard contends, often misunderstood because we moderns (and postmoderns) do not acknowledge the same categories as our forefathers. As we have traded external standards for internal feelings, ideals both noble and ignoble become blurred in the mist of subjectivity. Paradise has not only been lost, it has for us ceased to matter.

One must openly wonder if many of those who extoll Lewis as the epitome of the Evangelical Protestant scholar ever have given thought to the fact that he was an Anglican who many of them would have considered “soft” on Catholicism. In Narnia & Beyond, Thomas Howard has managed to remove Lewis from the often skewed image of him presented in American Protestant circles and restore him to his proper literary context. Like many devout Anglican and Catholic authors of the first half of the twentieth century, Lewis understood the Christian faith is not expressed solely in propositions but also through art, literature, music, and poetry as it permeates every facet of our existence. For those seeking insight into one of the last century’s greatest defenders of the faith, this book cannot be missed.

Entry Filed under: Christian Culture, Essential Books, Howard, Thomas, Literary Criticism