[easyazon_image add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”0190214341″ cloaking=”default” height=”333″ localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Adh59COCL.jpg” tag=”douloschristo-20″ width=”222″]The Complexity and Tension within C.S. Lewis’s Work
A Feature Review of
C. S. Lewis and His Circle: Essays and Memoirs from the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society
Edited by Roger White, Judith Wolfe, and Brendan N. Wolfe
Hardback: Oxford University Press, 2015
Buy now: [ [easyazon_link asin=”0190214341″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”douloschristo-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Amazon[/easyazon_link]] [ [easyazon_link asin=”B00WM0CXH4″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”douloschristo-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Kindle[/easyazon_link] ]
Reviewed by Andrew Stout
Judith and Brendan Wolf have been responsible for facilitating and producing some of the very best scholarship on C. S. Lewis in recent years. In addition to their roles as editors of the Journal of Inklings Studies, they have brought together excellent essays on the Lewis’s ecclesiology in C. S. Lewis and the Church: Essays in Honour of Walter Hooper (T&T Clark, 2011) and on his cosmology in C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra: Reshaping the Image of the Cosmos (The Kent State University Press, 2013). These volumes, featuring theological, philosophical, and literary perspectives, offer critical and insightful engagements with Lewis’s writing that reveal the depth of both his scholarly and popular works. With C. S. Lewis and His Circle, the Wolfes, along with Roger White, have added another valuable contribution to the literature on the remarkable Oxford literary community centered on Lewis.
C.S. Lewis and His Circle is different from the previously mentioned books, however. Instead of bringing together new scholarship, it is something of an archival project. The book is a collection of talks delivered to the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society. Suzanne and Gregory Wolfe (a different set of Wolfes from the editors), who founded the society in 1982, provide a brief foreword that lays out their founding vision for a student society “that grappled with the rich relationship between Christianity, culture, and the imagination, including literature” (ix). This vision has been carried on throughout the society’s history, providing a platform for some of the most important twentieth century English theologians and philosophers, including some of Lewis’s friends and colleagues, to continue grappling with these issues through reflection on Lewis’s legacy.
The books is divided into two parts, “Essays” and “Memoirs.” The first part includes philosophical and theological readings of Lewis. Alister McGrath presents a summary of Lewis’s apologetic method, especially his argument from desire. Elizabeth Anscombe gives a close reading and critique of Chapter III of Lewis’s Miracles, a chapter that Lewis revised after a devastating critique delivered by Anscombe at the Socratic Club thirty eight years earlier in 1947. From a literary perspective, recent Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers a reassessment of the novel That Hideous Strength which combines spiritual maturity and a comprehensive grasp of the form of the novel for a skillful literary critique. Michael Piret’s essay on W. H. Auden details the striking parallels between the poet’s expressions of religious longing and those of Lewis, as well as the formative role played by Charles Williams and J. R. R. Tolkien on Auden’s imagination.
While there are other collections of personal memoirs from those who knew Lewis (including Light on C. S. Lewis and C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table), the editors point out the significance of the reflections that make up the second part of this book: “We thought we had seen the last of these primary source anthologies and the exclusive context they bring because the voices within and directly linked to this group are disappearing” (xii). A familial memoir by Joan Murphy, first cousin, once removed to Lewis, provides a unique portrait of “Jacks” and especially of his father, Albert Lewis. Peter Bide, the priest who married Lewis and Joy Davidman, sheds light on their controversial marriage. As Bide reflects on his own struggles to reconcile the couple’s desire to be married with the Church of England’s restrictions on the remarriage of divorcées, the reader gets both personal and theological insight into a controversial episode in Lewis’s biography, as well as a snapshot of the shifting theological climate of the Church of England.
Of all the chapters in the book, one in particular captures the spirit of the whole project. Owen Barfield’s “Lewis and/or Barfield” is a personal remembrance of Lewis that is shot through with insightful analysis of his work. Barfield distinguishes between “on the one hand, what I call [Lewis’s] theological utterances and, on the other, his literary utterances” (216). This is a critical and well supported distinction. Though Barfield played a crucial role in Lewis’s conversion to theism, the two were divided on the issue of the evolution of human consciousness, a significant part of Barfield’s anthroposophist views. However, Barfield detects a sort of implicit sympathy in the “literary” Lewis for the view that the relationship between God and the collective consciousness of man evolves with time. This is set in contrast to the “theological” Lewis who is primarily concerned with the relationship between God and the individual. I think this distinction gets at the complexity and tension within Lewis’s own work. Among other things, it indicates how Lewis can appeal to thinkers of diverse religious and social viewpoints.
For as good as most of the individual contributions are, the book as a whole is hampered by weaknesses. The fact that each chapter was originally delivered as a talk means that the issues discussed tend to lack the specificity and distinctiveness of the other volumes that the Wolfes have edited. The more general quality of the essays lends itself to overlap and repetition. This is particularly true of the two essays by Walter Hooper. Portions of these essays, one covering the development of the individual installments of the Narnian books and the other a profile of the Inklings, are repeated almost verbatim. While Hooper’s firsthand knowledge of Lewis and his editorial work are invaluable, the repetition makes the volume drag a bit. With so much good literature (and bad literature for that matter) available on Lewis and the Inklings, this repetition of information (and it isn’t new information) is an unfortunate distraction.
These weaknesses are far outshone by the scholarly and personal insights the book provides. One final aspect I was personally pleased to find is a focus on the role of Charles Williams, both as an influence on Lewis and as an important literary and theological figure in his own right. Chapters by Kallistos Ware and Paul S. Fiddes focus on sacramentalism and the problem of evil, respectively, in Williams’s work, and the presence of Williams is strongly felt throughout the rest of the book. This emphasis is in keeping with the increased attention that Williams is receiving in Inklings studies. Amidst the sea of publications on Lewis and the Inklings, this gathering of some of the most perceptive of Lewis’s interpreters requires the attention of anyone who wants to think along with and get to know Lewis and his circle.
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
Understanding Christian Nationalism [A Reading Guide] |
 Most Anticipated Books of the Fall for Christian Readers!
|
 Hilarious One-Star Customer Reviews of Bibles |
![Eliza Griswold - Circle of Hope [Feature Review]](https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Holiness-Here.jpeg "Eliza Griswold - Circle of Hope [Feature Review]")
