[easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”047067279X” locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512p216SWAL._SL110_.jpg” width=”73″]Page 2: Alister McGrath – The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis
Then, McGrath proceeds to discuss Lewis’s “Argument from Desire” for the existence of God, which is connected with his concept of Joy. Lewis summarizes this argument in this statement from Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” (105). McGrath says that while some see Lewis’s argument as a deductive one, “it is clearly an abductive or inferential argument, primarily for the existence of Heaven or ‘another world,’ and only secondarily for the existence of God” (105). McGrath sets Lewis’s approach to joy and desire in its western literary, philosophical, and theological context.
McGrath then examines Lewis’s apologetic method, which he says “is best considered not so much as a coherent system, but as a series of loosely coordinated and shifting strategies” (131). McGrath first notes that Lewis’s developed the ability to translate the faith to various audiences. Lewis also, in various stages, appealed to and integrated reason, desire, and imagination to “defend and commend” (129) the Christian faith.
In chapter seven, McGrath discusses Lewis’s Anglicanism and concept of “mere Christianity,” a phrase which he borrowed from seventeenth century Puritan writer Richard Baxter. While Lewis held membership in the Church of England and viewed it as a distinctly English vision of Christianity, McGrath notes that Lewis was suspicious of denominationalism and did not write distinctly Anglican works. Lewis did not necessarily think denominations, such as the Church of England, should be abolished, but that “each such denomination was to be seen as a distinct embodiment or manifestation of something more fundamental – ‘mere Christianity’” (149). While Lewis believed “mere Christianity” held primacy over the denominations, he still believed denominations are “essential to the business of Christian living” (150). “Mere Christianity” is thus “the basic form of Christianity” that “underlies and nourishes all authentic forms of Christian belief and life, and allows these specific embodiments to be seen in a helpful context” (150).
In the last chapter, McGrath discusses Lewis as a theologian. While Lewis did not receive a formal theological education, some in his own time came to see him as an important theological voice, as seen in the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland conferring a Doctor of Divinity on Lewis in 1946. Despite this, others have seen Lewis as “outdated,” “populist,” and “theologically naïve,” as McGrath did himself during his early theological studies (164). While McGrath believes people “need to go beyond him,” “Lewis is the point of access for a large number of people to the serious study of theology” (164). While Lewis fails to interact with recent theological writers and often provides simplistic answers to difficult theological questions, McGrath concludes that since in Karl Barth’s words, “Theology is a matter for the Church” (166), that Lewis can and should be understood as a theologian (at the least a “popular theologian”). Other major theological voices of the last few centuries, like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Henry Newman, and Hans Urs von Balthasar also did not hold professional academic appointments in theology.
While I, like McGrath, have in many ways moved “beyond” Lewis in my years of theological study, McGrath’s volume has reminded me why I read and enjoyed Lewis in the first place, why I developed a strong interest in theology, and why reading Lewis’s works can still be rewarding for me and many others. While Lewis is not without his flaws, McGrath demonstrates that Lewis serves as a sophisticated voice that succeeded in translating theological concepts for the popular masses, both in his time and in the contemporary world. Pastors, professors, college and graduate students, as well as interested lay people, would benefit from reading The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis by itself, or in tandem with Alister McGrath’s biography C.S. Lewis: A Life.
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Shaun C. Brown is Associate Minister of Youth at Central Holston Christian Church in Bristol, TN, where he lives with his wife Sherri, dog Max, and cats Tonks and Lupin
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
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