C.S. Lewis

A couple posts ago, I wrote about religion in The Lord of the Rings.  Since I'm sort of interested in religion in literature as well as religious authors, I figured I'd use this post to write about one of the most prominent Christian authors: C.S. Lewis.  Beloved for his fantasy novels (specifically, The Chronicles of Narnia series), Clive Staples Lewis was a lecturer at Oxford for almost thirty years until he became a literature professor in Cambridge in 1955.  Surprisingly, since he is well known for imbuing his works with Christian themes, he was raised in religion but became an agnostic during his teens.  Interestingly enough, it was J.R.R Tolkien, most famous as the author of The Lord of the Rings, who was partly responsible for Lewis's return to Christianity.  The two were great friends, and both were members of a literary society called the Inklings.  Like Tolkien, Lewis was able to put Christian and religious themes and ideas into his writings and therefore was able to convey what he saw as the meaning of religion.  One of the most notable instances of Christianity appears in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Aslan, a clear Jesus figure, sacrifices himself on the stone table and manages to rise again from the dead.  Lewis's other writings include The Screwtape Letters, Miracles, The Abolition of Man, and Mere Christianity, among others.  I will actually be doing my book review this semester on Mere Christianity, and I'm really quite looking forward to reading it, as The Chronicles of Narnia were some of my favorite books growing up!  Lewis was also one of those people that was able to turn his own experiences and pain into writing that could have a profound effect on his readers, an example being A Grief Observed, which was written after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.  Personally, I think C.S. Lewis also has some fantastic quotes, some of which I would like to relay right now.  There really are lots, but, speaking now as someone who has grown up with religion, these two are my favorites:  "There are far far better things ahead than any we leave behind" and, "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that we were made for another world."  For Christians, and this is just my opinion, there really is no better writer than C.S. Lewis.