Screwtape to the Rescue
While shopping for textbooks my first semester in the college bookstore, I came across a little paperback with a plain black cover and a picture of flames, titled The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil. That subtitle piqued my interest, as did the few pages I sampled in the bookstore aisle. The Screwtape Letters was the first book I ever purchased on my own. I had never heard of the author: C. S. Lewis.
The Screwtape Letters, explaining sin and temptation from the devil’s perspective, revolutionized my view of Satan. I loved the way C. S. Lewis thought and communicated. He thought deeply and communicated simply. I wanted to learn to do both.
C. S. Lewis was an Oxford-trained professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature. He was an atheist but through the influence of scholarly Christian friends, including J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis became a Christian in his early 30’s. In the scientific age of the 20th century that was increasingly abandoning faith as irrational, Lewis defended Christianity with incisive reasoning and plain speech in books like Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. It was those works of C. S. Lewis that grounded me in the Christian faith. I didn’t discover The Chronicles of Narnia (which have made Lewis a household name today) until later.
C. S. Lewis had the gift of presenting complicated ideas in simple illustrations. For example, in The Four Loves Lewis distinguishes “falling in love” from “being in love” as the difference between diving and swimming, and Lewis noted that many prefer the thrill of the dive to the arduous labor of swimming.
Lewis also possessed the ability to limit his words and to speak in memorable quotes. One of my favorites explaining how going ‘backward’ can actually be progress: “If you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-face and walking back to the right road.”
For a time in pastoral ministry my faith wavered, largely because of things I was feeling. C. S. Lewis played a big role in restoring my faith, demanding that I get my feelings off the throne and bring them into line with reasoned truth. Lewis rescued my faith.
When I look back over my life at the people who molded me, C. S. Lewis is one of the key figures that the Lord has used to mold the way I think and teach.
The Screwtape Letters, explaining sin and temptation from the devil’s perspective, revolutionized my view of Satan. I loved the way C. S. Lewis thought and communicated. He thought deeply and communicated simply. I wanted to learn to do both.
C. S. Lewis was an Oxford-trained professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature. He was an atheist but through the influence of scholarly Christian friends, including J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis became a Christian in his early 30’s. In the scientific age of the 20th century that was increasingly abandoning faith as irrational, Lewis defended Christianity with incisive reasoning and plain speech in books like Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. It was those works of C. S. Lewis that grounded me in the Christian faith. I didn’t discover The Chronicles of Narnia (which have made Lewis a household name today) until later.
C. S. Lewis had the gift of presenting complicated ideas in simple illustrations. For example, in The Four Loves Lewis distinguishes “falling in love” from “being in love” as the difference between diving and swimming, and Lewis noted that many prefer the thrill of the dive to the arduous labor of swimming.
Lewis also possessed the ability to limit his words and to speak in memorable quotes. One of my favorites explaining how going ‘backward’ can actually be progress: “If you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-face and walking back to the right road.”
For a time in pastoral ministry my faith wavered, largely because of things I was feeling. C. S. Lewis played a big role in restoring my faith, demanding that I get my feelings off the throne and bring them into line with reasoned truth. Lewis rescued my faith.
When I look back over my life at the people who molded me, C. S. Lewis is one of the key figures that the Lord has used to mold the way I think and teach.