The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (review)

The Cambridge Companion to Religion series presents important religious topics as seen through the eyes of prominent scholars in theology and religious studies. The inclusion of C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) to this canon is a necessity for both professional theologians and laymen alike. Thanks to the efforts of Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward, this lacuna has been satisfied.

Lewis is more than just the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, books written for children that have enjoyed some publicity of late due to their discovery by Hollywood. Lewis was a scholar, Christian apologist, poet, novelist, distinguished professor, and literary critic. The Cambridge Companion brings together a collection of essays about Lewis’s accomplishments by scholars and intellectuals—all of whom are experts in the field of Lewisania.

In the introduction MacSwain explains that the goal of the Cambridge Companion is to give a fair and balanced account of Lewis’s contributions to literary and theological studies. He examines Lewis’s unvarnished reputation among Evangelicals as well as his critical detractors among British atheists. He writes, “His detractors are certainly not all British and those who regard his thought as valuable and interesting can be found across the theological spectrum, including British and North American Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox” (p 2). MacSwain recognizes that Lewis is the most influential religious author of the twentieth century (even to the twenty-first century) despite the criticism of mainstream academic theologians. He notes, “Meanwhile, Lewis continues to sell millions of books a year and to shape the religious faith of thousands” (p. 4).

The Cambridge Companion is divided into three parts, which each contain essays commenting on a particular field of Lewis’s writings. Part I discusses Lewis as scholar. The five essays included discuss Lewis as literary critic, literary theorist, intellectual historian, and classicist. The last of the essays, written by Mark Edwards, examines Lewis’s use of classical themes.

The essays in part II relate to Lewis the thinker, focusing on the topics of religion, apologetics, and philosophy for which Lewis is most famous. The ten essays in this part discuss Lewis on scripture, theology, naturalism, moral knowledge, discernment, love, gender, power, violence, and suffering. Not all the essays are in agreement with Lewis’s stated positions. Ann Loades comments on Lewis’s essay on the ordination of women (“Priestesses in the Church”). She writes, “The primary difficulty here is that Lewis had his own ‘theology’ of gender which is perhaps more imaginative metaphysics than sober theology. . .“ (p. 168).

Part III discusses Lewis the writer in six essays. It is likely that Lewis’s fiction has attracted the widest audience because of its appeal to both Christians and non-Christians. The Pilgrim’s Regress (written shortly after his conversion), Surprised by Joy (his autobiography), The Great Divorce, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Ransom Trilogy (popular among science fiction enthusiasts), and Till We Have Faces (his personal favorite) are examined with precise explanations. The last essay, by Malcolm Guite, discusses Lewis’s poetry—probably the most neglected of Lewis’s contribution to the literary genre. Although some scholars feel that Lewis himself had settled for the rank as a minor poet, Guite writes: “The time has come to revisit this judgement, made many years ago, and to look afresh at Lewis’s poetic output” (p. 294). This Guite does in the hope that Lewis’s poetry will enjoy the wider audience it deserves.

The Cambridge Companion includes a short chronology of Lewis’s life, biographical notes on the contributors, and a list of abbreviations. The latter feature, in conjunction with an ample index and bibliography of Lewis’s writings, affords the reader an excellent resource for Lewis’s scholarship.

The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis ranks among the best of what is available in Lewis studies.