Darrow Miller and Friends

A Salute to C.S. Lewis on the 50th Anniversary of His Death

 

C.S. Lewis

Most of our readers are familiar with the writer and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. November 22 is the 50th anniversary of his death. Lewis died the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Stories of the more famous death have submerged those of the British professor.

That’s one observation made by Robert Barron in The Triumph of C.S. Lewis which appeared at Real Clear Religion earlier this week. But Barron suggests that, notwithstanding his inferior place in the public eye, Lewis made the more significant contribution.

John F. Kennedy’s legacy has, of course, been enormous, but I wonder whether C.S. Lewis has actually, in the course of these past 50 years, had a greater impact on the culture than his counterpart. When he died at the age of 65, Lewis’s reputation was on the wane, but he has enjoyed an extraordinary posthumous vogue, as two successive generations have delighted in his literary criticism, his novels, and above all, his clever and incisive Christian apologetics.

From that beginning, Barron gives a brief and compelling sketch of why Lewis’s death comprises a moment to reflect about truth, story, worldview and the victory of Jesus Christ over all other powers.

C.S. Lewis intuited something that has become a commonplace among postmodern philosophers, namely, that the avatar of one worldview overcomes another, not so much through argument, but through telling a more compelling story, by “out-narrating” his opponent. He knew that the Christian evangelist, despite any personal flaws he might exhibit or institutional baggage he might carry, still possessed the greatest story ever told. Lewis told that story with particular verve, bravado, intelligence, imagination, and panache — and that is why it is well and good that we should celebrate him on the 50th anniversary of his passing.

Go here to read the article.

–          Gary Brumbelow

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