Book Review: C. S. Lewis, A life

This book review will appear, in slightly shorter and tighter form, in a future print edition of 'Churchman', the Journal of the Church Society. I, whilst not being an Anglican, am a fan of Church Society, and enjoyed their Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference (JAEC) last September.

Having recently read some of McGrath’s new ‘The Christian Faith for Everyone’ series, I was interested to engage his biography of Lewis, whose vision of ‘Mere Christianity’ is resonant throughout those slim books. This new biography, with endorsements from N. T. Wright, Tim Keller, and Bonhoeffer-biographer Eric Metaxas, sets out to impress, with an attractive cover design and the promise of deep scholarship and historical engagement.

For those involved in theological education who know McGrath primarily as the editor of some excellent textbooks , or as an antagonist of Richard Dawkins, the readability of this book is a relief. The narrative is breathy and engaging, but with the depth of reading that befits an author of his stature. His engagement with Lewis’ life, warts and all, is particularly fascinating - this reviewer was not particularly aware of some of the ‘fruitier’ details of his pre-conversion lifestyle. 

At the LICC Launch of this biography, McGrath spent time detailing his reasons for his later dating of Lewis’ conversion. What is perhaps most helpful here is the process that McGrath identifies, of a movement from pure theism, to what Lewis describes as having “passed over” ‘from belief in God to belief in Christ’. It is from this point that the more well-known Lewis is expanded upon, and McGrath is particularly fascinating as he explores Narnia and some of the concepts behind it, with helpful observations on Atonement, Medieval Symbolism and other deep themes in the Narnian corpus. A helpful final section considers the impact of Lewis, of note especially is McGrath’s consideration of American Evangelicalism’s embrace of the British apologist!

As an engagement with one of the most influential Christian writers of recent times, McGrath’s biography of Lewis is a fine achievement, with enough scholarly novelty for those on their umpteenth biography, whilst gripping and accessible enough for the rest of us.

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