50 years ago today, the Christian author CS Lewis died.
A memorial stone for him will be dedicated today in Westminster Abbey.
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Sadly, not much less overlooked than it was 50 years ago.
With the collapse of the High Anglican church that he loved, Lewis would be in a quandary if he lived today. I have no doubt that he would now be a Catholic.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him, if by some chance You haven’t already.
If it has been done, thank you C. S. Lewis. You and your wonderful writing have been a blessing to me and many. Deo gratias.
I just started rereading The Magician’s Nephew again. Then will be moving on to the Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe again next.
By serendipity everyone remembers where he was when Lewis died.
It is ironic that the Episcopal church (which, if he were alive today would thoroughly disgust him) has declared him a saint! Here is the collect, which can be found in “Lesser Feasts and Fasts”:
O God of searing truth and surpassing beauty, we give you thanks for Clive Staples Lewis, whose sanctified imagination lights fires of faith in young and old alike. Surprise us also with your joy and draw us into that new and abundant life which is ours in Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
And Lewis would not leave much left of them were he to engage what they are now.
Curmudgeon warning:
Lewis wasn’t either a paragon of virtue or a devout Catholic. I’m not going to pass judgment on either, because I don’t know what level of culpability is involved, but I think it unseemly to baptise him as (I have read elsewhere) the greatest Catholic writer of a generation.
It may be quite correct to say that the modern state of the Anglican Communion would disturb him, but the state of things in 1963 wasn’t so bad that he swam the Tiber, and I think there’s precious little to justify the claim that he ever would have swum. Dorothy Sayers is another writer whose work I enjoy; with her Creed or Chaos, she presents a strong argument for muscular Catholicism, but she never (to the best of my knowledge) swam the Tiber, either.
Instead of canonizing these English luminaries, shouldn’t we pray for their souls?
By the way: Pope John XXIII died the same year, but his death seems to be going even more unremarked than Lewis’ is.
The Relevance and Challenge of C. S. Lewis, by Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press.
Truly one of the greatest Christian writers and thinkers of the last century. His writings are inspirational for Christians of all stripes.
The excerpt from his”The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses” which the editors of Magnificat chose for the meditation of the day for last Monday is so profound, so insightful that it immediately makes you want you to offer up thanks to God for the gift of C. S. Lewis.
My all time favorite writer.
I have never heard quoted in relation to CSL and Catholicism this comment from a letter to Dom Bede Griffeths OSB of 8 May 1939,
“Nothing wd give such strong support to the Papal claims as the spectacle of a Pope actually functioning as head of Christendom.” [C.S. Lewis Letters, 1988, page 319].
Is that not what we have been seeing for the 50 years or so? Wouldn’t CSL have loved Benedict?
C. S. Lewis: A commentary by Fr. Barron (video: 8 min. 33 sec.)
wilky,
I think there is something of a parallel with the passage you quote, in Lewis’s letter of 25 November 1947 to the Blessed Don Gionvanni Calabria, where he agrees with something he has written: “Quo scribis nos omnes debere quam celerrime contra communem hostem (vel hostes ‘nomen Legio est’) opponere unitatem caritatis et morum Christianorum, toto corde consentio” (which their editor Martin Moynihan translates, “Where you write that we should all as speedily as possible oppose the common foe (or foes, their name is Legion) with the unity of Charity and Christian living, I agree with my whole heart”).
You ask, “Is that not what we have been seeing for the 50 years or so? Wouldn’t CSL have loved Benedict?” I think he would answer ‘yes’ to the first, and that ‘yes’ would be the answer to the second, as well. I can imagine he might also have longed for even more Papal celerity in opposing those ills falling immediately under Papal authority (though without thinking to compare it unfavorably to the exercise of (arch)epsicopal authority within the Church of England or Anglican Communion).
C.S. Lewis had far more influence on my early growth as a Christian than anyone else, and I will be eternally grateful. May light perpetual shine upon him.
Picture:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10469362/CS-Lewis-memorial-A-stone-for-a-lover-not-for-a-poet.html
Mariana2,
Thank you for the link! I think Poet’s Corner has a lot of varying quality among its poets. But perhaps if one thinks of Sir Philip Sidney’s “Defense of Poetry” where ‘poetry’ seems to mean something more like ‘fiction’ or ‘imaginative writing’ in general rather than only that done in verse, Lewis as ‘poet’ will appear clearly more deserving than a number of others – though I really enjoy and admire a lot of his verses, too.
Christopher Howse says, “Few would turn to Miracles, either, and be satisfied.” Satisfied? Perhaps not exactly satisfied, but it is interesting to see all that Elisabeth Anscombe had to say about it!