C. S. Lewis

. . . Not long after Jack embraced Christianity, he wrote Pilgrim’s Regress, an allegory about a man’s search for his heart’s desire.[1] The book begins by satirizing the legalistic Christianity Lewis had been taught at Wynyard House. For example, the hero, John, talks with a Steward (representing a clergyman), who assures him “that the Landlord [God] was quite extraordinarily kind and good to his tenants, and would certainly torture most of them to death the moment he had the slightest pretext.” John sets off on a journey, encountering characters along the way who represent various religious and philosophical viewpoints—such as the atheistic Mr. Enlightenment, the greedy Mr. Mammon, the worldly Mr. Sensible, the likeable but misguided Mr. Virtue, and the valiant Lady Reason, who rescues John and sets him on the right road again. Naturally, John’s journey ultimately leads him to God.

Pilgrim’s Regress was published in 1933. Three years later, Clarendon Press (a division of the Oxford University Press) published Lewis’ Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition—a scholarly discussion of the history of Christian allegory from the early Middle Ages through the late sixteenth century. Neither book sold well, although critics and scholars liked Allegory of Love. That book also led to a lasting friendship between Lewis and Charles Williams, who edited the book and was captivated by it. Williams would later join a group Jack began hosting in 1933 called the “Inklings,” which met to share, discuss, and critique each other’s writings. Initially, the group included Lewis, Barfield, Coghill, Dyson, and Tolkien. Warnie^[2] eventually joined the group, as did a few others.

In 1937 Tolkien became the first member of the Inklings to achieve popular success with the publication of The Hobbitt. As early as 1929, Tolkien had showed Jack an unfinished mythological poem about a world of elves, orcs, and other strange creatures. Lewis’ enthusiastic response and honest criticism encouraged Tolkien to keep writing. He eventually abandoned the poem, but the world he had created became the foundation for both The Hobbit and his later masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings.^[3]

After publishing two more books—Out of the Silent Planet, a science fiction novel, and Rehabilitations, a collection of essays—Jack wrote his first Christian apologetic in 1939: The Problem of Pain. This was his answer to the question of why a good and powerful God allows so much suffering in the world. Does he lack the power to stop it, or merely the desire to do so? Lewis rejected both options, arguing that God allows pain to make us realize our need for him: “The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. . . . God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Published in 1940, this was the first of Jack’s books to sell widely, and it spiked demand for his other writings.

The following year, Jack wrote articles for The Guardian, a publication of the Church of England.^[4] He was paid two pounds per article, which he donated to charity, as he would with the proceeds from all of his religious writings. The articles followed the fictitious career of an inexperienced and inept demon, Wormwood, as he unsuccessfully tried to undermine the faith of his Christian “patient,” as seen through the letters and advice of his uncle, Screwtape. The articles were published in weekly installments from May 2^nd through November 28^th, 1941, and then in book form in February 1942, as The Screwtape Letters. The book sold well in both England and the United States, and made C. S. Lewis famous. . . .

Christ’s Faithful Servants is available on Amazon.com.

[1]. This is not to be confused with The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan, which he wrote in 1678.

[2]. Warnie Lewis was a skilled writer in his own right. He wrote a history of 17th century France and the reign of Louis XIV, entitled The Splendid Century, which was published in 1953.

[3]. The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954.

[4]. The Guardian ceased publication in 1951.