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C. S. Lewis Analysis

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Few authors appeal to me as C. S. Lewis does. His writings, which combine a depth of understanding and creativity, I find to be wholly compelling. Having not studied Lewis, I do not know much about his life. Thus, I could not let pass the opportunity to attend a class on the life and literature of C. S. Lewis. Already, in this first week of class, I have learned some rather interesting things about this intriguing author.
First, I never really thought about C. S. Lewis as an atheist or how deeply he held his atheistic beliefs. I have, it seems, always considered him a Christian since I know him only through his Christian writings. His atheism, I discovered, though deep and profound, did not satisfy him. It was through literature that this dissatisfaction …show more content…

These characteristics, however, were not always apparent in Lewis’s life. They developed over time and coalesced within a fertile environment. As a boy, Lewis developed a rich imagination (McGrath, 2013, pp. 14-16). During this time, he also began to experience a delight in and an intense desire for the transcendent. Though he did not understand these experiences at that time, they became the foundation of what Lewis would later call “Joy” (McGrath, 2013, pp. 18-20). As he grew older, Lewis seems to have let go of his imaginative side in favor of reason. The death of his mother, the rejection of his father, and the negative experiences at boarding schools all seem to have played a role in Lewis’s rejection of not only his imagination, but his longing for “joy” as well. It hurt too deeply to hang on to the possibility of something transcendent, which seemed so unrealistic considering the harsh realities of life. As a teenager, Lewis came under the tutelage of William Kirkpatrick, whose staunch rationality, atheism, and Socratic Method profoundly influenced the young Lewis (McGrath, 2013, pp. 37-43). Yet Lewis could not completely let go of his imagination, which was nurtured by Christian writers such as George MacDonald. Lewis would wrestle with this tension between reason, imagination, and longing for many years, unable to reconcile them within

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His vision of what transcends the ordinary experience is an important theme in American philosophical and literary traditions; two are the figures who paid great attention to the quest for transcendence: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jack Kerouac. For Anderson, these two great figure are the prototypical American “grievous angels”. In what sense are Emerson and Kerouac grievous angels? First, the author explains that “they call us out and have us seek our own self-transcendence”, then “it fits Kerouac best in considering its import of “bringing trouble” or being “sorrowful”. Emerson’s character is perhaps better captured by the sense of being “excessively strong”.

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Overall, in the book, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, there are some very strong and applicable points that I believe, should be shared as much as possible. For instance, in the entire book one, Lewis rambles on about the moral law of society, and the outcome of peoples over complicated ways of thinking. He mentions the so called standard of behavior, which it upheld by the thinker to believe that whatever way he sees the situation should be the right way, and however the situation is presented in his mind is how it should be played out. Lewis gives many diverse examples of this action such as, sharing a “bit of orange,” since I “gave you some of mine.”  the greed involved with the way of thinking is what Lewis called the law of nature.

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In the short story, “Death of an Innocent” by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless travels into the Alaskan wilderness with the intention of relying completely on himself. In the true spirit of transcendentalism, McCandless travels to escape the bounds of society and to remove himself from a materialistic world. Many argue, however, that Chris McCandless was not a transcendentalist because he travels to exotic lands as a means of avoidance, but actually, Chris McCandless is the epitome of a transcendentalist. Transcendentalists, however, rely on themselves and nature to survive and do not depend on material items. Transcendentalists romanticize individualism and believe that intuition is the best guide through life.

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580 Words | 3 Pages

Lewis does an excellent job showing in his book, the battle that is sin against a believer in Christ Jesus. The ups and downs are always going to be surrounded by spiritual warfare for Christians. This has already been seen when analyzing The Law of Undulation. Lewis made a great masterpiece, in show casing spiritual warfare but without making it sound like there is any sac-religious material. When writing, taking a spin on a theological topic can be risky at times.

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According to Malcom X, “the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive”. (3). Both individuals’ outlooks on life were altered due to their conversion. In the course of helping other individuals escape the darkness, one has a different approach towards it.

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Chris McCandless, Jon Krakauer, and Henry David Thoreau are some adventurous people that had Transcendentalism throughout their lives. In Krakauer’s book Into the Wild the reader can see that Chris McCandless relates to Henry David Thoreau’s excerpts from Walden by showing Transcendental beliefs. Both of the mean show that they are simple, seek individualism, and love the flow of nature. The way Chris McCandless attempts to live his life in Krakauer’s book Into the Wild is just like the way Henry David Thoreau describes a true Transcendentalist. One of the first transcendental beliefs that Chris McCandless seeks is a simple life.

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The Impact of C.S. Lewis on American culture. “True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it 's thinking of yourself less” (C.S. Lewis) Clive Staples Lewis was a great writer who impacted many lives by his books. Lewis lived from 1898 to 1963 in Oxford. (Hamilton 2003) In his time he influenced many people to convert their religion, change their lives around and to simply pick up a book and read it for fun.

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Lewis’ Turning Points In the graphic novels “March” by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, John tells us the story of his life in the civil rights movement. Throughout his journey, he experiences many events that change him. Although there are many turning points in his life, three of them stood out to me the most. There is the day he got his first bible, his trip to Buffalo, and his attendance of Jim Lawson’s workshop on nonviolence.

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Debate According to the dictionary a pacifist is a person who believes that war and violence are unjustifiable. C.S. Lewis claimed not to be one in The Weight of Glory. He said that "The main contention urged as fact by Pacifists Lewis claimed that humans decide what is good and what is evil by their conscience. But, he argued that a person's conscience can be modified by argument.

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One of his turning points was "An uncle gave me a bible for Christmas when I was four and yes, I do remember"(26). This turning point was important because he mentioned he remembers, and he specifically says he remembers. Reading this book changed him from the beginning, the book inspired Lewis to become a preacher in the future when he was just 5 years old. It's important because it's mentioned Lewis learns from the bible, he continues to say he understand the words in the Bible in him, phrases in the Bible that stuck with him. Because he was given a bible at such a young age, he was inspired to do more work, schoolwork was his passion and his favorite thing to do.

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The whole chapter shows how versatile Michael Lewis is on creating a scene that needs to be delivered as a important moment in the novel. As he describes the past of Michaels Oher’s childhood and his mothers trials, he tends to add his own opinion in certain cases to show the emotions he’s describing. “It was as if Dee Dee had been put on earth to answer a question: how little

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1617 Words | 7 Pages

Biography: C.S. Lewis C.S. Lewis was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland, to the parents of Flora August Hamilton Lewis and Albert J. Lewis. His mother died when he was 10 years of age. Later he died on November 22,1963, in Headington, Oxford. C.S. only has one brother, Warren Lewis, whom he was very close to. As a child he was “enraptured by fantastic animals and tales of gallantry, hence the brothers created the imagery land of Boxen, complete with an intricate history that served them for years” (Biography.com).

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623 Words | 3 Pages

In making the argument for the existence of the Law of Human Nature, C.S. Lewis first establishes the acknowledgement of a few different universal laws that man in subjected to. There is the law of gravity, in which Lewis insinuates that in the eyes of gravity, the body of man and a mere stone are one and the same. Then there are biological laws that correspond with those than an animal has. However, the one law that is specific to man and that man is free to disobey or get “mistaken”, is the “Law of Nature or decent behavior” (Lewis). C.S. Lewis uses inductive reasoning to form this kind of logic by first making the observation that even though throughout time man has seemed to have had different agreements of what they believe to be moral,

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420 Words | 2 Pages

The biggest theme of The Great Divorce is salvation; more specifically, ensuring one’s immortal soul reaches Heaven and not Hell through the exercising correct moral choices in life and the practice of forgiving others and seeking forgiveness for your own sins. For Lewis, Heaven and Hell are not metaphoric or ideas, they are real places. In the book, Lewis develops this by having other related themes that affect salvation like, vanity vs. pride, love, the value of ideologies, faith vs. skepticism, jealousy, anger, and forgiveness.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

McDowell begins the book with an anecdote of his life; a familiar story of the sceptical university Agnostic, ready to fire back a retort at the slightest mention of God, Christianity, and anything (or anyone) within. He recounted the all too common feeling of a meaningless life, the seemingly innate itch of human existence, and how it brought him to various places in his life—until he stumbled upon a particular group of people and was changed forever. This introduction, though short, is crucial to understand, for it sets the stage for the remainder of the book. It tells not only the story of a former non-believer, but the story of everyone—it presents us the life of Jesus Christ, not as a gentle sermon or a feel-good retelling, but as an assertive, rational reply to the accusation: ‘Christianity is a myth, and so is your God.’

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