Tag: apologetics

Iron Sharpening Iron: Sayers Sharpening Lewis

  

Reading the letters of famous people gives researchers like me greater insight into how their minds work. What’s even better is to find letters between superb thinkers and writers that illuminate how they think and what is going on inside them. A great example of this are the letters between C. S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers. They are lively and fascinating. When Lewis and Sayers corresponded in 1946 about the value of one’s labors—in this case, their writing endeavors—Lewis… Read more »

Lewis on “Christian Apologetics”–Part 2

  

C. S. Lewis did not live in an ivory tower separated from the world. He knew what people were going through and how they thought. During WWI, he was in the trenches with every social class in British society. When WWII erupted, he spoke to RAF pilots—those who might not come back from their next mission. As he interacted with all types of people, he came to some sobering conclusions about them and how to reach them for the Gospel…. Read more »

Lewis on “Christian Apologetics”–Part 1

  

How does one survey the vast number of essays C. S. Lewis wrote and pare them down to the twenty-or-so most essential ones? The problem arose for me as I prepared a course to teach at my church–slated for the January-April Parish Academy session. I earnestly desired to include his excellent thoughts in “Historicism,” but that essay is so prominent in my upcoming book (and the course I will develop based on that book), that I chose to exclude it… Read more »

Lewis the Translator of Christian Truth

  

C. S. Lewis’s writings have been credited with leading many to the Christian faith and with strengthening the faith of countless others. He assumed the mantle of apologist and evangelist primarily because he saw a decided lack of intelligent explainers of Christian truths. Yet he was criticized by some. Oxford colleagues were miffed that he was stepping out of his academic field to write about Christianity, which is one reason why he was denied promotion during his tenure there. Another… Read more »

If True, This Is of Infinite Importance

  

“Apologetic work is so dangerous to one’s own faith. A doctrine never seems dimmer to me than when I have just successfully defended it.” So wrote C. S. Lewis in a 1946 letter. Yet a good many of us are grateful that he took the time and effort to add his part to all the apologetics offered throughout the Christian era. I can understand his sentiment in that letter. When you have to labor to help people understand the basics… Read more »

C.S. Lewis: The Question of Truth

  

Lewis took on the role of an apologist for the Christian faith. In an essay entitled “Christian Apologetics,” he honed in on one of the big problems Christians have when trying to explain the truth of Christianity. It’s not a problem with the message itself, but with the hearers of the message: One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience’s mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true… Read more »