Christian Reflections

by C.S. Lewis

This collection contains fourteen of Lewis's theological papers on subjects such as Christianity and literaure, Christianity and culture, ethics, futility, church music, modern theology and biblical criticism, the Psalms, and petitionary prayer. Common to all of these varied essays are Lewis's uniquely effective style and his tireless concern to relate basic Christianity to all of life.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Essays

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 1967

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]

Reviews

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

On this rainy day sitting in the living room at my vacation lodge located in a beautiful and idyllic little village directly by the sea in Germany, finally I've completed to read this great essays collection by C. S. Lewis....
One of the advantages, I've discovered is that on rainy days you have the perfect excuse to read so much as you like...
Friends, a really good collection indeed!!!
Refreshing in his originality and like a spring morning full with births twitters and flowers full of aromatic odour....
C. S. Lewis is unarguably a great writer with the gift to kidnaped your thoughts to different layers of reality, and to open the truth in ways never before expected....
In his essay of the Psalms, he takes you by the hand and expounds beautifully some of the questions you may have had about it....
Then, "The seeing eye" spontaneously beam you into the space, the galaxy!!!
And of course he invites you as a Christian writer to consider in " Petitionary prayer: A problem without an answer" and also in "Modern theology and biblical criticism " Christians themes.
C. S. Lewis " Christian reflections" guides you all the way to a dialogue, deep involved in the spirit of faith ...
"The poison of subjectivism" is one of my favourites in this collection.
On the other hand definitely this essay collection would I also recommend not for Christians alone!!!
Because he has "Religion: Reality or substitute?" and "The funeral of a great myth" this aims to everybody who is open and searching for the truth...
I've enjoyed to the uttermost this collection, it has empowered, refresh, new motivated and has given me anew a clear blue sky above my head and mind!!!
So, yes!!!!
Please, please, please, do yourselves a favour and invest your time and read this book!!!
I won't leave you without a word to say about the paperback edition.
A very good and handsome elaborated paperback edition....
Top, and qualitative valuable, with this edition it is a pleasure to dive deep in Lewis exquisite and wonderful thoughts!!!
I'll give 5 stars, and would give even more if I could....
Folks, thanks so much for reading my review!!!
To you all:
Have fun, and be happy....
Dean:)

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Also read in October of 1983. Also read in March of 1980. Finished yet again in January of 2017.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lesser known collection of essays on various topics. As usual, Lewis brings his massive background of education and reading to bear, often by means of simple, easy to follow analogies and apologetic arguments. Since many of these essays were originally in popular media publications, sometimes they conclude more open-ended, leaving you to ponder a bit. But Lewis’s insightful wit appears throughout. For those familiar with Lewis’s more famous non-fiction, this book is more light, though still rigorous and enjoyable.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro denso. Talvez o mais denso depois do "A aboliçao do homem". Assuntos polêmicos e intrigantes e uma obra incrível. Lewis sendo Lewis. Dei 4 estrelas pois achei que o capitulo "Salmos" deixou a desejar ou talvez eu que nao o entendi de forma completa, mas senti que faltou uma conclusao do capítulo. Deixar a questao proposta em aberto me frustrou um pouco. De qualquer forma é um otimo livro e recomendo a todos.

[Daniel Piva · Rating 3 out of 5]

É um livro com vários temas, e de modo geral, bem abordados.
De certa forma, eu esperava um pouco mais da erudição cristã de Lewis, mas vejo quem em muitos pontos ele simplesmente, não tratou do assunto que disse que iria tratar.
O caso dos Salmos é um exemplo. Obviamente, não esperava uma exegese, ou comentário bíblico, mas esperava uma visão devocional, e algo mais de um literato; contudo, quase todos os pressupostos foram fora de foco. Não sei o que aconteceu ali...
Em contra partida, ao tratar da "futilidade", "subjetivismo" e da "linguagem da religião" foi bastante prático e perspicaz.
Ainda assim, recomendo, como um conjunto do trabalho de Lewis, que vale a penas ser lido para se conhecer mais do seu pensamento e reflexões aplicativas.
Recomendo: 👍🏻 ⭐️

[Curby Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing how well his material stands up even today.

[Phil Cotnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this little volume in my church library. I had not seen it before so I borrowed it. It was first published in 1967 (Lewis died in 1963) and contains essays and talks that range from the late 30's to the early 60's. There is no unifying theme and I found the quality of the chapters to vary quite a bit, but unsurprisingly there are some real gems in here that are more than worth the effort.

There are 14 chapters, but the ones that stood out to me the most were:

2. Christianity and Culture
3. Religion: Reality or Substitute?
6. The Poison of Subjectivism
7. The Funeral of a Great Myth
9. Historicism
13. Fern-seed and Elephants

Christianity and Culture is part of some debate Lewis was having with other believers. There is one portion of the chapter that was a revelation for me. Forgive the long quote, but here it is:

It was noticed above that the values assumed in literature were seldom those of Christianity. Some of the principal values actually implicit in European literature were described as (a) honour, (b) sexual love, (c) material prosperity, (d) pantheistic contemplation of nature, (e) Sehnsucht awakened by the past, the remote, or the (imagined) supernatural, (f) liberation of impulses. These were called "sub-Christian." This is a term of disapproval if we are comparing them with Christian values: but if we take" sub-Christian" to mean "immediately sub-Christian" (i.e., the highest level of merely natural value lying immediately below the lowest level of spiritual value) it may be a term of relative approval. Some of the six values I have enumerated may be sub-Christian in this (relatively) good sense. For (c) and (f) I can make no defence; whenever they are accepted by the reader with anything more than a " willing suspension of disbelief" they must make him worse. But the other four are all two-edged. I may symbolize what I think of them all by the aphorism " Any road out of Jerusalem must also be a road into Jerusalem."

Thus: (a) To the perfected Christian the ideal of honour is simply a temptation. His courage has a better root, and, being learned in Gethsemane, may have no honour about it. But to the man coming up from below, the ideal of knighthood may prove a schoolmaster to the ideal of martyrdom. Galahad is the son of Launcelot.

(b) The road described by Dante and Patmore is a dangerous one. But mere animalism, however disguised as "honesty," "frankness," or the like, is not dangerous, but fatal. And not all are qualified to be, even in sentiment, eunuchs for the Kingdom's sake. For some souls romantic love also has proved a schoolmaster.

(d) There is an easy transition from Theism to Pantheism; but there is also a blessed transition in the other direction. For some souls I believe, for my own I remember, Wordsworthian contemplation can be the first and lowest form of recognition that there is something outside ourselves which demands reverence. To return to Pantheistic errors about the nature of this something would, for a Christian, be very bad. But once again, for "the man coming up from below" the Wordsworthian experience is an advance. Even if he goes no further he has escaped the worst arrogance of materialism: if he goes on he will be converted.

(e) The dangers of romantic Sehnsucht are very great. Eroticism and even occultism lie in wait for it. On this subject I can only give my own experience for what it is worth. When we are first converted I suppose we think mostly of our recent sins; but as we go on, more and more of the terrible past comes under review. In this process I have not (or not yet) reached a point at which I can honestly repent of my early experience of romantic Sehnsucht. That they were occasions to much that I do repent, is clear; but I still cannot help thinking that this was my abuse of them, and that the experiences themselves contained, from the very first, a wholly good element. Without them my conversion would have been more difficult.

I have dwelt chiefly on certain kinds of literature, not because I think them the only elements in culture that have this value as schoolmasters, but because I know them best; and on literature rather than art and knowledge for the same reason. My general case may be stated in Ricardian terms-that culture is a storehouse of the best (sub-Christian) values. These values are in themselves of the soul, not the spirit. But God created the soul. Its values may be expected, therefore, to contain some reflection or antepast of the spiritual values. They will save no man. They resemble the regenerate life only as affection resembles charity, or honour resembles virtue, or the moon the sun. But though "like is not the same," it is better than unlike. Imitation may pass into initiation. For some it is a good beginning. For others it is not; culture is not everyone's road into Jerusalem, and for some it is a road out.

There is another way in which it may predispose to conversion. The difficulty of converting an uneducated man nowadays lies in his complacency. Popularized science, the conventions or "unconventions" of his immediate circle, party programmes, etc., enclose him in a tiny windowless universe which he mistakes for the only possible universe. There are no distant horizons, no mysteries. He thinks everything has been settled. A cultured person, on the other hand, is almost compelled to be aware that reality is very odd and that the ultimate truth, whatever it may be, must have the characteristics of strangeness-must be something that would seem remote and fantastic to the uncultured. Thus some obstacles to faith have been removed already. On these grounds I conclude that culture has a distinct part to play in bringing certain souls to Christ. Not all souls - there is a shorter, and safer, way which has always been followed by thousands of simple affectional natures who begin, where we hope to end, with devotion to the person of Christ.

That is just brilliant.

The other chapter I'll comment on is the one called Fern-seed and Elephants, where he is apparently speaking to a class of Anglican priests in seminary. He spends the whole time dismantling the entire apparatus of higher criticism on which was based all of liberal Christianity. Having just read Machen's Christianity and Liberalism, it was interesting to see the contrasts and similarities. Ultimately, I think they are complimentary arguments. Machen is far more suited for those already leery of and opposed to liberalism. He will clarify and arm the believer for combat. Lewis' chapter is addressed to those already in that world and so is a bit more winsome, but I think he sees the issue almost as clearly as Machen does. Consider these quotes:

"What you [the liberal] offer him [the ordinary Christian] he will not recognize as Christianity. If he holds to what he calls Christianity he will leave a Church in which it is no longer taught and look for one where it is. If he agrees with your version he will no longer call himself a Christian and no longer come to church. In his crude, coarse way, he would respect you much more if you did the same."

Speaking of Bultmann (a very influential liberal German theologian): "Through what strange process has this learned German gone in order to make himself blind to what all men except him see?"

"These men ask me to believe they can read between the lines of the old texts; the evidence is their obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the lines themselves. They claim to see fern-seed and can’t see an elephant ten yards way in broad daylight."

"The idea that any man [Christ] or writer should be opaque [misunderstood] to those who lived in the same culture, spoke the same language, shared the same habitual imagery and unconscious assumptions, and yet be transparent to those [modern liberal theologians] who have none of these advantages, is in my opinion preposterous. There is an a priori improbability in it which almost no argument and no evidence could counterbalance"

"The canon ‘If miraculous, then unhistorical’ is one they [modern liberal theologians] bring to their study of the texts, not one they have learned from it. If one is speaking of authority, the united authority of all the biblical critics in the world counts here for nothing. On this they speak simply as men; men obviously influenced by, and perhaps insufficiently critical of, the spirit of the age they grew up in."

"For agnosticism is, in a sense, what I am preaching. I do not wish to reduce the sceptical elements in your minds. I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else. Such scepticism might, I think, begin at the very beginning with the thought which underlies the whole demythology of our time."

And then lastly, if not prophetically, this closing paragraph:
"Such are the reactions of one bleating layman to Modern Theology. It is right that you should hear them. You will not perhaps hear them very often again. Your parishioners will not often speak to you quite frankly. Once the layman was anxious to hide the fact that he believed so much less than the vicar; now he tends to hide the fact that he believes so much more. Missionary to the priests of one’s own church is an embarrassing role; though I have a horrid feeling that if such mission work is not soon undertaken the future history of the Church of England is likely to be short."

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though by his own admission, Lewis is no theologian, his essays and speeches on the Christian views of various topics will be valuable to any Christian reader. Is this work as cohesive as "Mere Christianity" or as witty as "Screwtape"? Certainly not. This work does two things: (1) It broadens our understanding of Lewis' thought. (2) It provides us with deep probing thoughts on the matters addressed.

In this work, Lewis deals with a Christian approach to literature and aesthetics, an apologetic for the spiritual nature of Christian worship, a discussion of the topic of ethics and whether a "Christian" ethic should be taught to the world, an apologetic response to those who claim that the purpose of nature is merely futile, an attack on post-modern subjectivity, an attack on the theory of evolution and a suggestion on how others should do the same, a discussion on Church Music, a debate on how Christians should view history, an analysis of some imprecatory Psalms, a discussion of the connection between emotions and thought in language, a difficult question on how Christians should pray (left unresolved), a blistering attack on higher criticism, and an apologetic reply to the Russian cosmonaut who stated that he had been in space and did not see God.

[John Martindale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how good it was to read Lewis again!

Christian Reflections is a collection of the following essays and speeches:

"Christianity and Literature"

"Christianity and Culture"

"Religion: Reality or Substitute"

"On Ethics"

"De Futilitate"

"The Poison of Subjectivism"

"The Funeral of a Great Myth"

"On Church Music"

"Historicism"

"The Psalms"

"The Language of Religion"

"Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer"

"Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism"

"The Seeing Eye"

When I am in the mood, i hope to come back and write a little summery of each chapter. I loved everyone

[Scott Kohler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection seemed a little more uneven to me than the smaller collections, Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Fern-seed and Elephants. Here there are some pieces that are a little more academic, mingled with some that seem aimed at a broader audience. This is probably because the essays are taken from a fairly wide span of time, the earliest coming from 1939, the latest from 1963. Nevertheless, there is very good material in this book. “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism” is the same essay printed under the name, “Fern-seed and Elephants” in the collection of that name, and it is one of Lewis’ greatest pieces. The essays here on subjectivism seem, if anything, to show a thinker with a more postmodern bent than the modern rationalist we often think CS Lewis to be. This collection closes with “The Seeing Eye,” a piece ostensibly about the possibility of life in other parts of the universe, but really an opportunity for the wise, late-period Lewis to reflect on the fallenness of humanity.

A favourite passage: “The fact that we have not found God in space does not, then, bother me in the least. Nor am I much concerned about the ‘space race’ between America and Russia. The more money, time, skill, and zeal they both spend on that rivalry, the less, we may hope they will have to spend on armaments. Great powers might be more usefully, but are seldom less dangerously, employed than in fabricating costly objects and flinging them, as you might say, overboard. Good luck to it! It is an excellent way of letting off steam.” (“The Seeing Eye,” 172)

[Will Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is not often that I find a Christian author who is able to so faithfully apply his theology to seemingly every area of life, and especially to his thought life. And yet Lewis does this in a way that very few can imitate. As with another collection of Lewis's essays, "God in the Dock," I have found these writings to be glorifying to God and edifying to me in a way that few modern Christian writers seem to be able to achieve.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I'm being honest, I got bogged down in a few of the essays, but the great ones are must reads. "The Funeral of a Great Myth", "Petitionary Prayer...", and "Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism" were, to my mind, the best although not the only good essays. His arguments and reasoning are always excellent and still so applicable today.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really helpful pieces here, with one or two weaker pieces. Even where Lewis is weak on the doctrine of Scripture, there is still something to glean.

[J Landon Light · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have gotten five stars if not for that essay on the Psalms. Oof. I guess even hall of famers sometimes have that game where they throw five interceptions and get sacked a dozen times.

[Sophie O'Reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

these are spectacularly well-written, thoughtful essays! you can really track Lewis’ argumentative processes. it’s almost as if he answers the questions you have as you have them. I did find some of them a bit dull—or, at the very least, dense— but undeniably well done.

[Grace Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of insightful essays that I understand better the more I reread them! Always mind blown by how insanely well-read Lewis was. The way he makes literary connections is brilliant.

[Håvard Svenningsen]

Lewis er en favoritt, men denne krever nok mer forkunnskaper enn undertegnede besitter, så gikk litt over hodet mitt her.

[AnnaG · Rating 5 out of 5]

CS Lewis always writes thought-provoking pieces and this collection of essays is no exceptions. While there were other points that I'll reflect on over time, there are two take-aways that immediately stuck out to me:

1) Evolution does not mean improvement. In a biological sense, evolution means change and more often than not even in that context that means degeneration and decay rather than progress.Yet, partly based on an idea of biological evolution as improvement, our whole society has created a Myth that our achievements far exceed our ancestors because we are cleverer and better than they were. As Lewis points out - nothing is further than the truth. For example - superficially "modern art" may be technically more accomplished than prehistoric cave paintings, but it took a blinding flash of genius for that first cave dweller to realise that he could make two dimensional marks on the wall to represent the real world around him - an achievement that far exceeds any artist who appropriated his concept in the generations that followed.

2) Faith is a virtue - it is the act of continuing to believe something you think is true until presented with evidence to suggest it isn't. It's holding onto your opinions continuously and stead-fastly and not allowing peer pressure to push you into giving up on something you believe without a valid argument.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of Lewis' essays. A few of the essays were very good. Specifically I found 'De Futilitate' and 'The Poison of Subjectivism' to be more than worth some of the less exciting 2 and 3 star essays. A worthy read, but maybe not the first works of Lewis to pick up.

[Andrew Orange · Rating 5 out of 5]

The magnificent collection of works by C. S. Lewis.
First of all, I would like to highlight his essay "The Funeral of a Great Myth".
Unfortunately, it is little known.
This essay MUST be studied in schools and universities!

[Tim Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christian Reflections is a collection of CS Lewis' thinking on Christianity and culture. Compiled by Walter Hooper, a contemporary and friend of Lewis, the book covers subjects form Literature to Ethics, to The Psalms and Biblical Criticism and much more. The central, unifying thread is Lewis' appeal to the illogic of attempting to separate God from any of these subjects (He is, as it turns out, the author and sustainer fo them all) and to a schoolmaster's insistence on consistent thought (and admission of his own doubts) as he wends his way through the arguments of his culture, which are not too far separate from ours.

The opening paper, "Christianity and Literature" is Lewis' wheelhouse, of course, and not mine, though I found his views intriguing. His challenges to defining ethics outside of God, his discussion of futility ("De Futlitate") and "The Poison of Subjectivism" were the three that most directly challenged the thinking of his age and ours, but always with a good-natured aim of making his intellectual opponents defend their reasoning. But his essay "Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism" I found to be his most compelling; he reserved his sharpest edge for his own church and the way Biblical scholarship is undermining Christianity altogether but (maintaining Lewis' central theme of the book) doing it with logic that is full of holes and sloppy reasoning. This essay is worth the price of the whole tome.

Lewis is last century's greatest Christian apologist. I highly recommend you join him in his sweep across the cultural waterfront of his day. It's a most enjoyable trip.

[Sean Southard · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Lewis is great. I suggest should be read closely before or after reading The Abolition of Man and his Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet / Perelandra / That Hideous Strength.

My favorites from this collection were "Religion: Reality of Substitute," "On Ethics," "The Poison of Subjectivism," "Historicism," "The Language of Religion," and "The Seeing Eye." The last essay would make for a great discussion with the Space Trilogy, given the considerable length Lewis spends discussing his thoughts on the U.S.-Russian space race.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the many collections of C.S. Lewis that are collected together after his death, this one is for me one of the more medicore. The latter essays are the better, and why that is is probably because of the topics they assess and their more accessible style. Lewis can be very complicated to read, with so many literary references to writers one usually don't have much of a relation to(both historical and contemporary) - so much of those kinds of debate are very probable misses for an audience of today. The subtitle of "Defending the Faith" is not really defendable by the content, although the title "Christian Reflections" is a good enough title for the collection. There are a few rememberable sections here that I will take with me, but most is stuff that did not stick.

[w gall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many years ago I had a C. S. Lewis phase; I sought and read many of his books. I found them delightful. But I moved on, retaining the pleasant memory. Now I have read another book of his consisting of speeches and articles spread out over 25 years of his life, and I can't say that I enjoyed it. The first few were his philosophic stances on certain ideas, and the rest were his speculative take on various subjects, including Christian ones. Now that I put great stock in the early church fathers, I can't see C. S. Lewis in their category. He has good insights, but he doesn't speak with authority - in my opinion. There are so many Protestant views that, other than preachers, they cannot summon up authority, for they in the mode of protesting authority.

[Mwansa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable series of essays by Lewis. The man seems to always have page turners because of the wide range of his thinking and his clear communication. He addresses topics that may seem stale at first glance but then shows nuance that opens up the subject for further thought. He also shows a critical mind that ask questions concerning the things we believe and hold dear to that have us asking what we really believe and whether it can stand up to criticism.

All round lewis remains one of my most recommended authors because studying his work is like taking a crash course in critical thinking. A skill that is required more and more as we go through life.

[Barbara Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christian Reflections is a series of essays by C. S. Lewis. Some were published in his lifetime; others were not. Lewis reflects as a Christian on a number of issues, ranging from church music, culture, literature, subjectivism, and much more.

Lewis' writings are always a brain workout, and some of these were a little harder to grasp than Mere Christianity was (which was written for the general population). But others were fairly easy to follow, and even the harder ones yielded good food for thought.

I touched on each of the essays on my blog here: https://barbaraleeharper.com/2021/12/....

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four essays make up the interior of this book: On Ethics, De Futilitate, The Poison of Subjectivism, and The Funeral of a Great Myth. These don’t address Christianity nor make a direct defense of the faith. If I recall, Lewis even outright says, “This is not an apologetic,” in one of them. But I found them by far the most compelling part of the book. He masterfully articulates the logical flaws in philosophies that continue to saturate society—postmodernism, nihilism, evolutionism. They’re classic Lewis. His precision, wit, humor, and storytelling is superb.

[Secret Agent Gavin Ritsema · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.77 stars. Essays ranked:
1. The seeing eye. 4.5 stars. (space ones always win)
2. Religion: reality or substitute. 4.5 stars.
3. Modern theology and biblical criticism. 4.17 stars
4. The funeral of a great myth. 4.1 stars
5a. De futilitate
5b. The poison of subjectivism. 4 stars (these 2 go together imo)
6. The psalms. 4 stars.
7. Christianity and literature. 4 stars.
8. Petitionary prayer. 4 stars.
9. On church music. 3.7 stars.
10. Christianity and culture. 3.5 stars.
11. Historicism. 3 stars.
12. The language of religion. 2.75 stars.
13. On ethics. 2.5 stars.

[AHuitema · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like it when authors respect the intelligence of their readers, but C.S. Lewis makes it way to esoteric in this collection of essays. He names scores of people and uses a lot of Latin and Greek phrases, without giving context or explanation. I can follow his reflections to a certain extent (and agree partly with them), but with quite some of his digressions I cannot see the wood for the trees anymore. What I do appreciate is Lewis' quintessential modesty, though.

[Jeff Rader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend the essays here. If you’ve made it through Mere Christianity, these essays will be very encouraging and give solid reasoning along with wit. I especially enjoyed one of the last essays on biblical criticism: it’s hard to accept historical criticism once your own work has been misunderstood by critics.