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The Theology of C.S. Lewis
(Updated 2018 Edition)
Despite his status as one of the most influential and intelligent Christian authors of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis never thought of himself as a professional theologian. While he was well-read in many types of literary genres, he did not go to Seminary to obtain a Masters in Theology and study a year of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek. He was not a Pastor who preached sermons to a congregation for many years but a raw, honest philosopher and professor of literature who wrote as well as any Christian of his time could. He had a gift for clearly articulating his perspectives on a variety of issues. Above all, he was humble, in that he had an honest evaluation of both his strengths and his weaknesses. I believe this is one of the main reasons why he is still so enjoyable to read even after all these years.
In terms of his theology, Lewis himself said he was an “Anglican but not especially ‘high,’ nor especially ‘low,’ nor especially anything else.” So the theology of C.S. Lewis is not something one can immediately discover by simply perusing a certain book of his to see exactly where he stands on certain doctrinal issues; it is much more subtle and convoluted than that. But in this book, you will find his different thoughts from his many books about certain Christian doctrines and topics pieced together in an easy-to-follow format (Lewis has written nearly 60 books but none of them are on systematic theology).
This book offers very clear depictions of his theology concerning subjects such as the Doctrine of Inspiration, Original Sin, Human Depravity, Human Origins, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Theodicy, Love and Marriage, Redemption, Grace, New Creation, and Grief as his authentic reaction to God after his wife’s death is conveyed. The final chapter and appendix also contain all of his greatest quotes arranged and sorted by topic as well as excerpts, quotes, and summaries from most of his books in a quick, easy-to-read, bullet-point format. These last two sections are a particularly great resource to draw from as you can quickly learn about the main points Lewis conveys in his bestselling books. (Check out Kevin's YouTube channel www.3-ology.com)
Despite his status as one of the most influential and intelligent Christian authors of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis never thought of himself as a professional theologian. While he was well-read in many types of literary genres, he did not go to Seminary to obtain a Masters in Theology and study a year of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek. He was not a Pastor who preached sermons to a congregation for many years but a raw, honest philosopher and professor of literature who wrote as well as any Christian of his time could. He had a gift for clearly articulating his perspectives on a variety of issues. Above all, he was humble, in that he had an honest evaluation of both his strengths and his weaknesses. I believe this is one of the main reasons why he is still so enjoyable to read even after all these years.
In terms of his theology, Lewis himself said he was an “Anglican but not especially ‘high,’ nor especially ‘low,’ nor especially anything else.” So the theology of C.S. Lewis is not something one can immediately discover by simply perusing a certain book of his to see exactly where he stands on certain doctrinal issues; it is much more subtle and convoluted than that. But in this book, you will find his different thoughts from his many books about certain Christian doctrines and topics pieced together in an easy-to-follow format (Lewis has written nearly 60 books but none of them are on systematic theology).
This book offers very clear depictions of his theology concerning subjects such as the Doctrine of Inspiration, Original Sin, Human Depravity, Human Origins, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Theodicy, Love and Marriage, Redemption, Grace, New Creation, and Grief as his authentic reaction to God after his wife’s death is conveyed. The final chapter and appendix also contain all of his greatest quotes arranged and sorted by topic as well as excerpts, quotes, and summaries from most of his books in a quick, easy-to-read, bullet-point format. These last two sections are a particularly great resource to draw from as you can quickly learn about the main points Lewis conveys in his bestselling books. (Check out Kevin's YouTube channel www.3-ology.com)
- GenresChristianityChristian
262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2014
118 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 21, 2017
Good summary of Lewis
The book summarized the different teachings of CS Lewis in an understandable way. Very good overview of his books too.
The book summarized the different teachings of CS Lewis in an understandable way. Very good overview of his books too.
March 6, 2016
There are two parts to this short little book. In the first section, the author covers several special issues, such as evil and the existence of God and love and marriage. He explains what he thinks to be C.S. Lewis' theological beliefs about those subjects. He quotes from various Lewis works to illustrate. I found this section somewhat useful, and I generally agreed with what he said about the books I had read. Although it was a surface treatment, it was a helpful overview.
The second section of the book, though, was useless as far as I was concerned. It was supposed to be summaries of some of Lewis' books. What it seemed to me was notes the author had made for himself as he read the books. They were hard to read with incomplete or convoluted sentences and many grammar errors. Even worse, they didn't tell me anything about the original books. I couldn't even recognize some of the Lewis books I had read based on these notes, and the notes for the ones I hadn't read made no sense to me. Perhaps other people will find the so-called summaries helpful, but I didn't.
I highly recommend readers go directly to Lewis' works. I thought this overview would be helpful because Lewis wrote so many books, they are often expensive, and they require more time than many other books (at least for me) because they are so thought-provoking. So I was really looking forward to getting some overviews of books I haven't read...but that probably isn't even feasible. C.S. Lewis is a unique writer who needs to be read in his own words.
The second section of the book, though, was useless as far as I was concerned. It was supposed to be summaries of some of Lewis' books. What it seemed to me was notes the author had made for himself as he read the books. They were hard to read with incomplete or convoluted sentences and many grammar errors. Even worse, they didn't tell me anything about the original books. I couldn't even recognize some of the Lewis books I had read based on these notes, and the notes for the ones I hadn't read made no sense to me. Perhaps other people will find the so-called summaries helpful, but I didn't.
I highly recommend readers go directly to Lewis' works. I thought this overview would be helpful because Lewis wrote so many books, they are often expensive, and they require more time than many other books (at least for me) because they are so thought-provoking. So I was really looking forward to getting some overviews of books I haven't read...but that probably isn't even feasible. C.S. Lewis is a unique writer who needs to be read in his own words.
March 27, 2016
Like proofreading my son's papers...
If you're reading this book, you probably chose it because you love CS Lewis. All of the best words in this book were the ones that actually came from Lewis's pen. The quotes.
It's not a terrible book. But not especially interesting if you've already read a lot of CS Lewis's writing. The whole book has very much the feel of a scholarly paper. I felt like I was proofreading one of my son's high school English papers. (He's a decent writer, but he hasn't developed his "voice" yet - or, at any rate, he doesn't put it into his papers.)
If you want to learn more about CS Lewis, try The Narnian.
If you're reading this book, you probably chose it because you love CS Lewis. All of the best words in this book were the ones that actually came from Lewis's pen. The quotes.
It's not a terrible book. But not especially interesting if you've already read a lot of CS Lewis's writing. The whole book has very much the feel of a scholarly paper. I felt like I was proofreading one of my son's high school English papers. (He's a decent writer, but he hasn't developed his "voice" yet - or, at any rate, he doesn't put it into his papers.)
If you want to learn more about CS Lewis, try The Narnian.
March 2, 2016
As much as I admire C. S. Lewis and his writings, this book suffered from poor sentence composition and poor proofreading. However, it could serve as a topical index for where to look up Lewis' opinions on certain theological ideas.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews