The Catholic Book Club discussion

2. Did any of the writers included in this book surprise you? If more than one, who was the greatest surprise? Why?

Oscar Wilde was the biggest surprise. I had not been familiar with C.S. Lewis' hostility towards Rome, which made him a curious subject for this book.

John wrote: "Oscar Wilde was the biggest surprise. I had not been familiar with C.S. Lewis' hostility towards Rome, which made him a curious subject for this book."

Rather than hostile towards Rome, Lewis was hostile against what he took as attempts to convert him into Catholicism (e.g. by Tolkien) and towards a few Catholic devotions, such as dulia, the cult of saints. But he was clearly in sympathy with other Catholic features, such as the doctrine of Purgatory. When he converted to Christianity, he took the decision of going back to his childhood religion (the Ulster branch of the Church of England) and he never wanted to reconsider it.

However, he has been a great influence on Catholics (the last popes have frequently quoted him), and therefore his presence in the book is not so odd.

Manuel wrote: "John wrote: "Oscar Wilde was the biggest surprise. I had not been familiar with C.S. Lewis' hostility towards Rome, which made him a curious subject for this book."

Rather than hostile towards Rom..."

I will try to find the references I am thinking of, but I recall Pearce discussing his reflexive anti-pope and anti-Rome views as stemming from his Ulster protestant background.

John wrote: "I will try to find the references I am thinking of, but I recall Pearce discussing his reflexive anti-pope and anti-Rome views as stemming from his Ulster protestant background."

Yes, he did, that's why I mentioned the Ulster branch of the Church of England, but I'm not sure he was actually an Ulster protestant, at least he joined an Oxford parish church of the Church England. I think Pearce is just extrapolating from the religious strife in North Ireland which happened after Lewis's death.

I was thinking of the following from Chapter 18:

Elsewhere, Tolkien complained of his friend’s anti-Catholic prejudice and the duplicity it caused. If a Lutheran is put in jail, Tolkien observed, Lewis ‘is up in arms; but if Catholic priests are slaughtered -he disbelieves it, and I daresay really thinks they asked for it. There is a good deal of Ulster still left in C. S. L., if hidden from himself.’

There is also a reference to "Orange Order Sash my Father Wore" Protestantism as part of his upbringing. I may have read too much into this as Pearce also says (which I had not remembered):

Although the ingrained prejudices of a Belfast upbringing may have contributed to Lewis’s ultimate refusal to follow many of his literary contemporaries into the Catholic Church, one suspects that Tolkien overstated the case. Lewis’s practice of going to weekly confession, which he commenced at the end of 1940, was hardly the sort of behaviour one would expect from an Ulster Protestant.

Yes, both quotes together give a more balanced view of Pearce's opinion about Lewis position as regards Catholicism.