cover image C.S. Lewis Then and Now

C.S. Lewis Then and Now

Wesley A. Kort. Oxford University Press, USA, $35 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-19-514342-3

Almost 40 years after his death, C.S. Lewis continues to capture headlines. Recent controversy about the ""de-Christianizing"" of his Narnia series has again raised questions about the value of Lewis's apologetics and the merit of his religious fiction. Taking a broad look at Lewis's weaving together of Christianity and culture, Kort (religion, Duke Univ.) offers a refreshing new reading of Lewis's life and work. He argues that evangelical Christianity's appropriation of Lewis is mysterious, because Lewis did not advocate a withdrawal from or an opposition to modern culture, as many evangelicals do. Instead, writes Kort, Lewis knew that Christians will always find themselves situated in a particular culture and define themselves religiously within that culture. With his deep erudition in 16th-century English literature, especially Spenser and Milton, Lewis strove continually to emphasize that Christian doctrines, such as redemption and creation, imbue language and literature, enabling us ""to have and discover right relations"" between ourselves and our culture and religion. Kort concludes by arguing that, although we cannot recover Lewis completely for our time, he provides a model of Christian engagement with culture that neither despises culture nor diminishes Christianity. Although Kort provides perhaps the most challenging and cogent reading of Lewis now available, the scholarly tone of the writing and its frequent lapses into academic jargon will make it accessible only to a limited audience. (Nov.)