The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind

Baxter (An Introduction to Christian Mysticism), a humanities and art history professor at Wyoming Catholic College, argues that C.S. Lewis’s lifelong romance with medieval thought fundamentally shaped his writings in this bustling survey of the author’s intellectual foundation. Drawing on Lewis’s essays and personal correspondence, Baxter assembles a meticulous portrait of Lewis as a scholar so consumed by his fascination for medieval tales, rhetoric, and grammar that he could seldom write or speak “without opening up the dam and letting all the old ideas and emotions, stored up in his memory by long reading, break forth.” Baxter makes a strong case for the continued relevance of Lewis’s insights into his medieval muses, including the intrinsic value of studying the humanities and his belief that humans occupy a peripheral place in the cosmos. However, some of Baxter’s arguments—such as that “Lewis’s own conversion [to Christianity] is a microcosmic reflection of the slow historical preparation of the human race” for Christ—fail to convince among the many serviceable alternative explanations. Despite a few hiccups, Baxter’s lucid work sheds light on a crucial dimension of Lewis’s thinking and writing; this should appeal to medievalists and Lewis fans alike. (Mar.)