C.S. Lewis is not a “fashionable” writer; hence his continuing influence, when fashions have come and gone.

The enduring appeal of C S Lewis

by Francis Phillips

It is interesting how the writings of CS Lewis have entered the national consciousness. Much as some people would like to dismiss his Christian apologetics as being written by a professor of medieval literature who had strayed outside his proper discipline, or others – of the Philip Pullman School of children’s fantasy writing – as being too old-fashioned for a post-Christian world, he has continued to be as popular as ever. Can it be that his critics don’t understand the nature of his appeal?

I think the reason why Lewis continues to be read – long after other religious or children’s writers will be forgotten – is partly because he has a beautiful, clear prose style, capable of describing complex ideas in a way suited to ordinary readers, and partly because of his “voice” itself; painfully honest, deeply serious and insightful about human psychology. Readers sense this; they don’t feel hectored or bullied by a hidden ideological agenda; they trust him enough to follow his arguments where they lead. He is not a “fashionable” writer; hence his continuing influence, when fashions have come and gone.

Of his books my favourite is Surprised by Joy, the story of his intellectual and spiritual journey which was to lead to Christian faith. Indeed, I chose it as one of the books I once read aloud onto tapes for an association of blind Catholics. Unlike many – or most – autobiographies, Lewis is not preoccupied with himself. His book is not an exercise in vanity but an attempt to describe how one individual, irresistibly drawn to the workings of the human imagination, makes the discovery that the imagination can lead to truth.

Thus I was curious to see how the recent post-Christmas BBC 4 programme on CS Lewis – “Narnia’s Lost Poet” – would treat him. It was narrated by the writer AN Wilson, a biographer of Lewis, in his fluent, elegant and precise way (even if he did look slightly comic, talking solemnly to the camera from the back of a bus going up Headington Hill, in imitation of a journey that Lewis had done many times over many years.) This being television there had to be an “angle”, even if it was slightly manufactured; this was the idea that Lewis had yearned to be taken seriously as a poet, had failed in this enterprise and, late in life, had poured his creative energies into his series of books for children.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToO-CwbXcJs


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