Pilgrims Regress

The Pilgrim's Regress was C.S. Lewis's first work after his conversion to Christianity. In it he presents a very forward allegory for his conversion to Christianity. John, the protagonist, lives in land controlled by the landlord. The stewards of the land make arbitrary rules and enforce them for the landlord. The rules can be bizarre and contradictory, but everyone must obey, or they will be cast out. However, some people say that the landlord never existed, and he is just something made up. These people can have names like "reason". John goes on to experiment with the beliefs of others as he desires to learn and do more. The work is not bad, but it is not up to the standards that Lewis would set with his later apologetic Christian works. It may be more accurate to compare it to the Narnia books, which also provide Christian allegory in the context of a literary story. However, even with this comparison it comes up short. Perhaps it is just Lewis having fun, experimenting with his own retelling of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

God in the Dock

This book contains a collection of various Christian essays and speeches given by C.S. Lewis. The audience and tone can vary significantly, however, on a whole they are all very well done. Many are outright defenses of diety and Christianity. Others go on to other topics, such as Christmas, vivisection and punishment.

He attacks the modern "humanitarian theory" of punishment as being unjust. With traditional punishment, the punishment is a consequence of the crime. With the humanitarian theory, punishment is put in place to either deter future crimes or as a means of curing the underlying pathological problem. With the first, perception is more important. If everyone thinks somebody is guilty, then the punishment will have the desired impact, even if the person is innocent. With the later, the punishment now becomes indeterminate, relying on the opinion and current psychological theories used by the technocrats.

He also spends plenty of time criticizing common theories of the day. A criticism of reason based on underlying psychological and physiological desires ends up falling on itself. While scientists can criticize religion for ulterior motives, scientists themselves are open to the same criticism, thereby leaving us with nothing at the end.

A common theme through most essays is that strong reason proves that reason itself is not enough and that faith is needed to fully understand the world and live a joyful life.

The Last Battle

A clever ape's chance encounter with a dead lion starts a serious of destructive events in Narnia. The ape is able to dress his donkey friend in the lion skin, and thus convince everyone that he is the great lion "Aslan". Others fall for this, and blindly agree to follow his words, eventually enslaving themselves to nearby enemies. The enemy-Ape crowd continue to use their detailed knowledge of Narnian believes to spread small lies and entrench their leadership position.

With conditions really bad, all the previous "Narnian children" are called back to help resolve the problems. It turns out that they were "called" back via a train crash in their real world, and are now permanent residents of Narnia. After the calamities of Narnia, it too is transformed to a "new Narnia". Those that were not worthy did not make it through the door to the new area. (And some, like the Dwarfs, failed to believe of the goodness, and thus continued to live in darkness.)

. People are eager to accept the appearance of the long-missing deity. The eagerness encourages them to blindly follow him - without stopping to question or think that it might be an impostor. Many of those that finally stop following the "false Aslan" are so disturbed by the experience that they begin to abandon their faith altogether. By subtly mixing small lies with the truth the evildoers are able to undermine the faith for their personal gain. (However, they are soon undermined when they discover that even their 'evil' deity is real.)

The end is a story of the rapture and the joyous afterlife. Those believers were obvious participants in the joy. While others with strong belief and morals, even if misplayed in an evil god were also allowed to join, as they were willing to accept the true "good" Aslan.

This completes the epic, coming from the creation on to the final destruction of the Narnian world and the afterlife. This book feels somewhat different than the other Narnia books. Its not a mere battle that they children are set join, but a true destruction of the world. While things are extremely ominous, out of the destruction rises one of the most joyous occasions. This makes this also one of the better books in the series.

What Christians Believe

What Christian's Believe is a short Christian apologetic essay. The ideas closely resemble those in other C.S. Lewis Christian works. He presents an argument in favor of general Christianity over atheism and pantheism. Atheists have the burden of proof that their is no deity and all religions are wrong. One bit of truth from one religion would disprove atheism. Other religions and belief sets may have perfectly valid belief sets even if they lack some key components. Thus, Christians can believe that other religions have valid truths, even if they don't believe them completely.

A dualistic belief of equal forces of good and evil is refuted because evil is a negative response to good - and many evil actions use are enabled in part by "good" characteristics.

The arguments are more well thought out than the summaries I have given. However, since this is a brief book, there is not a whole lot more to them. "Mere Christianity" may be a better place to go to get the detail of his arguments.

The Silver Chair

Eustace Scrub and a girl are being chased by bullies. They wish for an entry in to Narnia. Then they go through a door and end up there. Narnia time has aged a generation since Eustace's last trip. He and the girl are supposed to go find the young prince to restore him to his thrown. Only, they don't communicate well and end up on a few detours before they go on their mission. They eventually strap a knight to a Silver Chair (hence the book's name) and manage to break an evil witch's spell and bring him back home.

This novel shows the gradual evolution of Scrub. He is still a little prick, but lets more of his good side show through. We also see the nefariousness of the witch, who manages to belittle everything with week comparisons. (When they say the sun is like a light, she belittles their world as being a mere imitation of her real world. Finally, they are able to overcome her be acknowledging that they would rather live in their potentially better world than be stuck in her 'known inferior' world.)

They also get their share of fantastical adventures, being blown by a lion's breath away from a miles high cliff, narrowly avoiding becoming the key ingredient in giants' meal, and finding an underground revolt.

This book is a pseudo-tangent. Read after Dawn Treader, it seems to flow fairly naturally. However, the story seems somewhat of a tangent from the main Narnia line (after all, Scrub was not introduced until the previous book). It also seemed to lack the engagement of the earlier books. However, it is still a fairly good story.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This book in the Narnia series contains a series of "adventures" similar to Gulliver's Travels or a Jules Verne novel. A couple of the "Narnia" kids are with their do-gooder intellectual cousin (Eustace) when they get sucked in to a picture of a ship they see. On the ship with Prince Caspian, they participate in a number of fairly unrelated adventures. They are sold as slaves, only to depose the ruler of a realm. Eustace is turned in to a dragon, only to be eventually rescued by Aslan. They run in to invisible monopods that they help turn visible. (And in the process Lucy regrets that she cast a spell to learn what everybody thought of her.) And what magical adventure is complete without water that turns everything it touches to gold?

Eustace becomes the main thread through the story. He is a bookworm, snobbish teetotaler who is set in his ways. (Lewis also uses alcohol as part of his 'separation', with the others freely drinking while Eustace stays away.) Eventually, he starts to realize that perhaps he is part of the problem. When the kids finally return home, he is seen as having a much improved character.

This is a "fun" novel in the Narnia series with a number of small adventures. It ties in a few moral and religious messages (such as faith, and the disadvantage of knowing too much about others.) And it also ties in Lewis's views of the benefit of socializing and not being too uptight. Each of the adventures could just about be released as its own short story. Thus far, this is probably my favorite Narnia story.

Prince Caspian

The children, on their way to boarding school, are summoned back to Narnia. There they find great kingdom mostly in ruins. An evil group has taken over, and the few rebels (lead by rightful heir Prince Caspian) have summoned them to help defend it. They win in a big battle, and discover that the usurpers to the thrown were also humans extracted from earth.

This is more of an adventure story, with the religious allegory present, much less strong than in the "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". However, there are still issues of faith, with Lucy maintaining a belief in Aslan, even though others cannot seem to see him. She is rewarded for this faith, but still has to struggle to convince the others.

It is a well written book that could stand alone, but is better read after the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Horse and His Boy

This is a light, simplistic fantasy story that even I liked. A boy runs away from servitude with a talking horse. They eventually meet up with another horse and person. They then take part in a big battle where the good guys win and people get married and live happily ever after.

The story seems more simple than the other Narnia stories and feels much lighter in tone. It feels more like a 30 minute cartoon than a feature length movie.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

This was better than I remembered it. A girl goes exploring in an old house and discovers a wardrobe that leads to another world. The time moves at a different rate and she comes out shortly after entering (even though she was there for a while.) The other kids do not believe her. A boy stumbles in and encounters the evil "queen" who offers him magical Turkish delight. He craves it and wants more and more (along with promised kingship and glory.) When he returns, he tells the girl he was there, but then tells the others that she simply had an imagination. Eventually they all end up in Narnia, where the boy discovers that the "queen" is just trying to use him for her means. Eventually the lion dies for them, thereby reversing magic and saving everyone (including himself.)

The Christianity is obvious,(kids are daughters of eve or sons of Adam), yet subdued. (The evil queen comes from another parallel line of Adam.) The Lion is a pretty obvious Christ figure, complete with the sacrifice. However, the world is still a world of its own, unique from any biblical one.

One message seems to be to not give in to temptations to mess up your life in search of yummy food. (Hmmm, that is a tough one to follow.)

Magician's Nephew

Some kids associate with their Magician uncle. They see the witch and unlock the world of Narnia, and inadvertently bring the evil witch back to earth. Luckily, she seems to have no power here.

The story didn't seem all that bad, but I did have trouble getting in to it. It did have some pretty clear Christian metaphors. As the "creation" story for Narnia, it had many similarities to the biblical creation (complete with fruit.)

A Grief Observed

C.S. Lewis originally published anonymously these reflections on the death of his spouse. He finds his reaction is different now that he is feeling loss than it was before he experienced something first-hand. The reflections seem to be created shortly after his loss, and are rather raw. He comes across much 'insecure' and exposed than his other writings. Unfortunately, this is also one of his weaker works.

Till We Have Faces

It took a while to get in to this book. The first part had to do something with the tale of Psyche. The narrator completes clandestine martial training, and eventually uses it to challenge a nearby nemesis. This leads to her becoming a warrior queen. She has success in her kingdom. She also always wears her veil, thus adding to her mystique. She eventually discovers a small temple that tells the mythology of the people that she has known in her life. "What many people see is real, while what one person sees is a dream."

Reflections on the Psalms

This is C.S. Lewis's acknowledged "lawman's" take on the Psalms. As in his other religious works, he apologizes for lacking the "learning" of religious scholars, before proceeding to show his deep study and learning in the field.

Much of the work discusses the differences between the Jewish worldview as expressed in the psalms and the modern Christian worldview in the new testament. The psalms present many of the great contrasts, with "loving" poems that seem the embodiment of Christian compassion, but that end with a death wish for enemies. Many bits of insight to the culture of the bible times are given to help put these in context.

This is not one of his best religious writings, but it is a quality work.

Out of the Silent Planet

Before listening to lectures on C.S. Lewis, I didn't realize that Lewis had ventured in to the science fiction genre. I had to try it out. It was not bad, but doesn't fit in to the typical science fiction world, either.

In the book, a professor stumbles across some other professors that have a backyard rocket. They kidnap him to take him to Mars where they think the martians will make him a sacrificial victim. However, once they get there, it turns out they are peaceful. Martians live in a world where different beings communicate together, and all interact with angel-like beings that live outside of time and space. They have little concept of the conflicts that we have on earth. The narrator gets to know them and become friends. The others, however, treat them as brutal natives. Eventually the earthlings are sent off the planet, and manage to make it back to the earth after a close call with the moon.

Perelandra

In this second book in C.S. Lewis's space trilogy, the hero gets a quick trip to Venus courtesy of the "angels" he met on Mars. On Venus, he encounters the "Eve" character for the planet. Then, his nemesis from the first book shows up via his rocketship to play the role of the tempter.

The book has the religious overtones typical of C.S. Lewis, played out in a "lite" science fiction universe. The people, rather than technology, are the key here. (I'd almost consider it "interplanetary fantasy")

Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters: With Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters are a series of letters from a senior devil (Screwtape) to a junior devil (Wormwood), providing advice on his "temptation efforts" of a young Brit. In the letters, he expresses the subtleties needed to tempt man and bring his "soul" to the devil. Screwtape advises against the obvious frontal assaults, and instead in favor of more subtle maneuverings. Many of the best "destructions" of souls can take place by turning their own virtues in to vices. (For example, church attendance can be helpful to a devil - a person attending church may observe the defects of the others there and use that to imply church teachings are negative.) Helping them to give in to small temptations can bring about a gradual destruction of the soul. On the other hand, wars can actually lead a soul to separate from the devil.

In the end, Wormwood's target is killed during World War II bombings and "lost" to the Devil as he embraced God. However, he is now better prepared for his future targets, so we must be prepared also.

Literature of C.S. Lewis

The Literature of C.S. Lewis provides some basic background on C.S. Lewis's life, and then launches directly in to an analysis of his works. The content and delivery are quite good. However, the pacing seems a bit off. He spends entire lectures covering a novel or two, then at the end rushes through his other works. The novel discussions also provide a heavy dose of synopsis. (You could just about skip reading the novels after listening to the details of the lecture.)

The lectures do acknowledge the importance of Lewis's religious conviction in all his works. However, they also make clear that Lewis never thought of himself as perfect, and loved smoking, drinking and eating. He also brings up a debate the Lewis lost (to another Christian) at Oxford that lead to him to focus more on fiction than overt apologetics.

The content was informative, but it could have been improved replacing some of the novel summaries with analysis of the novels and other works.

The Great Divorce

In this Christian work, C.S. Lewis uses an allegorical story to discuss the afterlife and freedom. He has a character visit "lands" that have their own personal "quirks" representing various aspects of the "good" or the "bad". People that do almost everything good, yet maintain "favorite sins" will find company with others that enjoy these favorites, and will not make it elsewhere. A world where "everything is provided" will also not be a pleasant place to live.

This story form works will for explaining some complex doctrine.

Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis professes not to be a religious leader. Instead, he presents an intellectually rigorous layman's view of Christianity.
His attempt is to provide an intellectual foundation for Christianity regardless of sect. He points out that science can know everything about the entire Universe, yet still not know where the universe came from. With God "outside" the known universe, we would not expect to find fully about him through scientific inquiry.

He brings few additional interesting analogies for Christian principles. He uses the "dimensionality" argument to explain the lack of "time" in God's world. (He can move along dimensions around us.) He also analysis sexual urges by comparing it to food. While we all eat, we don't have food strip-teases or similar things as with sexual desire.

It provides many other good "arguments" for Christian principles (including the resurrection) that help make them clear from the point of view of somebody inside or outside of a Christian sect.