C.S. Lewis died 60 years ago. Here are 10 of his best works
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C.S. Lewis died on Nov. 22, 1963, at 64 years old.
During his lifetime, he published 37 books and many more essays, taught English literature at Oxford University and served as chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, per the C.S. Lewis website. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.
In honor of his life, here’s a list of 10 of his best works.
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1. ‘Learning in War-Time’ (sermon)
Published in: 1939.
“Learning in War-Time” is a sermon Lewis gave at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Oxford, near the beginning of World War II. It discusses the purpose of education amid the horrors of war.
He poses the questions:
“What is the use of beginning a task to which we have so little chance of finishing?
“If we ourselves should happen not to be interrupted by death or military service, why should we — indeed how can we — continue to take an interest in these placid occupations when the lives of our friends and the liberties of Europe are in the balance? Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?”
The sermon argues that if education is delayed because of conflict, it will never happen. Lewis also refutes the claim that culture makes someone more spiritual. He believes that closeness to God comes from the attitude you adopt.
Notable quotations: “To be ignorant and simple now — not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground — would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.”
“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”
2. ‘Mere Christianity’
Published in: 1952.
Lewis’ book “Mere Christianity” got its start on a BBC radio show during which Lewis gave 15-minute talks under the title of “Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe.”
Lewis did four series for BBC from 1941 to 1944 and, in total, spoke for nearly six hours on air, according to the Gospel Coalition. His remarks turned out to be extremely popular and one broadcast brought in 1.5 million listeners.
The radio segments were compiled into “Mere Christianity,” which has three sections titled, “Right and Wong as a Clue to the meaning of the Universe,” “What Christians Believe” and “Christian Morality.” In them, Lewis discusses the existence of God and why God matters to the human experience.
He explores faith and virtues from a Christian perspective and discusses what it really means to be “born again.”
Notable quotation: “You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again.”
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3. ‘The Great Divorce’
Published in: 1945.
Lewis wrote “The Great Divorce” in response to William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” which argues for the necessity of both good and evil in the world. “The Great Divorce” explores what the afterlife will be like for people who lived good lives and for those who didn’t.
The story begins at a bus stop in Hell. Nearly everyone but the narrator is angry, and they shove their way onto a bus headed to heaven. “Solid People” plead with the ghosts from Hell to stay in Heaven, and the narrator observes nearly everyone unwilling to let go of their pride and stay. Lewis proposes that going to Heaven or Hell is a choice ultimately made by the individual.
Notable quotation: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
4. ‘The Screwtape Letters’
Published in: 1942.
This book is a series of letters between a senior demon, Screwtape, and a novice, Wormwood, as they try to lead a human toward Hell. Lewis explores various aspects of morality and spirituality through the lens of a demon trying to get a human to sin.
Like “Mere Christianity,” this book is less of a story driven by plot and more of an exploration of what it means to be human.
Notable quotation: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts, ... Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”
5. ‘The Problem With Pain’
Published in: 1940.
This book explores “why a good and all-powerful God allows pain in the world,” per Emerging Scholars Network. He challenges the argument that, if God were good, He would make sure all of his creations were happy and would solve all of the heartache in the world.
Lewis splits his arguments into chapters discussing various aspects of pain and concludes they are a result of people’s free will. Though humanity consistently misuses free will, Lewis asserts that it’s only through free will that love can genuinely exist.
Notable quotation: “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
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6. ‘Perelandra’
Published in: 1943.
“Perelandra” is the second book in Lewis’ sci-fi space trilogy and references the Bible’s creation story. In this book, the protagonist Elwin Ransom is largely based off of Lewis’ close friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, and works as a philologist at Cambridge University.
Ransom is sent to a world of floating islands and meets the planet’s version of Eve, a green-skinned woman called “the Lady.” Evil Professor Weston arrives on the planet after Ransom and introduces evil into the world for the first time.
Notable quotation: “The world is so much larger than I thought. I thought we went along paths — but it seems there are no paths. The going itself is the path.”
7. ‘Till We Have Faces’
Published in: 1956.
“Till We Have Faces” is Lewis’ rendition of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche’s older sister Orual narrates. Psyche is known for her beauty, while Orual is known for her ugliness.
The girls’ father decides to sacrifice Psyche to appease the god of the Mountain. Orual finds out that Psyche isn’t actually dead.
Carnegie Library describes the book like this: “In Lewis’ version, the story is narrated from the perspective of Orual, Psyche’s older sister, who is known as much for her ugliness as Psyche is for her beauty. What starts with Orual’s bold accusations against the gods and demand for answers turns into a self-revelatory journey for her as she wrestles with her understanding of love and truth and justice and the question of whether we can discern anything correctly until we remove our ‘veils.’”
Notable quotation: “Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.”
8. ‘Narnia’
Published in: 1950 to 1956.
There are seven books in the Narnia series, and each one tells a slightly different story involving the magical land of Narnia, where animals talk and magic exists.
The first book, “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,” introduces Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, who had to leave their home due to air raids during World War II. While the four children are staying with a professor in the English countryside, Lucy finds a magical wardrobe that acts as a portal to the fantastical realm of Narnia. At first, she ventures in alone and befriends Mr. Tumnus. She brings her siblings back with her, and they find out they are destined to end the evil White Witch’s reign.
Notable quotation: “But very quickly they all became grave again: for, as you know, there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.”
9. ‘A Grief Observed’
Published in: 1961.
This book is Lewis’ reflective account of his grief after his wife, Joy Davidman, passed away. Through his journal entries, readers see Lewis’ journey through the initial shock and intense pain, as well as his questioning of faith and eventual acceptance.
Notable quotations: “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing.
“At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.”
10. ‘Miracles’
Published in: 1947.
Books at a Glance describes the book like this: “This book explores the philosophical and theological issues that surround the subject of miracles. Lewis looks at the relationship between worldviews, probability, history, science, and theology. He examines different conceptions of “Nature” and reveals how our assumptions have created misunderstandings about the miraculous. He also points out numerous missteps, logical fallacies, and unwarranted presuppositions that keep people from believing in miracles.”
To Lewis, miracles do not defy the laws of nature, because God made nature and miracles. He concludes that miracles are possible, plausible, probable and fitting; they are part of the way that the universe works.
Notable quotation: “Nothing can seem extraordinary until you have discovered what is ordinary. Belief in miracles, far from depending on an ignorance of the laws of nature, is only possible in so far as those laws are known.”
