Alister McGrath, is the latest of a long line of both admirers and critics of Clive Staples Lewis, to have write a biography of the writer, scholar and eccentric. McGrath notes early on that he has some similarities to Lewis, in that he is Irish, came to Oxford to pursue a successful academic career, converted to Christianity in part due to his academic interests, and as a result has written both academic tomes, and popular Christian books. There the similarities end, McGrath is a scientist-theologian and Lewis was scholar of medieval literature; yet their worlds overlap again in the field of Christian apologetics.
McGrath has produced a meticulously well-researched, and fluently written biography, which covers all aspects of Lewis' rather odd life. He positions himself as a friendly critic of Lewis, seeking to avoid some of the first generation of biographies which were from friends and admirers, or hatchet jobs by later critics. Intriguingly, A.N. Wilson describes McGrath's as the best biography yet, which is surprising as Wilson penned a particularly scathing one several years ago (his varying assessments perhaps saying as much about his varying personal convictions at these two times, as about the books!).
McGrath guides the reader through the early life of Lewis, the loss of his mother, and the series of hated boarding schools which Lewis railed against in his autobiography Surprised by Joy. The advent of the First World War, and Lewis' participation in trench warfare on The Western Front is documented, along his battle injury which led to discharge from the forces. The fact that Lewis barely mentions this either in his autobiography, subsequent writings or correspondence is one of the more surprising things that McGrath relates. He points out that Lewis spends much more time denouncing the evils of failing boarding schools, than the murderous brutality of machine gun fire which killed most of his pre-war friends. Such compartmentalism is clearly not a normal or healthy response, and quite the opposite of the war poets who processed their grief in ink - something Lewis wouldn't do until he was widowed in 1960.
Lewis's academic career and credentials are mapped out next, along with his eccentric private life in the 1920s. McGrath takes a careful line, in that while he neither avoids the question of Lewis unconventional relationship with Mrs Janie Moore, he doesn't take an excessively prurient interest in the details either. Of more interest to this biographer is Lewis progress in languages, philosophy and literary criticism; the field in which he would eventually become an Oxford tutor and then Cambridge professor.
McGrath writes more sympathetically then some biographers about Lewis' celebrated conversion to Christianity at Oxford. Although McGrath takes great pains to point out that he doesn't accept Lewis' own chronology of these events - he does accept the substance of them; presumably partly because McGrath himself also moved from atheism to theism to Christianity while at Oxford!
Lewis' writings are all assessed here, from his academic works on literature, through to his first forays into Christian popular works. McGrath weighs and assesses them all from his early Pilgrim's Regress all the way to A Grief Observed, via Mere Christianity, Narnia and the rest. Again McGrath writes not as a 'groupie' or someone out to destroy a reputation, but offers a good guide to Lewis varied output. He finds, for example, Lewis' treatment of the Problem of Pain or the Argument from Desire, far more compelling that his famous Christological Trilemma, which he finds, somewhat hurried, poorly developed and lacking.
The Inklings, and Lewis' other literary companions (most famously Tolkein) are considered, along with the decline of Lewis as an apologist, and his later carer as a writer of fiction. McGrath is very careful to debunk the myth that Lewis abandoned the quest for a rational exploration of questions of faith, after a bruising debate with Elizabeth Anscombe at The Socratic Club in 1948. Rather he points out that the two agreed on much of the substance of natural theology, and that Lewis went on to rework his arguments in the light of the debate. The spiritual, intellectual and cultural environment from which both Narnia and Middle Earth sprung is nicely explored.
Lewis' later life, including his unusual marriage to Joy Davidman, his move to Cambridge, estrangement from Tolkein and his bereavement and crisis are all well examined towards the end of the book - along with his decline and death (on the same day as JFK) on 1963. A Grief Observed, is of course a controversial book in the Lewis canon. McGrath lines it up alongside The Problem of Pain as an obvious contrast. While The Problem of Pain presents a rational case for understanding human suffering in the face of suffering, in McGrath's view is that it seems distant and clinical compared to the raw emotion of A Grief Observed, Lewis' grief-stricken account of losing his wife Joy to cancer in 1960. Yet McGrath offers a careful rebuttal to those who have suggested that grief made Lewis into an agnostic. He shows the way in which Lewis probes every possible avenue including atheism and agnosticism, before finally settling into a Christian faith which was profoundly altered by the experience.
McGrath has produced a highly readable, wonderfully researched biography which is clearly deeply embedded in the primary sources (a principle which Lewis embodied in his study of medieval literature). He leaves the reader in no doubt as to Lewis' gifts, sincerity, joys, struggles and successes as well as his legacy. He also lets the reader see something of the extent to which he was also a rather odd chap, who's life contained great strains, loyalties, and sadnesess too. If like me, you were transfixed by The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, or Prince Caspian, this is a great place to explore their origins. It's a highly enjoyable, and at times rather moving read.
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