Fantastic, aren't they? I've read them all repeatedly. I'd also recommend his Space Trilogy.

Good for you Tim. I recently finished reading them via reading them to my daughter. I did have a hard time in one of them due to the way that Lewis structured the dialogue - it just isn't the way I structure my speech, so that made it difficult.

I particularly liked the way Lewis wrapped it all up in the last two books.

As someone who grew up (and enjoyed) reading the Chronicles of Narnia, and later read the rest of the main CS Lewis corpus (Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters, Abolition of Man, etc...) I eventually came to a conclusion at odds with most of my fellow evangelicals...

Clive Staples Lewis was not a Biblical Christian. He was a talented writer, and a compelling philosopher. But, he was also a theosophist. (For instance, see, in the Abolition of Man his reference to the Tao. Our Lord and Saviour declared he is "the way, the truth, and the life". Christianity does not need to be interpreted in the light (or darkness?) of pagan and antichristian philosophy.) Mythology is antithetical to the God of the Bible who is eternal Truth. For C.S. Lewis to refer to Christ and Christianity as a "true myth" is abomination, and denies the divinity of Christ. His influence has only undermined a Biblical understanding of Christianity, and set us back by centuriues. If you want to read a Christian, read Paul, or John, or Peter, not someone whose books are nothing but "cunningly devised fables."

And what is your "Biblical Christianity", "not cs lewis"?

Quoting like a Calormene 24/7/365?

I've been there, done that, got the scars-for-life to prove it. I've seen reality turned into a wasteland except for endless-loop quoting of "Scripture! Scripture! Scripture!" and "Praise the LORDs!"? It's a much better description of Afghanistan under the Taliban than any Kingdom of God.

No, I am not saying that we have to go out and all be Bible-thumpers (nothing wrong with that, though, thump thump thump) But what I am saying is that CS Lewis has a viewpoint which is wholly consistent and articulate, but not necessarily that of the Bible.

I agree with you, Ken, I have seen people whose notions of Christianity are devoid of Christian love. Where they have the letter (which killeth) but not the spirit (which giveth life).

I am certainly not a Taliban type. If people want to live a life wholly consistent with CS Lewis' dogma, that is fine. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are living a life wholly constitent with Christianity.

I would rather have people living a life in accord with our Master's command to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons." Than have endless theological squabblings. By turning to and knowing the love of God found in His holy, inspired Word, then we know our salvation, the salvation which only comes through our Lord and Saviour. We know what it means to have streams break forth in the wilderness of a barren, desolate life.

I was joking about the Bible thumping comment, above.

I guess I just feel frustrated when I see Christians being cast about with every wind of doctrine. We mythologize Christianity by inserting mysticism, scholasticism, and dogma, in the place of God's holy word. It is that mysticism which leads to unhappy lives. This is also my problem with Mel Gibson's movie. The insertion of the views of a 19th century mystic, and mixing these things in with the crucifixion, while Hollywoodizing the account, also confuses people as to the real events recorded in the Gospels.

We have no record of Satan incarnate around Jesus in the Garden, or during his torture. What, other than making it a more exciting movie, does that add to our understanding of God's love? It seems to me that it is based on our theories, and makes it more consistent with our theories, then upon what happened and what God has chosen to reveal to us in the Bible. I would rather take the words of the Beloved Disciple than the theories of a mystic nun or a hollywood producer.

But that's just me.

TJ (posted earlier as "not CS Lewis")

The Narnia books have so many great messages in them. The idea that you have to be brave and stand for what is right, the idea that you have to be as wise as a serpent to recognize treachery, and the idea the God is not just a philosophical abstraction, but a person. I'm sorry tj is bummed out by C. S. Lewis, but I concur with him that his is a minority view.

Douglas, I think that you make my point, in a round about sort of way.

They are well-written books. They include many messages with a particular moral to tell. But the fact is that all of the messages you have outlined are messages found in the mythologies of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. They are the same messages found among the Baal worshippers. These pagan mythologies espouse all of the same virtues. In fact, many of the pagan mythologies teach about a son who is slain and reborn. (See the Isis/Osiris myth, or Dionysus, or Baal). But there is no correspondance between the God of the Bible and His everlasting Son, Christ Jesus, and these myths. No one who has seriously read the myths about Dionysus could honestly say that they prefigure Christ Jesus (Alexander the Great thought that they prefigured himself).

It is just important to see in Christianity not just good moral lessons, the same lessons which could be found in the stories of the persecutors of the prophets and the apostles.

There is something unique about Christianity. Something holy and sacred. We should never add to it, nor detract from it, nor mix it with myths. Otherwise we are guilty of the same adultery condemned by those who proved Christianity by the greater works our Master promised.

Fantastic books I read them all when I was about 10 (many moons ago) and plan to read them to my two sons in a few years when they are a little older.