November 22, 1963

Nearly every American and Englishman over the age of 50 remembers the 22nd of November 1963. It was the day C. S. Lewis died. John F. Kennedy also died that day.

For every Christian who is weak in the faith and for every non-Christian who wonders what Christianity really is all about, I highly recommend the insights of this great Christian apologist. A good starting place, and a book that should be on every Christian’s bookshelf is Lewis’ Mere Christianity. This slender volume can easily be read in just a few hours. I’m sure the book will be often reread, though, as the reader delights in the unforgettable metaphors and analogies that suddenly make Christian principles seem so clear and luminous. Not all of his illustrations or conclusions line up with revealed religion, but the volume is an excellent starting point. All truth is not arrived at all at once, neither by Lewis nor by any of us; but Mr. Lewis is clearly pointed in the right direction and points us there.

The reading of Mere Christianity may lead the still un-converted to his Surprised By Joy, which chronicles the journey Lewis took as an atheist who came suddenly into the light. Most literate people have heard of his Screwtape Letters (which he says was his least favorite book to write) and generations of youngsters are familiar with his fantasy, The Chronicles of Narnia. I finally got into Lewis’ writings (the aforementioned and others) in the mid-‘70’s when I was reading J. R. R. Tolkein’s Fellowship of the Ring to my children. Lewis and Tolkein were academic colleagues and friends at Oxford and Cambridge.

So, for me, the anniversary of November 22, 1963 is a day that annually brings me back to the reading of one of his books or anthologies of his writings, and the heady days of my own solid conversion to Christianity. Thanks, Jack (as Lewis’ friends call him).