C S Lewis
| CS Lewis | |
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Statue of CS Lewis in Belfast. He is shown opening a cabinet, referring to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | |
| Birth name | Clive Staples Lewis |
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| Activity (s) | Novelist , essayist , academic |
| Birth | 29 November 1898 Belfast ,  United Kingdom |
| Deaths | 22 November 1963 (64) Oxford ,  United Kingdom |
| Writing language | British English |
| Genre (s) | Fantasy , science fiction , apologetics , children's books |
| Major works | |
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| Supplements | |
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Clive Staples Lewis, better known by the name of CS Lewis, born in Belfast on 29 November 1898 and died in Oxford on 22 November 1963 , is an Irish author and scholar. He is known for his work on medieval literature, his works of literary criticism and apologetics of Christianity and for the series of Chronicles of Narnia published between 1950 and 1957.
It was a close friend of JRR Tolkien , author of Lord of the Rings , at whose side he taught at the Faculty of English Literature from the University of Oxford , they were both part of the literary circle of Inklings. Partly because of the influence of Tolkien and reading GK Chesterton , Lewis converted to Christianity, becoming, in his words, "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England Biography Who was born on 29 November 1898 , in a wealthy Protestant family of origin Welsh , in a farmhouse a few miles from Belfast in Ireland , Clive Staples Lewis was the second child of Albert James Lewis (1863-1929 ) and Flora Augusta Hamilton Lewis (1862-1908), his brother Warren Hamilton Lewis is the eldest of three years. The family moved in 1905 into a large house called Little Lea, in Strandtown, still in Northern Ireland. In 1908 his mother dies as a result of cancer and is a real tragedy for Lewis . This event marks the Lewis family and strengthens the ties that bind them. Warren share repurchase, which contributes to the early passion for reading and writing of Clive Staples. They meet regularly, however, and write all the Chronicles of Boxen, which take place in a world populated by animals. A third major disaster strikes Lewis: his own retirement pension, and less than a month after the disappearance of her mother. CS Lewis leaves to join his brother at Wynyard School in Watford in England. He described this experience like a "concentration camp . Indeed, the director of this school is sadistic and authoritarian, all to his students with his staff. CS Lewis remains long characterized by abuse suffered and observed at Wynyard. Two years later, the school went bankrupt and closed. At the start of 1910, Albert Lewis enrolled in a school in Belfast itself. Came in September, Clive Staples comes out in November for health reasons. A year later, he returns to Cherbourg School, where he lives his life quietly in school for two years. This change of life helps him to lose faith. He returned in September 1913 at Malvern College, which he describes as the "Wyvern" in his autobiography. Lewis casts a highly critical of the considerable pressure that weighs on students, more concerned with their reputation and their place in the unofficial hierarchy of the institution for their academic success, so much so that it considers the which is practiced pederasty as "the only oasis in the desert burning ambitions rival . As for himself, not appreciating the sport and not interested in homosexual love, he devoted himself entirely to his growing interest in Celtic and Nordic mythology. In 1914, he left to take courses at private residence of WT Kirkpatrick, a friend of his father, former headmaster of Lurgan College. At home, he discovered classical literature, for which he takes passion. The name of this teacher may have inspired Lewis to name the hero of the book The Magician's Nephew in Narnia. According to his autobiography two years with Mr. Kirkpatrick were idyllic for him; Lewis particularly enjoyed the long conversations during which his teacher forced him to ensure the relevance of what he said and deepen his arguments. It overcomes its relative isolation by maintaining a regular correspondence with his friend Arthur Greeves childhood, who shares his passion for mythology. Having spent part of entrance examinations to University College Oxford, he was drafted into the army, the regiment of the Somerset Light Infantry. He takes part in the First World War , and fought in the trenches in France, where he was wounded by shrapnel April 15, 1917, during the Battle of Arras. Back to England, he was released from his military obligations in December 1918. He resumed studies at Oxford, and is conducting several brilliant course in philosophy, classics and English literature. Following a long process that began at the end of his university studies, Lewis converts to Christianity in 1931 , under the influence, among other things, the reading of George MacDonald and GK Chesterton , and conversations with JRR Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. He subsequently became a member of the Anglican Church , even if he keeps his life pretty eclectic ideas on the theological level, and spends his life disappointed by the poor quality of religious songs and sermons heard in church. His conversion is described in his autobiography Surprised by Joy - which also serves well enough to know the early years of his life. His spiritual journey is recounted in The Return of the Peregrine (The Pilgrim's Regress), a parody of Pilgrim's Progress of John Bunyan. Close friend of JRR Tolkien (author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings ), they all attend a literary society called the " Inklings , "which is also found Owen Barfield. It says for the first time the novels of Lewis, Tolkien and Charles Williams. Generally, they met at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford and discussions took place over a beer. In 1925, he taught at the University of Oxford , and chairs the Oxford Socratic Club, where believers and unbelievers are debating the validity of Christianity. Lewis often intervenes in these debates. Familiar characters involved, like the biologist Konrad Lorenz , but JBS Haldane and Jacob Bronowski. In 1936 he published the Allegory of Love, a study of medieval literature, which immediately earned him a reputation. Later he became professor of English literature from the Renaissance and Middle Ages to the University of Cambridge. His works on English literature of the sixteenth century are still regarded as references on the subject. Miracles in 1947, gathers some of his thoughts apologetic. He wrote several books of fiction primarily for youth, including Chronicles of Narnia , in seven volumes. He also wrote the novel A Face for eternity in 1956. The film Shadows of the heart (Shadowlands), Richard Attenborough, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, describes his encounter with Joy Gresham , his future wife, who comes at this time. Jewish, communist, it was converted to Christianity, and separated from her husband, lives in London with her two son, David and Douglas. CS Lewis's wife religiously in 1956, when it is already suffering from bone cancer she died in 1960. A brief recession in early 1960, was during a trip to Greece - it was the first time that the writer left the British Isles since 1918. He draws A Grief Observed, which he released under the pseudonym NW Clerk. But by dint of his friends heard him recommend this book to better understand the feelings he experienced after the death of his wife, Lewis finally acknowledged having written the book. Nephritis, and septicemia, he must resign from his post at Cambridge in the summer of 1963. His death on 22 November 1963 , goes completely unnoticed, occurring on the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the death of Aldous Huxley. This coincidence inspire, twenty years later, the work of Peter Kreeft Between Heaven and Hell, a fictional dialogue between the three characters on their arrival to Purgatory. He is buried in Oxford, in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, the Anglican Church, he is remembered by CS Lewis on November 22. If one puts aside the Chronicles of Narnia, it's probably for his apologetic that CS Lewis is best known today - it's probably a Christian apologist who won the most success during the twentieth century. Over forty years after his death, no doubt still no influence. His works are read by Protestants and Catholics with the same appeal. Enough has been written on Lewis to fill several bookcases. While the achievements of Lewis as qu'apologte are generally acclaimed, there is no shortage of critics. During his life he has faced the objections of his fellow Anglican W. Norman and pitting of the Catholic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe. In 1985, twenty-two years after his death, a whole book was to refute the entire enterprise of apologetics Lewis, published by the philosopher John Beversluis. The various criticisms, however, reflect the presuppositions of their authors, who are not self-evident truths ... One problem is rooted in the notion of "mere Christianity" ("Mere Christianity"), the concept that given the original title of the book in French entitled The Foundations of Christianity, Lewis was chosen as the point of view to defend. It is easy to argue that there is no such thing as a "mere Christianity" and that major differences, such as those between Protestants and Catholics, can not be evacuated. Aware of this objection, Lewis compared the simple Christianity to a room through which one finds his way to visit the rooms of a house. The play is not the place where the first comer wants to stay, but it is a place from which there is access to either of the other parts, recognizing that those in the rooms next door are members of the same house. By "mere Christianity", Lewis was referring to the common fund doctrine and practices rooted in the Christian Scriptures (the Bible) and the early creeds, who are founders for most Christian churches. Lewis developed his apologetics of Christianity in three stages. First, he began by establishing the existence of God on the foundations that were eminently philosophical. Then he sought to demonstrate that God has revealed more prominently in Christ and the Christian religion. Finally, he defended theism and Christianity cons of common objections, as the problem of evil. Against the agnosticism that existed in his time and still today, Lewis believed that it was possible to demonstrate the existence of God, at least in the sense of making the existence of God far more likely that its non- existence. He was aware of the ontological argument that often brings Descartes or Anselm of Canterbury , and arguments of a cosmological classically presented by Thomas Aquinas. In terms of the ontological argument which infers the existence of God from the very concept of Being Needed, he said in a letter to his brother Warren's argument would be invalid unless it 's establishing First, the idea of Being Needed, from which this argument is objectively justified and is not a vague production of our minds. He did not reject the cosmological argument from the facts that are change, causality and contingency, but he confessed in a letter to his friend Bede Griffiths they were not effective for him personally. But its worth it to favorite are those arising from morality, reason, and desire. Lewis was convinced that his arguments, especially when taken together with convergence, established the existence of a personal God who is the source of morality, rationality, and a source of spiritual joy. God stands above and beyond all of creation as its eternal foundation. This idea of God, says he is far more plausible that pantheism (or more accurately in French, panentheism ), mixing God and the world so that God could not exist unless the world is. After some time touched a sort of panentheism Hegelian , Lewis came to realize that God indistinct in the world could not be unconditionally true and good. The evidence is summarized here establish the existence of a God who can not be touched by evil. The argument arising from morality (argument from morality), that Lewis had ample enough advanced in his radio talks, "The Case for Christianity" (read "The Case for Christianity"), begins with the assertion that we are unconditionally forced to do good and avoid evil. All normal human beings spontaneously consider that some actions are wrong and should not be undertaken. They know they should be honest, sincere, temperate, just, and loving to others - and they are forbidden to commit theft, perjury, adultery, murder, and all that stuff. There may be disagreements on the details of the moral code, but not its binding. The question is from which this obligation. According to the classical tradition of Christian theology, going back to St. Paul , the obligation that comes from God, so to speak, His law written on the human heart, so that even people whom a positive moral law was not proclaimed to have an innate sense of what is commanded or prohibited. When hurt, they suffer from an evil conscience and realize they deserve to be punished. Lewis supports and refutes the most common objections to this argument. It gives solid reasons to deny that the sense of moral obligation could come from an instinct of mass (or herd instinct), a social convention, or develop a superego in the Freudian sense. Speaking to a popular audience, Lewis is not in every technical detail nor refutes every difficulty, but it highlights the key in a simple and persuasive. The second favorite show of Lewis, the argument arising from the right, appears in his book Miracles. A certain kind of naturalism, he observed, characterizes rational thought as a simple product of nervous reflexes, instincts, and habits. Lewis replied that the fitness or psychological can not explain our power to make judgments about the truth or error. We recognize that our judgments are determined not by sub-rational forces but by the reality as it affects our minds. The power to reach understanding through rational explanation is a proof of the affinity between mind and reality. It is understandable that if a spirit as is true that reports of both intelligence and intelligibility. The presentation by Lewis stripped of his arguments leave work to do yet. She knows the ancestors that go back far from Plato to Anaxagoras, and thus resembles the argument for the existence of God proposed in highly technical terms and popularized by Bernard Lonergan in various works of Hugo Meynell apologetic. For these authors, the wonderful correspondence between reason and reality implies that reality is permeated by an order dating back to a Creator Spirit. The attention of Lewis focuses not so much point to the intelligibility of the world than the ability of the mind to truth, which in its opinion can not be explained by natural selection but only by an intelligent Creator. The third argument of Lewis from the natural desire of union with God. The idea that the human soul is naturally drawn to a union so blessed is omnipresent in the Christian tradition. Augustine expressed it in a classical form in his Confessions when he exclaimed: "You have made us for thee, O Lord, our heart is restless until it rests in you" (Confessions, I : 1) The desire for God was not proposed in the form of evidence, it seems, until the twentieth century. Influenced by the Belgian Jesuit Joseph Marchal , the French Jesuit Henri de Lubac and the German Jesuit Karl Rahner have proven first for the existence of God. Lewis apparently was not familiar with these authors on the Continent, but it could well have found the ingredients for his own argument in the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker. The argument is developed in several stages. First we must establish that all human beings naturally have a desire for something that transcends all of creation. According to Lewis, is a secret desire that we need to discover, but a need that every human being can be discerned by careful introspection. No earthly joy can not fully satisfy our hearts. The crux of the argument is the assumption that no natural desire can not be in vain. This proposal was accepted as evidence even by Aristotle and the tradition of scholasticism in its entirety, which subscribed to a conception teleological nature, but is rejected by the empiricists , who argue that we lack sufficient sources to induce all. Without reporting this objection, Lewis concludes that God must exist, otherwise the desire would be futile and would not be attainable. (The existence of a desire for God presupposes that God exists, it is acknowledged that a desire can not be in vain.) In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, Lewis refers to this yearning by the German name Sehnsucht and analysis with terms very experimental. This desire unfulfilled, says he is satisfied that a more desirable land. For a time, he confesses, he felt this desire to the point where he almost lost sight of the Divine Purpose, but he overcame this with the help of subjectivism idealist philosopher Samuel Alexander. Ultimately he came to realize that he was fewer than the pursuit of Object as the object that was pursuing him. Lewis does not deal extensively non-Christian religions. Once the option of religion is made, the only serious alternatives are panentheism and monotheism. The Hindu , which best represents the panentheism does not satisfy Lewis. It disregards the Buddhism as Hindu heresy and Islam as Christian heresy. We must therefore choose among religions theists - the Judaism , and Christianity - and if we can show that Christianity is divinely revealed, then it must be the choice. Other religions can be true only insofar as they are compatible with it. Christians are not forced to watch sometimes as false except on points where they conflict with the simple Christian faith. Origin of the divine Christian revelation To establish the fact of Christian revelation, Lewis borrows two lines of reasoning. His first approach is derived from statements of Christ. In a trilemma borrowed from GK Chesterton , he argues that anyone who claims to be God must either be crazy ("lunatic" in English) or a liar, or actually God, because Jesus, who claimed his divinity, was neither a liar nor a lunatic, so he was God. Lewis, of course, knows that this argument is not so simple. Almost everyone will concede that Jesus was neither a fool nor a deceiver, but Lewis wants to push his opponents to explain why, after having claimed that Jesus was sensible and good, they deny his divinity. The main difficulty, of course, is to establish that Jesus actually claimed to be God. It may not have said abruptly "I am God", but according to the Gospels he spoke of himself as a Son in a unique and transcendent. A certain number of sayings of Jesus clearly imply that the Son pre-existed with the Father, it is equal to the Father, and he will return in glory at the end of time to judge all nations. Jesus also claimed to forgive sins in his own name, an act that admits to being reserved for God alone. The second argument for the divinity of Christ's miracles, a subject on which he wrote one of his most important apologetic books. The book is a very successful response to authors such as Hume , who denied the fact that historical accounts of miracles physical might be credible. Lewis, himself, in a lengthy dissertation on the laws of Nature, shows that such laws, far from excluding the possibility of miracles, are necessary conditions for their existence. If there was no regular laws of nature, miracles could not be recognized as exceptions and lose their function as divine signs. Miracles are possible, as long as such laws exist, and when God is not absolutely linked to the laws He has established. True, it is unreasonable that God suspends the laws of nature in an arbitrary manner, but it would make sense for him to stay on time for reasons such as the manifestation of salvation. If miracles occurred at haphazard, stories about them would not be credible. But the biblical miracles, in general, fall into a pattern highly suggestive, which shows the good pleasure of God. All the biblical miracles lead to the Incarnation or attest that Lewis describes as "the great miracle." Mastery of Jesus on the life and death and the powers of nature is a convincing proof of his divinity. After reviewing the most common miracles, Lewis devotes a chapter to the resurrection. As a sign of anticipation of the final Kingdom, the resurrection is highly relevant. All efforts to explain it as hallucination or manufacturing fell to the ground. Lewis is well aware that his arguments from the statements of Jesus and the miracles presuppose the overall reliability of the accounts of the Gospels. Although Lewis does not claim to be a specialist in New Testament criticism , he maintains that he is well qualified as a literary critic to distinguish between history, legend and myth. According to him, the Gospels clearly belong to the historical genre. The skepticism of radical critics like Bultmann, says it is rooted in philosophical commitments, not in the nature of texts. Childhood
Studies
Conversion and early works
Works of fiction, essays and years
The apologetics of CS Lewis
Meaning of "mere Christianity"
A systematic apologetics of Christianity
Morality
Reason
Desire
Apologetics in comparative religion
His approach to other religions
Works
Trial
Fiction
Autobiography
References
See also
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Related articles
External link
Fiction The Chronicles of Narnia : (1950) (1951) (1952) (1953) (1954) (1955) (1956)
Other works: The Screwtape Letters (1942) Demo (n) cratic yours (1965) The Return of the Locust (1933) The Great Divorce between heaven and earth (1945) A Face for eternity (1956) Letters to Malcolm (1964) Tests The Problem of Suffering (1940) The Abolition of Man (1943) The Foundations of Christianity (1952) The Four Loves (1960) Reflections on the Psalms (1961) Learning the death (1961) Autobiography Surprised by Joy (1955)
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