Alan Jacobs traces the intellectual and spiritual development of C.S. Lewis by examining his internal life as a "Narnian" long before he wrote the Chronicles. The biography focuses on Lewis’s childhood in Ireland, his transition from atheism to Christianity, and his career as a medieval scholar at Oxford and Cambridge. Jacobs explains how Lewis utilized "the baptized imagination" to reconcile his rationalist logic with his love for myth and narrative, illustrating how these disparate modes of thought merged to produce his theological and fictional works.
This book is intended for students of 20th-century literature and readers interested in the mechanics of Lewis’s creative process. It appeals to those who want to understand the psychological roots of the land of Narnia beyond simple allegory. Readers finish the volume with a clear perspective on how Lewis’s academic expertise in the Middle Ages informed his public identity as a Christian apologist. The text provides a historical context for his friendships with the Inklings and his response to modernization.
Contemplative; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2005
- Language
- EN
