Few have lived more devoted to hard questions, delving into what mystifies us, searching what hurts the good heart, and lightens it – than C.S. Lewis. The author of“The Chronicles of Narnia,” an allegory for Christianity, died this week in 1963. He left us a kingdom of wisdom.
What most know about C.S. Lewis are his writings, “Narnia” and “The Screwtape Letters” to “Mere Christianity,” “Miracles” and “The Problem of Pain.” He was not big on politics, even declined a knighthood, as his heart was elsewhere.
Few who visit Oxford these days miss C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” Both called Oxford home. They were good friends, met regularly at a pub, a room you have to duck to enter, to read stories.
Studying economics there years ago, I wondered at these extraordinary hearts and their shared, right-up-front Christian convictions. I wondered if C.S. Lewis – hearing Tolkien read on Bilbo Baggins – offered ideas. And did Tolkien critique “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?” Did they affect each other’s writing?
Little known was Pauline Baynes, an imaginative artist who illustrated all seven volumes of “Narnia,” five of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, and did the Middle Earth inset. She died in 2008.
The heart of C. S. Lewis was distilled wisdom, informed by his faith, no time for pettiness. Makes one smile.
He penned non-fiction gems worth remembering, too familiar with grief, regret, and self-disappointment. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” The fresh start awaits.
Apt for our moment: “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”
In a different work: “Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties,” and “Don’t shine so that others can see you, shine so that, through you, others can see Him.”
Humor was another C.S. Lewis tool. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” More seriously: “Once people stop believing in God, it is not that they will believe in nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything.” Boy, is that true – Marxism, climate hysteria, boys as girls, what next?
On this anniversary of his death, now 52 years ago, his best nuggets are simplest. “If you never take risks, you’ll never accomplish great things; everybody dies, but not everyone has lived.” Put differently, life doesn’t linger; work doesn’t daydream.
On politics – which he hated – he kept you thinking. “The most dangerous ideas in a society are not the ones being argued, but the ones that are assumed.”
On faith, he wrote volumes. “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else,” “God allows us to experience the low points of life, in order to teach us the lessons we could learn no other way,” and “If you live for the next world, you get this one in the deal; but if you live only for this world, you lose them both.”
For my money, “Chronicles of Narnia” wins, why I revisit it. C.S. Lewis offers timeless wisdom, and not only for children. “I am in your world,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” May we all. Thank you, Clive Staples Lewis.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
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