Before I transferred to Wheaton, from the University of Alabama, I only knew of Lewis because of his famous book Mere Christianity, which is really a collection of short presentations he gave over the BBC radio network during World War II. When he died, on the same day as President Kennedy's death, I did not take notice at all, since I was freshman in high school and had not yet even heard of him.
Lewis remains as important as ever, indeed more important in my estimation, precisely because he was a serious thinker, a serious Christian and an intellectual who spoke clearly to ordinary people. This rare combination has made him a role model for me ever since I studied his work under the late Dr. Clyde Kilby (photo left), my professor at Wheaton who personally knew Lewis and then became one of America's early advocates of his writing. Through Dr. Kilby many of the manuscripts and remains of Lewis' life and work are now housed at Wheaton College at the Marion Wade Center. The Wade Center brings guests from all over the globe to study Lewis and is an important repository of English and apologetic work.
Lewis as an apologist who engaged in direct evangelism. He wrote about the Christian faith and he sought to prove why it was intellectually reasonable. He did not try to prove the faith, in typical evidentialist ways, so much as he removed barriers to belief and helped those who were weak in faith to see that they could reasonably embrace Christ and remain intellectually honest. One British historian called Lewis the single most effective person proclaiming the gospel in England in the 20th century. I agree.
It takes all sorts to make a world; or a church. This may be even truer of a church. If grace perfects nature it must expand all our natures into the full richness of the diversity which God intended when He made them, and Heaven will display far more variety than Hell. "One fold" doesn't mean "one pool." Cultivated roses and daffodils are no more alike than wild roses and daffodils.
On church division he once wrote a letter in which he said:
Disputations do more to aggravate schism than to heal it; united action, fortitude and (should God so will) united deaths---these will make us one.
In his famous Mere Christianity he wisely counseled:
Our divisions should never be discussed except in the presence of those who have already come to believe that there is one God and that Jesus Christ is His only Son.
More on Lewis in tomorrow's post.
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