The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (Cambridge Companions to Religion) 0th Edition

Very informative, well researched, and interesting! I love this series.

This book is not for everyone. It is slow reading, without Lewis' peppy style. Still, there are rewards for hanging in there

good addition to library

Really useful, a very good source for those who teaches about fiction, religion and philosophy. It open new horizons and findings in bibliography

Great!

Many people know Lewis only as the author of the Narnia books and various best-selling works of Christian apologetics. In fact, Lewis was an immensely learned and multifaceted genius who made important contributions in literary criticism, intellectual history, philosophy, and many other fields. In this volume, MacSwain and Ward have assembled a glittering array of top Lewis scholars and other noted intellectuals to assess Lewis's talents and contributions as a poet, classicist, literary theorist, novelist, children's author, memoirist, literary historian, and popular theologian. While most of the authors are clearly fans of Lewis, there is genuine but respectful engagement with Lewis's views, particularly on issues of gender, power, violence, friendship, and scriptural interpretation. Here the full range of Lewis's talents is on display. A first-rate contribution to Lewis studies.

Among scholarly theologians of his own era and later, C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) was generally considered a lightweight. In part this may have been justified. Lewis himself never "read theology" (in the British academic sense) or presented himself as a theologian. Jealousy may also have been at work: no academic theologian was as widely read as Lewis. If not the deepest of thinkers, he was a consummate popularizer, and one can think of far worse. Editors MacSwain and Ward have intelligently tailored this anthology to the many dimensions of their subject's importance: not merely Christian apologetics, but also Lewis's true profession as critic of medieval English literature, as well as themes and issues that run through his varied works: love, gender, power, and suffering. A third section is dedicated to his most influential works, such as "The Narnia Chronicles" and "Till We Have Faces." (While considered elsewhere, "Mere Christianity" and "The Screwtape Letters" could also have claimed a place here.) Most of the commentators gathered in this volume respect Lewis's work and intentions while pointing up what they consider his shortcomings. Unlike, say, "The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar," which I reckon a superb introduction to its subject best read before proceeding to its subject's own output, I would recommend this "Companion to Lewis" after one has read deeply and widely in its subject's writings. Lewis is generally more accessible than most of his critics. Begin with his own works, then turn to this volume for positive yet critical perspective.