C.S. Lewis offered the world \u201cMere Christianity,\u201d \u201cThe Screwtape Letters\u201d and, most notably, \u201cThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.\u201d To many, Lewis was a literary genius, but to Douglas Gresham, Lewis was \u201cthe finest man and the best Christian\u201d he has ever known.<\/p>\n
Gresham wrote \u201cJack\u2019s Life: The Life Story of C.S. Lewis,\u201d which traces the life and times of best-selling author C.S. Lewis.<\/p>\n
Gresham was 8 years old when he met the extraordinary mind behind \u201cThe Chronicles of Narnia.\u201d He eventually lived as Lewis\u2019s stepson in England for many years and wrote, \u201cI am sometimes asked what it is like living in the shadow of such a great man, and I always point out that Jack did not leave a shadow behind him but a glow. If I am able to reflect even the slightest spark of that glow, I am more than happy to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gresham explained that the memoir is not a scholarly work filled with academic analysis, but a \u201csimple recounting of the story of what I believe to be the extraordinary life of an extraordinary man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clive Staples Lewis was born near Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1898. Lewis didn\u2019t like his name and soon changed it to \u201cJacksie\u201d in honor of a small dog that he cherished.<\/p>\n
Jack, as he later became known, and his older brother, Warnie, spent their childhood reading and making up stories about an imaginary country called Boxen. \u201cI suppose the beginnings of Narnia can be seen in this childhood occupation, which was their way of combating the boredom of hours spent in the house while the soft Irish rain fell slowly and steadily outside,\u201d Gresham wrote.<\/p>\n
LOSING FAMILY & FAITH<\/p>\n
Tragedy stuck early in the Lewis household. At age 10, young Lewis lost his mother to cancer and was sent to England for schooling. He wandered from school to school until William Thompson Kirkpatrick recognized Lewis\u2019s potential to become a great writer. Under Kirkpatrick\u2019s tutelage, Lewis began to take writing seriously. Kirkpatrick, however, passed on one belief to his young pupil that remained for years: atheism.<\/p>\n
Lewis studied at Oxford University and fought in World War I. Despite serious injuries sustained as a soldier, he worked \u201cwith a dedication rarely to be found either then or today,\u201d Gresham explained. Lewis eventually became an elected fellow at Magdalen College at Oxford.<\/p>\n
Gresham noted that Lewis suffered from illness and bore overwhelming personal responsibility much of his life but found reprieve from friends at Oxford. Lewis\u2019 contemporaries included J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Neville Coghill, Henry Victor Dyson and others. Lewis\u2019 acquaintances formed a group called The Inklings, an unofficial literary round table for aspiring writers.<\/p>\n
It was at The Inkling meetings that Tolkien first read aloud the beginnings of \u201cThe Hobbit.\u201d Lewis also revealed to the group something new that he was working on, called \u201cThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n
A LIGHT FOR LEWIS<\/p>\n
Lewis lost all faith in God during his childhood and had become a convinced atheist, Gresham explained. In Lewis\u2019s adult life he began to read and study about God and \u201cthe more he learned and the more he experienced, the more he became convinced that there was actually a God,\u201d Gresham wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was no sudden instant revelation for Jack but a slow grinding process of learning and studying, always seeking to find the truth for it\u2019s own sake,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut even a mind as powerful as Jack\u2019s cannot determine the truth without the help of the Holy Spirit of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis became a Christian and lived out his faith through his pen. In 1950, Lewis published one of the best-selling children\u2019s books of the 20th century, \u201cThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gresham believes that in writing the book, \u201cJack was influenced by the Holy Spirit of God because within a completely fictional fairy tale it manages to give a guide to its readers of how to understand what God did for us in this world by coming here and sacrificing himself for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gresham further detailed Lewis\u2019s short but meaningful marriage to his mother, Joy Davidman, who died of cancer a few years after their wedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack triumphed over many difficulties throughout his life,\u201d Gresham wrote in the last chapter. Lewis defeated the setbacks of poverty, illness and exhaustion, but in the end found love and happiness with his wife Joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
C.S. Lewis offered the world \u201cMere Christianity,\u201d \u201cThe Screwtape Letters\u201d and, most notably, \u201cThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.\u201d To many, Lewis was a literary genius, but to Douglas Gresham, Lewis was \u201cthe finest man and the best Christian\u201d he has ever known. Gresham wrote \u201cJack\u2019s Life: The Life Story of C.S. Lewis,\u201d which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58,3340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}