Hello everyone,
Apart from Narnia, I've read and greatly appreciated
The Screwtape Letters. I did also read
Out of the Silent Planet a few years ago, but I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy it at all in the end (although the chapters where Ransom is living with the hrossa were very good and moving). I know many other Christians love the Space Trilogy and I was expecting to enjoy it too, so that was a big disappointment. But each to their own and I certainly didn't think any less of Lewis for it! I do think his writing style — his ability to paint a scene with the most concise and effective words — really improved over the years between the Space Trilogy and the Narnia Chronicles. Possibly because by 1950 he'd had a lot more experience in talking to different audiences about matters of faith in ways that ordinary people could understand and relate to.
On that note, I've read about half of
Mere Christianity and greatly appreciated it, but for some reason I put it aside and have never got through the rest of it. Not because I found it difficult (it's a great read!), but I think just because I had a lot of other things to do at the time. I will get back to it at some stage. I can see why it's a classic of Christian apologetics — and all the more compelling when you remember the circumstances under which it was originally written and presented. This paragraph (one of my favourites) is striking enough even now:
Enemy-occupied territory — that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends; that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going.
And then when you remember this was originally broadcast on BBC Radio in 1942, it suddenly hits you in the gut as you realise — his original audience knew EXACTLY what he was talking about.
I'd also be very interested to read
Till We Have Faces — am I right in thinking it was Lewis's own favourite among his works? — and a couple of others I'm aware of that sound like they'd be very good to try:
The Great Divorce and
The Pilgrim's Regress. I'm aware the latter is Lewis's first work on Christianity and is sometimes described as "difficult", but I gather it works through a lot of his own initial objections to the faith and how they were resolved — which is a point of interest to me as someone who also came to Christianity as an adult from an agnostic (never
quite atheist) background.
Has anyone else here read those particular books? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. (No plot spoilers if you can help it, please!
)