CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Yessssssss!!! I've finally read every single work of fiction out there by C.S. Lewis (and a bit of non-fiction as well but never finished any of 'em)! I finished Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast today. Not bad... excellent arguments... but kinda hard to base a whole book around it. It sounded very similar to what he's already said in nearly all of his other books (and what in Thomas Crapper's name was up with that centipede episode midway through?). But in anycase, I am an extreme Lewis fan (especially of That Hideous Strength ^^). Does anyone know of any fictional (yeh, yeh, I've read bits of his other boring, non-fun stuff too... Mere Christianity, Surprised by Joy, ect., ect.) works by Lewis that I am missing??? I think I got 'em all. Ones I've read (multiple times ^^;):
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The Space Trilogy

Chronicles of Narnia

Till We Have Faces

The Dark Tower & Other Stories (*SOB*........this'll always hold special meaning to me now)

Boxen (recovered manuscripts of novels C.S. wrote as a kid)

Pilgrim's Regress

Screwtape Letters & Screwtape Proposes a Toast

The Great Divorce
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Anything anyone knows of that I'm missing??? :: Drooling rabid C.S. Lewis fan :: If not, feel free to comment on the ones mentioned above in this thread.

Well, I don't know of any other works than the ones you've posted, and I actually had never heard of a lot of those. XD Other than Narnia, The Space Trilogy, The Great Divorce, and The Screwtape Letters, I hadn't heard of any of them. While I'm here, though, how is The Space Trilogy? I've heard good things about it, but I've never had the chance to read/buy it. The Dark Tower & Other Stories sounds interesting, too.

hey, hey now....I read Surprised By Joy and LOVED it. Tis one of my favorites. Same with Mere Christianity. I've also read Miracles, though I'll admit that one did not keep my attention quite as much, though it was definitely something I was needing to read at that point in my life. I've also read some of The Screwtape Letters...only a few of the letters, though. I have yet to really delve into the book.

I also enjoyed Out of the Silent Planet, and part of Perelandra (not finished with it yet...). You say That Hideous Strength is your favorite of the three?....

I've got 3 more on my bookshelf that I intend on reading eventually... (The Seeing Eye <essays>, The Weight of Glory <...essays?...>, and The Problem of Pain)

So...there's are few more?

CS Lewis is hands down my favorite author. I think USSRGirl covered all his fiction works.

Off the top of my head, I believe that Lewis has over 30 published works. I'm making an effort to collect all of his works, and since I've cleaned out the better known books from the bookstores, I'll have to resort to online shopping. I have around 24 or 25 as of my last count, and I've read all but 7 or so of them. It tends to take me months to work through one of his apologetics books, since I read through thoroughly and mentally process everything (or try to). XD

Of his fiction works, I greatly enjoy Narnia (especially Dawn Treader and Horse and His Boy), I've read the entire series at least 12 or so times, lol. I liked the Space Trilogy, but generally regard Hideous Strength as seperate from the first two.

I've read a few of his poems, but have yet to read the Dark Tower.

I really liked A Grief Observed; it's very moving, a very good read, especially if you've ever lost someone special to you.

Till We Have Faces is my favorite one, mythology stuff is always fun to read...

Space Trilogy was weird, but interesting...
The Great Divorce really creeped me out...
The Chronicles of Narnia are good...
But these three had the same theme, especially the first and last...I'm probably the only one that gets creeped out by C.S. Lewis's imaginations of heaven...

I guess I have covered all his fiction then. Don't get me wrong - his essays are brilliant, but when I'm reading for fun they're hard to get into unless I really want to study something.

A Grief Observed that you mentioned SoulAlive... was that one about his wife, Joy? I hear she died young of cancer.

As for the Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength is hands down the greatest! Out of the Silent Planet was my next fav... Perelandra... eh... kinda just like the garden of Eden story retold. I didn't like the fact that the green lady never actually confronted and overcame the Unman herself. But That Hideous Strength is like... the Brady Bunch of evil masterminds!! ^_^ Heheh. I love it! You really get to know each would-be dictator and their philosophies. Of course, in the end all that scientific and philosophic nonsense gets peeled away and you see that they are merely savage idol-worshippers glossed over by modern times. Fairy Hardcastle is my hero!!!!!! I would definitely reccomend the Space Trilogy as probably my fav Lewis book next to Narnia.

Why so creeped by Th Great Divorce, Q? XD I thought it was good. The only one that was creepy and difficult to get through was Screwtape Letters. I dunno... some people think it's his best work... but I've never been all that interested in letters from Hell.....

A Grief Observed is indeed about Lewis's journey through grief over his wife Joy's death, from bone cancer. It consists of brief journal entries, is very personal, and is a fairly easy read.

non-fiction try:Letters To An American Lady as it shows the private side of Lewis.

fiction try:The Pilgrim's Regress,it was Lewis' first Christian work after his conversion.

As far as The Great Divorce goes,all I can say is that I am of the opinion of
Mr.George MacDonald.

mitsuki lover wrote:non-fiction try:Letters To An American Lady as it shows the private side of Lewis.

fiction try:The Pilgrim's Regress,it was Lewis' first Christian work after his conversion.

As far as The Great Divorce goes,all I can say is that I am of the opinion of
Mr.George MacDonald.

I already read Pilgrim's Regress. XD It's one of my favs. I guess I have covered all the fiction ones then. Vertue (with an 'E'!!) was so cute... especially after he went catatonic and violent when he found out his virtues alone couldn't get him to heaven.

USSRGirl wrote:Why so creeped by Th Great Divorce, Q? XD I thought it was good. The only one that was creepy and difficult to get through was Screwtape Letters. I dunno... some people think it's his best work... but I've never been all that interested in letters from Hell.....

Because...I don't really like to hear speculation about heaven...it gives me a really weird feeling...I dunno...I've tried to explain it before...but...

The Screwtape Letters are easier for me to appreciate...because, er, I know something about the way demons(or Satan, rather...) try to drag you down...it's just interesting to see it written from the demon's point-of-view(speculative).

That sums up what I know of C. S. Lewis' fiction, so if you are done, perhaps you could try the fiction of George MacDonald. MacDonald was very highly regarded by Lewis, and Lewis considered him to be a great inspiration for his books. MacDonald's books "The Princess and the Goblin" and "The Princess and Curdie", along with "At the Back of the North Wind" are excellent children's books, and the books "Lilith" and "Phantastes" are geared more toward adults, very interesting, and positively mind-bending. Just a suggestion, due to your great love of Lewis.

Surprised by Joy was a total bore unless your a student of literature and understand his references (which I'm not).
Till We Have Faces wasn't very good either.
I love the Narnia books and The Space Trilogy is pretty good.
Screwtape Letters was great but Proposes a Toast was only so-so.
I haven't read any others (a little bit of Boxen, but it was so boring).

I also went through an obsessive CS Lewis binge. These things happen.

We have Lilith at our library.Frasier wants to know why she hasn't come home yet.
Ok,to be serious now.Yes,we do have the George MacDonald book Lilith at our local library but I haven't gotten around to reading it as I am not interested in
MacDonald as much as I am in G.K.Chesterton and Charles Williams.

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:Surprised by Joy was a total bore unless your a student of literature and understand his references (which I'm not).
Till We Have Faces wasn't very good either.
I love the Narnia books and The Space Trilogy is pretty good.
Screwtape Letters was great but Proposes a Toast was only so-so.
I haven't read any others (a little bit of Boxen, but it was so boring).

Am I the only one who positively loved Surprised by Joy???

hahaha

Q, well, I'm not too disturbed by fantasy speculations of what heaven might be like. I can see how you might find it a bit disrespectful, but the idea was not really what heaven was like, but what people are like. God does not condemn anyone to hell. Everyone has a plain and simple choice, but for their love of human and fleshy sin which drags them down they choose to get back on the bus to hell rather than go over the mountain to heaven.

Puritan, I know Lewis liked George McDonald a lot! Maybe I should look for some of his books at the library. Princess and The Goblin? I seem to remember a creepy 80's cartoon movie titled that that scared the heck out of me as a kid! ^_^ Any relation to the book??

One more note on Till We Have Faces... it wasn't as obviously Christian themed as his others, but I thought the writing style of that one was very good. Boxen was indeed boring, but the Boxen 'novels' he wrote when he was a bit older were ok.

You seem to like the plot style of "That Hideous Strength." From what I have heard, C.S. Lewis modeled that story pretty closely to the typical stories and style of his friend and fellow Inkling, Charles Williams. Apparently, Charles Williams wrote several novels that featured insidious plots where villains are striving for supernatural powers (or something like that). Also, Williams's works also reflected his views on philosophy and theology (much like "That Hideous Strength" reflected some of C.S. Lewis's beliefs on societal dangers and trends).

I have never read Charles Williams's works, but you might want to check some of them out if that type of story appeals to you.

You know, I've looked for Charles Williams at the library since he is apparently the 'lost' inkling. (As you probably guessed I'm also a Tolkien fan... I've only read the Rings trilogy and Farmer Giles of Ham though. His other books aren't that great). However, my incredibly P.C. public library seems to have a suspicious shortage of generally ALL Christian books.

I've been told that Charles Williams stuff is very good but quite dark and not the easiest writing style (they were from the 30's/40's). I've tried to hunt down some of his books (at libraries and bookshops) but no luck!

USSRGirl wrote:Q, well, I'm not too disturbed by fantasy speculations of what heaven might be like. I can see how you might find it a bit disrespectful, but the idea was not really what heaven was like, but what people are like. God does not condemn anyone to hell. Everyone has a plain and simple choice, but for their love of human and fleshy sin which drags them down they choose to get back on the bus to hell rather than go over the mountain to heaven.

I know that...I've never said I thought it was disrespectful...just disturbing. I understand the whole personal responsibility thing. It's just...well...doesn't talk about the end times bother you at all? Do you sit around and think of heaven...what it will be like? I never do...it just weirds me out too much...

I know I'm strange...

USSRGirl wrote:Puritan, I know Lewis liked George McDonald a lot! Maybe I should look for some of his books at the library. Princess and The Goblin? I seem to remember a creepy 80's cartoon movie titled that that scared the heck out of me as a kid! ^_^ Any relation to the book??

I understand it has some relation, but how much I don't know. The Princess and the Goblin is a wonderful classic and I didn't find it creepy at all, but I haven't seen the cartoon so I don't know how they compare. I do know that what I have read of MacDonald is great. His theology is interesting at times (note, I don't want a debate, but a couple of the views in his books are certainly not mainstream), but even if you disagree with him his story-telling is wonderful and his imagry supurb. I would recommend Phantasts highly, and I liked Lilith, although it is interesting at times.

It's not a book, but I'd recommend the film Shadowlandsstarring Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis. Very good film, has to do with his young wife.

George MacDonald was a Congregationalist minister.His most unorthodox position that I know of was the fact that he was a Universalist.I don't know of any other
unorthodox position he took.
Not wishing to start a theological tempest just stating the fact in the matter.

SirThinks2Much wrote:It's not a book, but I'd recommend the film Shadowlandsstarring Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis. Very good film, has to do with his young wife.

It is a good movie, but I should point out that it is a mostly fictitious take on the happenings (at least as facts and events go). But, as Lewis' Stepson pointed out, emotionally it is a very real story.

Btw:Lewis does in fact mention MacDonald's Universalism in The Great Divorce.

mitsuki lover wrote:Btw:Lewis does in fact mention MacDonald's Universalism in The Great Divorce.

Yeah, I remember that.

A book you should try on seeing if you can find is:The Inklings.It's a combined biography of Lewis,Tolkien and Charles Williams and talks about some of the other members of their literary group.Mainly about Lewis and Williams as the writer had a book about Tolkien already out.

Ooooooh... CSLewis literary thread... {gggg!}

Yep, USSRGirl has covered all the fictional work. (Fact, she's ahead of me on that, since I've never yet read Till We Have Faces or the Boxen things he did as a child. Come to think of it, you may have read a bit _MORE_ than Lewis' actual fictional output: there is some serious suspicion of the Dark Tower fragments being forgeries, except possibly for the last several paragraphs of it. A literary scholar and late friend of mine, Kathryn Lindskoog, collected evidence for mishandling of the Lewis Estate in three books, the best of which is probably the second _Light in the Shadowlands_. The update, _Sleuthing C. S. Lewis_, I found less interesting for some reason--despite the fact I'm quoted favorably in it. {wry g})


Yep, USSRgirl _might_ like GMcD's work, though it's a bit more surreal sometimes (oddly that would be in his adult fantasy, Phantastes and Lilith, which are more like allegory than anything Lewis wrote aside from Plig'sReg.) McD also wrote a lot of short stories, many of them of the fantasy genre. (He also wrote a LOT of more mundane Charles Dickenesque picaresque work, which little I've read was not my cup of tea. Apparently not Mark Twain's either, since he makes fun of it on occasion. He and MacD were great friends, though.)

GMacD's Christian universalism was not much like the universalism popular today in some circles--most UUs would probably regard him as far too narrow and complex doctrinally. Theologically he was quite orthodox, insofar as I can tell from his writings (which I've studied in some depth.) A bit more conservative than Lewis, actually, in some ways perhaps. But otherwise the two men were _VERY_ close together on the same page. There are reasons why Lewis referred to MacD as his Teacher; and this is not often well brought-out in biographical works about Lewis. In short: if you're okay with Lewis theologically, you're almost certain to be okay with MacD, too. Any problems you have with Lewis, you're probably going to have with MacD.

(And yep, ml, I agree with MacD from TGD too. {s} Btw, I just realized mitsu-ki can be translated ThreeSpirit, I think. {g!})


Anyone having trouble finding the works of GMacD can find them all in print (and most of them free for download as htm files, though without much formatting) at:

http://www.johannesen.com/

Most of his fantasy-fiction work remains easy to find in print, though you're likely to double up on short story collections (no surprise there). The key theological works, in case anyone is interested (and you should be, especially if you're a Lewis fan {beam!}), are the three volumes of _Unspoken Sermons_, and what amounts to fourth and fifth volumes of the same, collected (by Johannesen, who are the American publishers of his literary estate) into a duplex volume: _Hope of the Gospel_ and _Miracles of Our Lord_. (There is also a collection of transcriptions of spoken sermons he gave, but those are not of the same quality IMEv. {s})

WARNING: um, while he isn't strictly Arminian, he is _certainly_ not Calvinist, and gives it a very hard time in some regards. If you're a conservative Presbyterian or one of several kinds of Baptist, proceed with caution. John Piper was confused and disturbed by MacD, to give a barometer reading. (In essence JP's response after reading what I expect was Lewis' commemorative sample collection from MacD, was: how can such an obviously great Christian teacher be saying these things??)

Hmmm...I wonder how MacDonald managed to get ordained in an Calvinist denomination if he wasn't a Calvinist since he was an ordained minister in the
Congregational church.Or did his theological views shift over time?
Well since the subject matter is really Lewis and not MacDonald that is certainly a moot question.
Lewis himself was a life long member of the Anglican Communion,only interrupting it during the time he was an Atheist,but when he returned to Christianity it was back to the Anglicanism of his boyhood.Anglicans are neither Calvinists or Arminians.

One could argue Lewis wasn't much of an Anglican per se, either... {g} I suspect he went that way because of the freedom he was allowed for doing his work, plus family history. That, and the alternatives must have seemed more problematic. He could gripe about problems in the Communion and not be churched.

As to MacD, I absolutely have no idea how he got ordained if the Congregationalists _at that time_ were as Calvinistic as, say, the Presbyterians--who nowadays aren't always that Calvinistic anymore themselves. {shrug} So there's certainly fluxuation. (Of course, it's important to remember that Calvs and non-Calvs are very much more doctrinally similar than different anyway. {s} And I think MacD _did_ run into serious problems among the peers of his church.)


Now that you ask the question, _I_ want to know! {chuckle!} I'll go dig around and see if there's any biographical material on the topic. {checking} A fast dig turns up the fact that he was only a minister in the Congregationalist church for three years, and was (let's say) encouraged to resign by his congregation on charges of heresy. As to how he got ordained in the first place, no clue yet; but based on his own writings (in Unspoken Sermons, etc.), I know he claims to have held his beliefs in essentially the same form since at least adolescence.

Sometime afterward he was received into the Anglican Communion, and acted as a freelance lay preacher therafter. (Interestingly, his wife was later the organist at a Catholic church when they lived in Italy near the end of their lives on earth.)


MacD is an important reference for anyone interested in the life, conversion, fantasy and theology of C. S. Lewis; thus the digression. {g}