C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton are two of the most often quoted Christian writers. That’s not because they both used initials for their first two names. It’s because they, among all the Christians one might quote, had a superior ability to pithily communicate the truths of the faith.
Both show up continually wherever and whenever Christians write or speak. We like to bring them alongside to bolster our own messages. Lewis’s works, though, are probably better known; his influence on Christians, particularly in America, has been profound.
Americans are privileged to have the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College as a repository for all things Lewis, as well as for Chesterton and five other key British writers. Each year, the center hosts a lecture series, courtesy of the Ken and Jean Hansen Lectureship, that focuses on one or more of those writers.
In 2022, Mark Noll, professor emeritus at Notre Dame and one of the most renowned Christian historians in America, presented lectures on how Lewis was received by Americans in the early years of his writing career. Those lectures have now been turned into a book—C. S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935–1947.
Noll’s exacting research makes clear that Lewis’s writings were eagerly received by Americans in this era, first by Catholic theologians, then by scholars in academia and the secular mainstream media, followed later by mainline Protestants and evangelicals. It’s surprising, given Lewis’s current reception by evangelicals, that they were the last group to appreciate what he had to offer.
C. S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935–1947
Mark Noll
Perhaps no other literary figure has transformed the American religious landscape in recent history as much as C. S. Lewis. Even before the international publication and incredible success of his fictional works such as The Chronicles of Narnia or apologetic works like Mere Christianity, Lewis was already being read “across the pond” in America. But who exactly was reading his work? And how was he received?
Timely Arrival
Why write a book about Americans’ reception of Lewis? Why choose these specific years? What did Noll seek to accomplish in his lectures?
Truth be told—and here the reviewer’s bias is revealed—this is a fascinating topic for me because of a question that arose in my mind about a decade ago. I wondered, as Alister McGrath noted in his Lewis biography, why Lewis’s reception in America was more enthusiastic than in his own nation.
That question led me to research the issue and come up with my book on the subject, which Noll graciously acknowledges in his introduction. Noll takes what I and others have found and adds greater depth, showing how different groups in the American reading public responded to Lewis.
Those specific years, 1935–47, are the foundation for why Lewis has remained so influential ever since. He grabbed the attention of Americans during a time of tremendous stress: the Great Depression, World War II, and the aftermath of the war. What he offered spoke to many. Lewis’s popularity grew in each of those years, culminating in his image appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1947, thereby providing Noll with a proper end point for his research.
Roman Catholic Interest
Noll’s chapters divide neatly into the distinct groups that Lewis influenced: Roman Catholics first, followed by the secular media, and finally Protestants, with the subset of evangelicals trailing behind.
Why Catholics first? Why not the Protestants? After all, Lewis was an Anglican Protestant. And he’s certainly now considered one of the luminaries of evangelicalism.
Catholic reviewers saw a lot they liked in Lewis. Although Noll’s treatment is thorough, one example will suffice. Catholics loved Lewis’s defense of the concept of natural law, especially as it was laid out in The Abolition of Man.
Lewis was a sign that walls between Christians were beginning to break down.
Notre Dame professor Leo Ward wrote, “For our part we take the statement of natural law by C. S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man as the most thoroughly existential and contextual statement in recent times.” Ward thought Lewis did a better job of stating the principle than most Catholic authors had done. Noll notes this opening within Catholicism to someone like Lewis was a sign that walls between Christians were beginning to break down.
General Appeal
Lewis appealed to Americans in general in three ways: as a literary man; as a writer of imaginative works, with The Screwtape Letters leading the way; and as a Christian apologist.
Since Lewis wrote for various audiences, his fame became widespread. For those outside of literary academia, their attention was captured by good tales such as the Space Trilogy or by a pithy, well-argued case for Christianity.
With respect to the Protestant world that eventually caught up to Lewis’s writings, the surprise, for Noll (and probably for the rest of us), is that it was the mainline churches, not the evangelicals and fundamentalists, that initially gave Lewis a positive reception. Most readers today probably classify Lewis primarily as writing for that latter group, yet they took time to be won over by the Catholic-lauded Anglican.
Fundamentalism had arisen in response to liberal theology. The fundamentalists sought to maintain the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Sometimes, though, the nature of fundamentalism was rather strident and anti-intellectual. Those who agreed with fundamentalists with respect to their rejection of liberal theology but who sought to do so in a less strident spirit eventually diverged into what is now termed “evangelicalism.”
As Noll explains it, the relatively late adoption of Lewis among evangelicals may have been because that group was just beginning to emerge out of fundamentalism as his writing reached the U.S. A turn toward Lewis was indicative of the move by leaders like Carl F. H. Henry and Billy Graham toward fellowship through affirmation of the faith—a focus on the shared doctrines rather than division based on differences—that marked the formation of the neo-evangelical coalition.
As evangelical Christians shifted their focus toward social engagement, Lewis demonstrated how it could be done. For example, those in Christian higher education were drawn to Lewis because he “demonstrated that orthodox Christianity could be fully compatible with advanced learning, literary creativity, frank psychological insight, and even wit” (121).
Though they came late to the party, evangelicals adopted Lewis because, in many ways, he represented what they desired to become.
Thorough, Yet Accessible
Noll’s research goes wide and deep, seemingly incorporating anyone—Catholic, mainstream secular, Protestant, evangelical—who was significant to his thesis during this era. The documentation is extensive throughout, yet the footnotes don’t overwhelm. Noll’s writing, while certainly academic, isn’t the type that should discourage the general reader. He tells a good story along the way, and “story” is what audiences like best.
For each lecture, a Wheaton professor was chosen to provide a response to what Noll had said, which was then included in the book. These allow the reader to think more about the facts Noll presents and to get another take. Don’t skip these responses; they help illuminate the thesis.
Mark Noll concludes C. S. Lewis in America with words that reveal why Lewis was positively received and continues to be widely read among American evangelicals:
C. S. Lewis took great care in preparing his writings for the public. He certainly knew that many readers and listeners found them arrestingly illuminating, gratifyingly helpful, and singularly life-giving. Yet as he wrote to Sister Penelope, he seemed most concerned not with the success of the writings but with the soul of the writer. All who in our different circumstances aspire to speak, write, and publish for the cause of Christ and his kingdom would do well to follow that example. (128)
This book helps explain why so many of us love Lewis. C. S. Lewis in America is likely to be most interesting to those concerned with the academic study of the Inklings, but Noll also explores what any writer or speaker can learn from Lewis’s example.