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Your First Encounter With Lewis

PostPosted: August 31st, 2008, 1:33 am
by Tumnus's Books
I'm new here, and I would imagine this type of question has been posed to the Forum before, but as a newbie, I'm interested: What was your first encounter with Lewis and what was your first impression?

PostPosted: August 31st, 2008, 3:27 am
by mgton
Somehow I heard about Mere Christianity. I think maybe it was Peter Kreeft who mentioned him somewhere. So I read the book and noticed that the first few pages listed some of the other works by this C.S. Lewis. One of them was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I thought it couldn't be that the little cartoon movie about Narnia and frozen people that my brothers and sister and I watched as kids was actually a book, and this same guy wrote both of them (i.e., Mere Chr. and LWAW). I then discovered all the rest about Lewis and by now he has influenced my life more than any other person I've ever known or read about.

But reading Mere Christianity opened up a world to me that I never knew existed. I though Christians were just ignorant people who needed a crutch. The first few chapters about right and wrong being a clue to the meaning of the universe, and the philosophical argument (whether it's actually a good argument or not) that he explained, really impressed me and made me wonder. For a long time I thought Lewis was a philosopher; I didn't know he was a literature professor! I now graduate this December with a B.A. in philosophy and plan to go to grad school to study philosophy of religion. Ha! I blame Lewis.

PostPosted: August 31st, 2008, 5:21 pm
by Tumnus's Books

PostPosted: August 31st, 2008, 6:21 pm
by robsia

PostPosted: August 31st, 2008, 8:06 pm
by postodave

PostPosted: August 31st, 2008, 9:38 pm
by Karen
I read LWW at about age 9 or 10 and didn't much like it. Nor did any of the Christian references resonate with me, a secular Jewish kid. But when I began to explore Christianity in my late 30s, I came across Mere Christianity and fell in love with CSL's non-fiction. I didn't become a Christian merely because of Lewis (so to speak), but his writings were certainly one of the many factors involved in my conversion.

PostPosted: September 1st, 2008, 1:55 am
by Tuke
Screwtape was my first because required by my junior or senior High School English teacher four decades ago. I don't remember any impressions from that initial encounter other than recognizing the author's work after I became a Christian six years later. This familiarity catalyzed my appetite for Lewis and I quickly consumed the CON, The Four Loves, and The Space Trilogy. I am now a Lewis disciple and he is my main literary mentor.

PostPosted: September 1st, 2008, 2:21 pm
by Tumnus's Books

PostPosted: September 8th, 2008, 3:58 am
by Jenny
I first read TLWW as a fourth grader on a recommendation that it was "a good Christian book" and I was thoroughly confused trying to figure out why. It gave me the impression of something large and looming that I didn’t understand and the uneasy feeling that I needed to “watch my back”. I read it again at 13 and I was completely captivated. Since then I read everything I could get my hands on of his several times…except the Discarded Image.

I wish Narnia was not advertized so much as “Christian”. A label doesn’t do it justice because it’s kind of cosmic and universal.

PostPosted: September 8th, 2008, 5:15 am
by ami

PostPosted: September 8th, 2008, 6:55 am
by archenland_knight
The Screwtape Letters was the first of Lewis' works I ever read. At the time I thought it to be the most inspired thing I had ever read short of the Scriptures themselves. The insight into human behavior, and how the tempter tries to lead us astray was frightening. So many times while reading the book I said to myself, "HEY! I thought I was the only one who ever experienced that!"

And even more often, "OH! I totally understand why I do that now!"

It's still one of my favorite books.

I read "Mere Christianity" not too long after that and was thrilled at what a wonderfully logical approach to Christianity it was, because the Christian faith has always seemed inherently logical to me. I think most people simply don't take the logic far enough. Lewis takes it further than most. I liked that about him.

PostPosted: September 8th, 2008, 5:41 pm
by postodave
That's a good point Jenny that Narnia should not be advertised as Christian. I had no idea when I first heard the stories. I wonder if Atheists say to their children, 'read His Dark Materials, it's a good atheist book.' My guess is that they are not that daft.

PostPosted: September 12th, 2008, 1:33 pm
by Adam Linton
I was ten or eleven--1965, I think. My father took me to the old Tides bookstore in Sausalito, CA, with the offer to buy me any one book that I wanted (within reasonable parameters, of course). After a long time of searching, pondering, and interior debate I chose Out of the Silent Planet. It may have been a bit of a stretch for me then, but I much liked it. A couple of years later I started to read the Narnia books. The latter part of my first year of college (early 1973) I finished the Space Trilogy--and a couple of years later, Mere Christianity. My college reading of Lewis was very important in my return to active Christian faith. Perelandra sent me right to the edge, the very edge! Mere Christianity was key support and nourishment early on after going over the edge.

PostPosted: September 13th, 2008, 12:40 am
by Tumnus's Books
I have yet to dive into Out of the Silent Planet, and I know I'm missing out. Am I correct in thinking this was not a trilogy written for a younger audience like Narnia, but rather more for adults?

PostPosted: September 13th, 2008, 12:44 am
by Adam Linton