CG. S. Lewis and "The Everlasting Man"

"As for books, the very best popular defense of the full Christian position I know is G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man." - C. S. Lewis

Last night my wife and I watched Shadowlands - the excellent Anthony Hopkins/Debra Winger version. The movie depicts the relationship of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman (taking some theatrical liberties) from their meeting to just after her death. Winger was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal. 

In the movie, Lewis notes that they had both been atheists, but had found faith. In Lewis' case, Chesterton played a role. It was reading The Everlasting Man that helped him discover Christianity - along with his friendship with J. R. Tolkien. 

In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Lewis talked about reading Chesterton.

"I had never heard of him and had no idea of what he stood for; nor can I quite understand why he made such an immediate conquest of me. It might have been expected that my pessimism, my atheism, and my hatred of sentiment would have made him to me the least congenial of all authors. It would almost seem that Providence, or some 'second cause' of a very obscure kind, quite overrules our previous tastes when it decides to bring to minds together. Liking an author may be as involuntary and improbable as falling in love."

That first encounter was with The Everlasting Man in 1925 while still an atheist.

“Then I read Chesterton’s Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense . . . I already thought Chesterton the most sensible man alive; apart from his Christianity; Now, I veritably believe, I thought that Christianity itself was very sensible; apart from its Christianity.” 

He recommended the book to others, as he did in the quote at the top of this entry. In 1963, six months before he died, he observed in God in the Dock, “The contemporary book that has helped me the most is Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man.” 

Chesterton and Dostoyevsky

 “The one thing this Russian loves is Liberty. The one place where he finds it is in … no, not Christianity… Christ. Compared with that, he cares nothing for anything.” - G. K. Chesterton

I recently finished reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Possessed (also called The Devils). It was one of my reading goals for this year. It also means I have now read all of Dostoyevsky's four great novels, the other three being The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment. (I've also read Notes from the Underground.)

As I read it, I couldn't help thinking about the current socialist upsurge in the Democratic Party in the United States. His satire of the radicals/socialists in Russia could easily be applied to our progressives today.

I knew that Chesterton, like me, appreciated Dostoyevsky. He once wrote that Dostoyevsky "was one of the two or three greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. And he cared for nothing but Christ who had made him free. It is worth thinking about.”

I found a lecture that even dealt with Chesterton and Dostoyevsky. 

https://youtu.be/2v2pEyoU8ps?si=pUfomTC4KZ4ymR0Y

Nobel Committee Considered Tolkien Unworthy

 

In 1961, the Nobel Prize committee rejected J. R. R. Tolkien for the Literature Prize, deeming his work as unworthy.

The prize jury said his works had "not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality".

Tolkien had been nominated for the prize by C. S. Lewis. The nomination had come after The Lord of the Rings trilogy had been published - The Return of the King, the last volume, came out in 1955. The committee said LOTR was “not comparable to works of the highest literary quality.”

He was nominated again in 1967 and 1969 after LOTR had developed a wider following - but he was rejected again.

Apparently, they did not like fantasy.

Ironically, by the end of the 20th Century and early in the 21st Century The Lord of the Rings topped many polls as the most significant or greatest book of the 20th Century.

 

Six Catholic Authors

 

Some friends made the list!

6 great Christian authors (and how to start reading them) - Catholic Courier