The Life of Lewis's Imagination

The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jacobs shows how Lewis's imagination saved him from rationalism, and thank God it did. If the Great Knock had shaped Lewis more than G. K. Chesterton and Tollers, we might never have been treated to Lewis's beautiful fiction, at least not in the way we have it. Narnia might have read more like the Golden Compass.

Jacobs give us a biography of Lewis's imagination, which at times takes Lewis to task. Lewis would appreciate the criticism but at times Jacobs faults Lewis for not falling in line with evangelical feminism.

In defense of Lewis, the feminine is no more inferior in submitting to the masculine than God the Son is inferior in submitting to God the Father. Of course, no woman should submit to a man who is abusing his authority. She must appeal to Christ who made both male and female in his image.

God bless Lewis for saying, "The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church. He is to love her as Christ loved the Church—read on—and give his life for her (Eph. 5:25). This headship, then, is most fully embodied ... in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion." The problem is with men who don't give women anything worth their sacrifice.

I've read a lot of biographies of Lewis and George Sayer's Jack is still the best. Douglas Gresham's Lenten Lands is probably second (though it's really Gresham's autobio). Diana Pavlic Glyer's The Company They Keep is great on Lewis in community with the Inklings. Jacobs is probably my next fav.

It has a good bit of material absent from others, like the former student turned playwright who Lewis may have led to Christ simply by his example of honest scholarship in service of the gospel. The criticism is refreshing, especially after having read Gresham's hagiographic Jack's Life, and most of it is constructive.



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