MARK NOLL, C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935-1947. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2023. Pp 176. $20 (US)
I first read C. S. Lewis’s books in the early 1960s. I found the beginning of his space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, on a bookshelf in our home, and I enjoyed it greatly. A few years later, in the fall of 1967, Mere Christianity was assigned to incoming first year students at Messiah College. By the time I graduated from Messiah College, I had read over twenty of his books—not a hard number to reach when you start with the space trilogy and the seven volumes in the Narnia series. And over the years, Lewis’s insights have become basic to my own thinking and living.
Many conservative American Christians share my love for C. S. Lewis, and Mark Noll picks up on the popularity of Lewis’s writings to analyse the beginnings of his influence within the American church. Perhaps part of Noll’s interest in Lewis lies within Noll’s own journey. In a landmark study, Noll observed what he called “the scandal of the evangelical mind,”[1] critiquing the anti-intellectual tendency of conservative Christians. Lewis was nothing if not educated, a brilliant scholar both as a philosopher and as a specialist in medieval European literature. His qualifications were such as to attract the attention of other intellectual Christians—especially Roman Catholic and Protestant liberals—but not such as to commend him to conservative evangelicals. Yet today he is loved by North American Christians in general and conservative evangelicals in particular. Noll examines the beginnings of that popularity.
Noll divides his study into three parts: 1) Roman Catholic discovery of and appreciation for Lewis’ apologetic writings; 2) mainstream and secular discovery of his writings more generally—noticeably more favorable than we might expect today; and 3) Protestant (including conservative evangelicals) added approval, although hesitantly. Contemporary enthusiasm for Lewis makes conservative hesitation at the beginning an intriguing factor.
Noll describes each of these three in a probing and well-researched essay, followed by a response from someone who represents the group described. The whole then is brought to a conclusion with a reprint of the first serious analyses of Lewis’s work by an American academic, Charles Brady.
As I read, I could almost imagine myself listening to the original presentations on which Noll’s book is based—the 2022 Hansen lectures at the Wade Center in Wheaton College. The Wade Center is devoted to the work of seven British authors: Lewis, Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield (xiv). The Hansen lectures, then, promote and explore the work of these authors; thus the 2022 lectures explored the influence of Lewis’s early work in North America.
As such, Noll achieves his purpose almost effortlessly. It is part of his writing that he brings strong and clear scholarship to his endeavors, seeking in his own work to refute the criticism of “the scandal of the evangelical mind.” His work is worthy of his status as emeritus professor of history at Wheaton College and at Notre Dame University.
His scholarship is such that one learns more than just how Lewis was received by an American audience. The rapturous reception of secular sources reveals the extent to which the United States in the 1930s took Christian faith for granted. One could hardly imagine the work of a serious Christian apologist today being received in the secular press with such approval. Consider John Lennox, an Oxford mathematician who was a student at Cambridge when Lewis lectured there towards the end of his life. Lennox is invited to speak by conservative intellectual organizations (such as the Veritas Forum) and more or less ignored in the secular arena.[2] Lewis, in contrast, was reviewed in a variety of secular publications with great approval. Noll’s description helps us see a different age than our own, which is a gift that has some of the same benefits as living in another country and culture.
Noll notes part of the reason for this change: “In an important contrast to our own day, it is noteworthy that the Christian themes Lewis advanced had nothing to do with political polemics. . . .” (68). Our readiness to ally theology with political parties undercuts our ability to present careful Christian thinking in a variety of areas.
I read the book to learn more about Lewis and because of my appreciation for Noll’s own work. That being the case, I found the responses to Noll’s chapters to be of mixed value. Karen Johnson responded to the chapter on Lewis and Roman Catholics by focusing on Lewis’s contribution to discussion of race in America. She is worth reading on the topic of Christian responses to race, but her reflections here felt out of place. A response focused on Lewis and Roman Catholics would have served the case better.
Kirk Farney responded to the chapter on Lewis and mainstream society. He compared Lewis to Fulton Sheen and Walter Maier, radio preachers of the day. The comparisons were helpful in illuminating secular responses to Christian voices in general. Amy Black responded to the chapter on Lewis and evangelicals. I felt that her response was the most helpful of the three, suggesting how we might speak to our own world.
I recommend this study by Noll and his co-writers to anyone interested in C. S. Lewis and to those who wonder how we can speak with a Christian voice in the fractured contemporary context. Lewis did so by a clear focus on “Mere Christianity.” We can learn from him.
[1] Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).
[2] It is easy to overstate the point I am making. Christian intellectuals do of course receive a hearing, but in my view the overall ethos of the gatekeepers of our intellectual life grants that hearing only reluctantly.Re