Lewis Agonistes

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

October 28, 2011

*
*

*March 7, 2007 *


 *“LEWIS AGONISTES” – by Louis Markos*


 November 22, 1963 stands out as a day of tragic memory for the world. It is
the day of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

But it is also the day of the death of C.S. Lewis. It passed practically
unnoticed because of the former. Yet this man of 64 years, of Irish birth,
but professor at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, has made a mark in the
world because of his writings that should be well known.

His “Screwtape Letters” came to my attention many decades ago. I noted that
the insights of Lewis on this subject were most unusual and helpful. It is
slated to come out as a movie in 2008 along with the second book of “The
Tales of Narnia.”

His “Mere Christianity,” “The Tales of Narnia,” and his 3 Sci-Fi novels are
also most insightful.

In 2000 “The Teaching Company” came out with “The Life and Writings of C.S.
Lewis” – taught by Professor Louis Markos, Houston Baptist University. I
encouraged my daughter to purchase this Great Course on Religion. Search it
out on *www.TEACH12.com <http://www.teach12.com/>** . *This 12 lesson course
can be purchased once a year at a special price just under $20.00, including
a 73 page “Course Guidebook” prepared by Professor Markos. Following is the
“Scope” of this Course:


 In the twelve lectures that follow, we shall explore the life and writings
of C. S. Lewis and consider why Lewis’s works have continued to gain in
power and popularity over the last half-century. After an introductory
lecture that considers Lewis’s remarkable range as a writer and surveys some
of the events and people that shaped his thought and his works, we jump
headlong into a four-lecture consideration of his key apologetical works.


 We begin in Lecture Two with a close analysis of both his fictional and
nonfictional autobiographies (*The Pilgrim’s Regress *and *Surprised by Joy*,
respectively) that will explore not only the nature of Lewis’s own
conversion to Christianity but also the nature of his most powerful and
persistent apologetic: the argument by desire. In Lecture Three, we shift
from this desire-based apologetic to one grounded in ethics and morality.
Through a close look at *Mere Christianity *and *The Abolition of Man,* we
explore Lewis’s belief that the code of ethics by which Christians live is
not a manmade construct but constitutes a set of divinely revealed
standards, the truth and relevance of which is universal, absolute, and
cross-cultural (a set of standards that Lewis dubbed the Tao). With Lectures
Four and Five, we move away from the more general apologetics of Lectures
Two and Three to study closely Lewis’s answers to such perennial spiritual
questions as: why (and whether) miracles happen; why, if God is good, there
is so much pain in our world; whether heaven and hell exist and what role
our choices play in determining our final destination; what exactly is the
nature of sin and evil and how does it separate us from God and salvation?
Our texts for these two lectures will include *Miracles, The Problem of
Pain, The Screwtape Letters, *and *The Great Divorce.*


 Lecture Six functions as a transitional lecture that takes up Lewis’s role
as scholar and academic. Through a look at such critical classics as *The
Discarded Image* and *A Preface to Paradise Lost,* we will explore how
Lewis, in his scholarly works, sought to breakdown modern prejudices
concerning the past and replace them with a vivid, accessible view of the
medieval and Renaissance world that is true to those who lived in those
oft-misunderstood ages.


 With Lecture Seven, we turn to Lewis the novelist. Lectures Seven and Eight
will consider his Space Trilogy: *Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, *and
*That Hideous Strength. *Lectures Nine, Ten, and Eleven will focus on his
best-known and loved works, The Chronicles of Narnia: *The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver
Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician’s Nephew; *and *The Last Battle.
*All five of these lectures will offer synopses of the key plot elements in
each work and explore the rich, often profound, Christian allegories that
lurk just below the surface of each tale.


 The final lecture will take up Lewis’s last and strangest novel, *Till We
Have Faces, *a mature and profound reworking of the classical myth of Cupid
and Psyche. The heroine of this work was patterned after Lewis’s wife, Joy
Gresham. The lecture, and the series, will conclude with a poignant look at
*A Grief Observed, *Lewis’s personal and moving account of his despair over
the death of Joy and his long, painful road back to faith.



 I find this Course to be a most valuable answer to Modernism, Marxism,
Darwinism, Nietzsche and the Enlightenment. It also is a most satisfying
answer to the inadequacy and bankruptcy of Rousseau that I have come across.


 But in 2003 Louis Markos came out with a 170 page 6 chapter book entitled
“Lewis Agonistes.” This can be purchased through
*www.Amazon.com<http://www.amazon.com/>
** *, new or used at a reasonable price. A friend of Markos was introduced
to C.S. Lewis in a new way, and highly recommends the above volume.
Following is his most interesting review of this book:


 *Lewis Agonistes: How C.S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle With the Modern
and Postmodern World** by Louis Markos*


 31 of 34 people found the following review by Stanley P. Santire of Houston
Texas helpful:


 ***** *A Scholar’s Brilliant Gift, *September 3, 2003

This book will be required reading for any university class on C.S. Lewis.
The warm combination by Louis Markos of biographical portrait, intimate
analysis of the subject’s ideas, and a panoramic sweep of Western Philosophy
and Judeo-Christian thought assure this. Destiny holds another rightful
place for it outside the classroom as insight into the wisdom of
Christianity with deep roots in the Hebrew legacy. It is the gift of a
brilliant scholar to those with, as he describes in this book, “ … the heart
that yearns for God and the mind that seeks to know him.”

A small caveat. The author is a friend of mine. I am even mentioned in the
credits, a discovery that surprised me when I read the preface just after
buying the book. I attribute the honor to discussions I have been privileged
to have with Louis Markos, explorations of ideas in which I always find him
a warm and wise companion. More to the point, I did not review the
manuscript before publication. I knew Markos was working on a book about
C.S. Lewis. That is all I knew. We did not discuss it and for this I am
thankful. Otherwise, I would have started my reading with some
predisposition and less objectivity.

Indeed, in our little talks I have always disagreed with Markos on some
points. As a consequence, I picked up Lewis Agonistes not knowing what I
would find. It is a rare blend of intellect, knowledge and fervor. Before
meeting Louis Markos, I never paid much attention to C.S. Lewis. I thought
the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and the Screwtape Letters was just a
pioneering science fiction writer who periodically ventured into theology.
Then I began those little conversations with Markos. Suddenly I found that
C.S. Lewis was a thinker that, much to my loss, I had minimized. Still, he
had always been a small part of our conversations ranging from Genesis and
Plato to Dante and Nietzsche. This book brings to me the full force of C.S.
Lewis’ genius.

As I read Lewis Agonistes I felt like Bilbo Baggins before Gandalf and the
Dwarfs dragged him off. Bilbo was so comfortable in his little Hobbit hole.
Still, even as he protested against leaving for far off dangers, he heard
the call to adventure. Like Bilbo, many of us are comfortable in the ideas
to which we are accustomed. Markos is a Gandalf, happily pulling us up to
another level of the world, a place that many of us only pretend to know.
His enthusiasm draws us to the heights of Christianity with C.S. Lewis as a
lively companion. This role of Markos as Gandalf is appropriate.

As the book points out, C.S. Lewis and T.R.R. Tolkien were friends, a
relationship that enriched the works of both men. Though I have escaped into
the sensuousness of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, my mind has long
been saturated with scenes of the world drawn from the philosophers of
reason and idealism, ancient pagans and modern atheists. This book wrenches
me out of my complacency. It opens a vibrant window into a different
worldview.

With a blend of faith and rigorous analysis, Louis Markos raises C.S. Lewis
from the dead. He makes the Christian ideas of Lewis march like soldiers
contending against the faithless and the cynic.

In the preface Markos cautions us when he writes “There will, therefore, be
long passages in this book where Lewis’s name is not mentioned.” The author
points out that in those stretches he will “either be working through an
examination of the precise challenges leveled by the modern and post modern
reader … or constructing an argument of my own that is guided by Lewis’s
method and approach …”

Here, though he is my friend, I must disagree with the author. Much of the
brilliance in the book he attributes to his hero C.S. Lewis. I am more
objective. In the public light of his lectures and the private moments of
our conversations, I have found Louis Markos to stand on his own as a great
adventurer in ideas. More to the point, in the book I found that the
thoughts of a living Markos and a long dead C.S. Lewis blend so intimately
that the effort to differentiate one from the other is best traded in by the
reader for the experience of bearing witness to soaring visions of God



 *NOTE:* I have to confess that Markos has done for me concerning C.S. Lewis
– the same as he has done for Stanley P. Santire.

I have some 144 mentors that I have benefited from. The four that stand out
have been “George Muller of Bristol” by Dr. A.T. Pierson, “Rees Howells,
Intercessor” by Norman P. Grubb, Oswald Chambers, and “One New Man” by
Reuven Doron.

I sense already that I am going to have to add C.S. Lewis to this
abbreviated list. But as a key to benefit adequately from him, one will need
to add Louis Markos as his interpreter.

I am sensing that those who take this recommendation sufficiently serious to
act upon it – you like myself are going to discover a new C.S. Lewis – and
an exciting and profitable voyage of discovery.


 Your friend – Jim Watt













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