July 30, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, C.S. Lewis is best known for The Chronicles of Narnia, but behind those pages lies a spiritual journey that shaped one of the most important Christian voices of the twentieth century. Lewis abandoned his faith during his years as a rising scholar at Oxford and identified as an atheist. But as fascism and communism gained ground across Europe, he reexamined everything he believed. He eventually embraced Christianity and became one of its most compelling modern defenders. His book, The Screwtape Letters, offered a sharp and imaginative look at human temptation and quickly became one of the most influential Christian works of the twentieth century. Our own Greg Hengler and other special contributors reflect on Lewis’s transformation from skeptic to apologist and the enduring impact of The Screwtape Letters.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the Star, and the American
people coming to you from the City where the West Begins,
Fort Worth, Texas. Throughout the nineteen forties and fifties, C. S.
Lewis's popular fiction, such as the Chronicles of Narnia series,
made him a household name in England and the United States.
(00:33):
Not much has changed since then, except that his books
have now earned him worldwide fame. Let's take a look
at this man and one of his most famous books,
Here's our own Greg Engler.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
On November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, three towering figures
of the twentieth century died. President John F. Kennedy was
killed by a sniper's bullet in Dallas, Texas. Huxley, author
of Brave New World, succumb to cancer and in the
exact hour as Kennedy's assassination in the cloistered, scholarly world
(01:11):
of Oxford, England, the long career of Clive Staples Lewis
ended due to kidney failure. He was sixty four years old. C. S.
Lewis's career was defined by his works and Christian apologetic writings. Apologetics,
(01:32):
meaning the discipline of defending or attempting to prove the
truth of Christian doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Here's
Lewis scholar Dabney Hart answering the question who was C. S. Lewis.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He became the leading Christian apologist of the second half
of the twentieth century, and he became the author of
the most important chol series of the twentieth century. He
was a complex name. C. S.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on November twenty ninth,
eighteen ninety eight. The younger of two boys, Lewis enrolled
at Oxford University, the oldest university in the English speaking world,
and referred to himself at this age as an atheist.
(02:26):
His time at Oxford was cut short at nineteen when
he volunteered and was sent to the frontline trenches in
northern France during World War One, wounded from an exploding shell.
After one year in battle, Lewis returned to Oxford University,
where he graduated with honors, and it was there where
(02:48):
he was then elected to begin his nearly thirty year
tenure at model In College. Here with a pint of
beer and a pipe. Lewis spent many late ev that means,
at local pubs in philosophical discussion with friends such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Hugo. Dyson,
and other members of his late night social group were
(03:10):
also important for his transformation from an atheist to a
theist to a Christian. From about the age of ten
until he was thirty three, he had been assuming that
Christianity was just another myth, a beautiful lie. Here's Lewis
scholars Professor Lyle Dorsett and Christopher Mitchell from Wheaton College.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
He was the most reluctant convert in the United Kingdom.
He didn't really want to be a believer, but he
couldn't help himself. He was drawn to God. God kept
drawing him to.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Him, and then he read Chesterton's Everlasting Man, and at
that point he began to see that maybe Christianity was
not so intellectually in the dark as he had thought.
And so there's this journey. But what he's doing at
this point is he's really looking for reasons not to
believe in the Christian faith. And yet without him even trying,
(04:07):
things are coming into his life to force him to
look at it. And say, well, maybe it's not such
a open and shutcase.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was also during these conversations at the pub where C. S.
Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien decided to write what
we now know as The Chronicles of Narnia and The
Lord of the Rings. Here again is Christopher Mitchell.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
The story is told that at a point they sort
of agreed that nobody was writing the kind of books
that they like to read, so they decided that they
would do it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
All of C. S. Lewis's forty plus books have stayed
in print since their initial publishing. In fact, sales have
been increasing, with Narnia sales reaching one million annually, and
his non fiction Christian writings are not only popular, but
they appeal to Christians from all denominations. Here's Lewis scholar heart.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
The basis of his widespread popularity is that his Christian
faith was, as he called it, mere Christianity. It was
basic Christianity. It was Christianity that created a unifying element,
and so Roman Catholics and Baptists and many others find
(05:27):
there a reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
A central part of lewis Is so called mere Christianity
is what has become known as Lewis's trilemma, what do
you do.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
With a world full of people who say Jesus was
a great teacher, Yet they're saying he's not who he
said he was. He's a great teacher, but he's not God.
And Lewis says, well, you know, how can he be
a great man and a great teacher? You know, a
wonderful man, a wonderful prophet, but yet not who he
says he is. He's either a liar, he's a lunatic,
or he's who.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He's This was a brave move considering the secular age
Lewis was living in. After all, most of the world
saw only two ways to live. You either became a
Nazi and conquered the world, or you became a Communist
and saved it. Years before Oslan and the White Witch
in the fictional Kingdom of Narnia was penned, C. S.
(06:22):
Lewis explored the theme of good and evil in a
thin volume of imaginative Letters between two Devils, philosophical and diabolical,
yet entertaining and easily readable by the masses. The Screwtape
Letters as a satirical portrait of an elderly retired devil
named Screwtape and his nephew, a young demon apprentice tempter
(06:46):
named Wormwood. Each of the thirty one letters from Screwtape
were originally published each week in a church newspaper in
nineteen forty one. The full collection of letters were published
on February ninth, nineteen forty two. The first edition of
two thousand copies were sold out even before the book
was released. It would be reprinted eight more times before
(07:09):
the end of the year and lead Lewis to being
put on the cover of Time magazine with the demon
Screwtape standing on his left shoulder.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
When we come back, more of the remarkable story of
one of the world's greatest writers. C. S. Lewis on
our American Stories Ple h Habib Here, as we approach our
nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind
you that all the history stories you hear on this
show are brought to you by the great folks at
Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for
(07:43):
your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well.
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to find out about their
terrific free online courses Again, go to Hillsdale dot edu
and sign up for their free and terrific online courses.
(08:14):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of C. S. Lewis. Let's pick up where we last
left off with Craig Hangler telling the story of C. S.
Lewis's satirical masterpiece, The screw Tape Letters. Here again is
Lewis scowlar Lyle Dorsett.
Speaker 7 (08:32):
He wanted to do something that would engage people, that
would engage their imaginations as well as their minds, so
he settled on this technique of these letters. But one
of his purposes is for people to understand the battle
that's going on in their own souls and in the
world around them, the struggle between good and evil, and
understand what the stakes are and how deep these are.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The two devils are rather cunning. They're not interested in
finding the one perfect moment by which the young man
will turn back on his faith and his God. After all,
Screwtape advises Wormwood, Why use adultery when golf will do.
Here's Wormwood reading a letter from his uncle Screwtape.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
And doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to
be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the
only thing that matters is the extent to which you
separate the man from the enemy. It does not matter
how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect
is to edge the man away from the light and
out into the nothing. Murder is no better than cards
(09:41):
if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road
to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot,
without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. Your affectionate uncle.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Screwtap Lewis's point was this, if we could overhear what
our enemies say about us, in this case demonic enemies,
it would shock us into realization that we're really in
a spiritual battle.
Speaker 9 (10:14):
You young tempters are so predictable, it's all so and
flash with you, when in fact it's much better to
keep the patient ignorant of your existence.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
How could we accomplish such a thing, Well.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
There are many different ways. The worship of sex, some
aspects of psychoanalysis, This thing some call a life force.
They may prove useful if once we can produce our
perfect work. The materialist magician the man not using but
veritably worshiping what he vaguely calls forces while denying the
(10:52):
existence of spirits, then the end of the war will
be in sight, Oh, wondrous day. The fact that devils
are predominantly comic or absurdly exaggerated figures in the modern
imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your
existence begins to arise in his mind, suggests to him
(11:15):
a picture of something in red tights, I'm persuade him
that since he cannot believe in that, it is an
old textbook method of confusing them, he therefore cannot believe
in you.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Right, here's Screwtape explaining to Wormwood that the battle is
not a carnal one, as humans often think, but it
is spiritual.
Speaker 8 (11:39):
But this business of the humans being in love, is
that desirable or not?
Speaker 9 (11:45):
Really? Wormwood? That is the sort of question what expects
them to ask. Leave them to discuss whether love or patriotism,
or celibacy, or candles and altars, or teetotalism or education
are good or bad. Can't you see there is no answer. Oh,
nothing matters at all except the tendency of a given
(12:08):
state of mind in given circumstances. To move a particular
patient at a particular moment, nearer to the enemy or
nearer to us.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Got it, yes, Uncle, Temptation and screwtape is distortion, exaggeration,
and short lies that the enemy tells the believer so
that he will mistrust God. In small sins will snowball
into big sins.
Speaker 9 (12:36):
Talk to him about moderation in all things. If you
can get him to the point of thinking that religion
is all very well up to a point, you can
feel quite happy about his soul. Brilliantly, a moderated religion
is as good for us as no religion at all,
and much more amusing.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Here's Wormwood reading a follow up letter from his uncle Scruta.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
My dear Wormwood, obviously you are making excellent progress. For
this reason, I am almost glad to hear that he
is still a church goer and a communicant. What I know,
there are dangers in this, but anything is better than that.
He should realize the break he has made with the
first months of his Christian life. As long as he
(13:25):
retains externally the habits of a Christian, he can still
be made to think of himself as one who has
adopted a few new friends and amusements, but whose spiritual
state is much the same as it was six weeks ago.
And while he thinks that we do not have to
contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognized sin,
(13:46):
but only with his vague, though uneasy feeling that he
hasn't been doing very well lately.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
The purpose of Lewis's screwtape letters was to stimulate a
fascinating discourse on the sinful nature of man versus the
redemptive nature of God. As Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity,
no man knows how bad he is till he has
tried very hard to be good. Yet, despite his lengthy
(14:14):
and acclaimed tenure at Oxford, this man was repeatedly denied professorship.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
His popularity on a lay level, his willingness to write
outside the academic community, to write for the common person,
and especially to write theology, to write Christianity, and to
do it so boldly and actually to attack his colleague's
positions didn't make him popular.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Despite being shunned by his colleagues in academia, Lewis was
besieged by countless letters from fans in the English speaking world,
and he personally responded to every single one. Considered by many,
if not most, to be the greatest Christian writer in
the English language, C. S. Lewis has left an unmatched legacy.
(15:07):
Here again is Lyle Dorsett, Christopher Mitchell, and Walter Hooper,
literary advisor to the Lewis estate.
Speaker 7 (15:15):
I consider Lewis's greatest legacy being that the thirty some
books he wrote in many genres, all the writing he did,
that many many lives during his lifetime and continuing to
this day have been utterly changed because of what he did.
Broken people, wounded people, people bound up in all kinds
(15:39):
of things they wanted to be free from, have found
freedom through Jesus Christ that Lewis's books pointed to. I
certainly was one of those, and I am not unique.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
You may not, at the end of the day agree
with him, but Christianity is no longer this mindless believi ism.
But there there's a reason for accepting these things, and
you just can't write it off. And those who do,
I think have not really listened to him.
Speaker 10 (16:11):
Well.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
In other writers you've been finding.
Speaker 10 (16:13):
You've been reading, You've got a corner of the curtain
that's raised you've got a little bit of the truth.
With Louis. The big curtains just open up wide. They
extend all the way to the side of the theater,
and you see everything that's in front of you. You
see more than you've ever seen before. To see through
(16:36):
Lewis's eyes is to see the universe almost as I
think God sees it.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Lewis admitted that while the writing process for The Screwtape
Letters was easy, he confessed being in the mindset of
a demon had its consequences. It almost smothered me before
I was done. But Louis's readers are eternally grateful. As
The New Yorker stated, if wit and wisdom, style, and
(17:04):
scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, mister
Lewis will be among the angels.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Had a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and I love that line.
No man knows how bad he is until he tries
to be good. And of course, the Screwtape Letters may
be the best entrance point to Christianity because it starts
with life as seen by demons by devils, a masterpiece
(17:40):
of humor, wit and grace, the story of the Screwtape Letters.
Here on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the Star, and the American
people coming to you from the City where the West Begins,
Fort Worth, Texas. Throughout the nineteen forties and fifties, C. S.
Lewis's popular fiction, such as the Chronicles of Narnia series,
made him a household name in England and the United States.
(00:33):
Not much has changed since then, except that his books
have now earned him worldwide fame. Let's take a look
at this man and one of his most famous books,
Here's our own Greg Engler.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
On November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, three towering figures
of the twentieth century died. President John F. Kennedy was
killed by a sniper's bullet in Dallas, Texas. Huxley, author
of Brave New World, succumb to cancer and in the
exact hour as Kennedy's assassination in the cloistered, scholarly world
(01:11):
of Oxford, England, the long career of Clive Staples Lewis
ended due to kidney failure. He was sixty four years old. C. S.
Lewis's career was defined by his works and Christian apologetic writings. Apologetics,
(01:32):
meaning the discipline of defending or attempting to prove the
truth of Christian doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Here's
Lewis scholar Dabney Hart answering the question who was C. S. Lewis.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He became the leading Christian apologist of the second half
of the twentieth century, and he became the author of
the most important chol series of the twentieth century. He
was a complex name. C. S.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on November twenty ninth,
eighteen ninety eight. The younger of two boys, Lewis enrolled
at Oxford University, the oldest university in the English speaking world,
and referred to himself at this age as an atheist.
(02:26):
His time at Oxford was cut short at nineteen when
he volunteered and was sent to the frontline trenches in
northern France during World War One, wounded from an exploding shell.
After one year in battle, Lewis returned to Oxford University,
where he graduated with honors, and it was there where
(02:48):
he was then elected to begin his nearly thirty year
tenure at model In College. Here with a pint of
beer and a pipe. Lewis spent many late ev that means,
at local pubs in philosophical discussion with friends such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Hugo. Dyson,
and other members of his late night social group were
(03:10):
also important for his transformation from an atheist to a
theist to a Christian. From about the age of ten
until he was thirty three, he had been assuming that
Christianity was just another myth, a beautiful lie. Here's Lewis
scholars Professor Lyle Dorsett and Christopher Mitchell from Wheaton College.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
He was the most reluctant convert in the United Kingdom.
He didn't really want to be a believer, but he
couldn't help himself. He was drawn to God. God kept
drawing him to.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Him, and then he read Chesterton's Everlasting Man, and at
that point he began to see that maybe Christianity was
not so intellectually in the dark as he had thought.
And so there's this journey. But what he's doing at
this point is he's really looking for reasons not to
believe in the Christian faith. And yet without him even trying,
(04:07):
things are coming into his life to force him to
look at it. And say, well, maybe it's not such
a open and shutcase.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It was also during these conversations at the pub where C. S.
Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien decided to write what
we now know as The Chronicles of Narnia and The
Lord of the Rings. Here again is Christopher Mitchell.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
The story is told that at a point they sort
of agreed that nobody was writing the kind of books
that they like to read, so they decided that they
would do it.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
All of C. S. Lewis's forty plus books have stayed
in print since their initial publishing. In fact, sales have
been increasing, with Narnia sales reaching one million annually, and
his non fiction Christian writings are not only popular, but
they appeal to Christians from all denominations. Here's Lewis scholar heart.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
The basis of his widespread popularity is that his Christian
faith was, as he called it, mere Christianity. It was
basic Christianity. It was Christianity that created a unifying element,
and so Roman Catholics and Baptists and many others find
(05:27):
there a reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
A central part of lewis Is so called mere Christianity
is what has become known as Lewis's trilemma, what do
you do.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
With a world full of people who say Jesus was
a great teacher, Yet they're saying he's not who he
said he was. He's a great teacher, but he's not God.
And Lewis says, well, you know, how can he be
a great man and a great teacher? You know, a
wonderful man, a wonderful prophet, but yet not who he
says he is. He's either a liar, he's a lunatic,
or he's who.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
He's This was a brave move considering the secular age
Lewis was living in. After all, most of the world
saw only two ways to live. You either became a
Nazi and conquered the world, or you became a Communist
and saved it. Years before Oslan and the White Witch
in the fictional Kingdom of Narnia was penned, C. S.
(06:22):
Lewis explored the theme of good and evil in a
thin volume of imaginative Letters between two Devils, philosophical and diabolical,
yet entertaining and easily readable by the masses. The Screwtape
Letters as a satirical portrait of an elderly retired devil
named Screwtape and his nephew, a young demon apprentice tempter
(06:46):
named Wormwood. Each of the thirty one letters from Screwtape
were originally published each week in a church newspaper in
nineteen forty one. The full collection of letters were published
on February ninth, nineteen forty two. The first edition of
two thousand copies were sold out even before the book
was released. It would be reprinted eight more times before
(07:09):
the end of the year and lead Lewis to being
put on the cover of Time magazine with the demon
Screwtape standing on his left shoulder.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
When we come back, more of the remarkable story of
one of the world's greatest writers. C. S. Lewis on
our American Stories Ple h Habib Here, as we approach our
nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to remind
you that all the history stories you hear on this
show are brought to you by the great folks at
Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for
(07:43):
your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well.
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to find out about their
terrific free online courses Again, go to Hillsdale dot edu
and sign up for their free and terrific online courses.
(08:14):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of C. S. Lewis. Let's pick up where we last
left off with Craig Hangler telling the story of C. S.
Lewis's satirical masterpiece, The screw Tape Letters. Here again is
Lewis scowlar Lyle Dorsett.
Speaker 7 (08:32):
He wanted to do something that would engage people, that
would engage their imaginations as well as their minds, so
he settled on this technique of these letters. But one
of his purposes is for people to understand the battle
that's going on in their own souls and in the
world around them, the struggle between good and evil, and
understand what the stakes are and how deep these are.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The two devils are rather cunning. They're not interested in
finding the one perfect moment by which the young man
will turn back on his faith and his God. After all,
Screwtape advises Wormwood, Why use adultery when golf will do.
Here's Wormwood reading a letter from his uncle Screwtape.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
And doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to
be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the
only thing that matters is the extent to which you
separate the man from the enemy. It does not matter
how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect
is to edge the man away from the light and
out into the nothing. Murder is no better than cards
(09:41):
if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road
to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot,
without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. Your affectionate uncle.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Screwtap Lewis's point was this, if we could overhear what
our enemies say about us, in this case demonic enemies,
it would shock us into realization that we're really in
a spiritual battle.
Speaker 9 (10:14):
You young tempters are so predictable, it's all so and
flash with you, when in fact it's much better to
keep the patient ignorant of your existence.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
How could we accomplish such a thing, Well.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
There are many different ways. The worship of sex, some
aspects of psychoanalysis, This thing some call a life force.
They may prove useful if once we can produce our
perfect work. The materialist magician the man not using but
veritably worshiping what he vaguely calls forces while denying the
(10:52):
existence of spirits, then the end of the war will
be in sight, Oh, wondrous day. The fact that devils
are predominantly comic or absurdly exaggerated figures in the modern
imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your
existence begins to arise in his mind, suggests to him
(11:15):
a picture of something in red tights, I'm persuade him
that since he cannot believe in that, it is an
old textbook method of confusing them, he therefore cannot believe
in you.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Right, here's Screwtape explaining to Wormwood that the battle is
not a carnal one, as humans often think, but it
is spiritual.
Speaker 8 (11:39):
But this business of the humans being in love, is
that desirable or not?
Speaker 9 (11:45):
Really? Wormwood? That is the sort of question what expects
them to ask. Leave them to discuss whether love or patriotism,
or celibacy, or candles and altars, or teetotalism or education
are good or bad. Can't you see there is no answer. Oh,
nothing matters at all except the tendency of a given
(12:08):
state of mind in given circumstances. To move a particular
patient at a particular moment, nearer to the enemy or
nearer to us.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Got it, yes, Uncle, Temptation and screwtape is distortion, exaggeration,
and short lies that the enemy tells the believer so
that he will mistrust God. In small sins will snowball
into big sins.
Speaker 9 (12:36):
Talk to him about moderation in all things. If you
can get him to the point of thinking that religion
is all very well up to a point, you can
feel quite happy about his soul. Brilliantly, a moderated religion
is as good for us as no religion at all,
and much more amusing.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Here's Wormwood reading a follow up letter from his uncle Scruta.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
My dear Wormwood, obviously you are making excellent progress. For
this reason, I am almost glad to hear that he
is still a church goer and a communicant. What I know,
there are dangers in this, but anything is better than that.
He should realize the break he has made with the
first months of his Christian life. As long as he
(13:25):
retains externally the habits of a Christian, he can still
be made to think of himself as one who has
adopted a few new friends and amusements, but whose spiritual
state is much the same as it was six weeks ago.
And while he thinks that we do not have to
contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognized sin,
(13:46):
but only with his vague, though uneasy feeling that he
hasn't been doing very well lately.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
The purpose of Lewis's screwtape letters was to stimulate a
fascinating discourse on the sinful nature of man versus the
redemptive nature of God. As Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity,
no man knows how bad he is till he has
tried very hard to be good. Yet, despite his lengthy
(14:14):
and acclaimed tenure at Oxford, this man was repeatedly denied professorship.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
His popularity on a lay level, his willingness to write
outside the academic community, to write for the common person,
and especially to write theology, to write Christianity, and to
do it so boldly and actually to attack his colleague's
positions didn't make him popular.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Despite being shunned by his colleagues in academia, Lewis was
besieged by countless letters from fans in the English speaking world,
and he personally responded to every single one. Considered by many,
if not most, to be the greatest Christian writer in
the English language, C. S. Lewis has left an unmatched legacy.
(15:07):
Here again is Lyle Dorsett, Christopher Mitchell, and Walter Hooper,
literary advisor to the Lewis estate.
Speaker 7 (15:15):
I consider Lewis's greatest legacy being that the thirty some
books he wrote in many genres, all the writing he did,
that many many lives during his lifetime and continuing to
this day have been utterly changed because of what he did.
Broken people, wounded people, people bound up in all kinds
(15:39):
of things they wanted to be free from, have found
freedom through Jesus Christ that Lewis's books pointed to. I
certainly was one of those, and I am not unique.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
You may not, at the end of the day agree
with him, but Christianity is no longer this mindless believi ism.
But there there's a reason for accepting these things, and
you just can't write it off. And those who do,
I think have not really listened to him.
Speaker 10 (16:11):
Well.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
In other writers you've been finding.
Speaker 10 (16:13):
You've been reading, You've got a corner of the curtain
that's raised you've got a little bit of the truth.
With Louis. The big curtains just open up wide. They
extend all the way to the side of the theater,
and you see everything that's in front of you. You
see more than you've ever seen before. To see through
(16:36):
Lewis's eyes is to see the universe almost as I
think God sees it.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Lewis admitted that while the writing process for The Screwtape
Letters was easy, he confessed being in the mindset of
a demon had its consequences. It almost smothered me before
I was done. But Louis's readers are eternally grateful. As
The New Yorker stated, if wit and wisdom, style, and
(17:04):
scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, mister
Lewis will be among the angels.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Had a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and I love that line.
No man knows how bad he is until he tries
to be good. And of course, the Screwtape Letters may
be the best entrance point to Christianity because it starts
with life as seen by demons by devils, a masterpiece
(17:40):
of humor, wit and grace, the story of the Screwtape Letters.
Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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