There must be profound reasons why wars spawn so many quack religions and Messiahs, but to discover them would require an exhaustive psychological study of the relations of war and peace to personal insecurity. On a lower level, we may wonder at the alarming vogue of Mr. C. S. Lewis, whose harmless fantasies about the kingdoms of Good and Evil ("Out of the Silent Planet," "The Screwtape Letters" and now "Perelandra") have had a modest literary success, while multitudes of readers, and in Britain radio listeners, succumb to the charm of his more direct treatises on Christian conduct.
It may be that a war in which our own shining ideology is so blurred by political trickery, cowardice and double-talk, puts a desperate premium on believers from 'way back, so that we gain confidence from hearing them preach as gospel what we have heard ourselves saying faintly since September, 1939…. It must be the same impulse that has pitchforked Mr. Lewis into the limelight, for in doubting times completely unremarkable minor prophets are pressed into making a career of reassurance.
This is a free excerpt of 178 words. There are 1,121 words (approx.
4 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Lewis, C(live) S(taples) 1898–1963: Critical Essay by Alistair Cooke Access Pass.
