The conversion of Jane in *That Hideous Strength* is one of the most comprehensive descriptions of being “born from above” in print. I am moved each time I read it.

As a teen, I read his space trilogy. The third book was slow going for the first half but then it picked up. Really enjoyed those. Should read them again. Some things that stuck with me are the Merlin character, the link of godlessness, whether false religion or science, and the fake trees. I saw an article recently about man-made trees and I immediately thought of “That Hideous Strength,” which I read two decades ago.
Enjoyed Narnia as a kid. One of the enduring images is the guy (prince?) tied in the chair – which one is really him? When is he actually crazy? All day, or the couple hours at night? Such a great image.
James Gresham, grandson to Lewis by marriage to Joy, was at LeTourneau in the early 90s. I happened to be there then as well but I never found a good excuse to meet him. LeTourneau holds a funny talent show once a year and Gresham and friends did a Monty Python sketch about a kid who had been getting bad grades, thanks to having died a while back. The British humor was somewhat lost on me at the time, I’m afraid, but they were pretty good.

Favorites:
-Puddleglum’s speech at the climax of The Silver Chair
-Eustace’s dragon arc in Dawn Treader
-The Great Divorce
-The pages-long song/poem/vision at the end of Perelandra
-Listening to Lewis reading The Four Loves on the audiobook version

My mom read the Narnia books to my brother and I when we were little, so those are obviously favorites.
There is a quote from Lewis in the preface to The Screwtape Letters that I have copied out. He says:
“My religion would not be in ruins if this opinion were shown to be false.”
This has been very thought provoking for a gal who was raised in a church that was very strict on what is correct doctrine, and very adamant about the consequences of not having it right.

I have many Lewis moments and my debt to him is enormmous:
- Reading Narnia as a child
- Working through Mere Christianity as a young adult
- ‘Till We Have Faces, I finally appreciated its greatness in my late 20′s
- Reading Lewis’ collected letters and seeing his development as a Christian as I learned from both his words and example
- Learning about Lewis and discipleship from Lewis scholars Lyle Dorsett and Jerry Root of Wheaton college
The wholeness, the completeness, of his thought across genres from books to letters to poems:
“Somehow what Lewis thought about everything was secretly present in what he said about anything.” (Owen Barfield)

Rec’d “Mere Christianity” as a gift when I was at a point in my pilgrimage at which it held no interest for me; one year later it was strategic in taking down obstacles to faith. Chronicles of Narnia, Space Trilogy and Screwtape all helped me figure out “what I had gotten myself into” after initial repentance. “Till We Have Faces” stands at the top as an influencer for how I reinterpret my life (Rom 12:1-2) as I get older, particularly my very active “inner life.” Very thankful for the man and his story.

I know one thing for sure: I want to be sure that I read all of his books.
The Great Divorce, Screwtape Letters two of my favorites. Working on The Abolition of Man, today. These are the kinds of books to read and reread, getting the seeds of thought into one’s mind. Powerful, potent, life-changing stuff.
And thanks, Scot, for the heads up on this.

My favorite Lewis read is definitely “Till We Have Faces”. I read it 4 or 5 years ago and have never been able to stop talking about it. I would say that it is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature I have ever encountered.
The Cosmic Dance scene in the Space Trilogy (can’t remember what book) overwhelmed me emotionally when I first read it. To this day it is still one of my favorite depictions of God and the relationship He has to His creation…
My favorite Narnia moment is in the Last Battle, when the barn serves as a portal to Aslan’s Country, and the “unbelievers” are entirely blind to its glories.

Karl – “Somehow what Lewis thought about everything was secretly present in what he said about anything.” (Owen Barfield)
What a killer quote!
thanks for sharing…

“The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe” as a way to grasp the Christian story. After I read it I gave it to my mother who taught children. When she finished she said, “I love Aslan.” She always had loved him, she just knew him by another name.

Tommy (#8)
It’s the “Great Dance” toward the end of Perelandra. A portion:
“In the plan of the Great Dance plans without number interlock, and each movement becomes in its season the breaking into flower of the whole design to which all else had been directed. Thus each is equally at the centre and none are there by being equals, but some by giving place and some by receiving it, the small things by their smallness and the great by their greatness, and all the patterns linked and looped together by the unions of a kneeling with a sceptred love. Blessed be He!”
One of my favorites too.

Unique insight coupled with fervent intellectual humility…
Pursuing a broad range of topics from a cohesive whole…
Humor…
Refusing to major on the minors…
A creative thinker speaking on topics dominated by analytical thinkers…
I probably read the Narnia series through several times over before I ever realized they were ‘Christian’
I am blown away by the description of evil, innocence, and temptation in Perelandra (and less so in That Hideous Strength)…
I continue to be indebted to his concepts about Heaven and Hell, God, Faith, etc.
His thoughts are seeds that have taken root, and caused many beautiful and nourishing things to grow in my mind…

College. Secular background. Zero knowledge of religion. Read Mere Christianity in one sitting. Immediately believed and wondered what it all meant.
No bigger C.S. Lewis fan on the planet than me.
Derek Leman

I can’t imagine heaven or hell without thinking about Lewis’ description in “The Great Divorce.”

I’ve only read Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters, and the Chronicles of Narnia, which is to say that I haven’t read nearly as much CS Lewis as I would like, and eventually will…
My current favorite is from Mere Christianity:
“So that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like. It is like a small child going to his father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.”
I often think of this when I see a crayon drawing that a child made up in the office of a happy and loving parent. How much like that must my prayers seem (before the Holy Spirit sorts them out on my behalf)? And yet God is pleased by them. How much like that must my singing seem, to a God who has angels He created just to sing His praises constantly? And yet He is pleased by them.

Three things:
-Every last bit of The Great Divorce
-The Mere Christianity quotation: “The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down…. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’”
-Listening to the Radio Theater version of Lion, Witch and Wardrobe with my four-year-old, and watching her face break into a huge, sparkly-eyed grin every time we get to the line: “Aslan was on the move.”

I spent a winter with Lewis’ writings.
Everyone MUST invest in the Radio Theater Chronicles series. It brings all the characters EVEN MORE to life. Go buy them now! Seriously. =)
What’s your favorite Lewis biography? I read “The Narnian” and enjoyed it.

Jeremy, for a long time my favorite Lewis biography was George Sayers’ “Jack.” A student and later a friend of Lewis, Sayers is uniquely positioned to write a biography that both strives for some degree of objectivity while avoiding (because unnecessary) much of the educated guesswork that a biographer who didn’t know the man would have to engage in.
But since reading Alan Jacobs’ The Narnian, I at leat need to make room for it beside “Jack” and perhaps even give it pride of place.

I’m sure you’re aware of the new Baker release: Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C. S. Lewis. To the many who have discovered his books, C. S. Lewis is more than simply a writer; he has also been a spiritual mentor. In this book over fifty Christians share how Lewis, in his books, has sparked the beginning or changed the course of their spiritual journey.
If you have a transformational testimonial of how the writings of C. S. Lewis has turned your life around, the editors of Mere Christians would like to hear from you; perhaps your story will find its way into a second volume

Far too much to put down. The man is titan. There’s simply no better prose writer of the english language.
My favorite piece of writing is the end of Mere Christianity. The last 10 or so pages are gold. They are not his best writing, simply the most personally meaningful to me.

I took the long way.I first met CS Lewis as the wise teacher/friend/mentor in “A Severe Mercy”, then wandered through several biographies before ever reading his books. My children, however, were weaned on Narnia, and Screwtape, and the Perelandra/Silent Planet/Hideous Strength books. They now have well worn copies of Mere Christianity, same as their mum.

As an aside here, an interesting-looking book which has gained a fair bit of media coverage in the UK on CS Lewis is this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Narnia-Seven-Heavens-Imagination/dp/0195313879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248094971&sr=1-1
Not read it myself yet, but it intelligently explores medieval cosmology in Lewis’ theology and literature – looks fascinating.