And yet, and yet…

“CS Lewis is overrated.”

This was a line that one of my roommates in college (now a stand up comedian) put on a bulletin board in our room. He didn’t necessarily think it was a true statement, but he put it up to get a reaction. And as you can probably imagine at a Baptist College, it definitely did get a largely negative reaction.

Let’s start here: I don’t believe CS Lewis is overrated. Rather I think he is one of the best and most incisive English Christian writers in history. It’s hard to compare with the mastery of his works from Mere Christianity to The Screwtape Letters to The Great Divorce to Til We Have Faces to A Grief Observed. And that doesn’t even count the Narnia or Out of the Silent Planet series.

So what is it that caused so much angst and anger among people when this British professor was called “overrated”? What is it about Lewis that still captivates and drives the evangelical mind, even today resulting in multiple biopics about his life.

There are a couple of factors. First, CS Lewis’ academic pedigree and quality of literature gave credibility to Christian thought in the midst of an increasingly antagonistic culture. Where much intelligent study and criticism turned against Christianity for being anti-intellectual and superstitious, Lewis gave multiple thoughtful and honest arguments for the truth in Christianity. It wasn’t overly emotional devotional material, but it was thoughtful, logical, and well-reasoned.

Second, Lewis’ writing is approachable. As opposed to literature that is unable to be understood, the quality of Lewis’ writing is such that non-technical readers can participate and engage with the ideas. As opposed to being anti-intellectual, Lewis’ writing does the harder thing: he doesn’t lean on massive technical vocabulary as a crutch for his arguments, but rather takes the effort to make it as universally understandable as possible.

Third, Lewis was authentic in his writing. He was a traumatized veteran of World War I, an atheist who converted later in life, an English professor whose poetic literature never took off, a man who walked through the loss of the woman he loved most in the world. He didn’t pretend to be a super saint, but approached the Christian life with honesty. Things that were hard he embraced as hard, and he approached the wonders of grace with awe. Lewis doesn’t present himself as special, but he presents the world and faith God has created as amazing. That kind of wonder is a refreshing in an ever complicating world.

How do I think CS Lewis would respond to the quote above? I think in his later career he would find it hilarious and would laugh along with the joke. He might even write an article detailing how he agreed with the sentiment. In fact, The Gospel Coalition published an article detailing real world examples of how this worked for him: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/cs-lewis-and-art-of-disagreement/.

Can we do the same? When we create and write and persuade, can we handle the joke?

Maybe the best writing is that which doesn’t take itself too seriously. Maybe the best writers are the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously.

Maybe we’re the ones that overrated, and maybe that’s OK.