The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis's Journey to Faith

by Downing, David C.

• ISBN13: 9780830832712
• ISBN10: 0830832718
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Intervarsity Pr

Summary

An ECPA 2003 Gold Medallion Finalist!Listed inBooklist'sBest Adult Religion Books of the Year in 2002!His books have sold millions, including classics likeMere Christianity, The Screwtape LettersandThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.Yet C. S. Lewis was not always a literary giant of Christian faith. How did he leave behind a staunch atheism to become one of the most beloved and renowned Christian authors of our time?Other biographies of Lewis explore his childhood or his dramatic conversion to Christianity. But as David Downing reveals in this fascinating book, the rarely discussed period from Lewis's childhood to his early thirties took him on a tumultuous journey of spiritual and intellectual exploration before he became a "most reluctant convert." It was not despite this journey but precisely because of it that Lewis understood the search for life's ultimate meaning so well and went on to become one of the most compelling authors of the twentieth century. Weaving the people, places and events of Lewis's life together with excerpts from Lewis's own writing, Downing shows how Lewis's spiritual quest can also light the path for other seekers.

Author Biography

David C. Downing is the Ralph W. Schlosser Professor of English at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	9	(2)
INTRODUCTION	11	(8)
ONE THE ILL-SECURED HAPPINESS OF CHILDHOOD	19	(16)
TWO THE ALIEN TERRITORY OF BOYHOOD	35	(14)
THREE MERE ATHEISM IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE	49	(14)
FOUR THE DUNGEON OF A DIVIDED SOUL	63	(18)
FIVE DUALISM DURING THE WAR YEARS	81	(20)
SIX "SPIRITUAL LUST" & THE LURE OF THE OCCULT	101	(22)
SEVEN IDEALISM & PANTHEISM IN THE TWENTIES	123	(16)
EIGHT FINDING TRUTH IN THE OLD BELIEFS	139	(16)
EPILOGUE	155	(10)
ABBREVIATIONS OF LEWIS'S WORKS	165	(4)
NOTES	169	(14)
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS ON C.S. LEWIS	183	(4)
INDEX	187	(5)
PERMISSIONS	192