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Abstract

found myself profoundly frustrated with the polarization that became evident between Lewis’ friends and foes, devotees and detractors. At the extremes of this debate were those who apparently regarded Lewis’ work as, for all intents and purposes, Holy Writ; at the other end of it were those who, for whatever reason, regarded Lewis with disdain and contempt. Sane, balanced, objective, sympathetically-critical and critically-sympathetic assessments seemed so rare as to be almost non-existent. The devotional attitude was largely characteristic of the United States, where I had grown up; and the disdain and contempt seemed especially prevalent in England, where I was living at the time. ..So between devotion and contempt, enthusiasm and apathy, where does the sober truth about Lewis lie? Now, fifty years after his death, how should his life and work be regarded? Surely there must be a plausible via media between such extremes? To help answer these questions, I conceived the idea of a volume on Lewis to be included in the well-established series “Cambridge Companions to Religion.” And let me add that that was crucial: from the very beginning this volume was intended to be, not yet another collection of essays on Lewis, not even one published by Cambridge University Press, but The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis. The basic plan was to recruit leading theologians, philosophers, literary scholars, and historians to write on various aspects of Lewis’ legacy.

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