by Steve Laube
If you want the perfect gift for the bibliophile in your life consider this new book from C. S. Lewis called Image and Imagination (under $20 in paperback). To quote the description from the Cambridge University Press site:
This selection from the writings of C. S. Lewis gathers together forty book reviews, never before reprinted, as well as four major essays which have been unavailable for many decades. A fifth essay, ‘Image and Imagination’, is published for the first time.
Included are his reviews of Tolkien’s Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
But the crowning jewel is the 20 page essay “Image and Imagination.” This unpublished piece was found handwritten in a ruled notebook used by Lewis for his early drafts. Walter Hooper, who compiled this book, suggests that the essay was originally intended for but never sent to T.S. Eliot’s journal The Criterion in 1931. It is a rather dense exploration of ideas which, like much of Lewis’ academic work, demands much concentration of the reader.
The reviews are fun, especially those of Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers. But what struck me was the incredible diversity in Lewis’ reading. It is an inspiration and a personal challenge to widen my own reading that much more.
Use this book to continue your celebration of the life and work of C.S. Lewis. While you are waiting for your copy of the book to arrive enjoy this fifteen minute video presentation from Alister McGrath called “Lewis on Reason and Imagination in Apologetics.”
[Thank you to Rebecca LuElla Miller’s blog for the tip about the video.]
Definitely putting this on my to buy/to be read list, Steve. Thanks.
Oh, how exciting! I would especially enjoy the reviews.
I tremble in the light of the sheer brilliance of C. S. Lewis, and this video dissertation does nothing to diminish the glare. However, when we distill to our contemporary women’s fiction novels the concept that “Christianity fits in easily and naturally” to “what we would expect” in our Christian world view, this is, in fact, what the inspirational novelist writes. Without getting on our soap box, we attempt to use “reason and imagination woven together.” The amazing thing is that Lewis’ high-falootin’ theory is expressed in the speculative fiction of Narnia. Unknown novelists of today might also hope to include that “deeper order of world view,” then, in prairie romances and contemporary love stories. Our faith is expressed in seeing the world as a spiritual existence, a struggle against frailties and evil by dependence on God.
C.S. Lewis has been one of a few Christian writers I’ve found who is as interested in the mind and in thinking as he is in feeling. Most evangelical writers are far too interested in big emotions. Lewis was a huge help to me in the early ’70s when I became a Christian in high school, when the rest of my family thought that it took intellectual suicide to be a believer. _Mere Christianity_ gave me an example of a thinking Christian who had a sense of humor. Thanks for this news item.
Last December I bought Acceptable Words, Prayers for the Writer based on your recommendation and have been joyfully blessed and inspired. I bought the book for some writing friends, who love it as well. Lewis inspires me in a challenging think-outside-of-the-box kind of way, so I’m looking forward to reading some new material of his. You rock, Steve, thank you!