CS Lewis 50 years on
On the 50th anniversary of his death,
CS Lewis has been honoured with a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey.
The stone has been placed in Poets' Corner, alongside renowned literary figures including Chaucer and Dickens.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams - a fan of his work - gave the main address at the ceremony.
Lewis, born in 1898, is best known for the Chronicles of Narnia series, which has sold 100 million copies worldwide and been adapted for screen and stage.
Brian Miller writes,
Perhaps no Christian thinker since the Reformation has proved so influential. And how gloriously ironic this fact is, as no Christian thinker since that time has been so widely revered by both Catholics and Protestants.
Lewis’ legacy is as diverse as it is great. He was a poet, an apologist, a storyteller, a science fiction author, a philosopher, and a theologian.
Here is man who enjoyed tobacco and beer, quoted poetry and philosophers, taught at the best Universities in the world, whose joy seemed to flow off the page into the very soul of the reader.
My favourite CS Lewis quote?
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
My favourite CS Lewis book?
