TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF IS ONE THING; jumping trees is something else entirely.

Turns out that’s exactly what C. S. Lewis did following the events of World War II.  According to an article posted at Christianity Today titled “Why C. S. Lewis Didn’t Write for Christianity Today,” Lewis made a complete shift from his apologetic to fiction-writing self. ¹

Following the writing of Miracles, Lewis moved from (his version of) straight-forward apologetics to (his own version of) straight-forward fiction.  That earlier approach, the article suggests, was “tailor-made for men at war.”  But after the war?  Turns out he wanted to write stories to “help get past the eyes of watchful dragons.”  It wasn’t an easy shift, just as I imagine apologetics can be a difficult thing.²  But it was one he found necessary and important.  Because of it we have treasures beyond just Narnia: the Space trilogy, The Great Divorce, Til We Have Faces.  These are books that work their own magic in their own telling and work their magic well.

I am mindful of this, here at the beginning of a new year.  How interesting that Lewis, who did his work so well, would move from one mode to another, seemingly willingly.  It gives one hope for the long road.  Not that any of us are necessarily masters of what we are already doing, but that we can (even later in one’s professional career) make new paths that become just as vital as the old ones.  To understand the need for that shift and to be willing to make it.  That is good courage, and that is heartening here for me as this new year begins.

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¹ As a child, I remember thinking that the shows that my afternoon shows (The Jetsons, The Facts of Life) were all first-run shows.  It was years before I realized that they were syndicated reruns.  The same with most writers’ works.  Even when we have a list of publication dates before us, it can be difficult to see any flow or shift.  We take them as we get them.  I’ve read a good bit of Lewis, but I had yet to make this connection.

²  One of my favorite classes to teach is my “Introduction to Christian Thought” class,  which is mostly apologetics.  It can wear on me, speaking of the faith in a certain way that is more from the outside than the inside.  Quote from Lewis found in the article:  “That is why we apologists take our lives in our hands and can be saved only by falling back continually from the web of our own arguments … from Christian apologetics into Christ Himself.”

(photo courtesy of assistnews.net)