C . S . Lewis Clive Staples Lewis ( 29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963 ) , commonly called C . S . Lewis and known to his friends and family as " Jack " , was a novelist , poet , academic , medievalist , literary critic , essayist , lay theologian , and Christian apologist . Born in Belfast , Ireland , he held academic positions at both Oxford University ( Magdalen College ) , 1925 – 1954 , and Cambridge University ( Magdalene College ) , 1954 – 1963 . He is best known both for his fictional work , especially " The Screwtape Letters " , " The Chronicles of Narnia " , and " The Space Trilogy " , and for his non - fiction Christian apologetics , such as " Mere Christianity " , " Miracles " , and " The Problem of Pain " . Lewis and fellow novelist J . R . R . Tolkien were close friends . Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University , and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the " Inklings " . According to his memoir " Surprised by Joy " , Lewis had been baptized in the Church of Ireland ( part of the Anglican Communion ) at birth , but fell away from his faith during his adolescence . Owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends , at the age of 32 Lewis returned to the Anglican Communion , becoming " a very ordinary layman of the Church of England " . His faith had a profound effect on his work , and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim . In 1956 , he married the American writer Joy Davidman , 17 years his junior , who died four years later of cancer at the age of 45 . Lewis died three years after his wife , from renal failure , one week before his 65th birthday . Media coverage of his death was minimal ; he died on 22 November 1963 — the same day that U . S . President John F . Kennedy was assassinated , and the same day another famous author , Aldous Huxley , died . In 2013 , on the 50th anniversary of his death , Lewis will be honoured with a memorial in Poets ' Corner , Westminster Abbey . Lewis ' s works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies . The books that make up " The Chronicles of Narnia " have sold the most and have been popularized on stage , TV , radio , and cinema . Biography . Childhood . Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast , Ireland , on 29 November 1898 . His father was Albert James Lewis ( 1863 – 1929 ) , a solicitor whose father , Richard , had come to Ireland from Wales during the mid - 19th century . His mother was Florence Augusta Lewis , née Hamilton ( 1862 – 1908 ) , known as Flora , the daughter of a Church of Ireland ( Anglican ) priest . He had an elder brother , Warren Hamilton Lewis . At the age of four , shortly after his dog Jacksie was killed by a car , he announced that his name was now Jacksie . At first , he would answer to no other name , but later accepted Jack , the name by which he was known to friends and family for the rest of his life . When he was seven , his family moved into " Little Lea " , the family home of his childhood , in the Strandtown area of East Belfast . As a boy , Lewis had a fascination with anthropomorphic animals , falling in love with Beatrix Potter ' s stories and often writing and illustrating his own animal stories . He and his brother Warnie together created the world of Boxen , inhabited and run by animals . Lewis loved to read ; and , as his father ' s house was filled with books , he felt that finding a book to read was as easy as walking into a field and " finding a new blade of grass " . Lewis was schooled by private tutors before being sent to the Wynyard School in Watford , Hertfordshire , in 1908 , just after his mother ' s death from cancer . Lewis ' s brother had enrolled there three years previously . The school was closed not long afterwards due to a lack of pupils ; the headmaster Robert " Oldie " Capron was soon after committed to a psychiatric hospital . Lewis then attended Campbell College in the east of Belfast about a mile from his home , but he left after a few months due to respiratory problems . He was then sent to the health - resort town of Malvern , Worcestershire , where he attended the preparatory school Cherbourg House , which Lewis calls " Chartres " in his autobiography . It was during this time that Lewis abandoned his childhood Christian faith and became an atheist , becoming interested in mythology and the occult . In September 1913 , Lewis enrolled at Malvern College , where he remained until the following June . He found the school socially competitive . After leaving Malvern , he studied privately with William T . Kirkpatrick , his father ' s old tutor and former headmaster of Lurgan College . As a teenager , he was wonder - struck by the songs and legends of what he called " Northernness " , the ancient literature of Scandinavia preserved in the Icelandic sagas . These legends intensified an inner longing he later called " joy " . He also grew to love nature ; its beauty reminded him of the stories of the North , and the stories of the North reminded him of the beauties of nature . His teenage writings moved away from the tales of Boxen , and he began using different art forms ( epic poetry and opera ) to try to capture his new - found interest in Norse mythology and the natural world . Studying with Kirkpatrick ( " The Great Knock " , as Lewis afterwards called him ) instilled in him a love of Greek literature and mythology and sharpened his skills in debate and sound reasoning . In 1916 , Lewis was awarded a scholarship at University College , Oxford . " My Irish life " . Lewis experienced a certain cultural shock on first arriving in England : " No Englishman will be able to understand my first impressions of England " , Lewis wrote in " Surprised by Joy " , continuing , " The strange English accents with which I was surrounded seemed like the voices of demons . But what was worst was the English landscape . . . I have made up the quarrel since ; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal . " From boyhood , Lewis immersed himself firstly in Norse , Greek , and , later , in Irish mythology and literature and expressed an interest in the Irish language , though there is not much evidence that he laboured to learn it . He developed a particular fondness for , in part because of Yeats ' s use of Ireland ' s Celtic heritage in poetry . In a letter to a friend , Lewis wrote , " I have here discovered an author exactly after my own heart , whom I am sure you would delight in , W . B . Yeats . He writes plays and poems of rare spirit and beauty about our old Irish mythology " . In 1921 , Lewis met Yeats twice , since Yeats had moved to Oxford . Surprised to find his English peers indifferent to Yeats and the Celtic Revival movement , Lewis wrote : " I am often surprised to find how utterly ignored Yeats is among the men I have met : perhaps his appeal is purely Irish – if so , then thank the gods that I am Irish . " Early in his career , Lewis considered sending his work to the major Dublin publishers , writing : " If I do ever send my stuff to a publisher , I think I shall try Maunsel , those Dublin people , and so tack myself definitely onto the Irish school . " After his conversion to Christianity , his interests gravitated towards Christian spirituality and away from pagan Celtic mysticism . Lewis occasionally expressed a somewhat tongue - in - cheek chauvinism toward the English . Describing an encounter with a fellow Irishman , he wrote : " Like all Irish people who meet in England , we ended by criticisms on the invincible flippancy and dullness of the Anglo - Saxon race . After all , there is no doubt , " ami " , that the Irish are the only people : with all their faults , I would not gladly live or die among another folk " . Throughout his life , he sought out the company of other Irish people living in England and visited Northern Ireland regularly , even spending his honeymoon there in 1958 at the Old Inn , Crawfordsburn . He called this " my Irish life " . Various critics have suggested that it was Lewis ' s dismay over sectarian conflict in his native Belfast that led him to eventually adopt such an ecumenical brand of Christianity . As one critic has said , Lewis " repeatedly extolled the virtues of all branches of the Christian faith , emphasising a need for unity among Christians around what the Catholic writer called ' Mere Christianity ' , the core doctrinal beliefs that all denominations share . " On the other hand , Paul Stevens of the University of Toronto has written that " Lewis ' s mere Christianity masked many of the political prejudices of an old - fashioned Ulster Protestant , a native of middle - class Belfast for whom British withdrawal from Northern Ireland even in the 1950s and 1960s was unthinkable " . First World War . In 1917 , Lewis left his studies to volunteer for the British Army . During the First World War , he was commissioned into the Third Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry . Lewis arrived at the front line in the Somme Valley in France on his nineteenth birthday and experienced trench warfare . On 15 April 1918 , Lewis was wounded and two of his colleagues were killed by a British shell falling short of its target . Lewis suffered from depression and homesickness during his convalescence . Upon his recovery in October , he was assigned to duty in Andover , England . He was demobilized in December 1918 and soon returned to his studies . Return to Oxford University . Lewis received a First in Honour Moderations ( Greek and Latin Literature ) in 1920 , a First in Greats ( Philosophy and Ancient History ) in 1922 , and a First in English in 1923 . In 1924 he became a philosophy tutor at University College and , in 1925 , was elected a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Magdalen College , where he served for 29 years until 1954 . Jane Moore . While being trained for the army , Lewis shared a room with another cadet , Edward Courtnay Francis " Paddy " Moore ( 1898 – 1918 ) . Maureen Moore , Paddy ' s sister , said that the two made a mutual pact that if either died during the war , the survivor would take care of both their families . Paddy was killed in action in 1918 and Lewis kept his promise . Paddy had earlier introduced Lewis to his mother , Jane King Moore , and a friendship quickly sprang up between Lewis , who was eighteen when they met , and Jane , who was forty - five . The friendship with Moore was particularly important to Lewis while he was recovering from his wounds in hospital , as his father did not visit him . Lewis lived with and cared for Moore until she was hospitalized in the late 1940s . He routinely introduced her as his " mother " , and referred to her as such in letters . Lewis , whose own mother had died when he was a child and whose father was distant , demanding and eccentric , developed a deeply affectionate friendship with Moore . Speculation regarding their relationship re - surfaced with the publication of A . N . Wilson ' s biography of Lewis . Wilson ( who never met Lewis ) attempted to make a case for their having been lovers for a time . Wilson ' s biography was not the first to address the question of Lewis ' s relationship with Moore . George Sayer , who knew Lewis for 29 years , sought to shed light on the relationship during the period of 14 years prior to Lewis ' s conversion to Christianity , in his biography " Jack : A Life of C . S . Lewis " , in which he wrote : Later Sayer changed his mind . In the introduction to the 1997 edition of his biography of Lewis he wrote : Lewis spoke well of Mrs . Moore throughout his life , saying to his friend George Sayer " She was generous and taught me to be generous , too . " In December 1917 Lewis wrote in a letter to his childhood friend Arthur Greeves that Jane and Greeves were " the two people who matter most to me in the world . " In 1930 , Lewis and his brother Warnie moved , with Mrs . Moore and her daughter Maureen , into " The Kilns " , a house in the district of Headington Quarry on the outskirts of Oxford , now part of the suburb of Risinghurst . They all contributed financially to the purchase of the house , which passed to Maureen , who by then was Dame Maureen Dunbar , when Warren died in 1973 . Jane Moore suffered from dementia in her later years and was eventually moved into a nursing home , where she died in 1951 . Lewis visited her every day in this home until her death . Conversion to Christianity . Lewis was raised in a church - going family in the Church of Ireland . He became an atheist at 15 , though he later described his young self as being paradoxically " very angry with God for not existing " . His early separation from Christianity began when he started to view his religion as a chore and as a duty ; around this time , he also gained an interest in the occult , as his studies expanded to include such topics . Lewis quoted Lucretius ( " De rerum natura " , 5 . 198 – 9 ) as having one of the strongest arguments for atheism : < poem > < / poem > < poem > Had God designed the world , it would not be A world so frail and faulty as we see . < / poem > Lewis ' s interest in the works of George MacDonald was part of what turned him from atheism . This can be seen particularly well through this passage in Lewis ' s " The Great Divorce " , chapter nine , when the semi - autobiographical main character meets MacDonald in Heaven : He slowly re - embraced Christianity , influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and friend J . R . R . Tolkien , whom he seems to have met for the first time on 11 May 1926 , and by the book " The Everlasting Man " by G . K . Chesterton . He fought greatly up to the moment of his conversion , noting that he was brought into Christianity like a prodigal , " kicking , struggling , resentful , and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape . " He described his last struggle in " Surprised by Joy " : After his conversion to theism in 1929 , Lewis converted to Christianity in 1931 , following a long discussion and late - night walk with his close friends Tolkien and Hugo Dyson . He records making a specific commitment to Christian belief while on his way to the zoo with his brother . He became a member of the Church of England – somewhat to the disappointment of Tolkien , who had hoped that he would join the Catholic Church . Lewis was a committed Anglican who upheld a largely orthodox Anglican theology , though in his apologetic writings , he made an effort to avoid espousing any one denomination . In his later writings , some believe that he proposed ideas such as purification of venial sin s after death in purgatory ( " The Great Divorce " and " Letters to Malcolm " ) and mortal sin ( " The Screwtape Letters " ) , which are generally considered to be Roman Catholic teachings , although they are also widely held in Anglicanism ( particularly in high church Anglo - Catholic circles ) . Regardless , Lewis considered himself an entirely orthodox Anglican to the end of his life , reflecting that he had initially attended church only to receive communion and had been repelled by the hymns and the poor quality of the sermons . He later came to consider himself honoured by worshipping with men of faith who came in shabby clothes and work boots and who sang all the verses to all the hymns . Chair at Cambridge University . In 1954 , Lewis accepted the newly founded chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College , Cambridge University , where he finished his career . He maintained a strong attachment to the city of Oxford , however , keeping a home there and returning on weekends until his death in 1963 . Joy Davidman . In Lewis ' s later life , he corresponded with and later met Joy Davidman Gresham , an American writer of Jewish background , a former Communist , and a convert from atheism to Christianity . She was separated from her alcoholic and abusive husband , the novelist William L . Gresham , and came to England with her two sons , David and Douglas . Lewis at first regarded her as an agreeable intellectual companion and personal friend , and it was at least overtly on this level that he agreed to enter into a civil marriage contract with her so that she could continue to live in the UK . The civil marriage took place at the register office , 42 St Giles ' , Oxford , on 23 April 1956 . Lewis ' s brother Warren wrote : " For Jack the attraction was at first undoubtedly intellectual . Joy was the only woman whom he had met . . . who had a brain which matched his own in suppleness , in width of interest , and in analytical grasp , and above all in humour and a sense of fun . " However , after complaining of a painful hip , she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer , and the relationship developed to the point that they sought a Christian marriage . Since she was divorced , this was not straightforward in the Church of England at the time , but a friend , the Rev . Peter Bide , performed the ceremony at her bed in the Churchill Hospital on 21 March 1957 . Gresham ' s cancer soon went into a brief remission , and the couple lived as a family ( together with Warren Lewis ) until her eventual relapse and death in 1960 . The year she died , the couple took a brief holiday in Greece and the Aegean ; Lewis was fond of walking but not of travel , and this marked his only crossing of the English Channel after 1918 . Lewis ' s book " A Grief Observed " describes his experience of bereavement in such a raw and personal fashion that Lewis originally released it under the pseudonym NW Clerk to keep readers from associating the book with him . Ironically , many friends recommended the book to Lewis as a method for dealing with his own grief . After Lewis ' s death , his authorship was made public by Faber ' s , with the permission of the executors . Lewis continued to raise Gresham ' s two sons after her death . While Douglas Gresham is , like Lewis and his mother , a Christian , David Gresham turned to the faith into which his mother had been born and became Orthodox Jewish in his beliefs . His mother ' s writings had featured the Jews , particularly one " shohet " ( ritual slaughterer ) , in an unsympathetic manner . David informed Lewis that he was going to become a ritual slaughterer in order to present this type of Jewish religious functionary to the world in a more favourable light . In a 2005 interview , Douglas Gresham acknowledged he and his brother were not close , but he did say they are in email contact . Douglas remains involved in the affairs of the Lewis estate . Illness and death . In early June 1961 , Lewis began experiencing medical problems and was diagnosed with inflammation of the kidneys which resulted in blood poisoning . His illness caused him to miss the autumn term at Cambridge , though his health gradually began improving in 1962 and he returned that April . Lewis ' s health continued to improve , and according to his friend George Sayer , Lewis was fully himself by early 1963 . On 15 July 1963 he fell ill and was admitted to hospital . The next day at 5 : 00 pm , Lewis suffered a heart attack and lapsed into a coma , unexpectedly awaking the following day at 2 : 00 pm . After he was discharged from the hospital , Lewis returned to the Kilns , though he was too ill to return to work . As a result , he resigned from his post at Cambridge in August . Lewis ' s condition continued to decline , and in mid - November he was diagnosed with end - stage renal failure . On 22 November 1963 , exactly one week before his 65th birthday , Lewis collapsed in his bedroom at 5 : 30 pm and died a few minutes later . He is buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church , Headington , Oxford . His brother Warren Hamilton " Warnie " Lewis , who died on 9 April 1973 , was later buried in the same grave . Media coverage of his death was almost completely overshadowed by news of the assassination of President John F . Kennedy , which occurred on the same day , as did the death of Aldous Huxley , author of " Brave New World " . This coincidence was the inspiration for Peter Kreeft ' s book " Between Heaven and Hell : A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F . Kennedy , C . S . Lewis , & Aldous Huxley " . C . S . Lewis is commemorated on 22 November in the church calendar of the Episcopal Church . Career . Scholar . Lewis began his academic career as an undergraduate student at Oxford University , where he won a triple first , the highest honours in three areas of study . Lewis was then elected a Fellow of Magdalen College , Oxford , where he worked for nearly thirty years , from 1925 to 1954 . In 1954 , Lewis was awarded the newly founded chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University and was elected a fellow of Magdalene College . Concerning his appointed academic field , he argued that there was no such thing as an English Renaissance . Much of his scholarly work concentrated on the later Middle Ages , especially its use of allegory . His " The Allegory of Love " ( 1936 ) helped reinvigorate the serious study of late medieval narratives like the " Roman de la Rose " . Lewis wrote several prefaces to old works of literature and poetry , like Layamon ' s " Brut " . His book " A Preface to " Paradise Lost " " is still one of the most valuable criticisms of that work . His last academic work , " The Discarded Image : An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature " ( 1964 ) , is a summary of the medieval world view , the " discarded image " of the cosmos in his title . Lewis was a prolific writer , and his circle of literary friends became an informal discussion society known as the " Inklings " , including J . R . R . Tolkien , Nevill Coghill , Lord David Cecil , Charles Williams , Owen Barfield , and his brother Warren Lewis . At least one scholar points to December 1929 as the Inklings ' beginning date . Lewis ' s friendship with Coghill and Tolkien grew during their time as members of the Kolbítar , an Old Norse reading group Tolkien founded and which ended around the time of the inception of the Inklings . At Oxford he was the tutor of poet John Betjeman , critic Kenneth Tynan , mystic Bede Griffiths , and Sufi scholar Martin Lings , among many other undergraduates . Curiously , the religious and conservative Betjeman detested Lewis , whereas the anti - Establishment Tynan retained a lifelong admiration for him . Of Tolkien , Lewis writes in " Surprised by Joy " : Novelist . In addition to his scholarly work , Lewis wrote a number of popular novels , including the science fiction Space Trilogy for adults and the Narnia fantasies for children . Most deal implicitly with Christian themes such as sin , humanity ' s fall from grace , and redemption . " The Pilgrim ' s Regress " . His first novel after becoming a Christian was " The Pilgrim ' s Regress " ( 1933 ) , which depicted his experience with Christianity in the style of John Bunyan ' s " The Pilgrim ' s Progress " . The book was poorly received by critics at the time , although David Martyn Lloyd - Jones , one of Lewis ' s contemporaries at Oxford , gave him much - valued encouragement . Asked by Lloyd - Jones when he would write another book , Lewis replied , " When I understand the meaning of prayer . " " Space Trilogy " novels . The " Space Trilogy " ( also called the " Cosmic Trilogy " or " Ransom Trilogy " ) dealt with what Lewis saw as the de - humanising trends in contemporary science fiction . The first book , " Out of the Silent Planet " , was apparently written following a conversation with his friend JRR Tolkien about these trends . Lewis agreed to write a " space travel " story and Tolkien a " time travel " one , but Tolkien never completed " The Lost Road " , linking his Middle - earth to the modern world . Lewis ' s main character Elwin Ransom is based in part on Tolkien , a fact Tolkien alludes to in his letters . The second novel , " Perelandra " , depicts a new Garden of Eden on the planet Venus , a new Adam and Eve , and a new " serpent figure " to tempt them . The story can be seen as an account of what could have happened if the terrestrial Eve had resisted the serpent ' s temptation and avoided the Fall of Man . The third novel , " That Hideous Strength " , develops the theme of nihilistic science threatening traditional human values , embodied in Arthurian legend . Many ideas in the trilogy , particularly opposition to de - humanization as portrayed in the third book , are presented more formally in " The Abolition of Man " , based on a series of lectures by Lewis at Durham University in 1943 . Lewis stayed in Durham , where he was overwhelmed by the cathedral . " That Hideous Strength " is in fact set in the environs of ' Edgestow ' university , a small English university like Durham , though Lewis disclaims any other resemblance between the two . Walter Hooper , Lewis ' s literary executor , discovered a fragment of another science - fiction novel by Lewis , " The Dark Tower " . Ransom appears in the story but it is not clear whether the book was intended as part of the same series of novels . The manuscript was eventually published in 1977 , though Lewis scholar Kathryn Lindskoog doubts its authenticity . " The Chronicles of Narnia " . " The Chronicles of Narnia " is a series of seven fantasy novels for children and is considered a classic of children ' s literature . Written between 1949 and 1954 and illustrated by Pauline Baynes , the series is Lewis ' s most popular work , having sold over 100 million copies in 41 languages . It has been adapted several times , complete or in part , for radio , television , stage and cinema . The books contain Christian ideas intended to be easily accessible to young readers . In addition to Christian themes , Lewis also borrows characters from Greek and Roman mythology as well as traditional British and Irish fairy tales . Other works . Lewis wrote several works on Heaven and Hell . One of these , " The Great Divorce " , is a short novella in which a few residents of Hell take a bus ride to Heaven , where they are met by people who dwell there . The proposition is that they can stay ( in which case they can call the place where they had come from " Purgatory " , instead of " Hell " ) ; but many find it not to their taste . The title is a reference to William Blake ' s " The Marriage of Heaven and Hell " , a concept that Lewis found a " disastrous error " . This work deliberately echoes two other more famous works with a similar theme : the " Divine Comedy " of Dante Alighieri , and Bunyan ' s " The Pilgrim ' s Progress " . Another short work , " The Screwtape Letters " , consists of suave letters of advice from a senior demon , Screwtape , to his nephew Wormwood , on the best ways to tempt a particular human and secure his damnation . Lewis ' s last novel was " Till We Have Faces " , which he thought of as his most mature and masterly work of fiction but which was never a popular success . It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the unusual perspective of Psyche ' s sister . It is deeply concerned with religious ideas , but the setting is entirely pagan , and the connections with specific Christian beliefs are left implicit . Before Lewis ' s conversion to Christianity , he published two books : " Spirits in Bondage " , a collection of poems , and " Dymer " , a single narrative poem . Both were published under the pen name Clive Hamilton . Other narrative poems have since been published posthumously , including : " Launcelot " , " The Nameless Isle " , and " The Queen of Drum " . He also wrote " The Four Loves " , which rhetorically explains four categories of love : friendship , eros , affection and charity . In 2009 , a partial draft was discovered of " Language and Human Nature " , which Lewis had begun co - writing with J . R . R . Tolkien , but which was never completed . Christian apologist . In addition to his career as an English professor and an author of fiction , Lewis is regarded by many as one of the most influential Christian apologists of his time ; " Mere Christianity " was voted best book of the twentieth century by " Christianity Today " in 2000 . Due to Lewis ' s approach to religious belief as a sceptic , and his following conversion , he has been called " The Apostle to the Skeptics . " Lewis was very interested in presenting a reasonable case for Christianity . " Mere Christianity " , " The Problem of Pain " , and " Miracles " were all concerned , to one degree or another , with refuting popular objections to Christianity , such as " How could a good God allow pain to exist in the world ? " . He also became known as a popular lecturer and broadcaster , and some of his writing ( including much of " Mere Christianity " ) originated as scripts for radio talks or lectures . According to George Sayer , losing a 1948 debate with Elizabeth Anscombe , also a Christian , led Lewis to reevaluate his role as an apologist , and his future works concentrated on devotional literature and children ' s books . Anscombe , however , had a completely different recollection of the debate ' s outcome and its emotional effect on Lewis . Victor Reppert also disputes Sayer , listing some of Lewis ' s post - 1948 apologetic publications , including the second and revised edition of his " Miracles " in 1960 , in which Lewis addressed Anscombe ' s criticism . < ref name = " Reppert 2005 http : / / books . google . com / books ? id = hn1gaNlri1cC & pg = PA266 266 " > < / ref > Noteworthy too is Roger Teichman ' s suggestion in " The Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe " that the intellectual impact of Anscombe ' s paper on Lewis ' s philosophical self - confidence should not be overrated : " . . . it seems unlikely that he felt as irretrievably crushed as some of his acquaintances have made out ; the episode is probably an inflated legend , in the same category as the affair of Wittgenstein ' s poker . Certainly Anscombe herself believed that Lewis ' s argument , though flawed , was getting at something very important ; she thought that this came out more in the improved version of it that Lewis presented in a subsequent edition of " Miracles " – though that version also had ' much to criticize in it ' . " Lewis also wrote an autobiography titled " Surprised by Joy " , which places special emphasis on his own conversion . ( It was written before he met his wife , Joy Gresham ; the title of the book came from the first line of a poem by William Wordsworth . ) His essays and public speeches on Christian belief , many of which were collected in " God in the Dock " and " The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses " , remain popular today . His most famous works , the " Chronicles of Narnia " , contain many strong Christian messages and are often considered allegory . Lewis , an expert on the subject of allegory , maintained that the books were not allegory , and preferred to call the Christian aspects of them " supposition al " . As Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs . Hook in December 1958 : If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair < nowiki > [ < / nowiki > a character in " The Pilgrim ' s Progress " < nowiki > ] < / nowiki > represents despair , he would be an allegorical figure . In reality however he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question , ' What might Christ become like , if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours ? ' This is not allegory at all . " Trilemma " . In a much - cited passage from " Mere Christianity " , Lewis challenged the view that Jesus , although a great moral teacher , was not God . He argued that Jesus made several implicit claims to divinity , which would logically exclude this : I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him : ' I ' m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher , but I don ' t accept his claim to be God . ' That is the one thing we must not say . A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher . He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell . You must make your choice . Either this man was , and is , the Son of God , or else a madman or something worse . You can shut him up for a fool , you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God , but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher . He has not left that open to us . He did not intend to . This argument , which Lewis did not invent but developed and popularized , is sometimes referred to as " Lewis ' s trilemma " . It has been used by the Christian apologist Josh McDowell in his book " More Than a Carpenter " . Although widely repeated in Christian apologetic literature , it has been largely ignored by professional theologians and biblical scholars . Lewis ' s Christian apologetics , and this argument in particular , have been criticized . Philosopher John Beversluis described Lewis ' s arguments as " textually careless and theologically unreliable , " and this particular argument as logically unsound and an example of false dilemma . Theologian John Hick argues that New Testament scholars do not now support the view that Jesus claimed to be God , New Testament scholar N . T . Wright criticizes Lewis for failing to recognize the significance of Jesus ' Jewish identity and setting – an oversight which " at best , drastically short - circuits the argument " and which lays Lewis open to criticism that his argument " doesn ' t work as history , and it backfires dangerously when historical critics question his reading of the gospels , " although he believes this " doesn ' t undermine the eventual claim . " Lewis used a similar argument in " The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe " , when Digory Kirke advises the young heroes that their sister ' s claims of a magical world must logically be taken as either lies , madness , or truth . Universal morality . One of the main theses in Lewis ' s apologia is that there is a common morality known throughout humanity . In the first five chapters of " Mere Christianity " Lewis discusses the idea that people have a standard of behaviour to which they expect people to adhere . This standard has been called Universal Morality or Natural Law . Lewis claims that people all over the earth know what this law is and when they break it . He goes on to claim that there must be someone or something behind such a universal set of principles . These then are the two points that I wanted to make . First , that human beings , all over the earth , have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way , and cannot really get rid of it . Secondly , that they do not in fact behave in that way . They know the Law of Nature ; they break it . These two facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in . Lewis also portrays Universal Morality in his works of fiction . In " The Chronicles of Narnia " he describes Universal Morality as the " deep magic " which everyone knew . In the second chapter of " Mere Christianity " Lewis recognizes that " many people find it difficult to understand what this Law of Human Nature . . . is " . And he responds first to the idea " that the Moral Law is simply our herd instinct " and second to the idea " that the Moral Law is simply a social convention " . In responding to the second idea Lewis notes that people often complain that one set of moral ideas is better than another , but that this actually argues for there existing some " Real Morality " to which they are comparing other moralities . Finally he notes that sometimes differences in moral codes are exaggerated by people who confuse differences in beliefs about morality with differences in beliefs about facts : Lewis also had fairly progressive views on the topic of " animal morality " , in particular the suffering of animals , as is evidenced by several of his essays : most notably , " On Vivisection " and " On the Pains of Animals . " Legacy . Lewis continues to attract a wide readership . In 2008 , " The Times " ranked him eleventh on their list of " the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 " . Readers of his fiction are often unaware of what Lewis considered the Christian themes of his works . His Christian apologetics are read and quoted by members of many Christian denominations . In 2013 , on the 50th anniversary of his death , Lewis will join some of Britain ' s greatest writers recognized at Poets ' Corner , Westminster Abbey . Lewis has been the subject of several biographies , a few of which were written by close friends , such as Roger Lancelyn Green and George Sayer . In 1985 the screenplay " Shadowlands " by William Nicholson , dramatising Lewis ' s life and relationship with Joy Davidman Gresham , was aired on British television , starring Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom . This was also staged as a theatre play starring Nigel Hawthorne in 1989 , and made into the 1993 feature film " Shadowlands " starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger . In 2005 , a one - hour television movie entitled " C . S . Lewis : Beyond Narnia " , starring Anton Rodgers , provided a general synopsis of Lewis ' s life . Many books have been inspired by Lewis , including " A Severe Mercy " by his correspondent and friend Sheldon Vanauken . " The Chronicles of Narnia " have been particularly influential . Modern children ' s literature such as Daniel Handler ' s " A Series of Unfortunate Events " , Eoin Colfer ' s " Artemis Fowl " , Philip Pullman ' s " His Dark Materials " , and J . K . Rowling ' s " Harry Potter " have been more or less influenced by Lewis ' s series . Pullman , an atheist and so fierce a critic of Lewis ' s work as to be dubbed " the anti - Lewis " , considers him a negative influence and has accused Lewis of featuring religious propaganda , misogyny , racism and emotional sadism in his books . Authors of adult fantasy literature such as Tim Powers have also testified to being influenced by Lewis ' s work . Most of Lewis ' s posthumous work has been edited by his literary executor , Walter Hooper . An independent Lewis scholar , the late Kathryn Lindskoog , argued that Hooper ' s scholarship is not reliable and that he has made false statements and attributed forged works to Lewis . C . S . Lewis ' s stepson Douglas Gresham denies the forgery claims , saying that " The whole controversy thing was engineered for very personal reasons . . . Her fanciful theories have been pretty thoroughly discredited . " A bronze statue of Lewis ' s character Digory , from " The Magician ' s Nephew " , stands in Belfast ' s Holywood Arches in front of the Holywood Road Library . Lewis was strongly opposed to the creation of live - action versions of his works . His major concern was that the anthropomorphic animal characters " when taken out of narrative into actual visibility , always turn into buffoonery or nightmare " . Several C . S . Lewis Societies exist around the world , including one which was founded in Oxford in 1982 to discuss papers on the life and works of Lewis and the other Inklings , and generally appreciate all things Lewisian . His name is also used by a variety of Christian organisations , often with a concern for maintaining conservative Christian values in education or literary studies . Film adaptations have been made of three of " The Chronicles of Narnia : " ( 2005 ) , " " ( 2008 ) and " " ( 2010 ) . Lewis is featured as a main character in " The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica " series by James A . Owen . He is one of two characters in Mark St . Germain ' s 2009 play " Freud ' s Last Session " , which imagines a meeting between Lewis , aged 41 , and Sigmund Freud , aged 83 , at Freud ' s house in Hampstead , London , in 1939 , as the Second World War is about to break out .