Eight Virtues of C. S. Lewis

By Dr. Douglas Groothuis

Eight Virtues of Thinking and Writing

in the Nonfiction Prose of C.S. Lewis

For nearly thirty years, I regularly taught a graduate level course in philosophy called The Philosophy of C. S. Lewis. I emphasized the non-fiction writings on apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, The Abolition of Man, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain, although we also read The Screwtape Letters, a work of fiction. Through teaching this material and through my long experience of reading and quoting C. S. Lewis, I came up with these eight virtues in the thinking and writing of C. S. Lewis. May we emulate the master, although we will never match his skills.

1.      He wrote clearly and with no unnecessary words. There is no fluff or self-indulgence, unlike so much contemporary writing, as in Donald Miller and Rob Bell, whose stars have faded, thank God.

2.     He wrote with purpose, responding to the needs of the day and to perennial questions of meaning and truth. He brought timeless truth to the times, over and over.

3.     He explained what he was going to do, what he was not going to do, and how he was going to do it.

4.    He anticipated objections to this view and responded to them. All good philosophy does this.

5.     He was a master of metaphor, simile, and analogy—but not at the expense of philosophical clarity. Consider the extended piano metaphor in Mere Christianity, Book I. Thus, we discovery his profound integration of rationality and the imagination.

6.    A sense of humor is often present in his writing, but does not detract from the force of his arguments. G. K. Chesterton, of course, is the wittiest of all the Christian apologists and was an influence on Lewis.

7.     He appeals to the history of ideas and of literature with ease and aplomb. However, many today may be ignorant of some of his references, as in The Abolition of Man. So, look them up.

8.    He wrote well for both academic and popular audiences, and was willing to be ridiculed by some of his academic colleagues because of the latter. That was part of the Cross for C.S. Lewis.