Crux staff picked all C.S. Lewis books to recommend in November. It was interesting that no one picked a Narnia book, or eve the series as a whole — all of us picked essays or other fiction to recommend. In part we were trying to aim to recommend books that people might not have read before. But part of the issue is Lewis wrote a lot of readable insightful prose. Fifty years after his death his essays and fiction are still in print and interesting. Is this only marketing? I’m not sure uninteresting ideas or unreadable prose could survive in such good shape even if well-marketed.
Here are the more theologically inclined works recommended by Crux staff.
Ed’s Pick: Mere Christianity
The print version of radio talks on the basics of the Christian faith. Lewis attempts to get to the bottom of faith and what it means. Remember that he is a literary scholar and philosopher more than a theologian.
Cindy’s pick: Reflections on the Psalms
I’ve not read this one, but Lewis is a published poet, so I’m interested to see what he’s got to say on Hebrew poetry.
Conner’s pick: The Problem of Pain
I’ve heard people compare this work unfavourably with Lewis’s later book on grieving, A Grief Observed. The earlier book wasn’t meant to be a reflection on feeling pain, but thoughts on the fact that pain exists in the world. A Grief Observed is not a book of thinking as much as a book of feeling.
Next: Staff recommendations that are stories or about stories.
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