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Book Review - Jack
- 09/22/08
- 10
I have often expressed my love of biographies. I consider them to be among the most helpful of resources in helping equip Christians in their lifelong quest for Christ-likeness. We can learn much from the examples of those who have run the race before us. We can learn from what God taught them, learn from their triumphs and learn from the times they were defeated. I have a passion for biographies. I also have a passion for the English language. I love to see how we can use the language to craft works of art. I cannot express myself in the fine arts - music and art are both disciplines that escape me. But I consider myself a wordsmith-in-training. These two loves come together in Jack, a biography of C.S. Lewis written by a veritable master of the English language.
George Sayer had what was probably a unique privilege - he met C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien at the same time. He studied English under the tutelage of both of these men while at Oxford University. He became friends with Lewis, growing closer as they grew older. As a friend he provides a unique perspective on what is surely a unique individual.
I have never had the interest in and respect for C.S. Lewis that so many Christians afford him. Perhaps it is that I tend to see in black and white. Lewis exemplified some of the best and yet some of the worst in his understanding of Christianity. It seems that for every major doctrine he so brilliantly defended, there was another that he denied. For every brilliant insight there is a terrible oversight.
Jack provides a glimpse into Lewis’ life. This, combined with penetrating analysis from one who knew him well, makes this biography not only fascinating, but very credible. Sayer covers all of the foundational parts of Lewis’ life - the death of his mother, his education, his infatuation with Mrs. Moore and his conversion to Christianity. The author looks also at most of Lewis’ major writings. Having spent so much time with his subject, Sayer is even able to describe an average day in the life of C.S. Lewis - just the type of detail that is interesting, but is absent from most biographies.
The detail, while interesting and often even necessary, is sometimes almost uncomfortable. Sayers goes so far as to detail Lewis’ personal struggles with masturbation and fantasy as a youth, and his later fascination with his wife’s body. Yet he does this not merely for the sake of being explicit, but always to help us better understand Lewis. He seeks to help the reader understand Lewis not just as an author, but as a person. He wants to show Lewis in the good times as well as the bad. He seeks to show Lewis as he really was.
Thoroughly-researched and exquisitely-written, this is a brilliant biography of a figure whose importance to Christianity seems to be growing, even forty years after his death. With a major movie series coming to theatres beginning this year, we will surely hear a lot more about Lewis than ever before. While many biographies have been written about him, I would have trouble believing any could be better than this. No matter your opinion of the man himself, Jack, as a book, is a gem; a jewel; an absolute triumph.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (10)
I don’t often read something online from an evangelical/fundamentalist Christian who seems to have a similar opinion on CS Lewis. My husband don’t have a very high opinion of Mere Christianity. In it, he says there are Buddhists and others that belong to Christ without even knowing it, reveals a belief in purgatory, and implies that you can lose your salvation (Christians slowly becoming non-Christians).
Plus in The Last Battle, Aslan rewards the servant of the very evil Satanesque Tash. The servant says, “Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.” Aslan answers, “Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.” And Tash’s servant is allowed to enter Paradise. Shudder. Definitely not best to view the series as a Christian allegory, and troubling even if you don’t.
In my opinion the definitive CSL biography is “The Narnian” by Wheaton English Professor, Alan Jacobs. Superb read.
Tim: Thanks for the review of this book. I enjoy the details in a biography, rather than just an “academic” biography.I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Sayer — at the Kilns, in fact — and found him to be a warm, gentle man. I have also met with Walter Hooper, Lewis’ literary trustee and friend. He too is a very warm and gentle person. Perhaps these two close friends of Jack speak of him as a person.One final thought. I recall reading that the great American fundamentalist, Bob Jones, Sr, was in England and met with CS Lewis. When he returned Jones commented — “He drinks beer, and smokes cigarettes, but I really believe the man is a Christian.”
I totally agree—I read this book about a year ago, and it’s my favorite biography I’ve ever read. Excellent.
It seems that for every major doctrine he so brilliantly defended, there was another that he denied. For every brilliant insight there is a terrible oversight.
Tim, can you list 2 or 3 doctrines that C.S. Lewis denied?
I know that he affirmed evolution which I disagree with.
And he did not affirm priestesses which I agree with.
And he was Anglican which is understandable given that he lived in England and the Church of England is the state church. But I think Anglicanism is woefully confused and its turmoil over the last several decades is simply the fruit of its theological and ecclesiastical confusion.
With a major movie series coming to theatres beginning this year, we will surely hear a lot more about Lewis than ever before.
I missed this…are you referring to Narnia, or is there something else we should be expecting?
@TUAD…
I think Tim is referring to some doctrines that evangelicals have typically held to. The most obvious example I can think of is an exclusive view of the atonement (conscious faith in Christ is necessary). Lewis appears at times to have held an inclusivist view that left room for Kung’s “anonymous Christian.” See the above mentioned “The Last Battle.” He also believed in purgatory and prayed for the dead. He explicitly says so in “Letters to Malcolm.”
What I value so much in Lewis is less his theological profundity (which I agree is lacking at times) than rather his theological imagination. “Perelandra” contains IMHO a brilliant account of the nature of evil. “The Great Divorce,” if its central organizing motif is not pressed to far, throws insight on how our depravity extends even to our rationality. And “The Screwtape Letters” and “Till We Have Faces” are to my thinking simply works of literary genius that are deeply informed by a Christian worldview.
Plus he was a pretty good writer. :-)
I love Lewis for some of the same reasons already mentioned - his amazing talent as a writer and his ability to portray the transcendence of God in a way that leaves you stunned and craving to know God more. This bio sounds interesting. I agree with the last post that Lewis does not always hold strict conventional evangelical doctrines, though he is soundly orthodox when it come to the tenets of the faith that all Christians have agreed on and held to throughout the centuries. The funny thing about Lewis is that everyone loves him - Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans(of course), and even the evangelicals that would sometimes disagree with him. They all quote Lewis. Pretty much every book and commentary you read that is written by a contemporary evangelical quotes him at least once. Piper attributes much of the basis of his Christian hedonism to the influence of Lewis. And not too long ago I read R.C. Sproul as he went to great lengths to try to prove that Lewis was really a Calvinist - even though Lewis always disclaimed any such label. It was very interesting. I don’t know if we’ll ever understand the Lewis phenomenon, but their is no doubt that God has used him greatly to impact many .
I’ve read any number of Lewis biographies, and this one is the most informative. (I agree that sometimes it’s a little too informative, BTW. I didn’t need to know about the psychosexual stuff. But it was information rather than sensationalism, at least.)
I first read Lewis’ Mere Christianity as a questioning Baptist teenager, and it was the trigger that caused me to decide I wanted to be a Christian after all. I still find myself quoting him pretty frequently.
The funny thing about Lewis is that everyone loves him - Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans(of course), and even the evangelicals that would sometimes disagree with him.
I had no idea how much Evangelicals would disagree with him until I read him as a Catholic. All of a sudden I understood references he was making that I had to kind of skip over before. This is what he set out to do, I think, and probably didn’t know how well he had succeeded. he wanted to set forth the Christian faith to the world in such a way that the differences, however important they might be to us, didn’t obscure the central tenets of the faith. I find that when I speak to Protestants, the first thing we usually find in common is Lewis.
I don’t read a lot of Lewis, but my pastor taught two Sunday Schools from this book.
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=10707155291