Reading More Than Just Narnia

Kort, Wesley A.  Reading C. S. Lewis: A Commentary.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 2016. 
          ISBN: 978-0-19-022134-8

When C. S. Lewis is mentioned, what pops into your mind?  Is it The Chronicles of Narnia?  Out of the Silent Planet?  Or maybe The Screwtape Letters.  Wesley A. Kort covers all of these and more in his commentary on C. S. Lewis.

Wesley A. Kort divides his reading of C. S. Lewis's works into three parts.  Part One examines Surprised by Joy, The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.  He spends a chapter on each book and ends Part One with a chapter of what he considers reasonable assumptions.  In Part Two, he covers Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, The Abolition of Man, and That Hideous Strength, ending with a chapter of cultural critiques.  Part Three delves into The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Four Loves, The Magician's Nephew,  and The Last Battle, and finishes with a chapter on some principles applied.

Wesley A. Kort makes clear in his introduction that he is writing a commentary not on his advocacy of Christianity or religion in general, but rather an examination of several constants found in his writings.  He is clear in what he admires about Lewis's writings.  He is also direct about what he finds troubling in Lewis's attitudes and viewpoints.  Overall, it is refreshing to have a reasonably clear eyed view of C. S. Lewis which is not colored by religious bias.