Editing C. S. Lewis (section)

==Life==

===Childhood===
[[File:Little Lea.JPG|thumb|Little Lea, home of the Lewis family from 1905 to 1930]]
Clive Staples Lewis was born in [[Belfast]] in [[Ulster]], Ireland (before [[Partition of Ireland|partition]])<!-- not "Northern Ireland, because Northern Ireland did not exist at the time -->, on 29 November 1898.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=34512|title=Lewis, Clive Staples (1898–1963)|orig-year=2004|year=2008|last=Bennett|first=Jack Arthur Walter|last2=Plaskitt|first2=Emma Lisa}}</ref> His father was Albert James Lewis (1863–1929), a solicitor whose father Richard Lewis had come to Ireland from [[Wales]] during the mid-19th century. Lewis's mother was Florence Augusta Lewis {{nee}} Hamilton (1862–1908), known as Flora, the daughter of Thomas Hamilton, a [[Church of Ireland]] priest, and the great-granddaughter of both Bishop [[Hugh Hamilton (bishop)|Hugh Hamilton]] and [[John Staples]]. She was the first female mathematics graduate to study at [[Queen’s College Belfast]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=McCartney |first=Mark |title=The Lion, the Witch and the Graduate |journal=Mathematics Today |publication-date=2024 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=58–60}}</ref> Lewis had an elder brother, [[Warren Lewis|Warren Hamilton Lewis]] (known as "Warnie").<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cslewis.org/resource/chronocsl/ |title=The Life of C.S. Lewis Timeline |work=C.S. Lewis Foundation |access-date=11 March 2017 |archive-date=16 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516172911/http://www.cslewis.org/resource/chronocsl/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He was baptized on 29 January 1899 by his maternal grandfather in [[St Mark's Church, Dundela]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2014/02/a-personalised-tour-of-church-and.html|title=A personalised tour of the church and rectory that inspired CS Lewis and Aslan the Lion|access-date=28 February 2020|archive-date=28 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228051352/http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2014/02/a-personalised-tour-of-church-and.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

When his dog Jacksie was fatally struck by a horse-drawn carriage,<ref>{{cite book |last=Gresham |first=Douglas |title=Jack's Life: The Life of C.S. Lewis |publisher=Broadman & Holman Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=0-8054-3246-9 |location=Nashville, Tennessee |pages=2}}</ref> the four-year-old Lewis adopted the name 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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ten Boys Who Used Their Talents |last=Howat |first=Irene |publisher=Christian Focus Publications Ltd |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84550-146-4 |location=Great Britain |page=22}}</ref> When he was seven, his family moved into "Little Lea", the family home of his childhood, in the [[Strandtown]] area of [[Belfast|East Belfast]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/Surprised_by_Belfast_Significant_Sites_in_the_Land_and_Life_of_CS_Lewis_Part_I_Little_Lea_FullArticle |title=Surprised by Belfast: Significant Sites in the Land and Life of C.S. Lewis, Part 1, Little Lea |last=Smith |first=Sandy |date=18 February 2016 |website=C.S. Lewis Institute |access-date=7 March 2017 |archive-date=1 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701145722/http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/Surprised_by_Belfast_Significant_Sites_in_the_Land_and_Life_of_CS_Lewis_Part_I_Little_Lea_FullArticle |url-status=live }}</ref>

As a boy, Lewis was fascinated with [[anthropomorphic]] animals; he fell in love with [[Beatrix Potter]]'s stories and often wrote and illustrated his own animal tales. Along with his brother Warnie, he created the world of [[Boxen (C. S. Lewis)|Boxen]], a fantasy land inhabited and run by animals. Lewis loved to read from an early age. His father's house was filled with books; he later wrote that finding something to read was as easy as walking into a field and "finding a new blade of grass".{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=10}}

{{Quote box|align=right|quote=<poem>
The New House is almost a major character in my story.
I am the product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms,
upstair indoor silences, attics explored in solitude,
distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes,
and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books.</poem>
|source=—''[[Surprised by Joy]]''}}

Lewis was schooled by private tutors until age nine, when his mother died in 1908 from cancer. His father then sent him to England to live and study at [[Wynyard School]] in [[Watford]], [[Hertfordshire]]. Lewis's brother had enrolled there three years previously. Not long after, the school was closed due to a lack of pupils. Lewis then attended [[Campbell College]] in the east of Belfast about a mile from his home, but left after a few months due to [[Respiratory disease|respiratory problems]].

He was then sent back to England to the health-resort town of [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]], [[Worcestershire]], where he attended the [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] Cherbourg House, which Lewis referred to as "[[Chartres]]" in his [[autobiography]]. It was during this time that he abandoned the Christianity he was taught as a child and became an [[Atheism|atheist]]. During this time he also developed a fascination with European [[myth]]ology and the [[occult]].{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=56}}

In September 1913, Lewis enrolled at [[Malvern College]], where he remained until the following June. He found the school socially competitive,{{sfn|Lewis|1966a|p=107}} and some of the fellow pupils of his house, such as [[Donald Hardman]], had mixed feelings about him.  Hardman later recalled: 

<blockquote>He was a bit of a rebel; he had a wonderful sense of humour and was a past master of mimicry. I think he took his work seriously, but nothing else; never took any interest in games and never played any so for as I can remember unless he had to. ... I met him in Oxford after the war and noticed he had changed, but was staggered to find him the author of ''The Screwtape Letters''.  When I knew him I can only describe him as a riotously amusing atheist.  He really was pretty foul mouthed about it.<ref name="Sayer1">{{cite book |last=Sayer|first=George |author-link=George Sayer (biographer) |date=1988 |title=Jack: C. S. Lewis and His Times |url= |location=San Francisco |publisher=[[Harper & Row]] |page=42 |isbn=0-06-067072-X}}</ref></blockquote>  

After leaving Malvern, he studied privately with [[William T. Kirkpatrick]], his father's old tutor and former headmaster of [[Lurgan College]].<ref name="Lewis">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/surprisedbyjoysh00lewi/page/128 |title=Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life |last=Lewis |first=C.S. |date=1955 |publisher=[[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]] |isbn=978-0-15-687011-5 |location=New York City |pages=[https://archive.org/details/surprisedbyjoysh00lewi/page/128 128–186]}}</ref>

As a teenager, Lewis was wonderstruck by the songs and legends of what he called ''Northernness'', the [[Norse mythology|ancient literature of Scandinavia]] preserved in the [[Icelandic sagas]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis |last=Bloom |first=Harold |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=978-0791093191 |location=New York |page=196}}</ref> These legends intensified an inner longing that he would later call "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 experimenting with different art forms such as [[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 afterward called him) instilled in him a love of [[Greek literature]] and [[Greek mythology|mythology]] and sharpened his debate and reasoning skills. In 1916, Lewis was awarded a scholarship at [[University College, Oxford]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cslewis.com/us/about-cs-lewis |title=About C.S. Lewis |publisher=CSLewis.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406171245/https://www.cslewis.com/us/about-cs-lewis |archive-date=6 April 2016 |access-date=4 February 2016}}</ref>

==="My Irish life"<!--Note to editors: Lewis described this as "My Irish Life" see the bottom of this section for the title's meaning-->===
[[File:CSLewisPlaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque on a park-bench in [[Bangor, County Down]]]]
Lewis experienced a certain [[Culture shock|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]]''. "The strange [[Regional accents of English speakers|English accents]] with which I was surrounded seemed like the voices of demons. But what was worst was the English landscape&nbsp;... I have made up the quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal."{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=24}}

From boyhood, Lewis had immersed himself in [[Norse mythology|Norse]] and [[Greek mythology|Greek]] mythology, and later in [[Irish mythology]] and [[Early Irish literature|literature]]. He also expressed an interest in the [[Irish language]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Beyond the Shadowlands: C. S. Lewis on Heaven and Hell |last=Martindale |first=Wayne |publisher=Crossway |year=2005 |isbn=978-1581345131 |page=52}}</ref>{{sfn|Lewis|1984|p=118}} though there is not much evidence that he laboured to learn it. He developed a particular fondness for [[W. B. Yeats]], in part because of Yeats's use of Ireland's [[Celtic mythology|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."{{sfn|Lewis|2000|p=59}}

In 1921, Lewis met Yeats twice, since Yeats had moved to Oxford.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|pp= 564–65}} Lewis was surprised to find his English peers indifferent to Yeats and the [[Celtic Revival]] movement, and wrote: "I am often surprised to find how utterly ignored Yeats is among the men I have met: perhaps his appeal is purely Irish&nbsp;– if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish."<ref name="On Yeats">Yeats's appeal wasn't exclusively Irish; he was also a major "magical opponent" of famed English occultist [[Aleister Crowley]], as noted extensively throughout Lawrence Sutin's [https://archive.org/details/dowhatthouwiltli0000suti/page/69 <!-- quote=aleister crowley yeats. --> ''Do what thou wilt: a life of Aleister Crowley'']. New York: MacMillan (St. Martins). cf. pp. 56–78.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/magicalworldofal00king |title=The Magical World of Aleister Crowley |last=King |first=Francis |publisher=Coward, McCann & Geoghegan |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-698-10884-4 |location=New York}}</ref> 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 [[George Roberts (publisher)|Maunsel]], those Dublin people, and so tack myself definitely onto the Irish school."{{sfn|Lewis|2000|p=59}}

After his [[conversion to Christianity]], his interests gravitated towards [[Christian theology]] and away from [[Ancient Celtic religion|pagan Celtic mysticism]] (as opposed to [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic Christian mysticism]]).<ref name="Thomas">{{Cite book |title=Simply C. S. Lewis: A Beginner's Guide to the Life and Works of C. S. Lewis |last=Peters |first=Thomas C. |publisher=Crossway Books |year=1997 |isbn=978-0891079484 |page=[https://archive.org/details/simplycslewisbeg0000pete/page/70 70] |url=https://archive.org/details/simplycslewisbeg0000pete/page/70 }}</ref>

Lewis occasionally expressed a somewhat [[tongue-in-cheek]] [[chauvinism]] towards 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-Saxons|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."{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p= 310}} Throughout his life, he sought out the company of other Irish people living in England{{sfn|Clare|2010|pp=21–22}} and visited Northern Ireland regularly. In 1958 he spent his honeymoon there at the Old Inn, [[Crawfordsburn]],{{sfn|The Old Inn|2007|p=}} which he called "my Irish life".{{sfn|Lewis|1993|p=93}}

Various critics have suggested that it was Lewis's dismay over the [[Partition of Ireland|sectarian conflict]] in his native Belfast which led him to eventually adopt such an [[Ecumenism|ecumenical]] brand of Christianity.{{sfn|Wilson|1991|p=xi}} 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 Church in the United Kingdom|Catholic]] writer {{nowrap|G. K. Chesterton}} called 'Mere Christianity', the core doctrinal beliefs that all [[Christian denomination|denominations]] share".{{sfn|Clare|2010|p=24}}

Paul Stevens of the [[University of Toronto]] wrote an opinion that "Lewis' mere Christianity<!-- not a book title --> masked many of the political prejudices of an old-fashioned [[Ulster Protestants|Ulster Protestant]], a native of middle-class Belfast for whom British withdrawal from Northern Ireland even in the 1950s and 1960s was unthinkable."<ref>Paul Stevens, review of "Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in British Literature" by Christopher Hodgkins, ''[[Modern Philology]]'', Vol. 103, Issue 1 (August 2005), pp. 137–38, citing Humphrey Carpenter, ''The Inklings'' (London: Allen & Unwin, 1978), pp. 50–52, 206–207.</ref>

===First World War and Oxford University===
[[File:Undergraduates of University College, Trinity Term 1917.jpg|thumb|260px|The undergraduates of University College, [[Trinity term]] 1917. C. S. Lewis standing on the right-hand side of the back row.]]
Lewis entered Oxford in the 1917 summer term, studying at [[University College, Oxford|University College]], and shortly after, he joined the [[Officers' Training Corps]] at the university as his "most promising route into the army".<ref name="Joy">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/surprisedbyjoysh00lewi/page/186 |title=Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |date=1955 |publisher=Harvest Books |isbn=978-0-15-687011-5 |location=Orlando, FL |pages=[https://archive.org/details/surprisedbyjoysh00lewi/page/186 186–88]}}</ref> From there, he was drafted into a Cadet Battalion for training.<ref name=Joy /><ref name=Sayer /> After his training, he was [[commissioned officer|commissioned]] into the 3rd Battalion of the [[Somerset Light Infantry]] of the [[British Army]] as a [[Second Lieutenant]], and was later transferred to the 1st Battalion of the regiment, then serving in France (he would not remain with the 3rd Battalion as it moved to Northern Ireland). Within months of entering Oxford, he was shipped by the British Army to France to fight in the [[First World War]].<ref name="Lewis" />

On his 19th birthday (29 November 1917), Lewis arrived at the front line in the [[River Somme|Somme]] Valley in France, where he experienced [[trench warfare]] for the first time.<ref name=Joy /><ref name="Sayer">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/jacklifeofcslewi0000saye/page/122 |title=Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis |last=Sayer |first=George |date=1994 |publisher=Crossway Books |isbn=978-0-89107-761-9 |edition=2nd |location=Wheaton, IL |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jacklifeofcslewi0000saye/page/122 122–130]}}</ref><ref name="secret" /> On 15 April 1918, as 1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry assaulted the village of Riez du Vinage in the midst of the German spring offensive, Lewis was wounded and two of his colleagues were killed by a [[Friendly fire|British]] [[Shell (projectile)|shell]] falling short of its target.<ref name="secret">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/secretcountryofc00anne |title=The Secret Country of C. S. Lewis |last=Arnott |first=Anne |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. |year=1975 |page=73 |isbn=978-0802834683}}</ref> He was depressed and homesick during his convalescence and, upon his recovery in October, he was assigned to duty in [[Andover, Hampshire|Andover]], England. He was [[demobilized]] in December 1918 and soon restarted his studies.<ref name="Edwards2007One">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OskozFVBMYC&pg=PA134 |title=C.S. Lewis: An examined life |first=Bruce L. |last=Edwards |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-275-99117-3 |pages=134–135 |access-date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=7 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307131821/https://books.google.com/books?id=8OskozFVBMYC |url-status=live |ref=none}}</ref> In a later letter, Lewis stated that his experience of the horrors of war, along with the loss of his mother and unhappiness in school, were the basis of his pessimism and atheism.<ref>{{Cite book |title=C.S. Lewis and Human Suffering: Light Among the Shadows |last=Conn |first=Marie |publisher=HiddenSpring |year=2008 |isbn=9781587680441 |location=Mahwah, NJ |page=21}}</ref>

After Lewis returned to Oxford University, he received a [[British undergraduate degree classification|First]] in [[Honour Moderations]] (Greek and [[Latin literature]]) in 1920, a First in [[Literae Humaniores|Greats]] (Philosophy and Ancient History) in 1922, and a [[British undergraduate degree classification|First]] in [[English studies|English]] in 1923. In 1924 he became a Philosophy tutor at [[University College, Oxford|University College]] and, in 1925, was elected a [[Fellow]] and Tutor in English Literature at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]], where he served for 29 years until 1954.<ref name="Edwards2007Two">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OskozFVBMYC&pg=PA197 |title=C.S. Lewis: An examined life |first=Bruce L. |last=Edwards |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-275-99117-3 |pages=150–151, 197–199 |access-date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=7 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307131821/https://books.google.com/books?id=8OskozFVBMYC |url-status=live |ref=none }}</ref>

===Janie Moore===
During his army training, 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{{sfn|Edwards|2007|p=133}} that if either died during the war, the survivor would take care of both of their families. Paddy was killed in action in 1918 and Lewis kept his promise. Paddy had earlier introduced Lewis to his mother, Janie King Moore, and a friendship quickly sprang up between Lewis, who was 18 when they met, and Janie, who was 45. 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, referred to her as such in letters, and developed a deeply affectionate friendship with her. Lewis's own mother had died when he was a child, while his father was distant, demanding, and eccentric.

Speculation regarding their relationship resurfaced with the 1990 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 (biographer)|George Sayer]] knew Lewis for 29 years, and he had sought to shed light on the relationship during the period of 14 years before Lewis's conversion to Christianity. In his biography ''Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis'', he wrote:

{{blockquote |Were they lovers? [[Owen Barfield]], who knew Jack well in the 1920s, once said that he thought the likelihood was "fifty-fifty". Although she was twenty-six years older than Jack, she was still a handsome woman, and he was certainly infatuated with her. But it seems very odd, if they were lovers, that he would call her "mother". We know, too, that they did not share the same bedroom. It seems most likely that he was bound to her by the promise he had given to Paddy and that his promise was reinforced by his love for her as his second mother.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis |last=Sayer |first=George |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1997 |isbn=978-0340690680 |location=London |page=154}}</ref>}}

Later Sayer changed his mind. In the introduction to the 1997 edition of his biography of Lewis he wrote:

{{blockquote |I have had to alter my opinion of Lewis's relationship with Mrs. Moore. In chapter eight of this book I wrote that I was uncertain about whether they were lovers. Now after conversations with Mrs. Moore's daughter, Maureen, and a consideration of the way in which their bedrooms were arranged at The Kilns, I am quite certain that they were.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.impalapublications.com/blog/index.php?/archives/5185-C.S.-Lewis-and-Mrs-Janie-Moore,-by-James-OFee.html |title=C.S. Lewis and Mrs. Janie Moore, by James O'Fee |publisher=impalapublications.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622015143/http://www.impalapublications.com/blog/index.php?%2Farchives%2F5185-C.S.-Lewis-and-Mrs-Janie-Moore%2C-by-James-OFee.html |archive-date=22 June 2017 |access-date=16 June 2019}}</ref>}}

However, the romantic nature of the relationship is doubted by other writers; for example, Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski write in ''The Fellowship'' that

{{blockquote |When—or whether—Lewis commenced an affair with Mrs. Moore remains unclear.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Fellowship |last=Zaleski |first=Philip and Carol |publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |year=2015 |isbn=978-0374154097 |location=New York |page=79}}</ref>}}

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 Janie and Greeves were "the two people who matter most to me in the world".

In 1930, Lewis moved into [[The Kilns]] with his brother Warnie, Mrs. Moore, and her daughter [[Maureen Dunbar|Maureen]]. The Kilns was 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 eventually passed to Maureen, who by then was [[Maureen Dunbar|Dame Maureen Dunbar]], when Warren died in 1973.

Moore had [[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.

===Return to Christianity===
Lewis was raised in a religious family that attended the [[Church of Ireland]]. He became an atheist at age 15, though he later described his young self as being paradoxically "very angry with God for not existing" and "equally angry with him for creating a world".{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=115}} His early separation from Christianity began when he started to view his religion as a chore and a duty; around this time, he also gained an interest in the occult, as his studies expanded to include such topics.<ref>''The Critic'', Volume 32, Thomas More Association, 1973. Original from the [[University of Michigan]].</ref> Lewis quoted [[Lucretius]] (''De rerum natura'', 5.198–9) as having one of the [[Argument from poor design|strongest arguments]] for atheism:{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=65}}

<blockquote><poem>{{lang|lt|Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam}}
{{lang|lt|Naturam rerum; tanta stat praedita culpa}}</poem></blockquote>

which he translated poetically as follows:

<blockquote><poem>Had God designed the world, it would not be
A world so frail and faulty as we see.</poem></blockquote>

(This is a highly poetic, rather than a literal translation. A more literal translation, by William Ellery Leonard,{{sfn|Lucretius|1916}} reads: "That in no wise the nature of all things / For us was fashioned by a power divine – / So great the faults it stands encumbered with.")

Lewis's interest in the works of the Scottish writer [[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 [[Protagonist|main character]] meets MacDonald in [[Heaven]]:

{{blockquote |...&nbsp;I tried, trembling, to tell this man all that his writings had done for me. I tried to tell how a certain frosty afternoon at [[Leatherhead railway station|Leatherhead Station]] when I had first bought a copy of ''[[Phantastes]]'' (being then about sixteen years old) had been to me what the first sight of [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]] had been to [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]: ''Here begins the new life''. I started to confess how long that Life had delayed in the region of imagination merely: how slowly and reluctantly I had come to admit that his Christendom had more than an accidental connexion with it, how hard I had tried not to see the true name of the quality which first met me in his books is Holiness.{{sfn|Lewis|2002b|pp=66–67}}}}

He eventually returned to Christianity, having been 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, as well as the book ''[[The Everlasting Man]]'' by [[G. K. Chesterton]]. Lewis vigorously resisted conversion, noting that he was brought into Christianity like a [[Parable of the Prodigal Son|prodigal]], "kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape".{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=229}} He described his last struggle in ''[[Surprised by Joy]]'':

{{blockquote |You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen [College, Oxford], night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929{{efn|[[Alister McGrath]] sees the 1929 date as an error, and dates it to 1930. {{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=Alister |author1-link=Alister McGrath |title=C. S. Lewis—A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet |date=2013 |publisher=[[Tyndale House]] |page=146 |isbn=9781414382524 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z-sjP6E8lsC&pg=PA146 |access-date=9 August 2023}} }} I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|pp=228, 229}}}}

After his conversion to [[theism]] in 1929, Lewis converted to Christianity in 1931, following a long discussion during a late-night walk along [[Addison's Walk]] with 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]]&nbsp;– somewhat to the disappointment of Tolkien, who had hoped that he would join the Catholic Church.{{sfn|Carpenter|2006}}{{Rp|needed=yes|date=March 2012}}

Lewis was a committed [[Church of England|Anglican]] who upheld a largely orthodox [[Anglican doctrine|Anglican theology]], though in his [[apologetics|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 [[Eucharist|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.{{sfn|Wilson|2002|p=147}}

===Second World War===
After the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in 1939, the Lewises took [[Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II|child evacuees from London]] and other cities into [[The Kilns]].<ref name="tst">{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis: The Story Teller |last=Bingham |first=Derick |publisher=[[Christian Focus Publications]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-85792-487-9 |series=Trailblazers |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing/page/102 102-104] |url=https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing }}</ref> Lewis was only 40 when the war began, and he tried to re-enter military service, offering to instruct cadets; however, his offer was not accepted. He rejected the recruiting office's suggestion of writing columns for the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] in the press, as he did not want to "write lies"<ref name="tst2">{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis: The Story Teller |last=Bingham |first=Derick |publisher=CF4Kids |year=2004 |isbn=978-1857924879 |series=Trailblazers |page=[https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing/page/105 105] |url=https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing}}</ref> to deceive the enemy. He later served in the local [[Home Guard (United Kingdom)|Home Guard]] in Oxford.<ref name=tst2 />

From 1941 to 1943, Lewis spoke on religious programmes broadcast by [[BBC|the BBC]] from London while the city was under periodic [[The Blitz|air raids]].<ref name="tst3">{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis: The Story Teller |last=Bingham |first=Derick |year=2004 |isbn=978-1857924879 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing/page/111 109-111] |publisher=Christian Focus |url=https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing }}</ref> These broadcasts were appreciated by civilians and servicemen at that stage. For example, [[Donald Hardman|Air Chief Marshal Sir Donald Hardman]] wrote:

:"The war, the whole of life, everything tended to seem pointless. We needed, many of us, a key to the meaning of the universe. Lewis provided just that."<ref name="tst4">{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis: The Story Teller |last=Bingham |first=Derick |year=2004 |isbn=978-1857924879 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing/page/111 111] |publisher=Christian Focus |url=https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing }}</ref>

The youthful [[Alistair Cooke]] was less impressed, and in 1944 described "the alarming vogue of Mr. C.S. Lewis" as an example of how wartime tends to "spawn so many quack religions and Messiahs".<ref>"Mr. Anthony at Oxford", ''New Republic'', 110 (24 April 1944): 579.</ref> The broadcasts were anthologized in ''Mere Christianity''. From 1941, Lewis was occupied at his summer holiday weekends visiting [[Royal Air Force|R.A.F.]] stations to speak on his faith, invited by [[Chaplain-in-Chief]] [[Maurice Edwards]].<ref name="tst5">{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis: The Story Teller |last=Bingham |first=Derick |year=2004 |isbn=978-1857924879 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing/page/112 112] |publisher=Christian Focus |url=https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing }}</ref>

It was also during the same wartime period that Lewis was invited to become first President of the [[Socratic Club|Oxford Socratic Club]] in January 1942,<ref name="tst6">{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis: The Story Teller |last=Bingham |first=Derick |year=2004 |isbn=978-1857924879 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing/page/114 114] |publisher=Christian Focus |url=https://archive.org/details/cslewisshiverofw0000bing }}</ref> a position that he enthusiastically held until he resigned on appointment to [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] in 1954.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cs-lewis-50-years-after-his-death-a-new-scholarship-will-honour-his-literary-career |title=CS Lewis: 50 years after his death a new scholarship will honour his literary career |date=8 November 2013 |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=3 December 2019 |archive-date=3 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203183601/https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cs-lewis-50-years-after-his-death-a-new-scholarship-will-honour-his-literary-career |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Honour declined===
Lewis was named on the last list of honours by [[George VI]] in December 1951 as a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) but declined so as to avoid association with any political issues.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cslewis.org/resources/chronocsl.html |title=Chronology of the Life of C.S. Lewis |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206021046/http://www.cslewis.org/resources/chronocsl.html |archive-date=6 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="Letters of C.S. Lewis">{{Cite book |url=https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0156508710/heroesofhistory |title=Letters of C. S. Lewis |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |publisher=Mariner Books |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-15-650871-1 |editor-last=W. H. Lewis |location=New York |page=528 |editor2-last=Walter Hooper |access-date=30 August 2017 |archive-date=14 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314033853/https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0156508710/heroesofhistory |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Chair at Cambridge University===
In 1954, Lewis accepted the newly founded [[Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English (Cambridge)|chair in Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature]] at [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]], where he finished his career. He maintained a strong attachment to the city of [[Oxford]], keeping a home there and returning on weekends until his death in 1963.

===Joy Davidman===
{{Quote box
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 |quote = She was my daughter and my mother, my pupil and my teacher, my subject and my sovereign; and always, holding all these in solution, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. My mistress; but at the same time all that any man friend (and I have good ones) has ever been to me. Perhaps more.
 |source = C. S. Lewis<ref name="washtimes">{{Cite news |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/16/books-out-my-bone-letters-joy-davidman/ |title=BOOKS: 'Out of My Bone: The Letters of Joy Davidman' |last=Person |first=James E. Jr. |date=16 August 2009 |work=[[The Washington Times]] |access-date=8 December 2011 |archive-date=11 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111101154/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/16/books-out-my-bone-letters-joy-davidman/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

In later life, Lewis corresponded with [[Joy Gresham|Joy Davidman Gresham]], an American writer of [[American Jews|Jewish background]], a former [[Communist Party USA|Communist]], and a convert from atheism to Christianity. She was separated from her alcoholic and abusive husband, novelist [[William Lindsay Gresham|William L. Gresham]], and came to England with her two sons, David and [[Douglas Gresham|Douglas]].{{sfn|Haven|2006}} Lewis at first regarded her as an agreeable intellectual companion and personal friend, and it was 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.{{sfn|Hooper|Green|2002|p=268}} They were married at the [[register office]], 42 [[St Giles', Oxford]], on 23 April 1956.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LWK59Z68ZGoC&pg=PA79 |title=C. S. Lewis: A Complete Guide to His Life and Works |last=Hooper |first=Walter |date=23 June 1998 |isbn=9780060638801 |page=79 |publisher=Zondervan |access-date=3 December 2011 |archive-date=31 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231124331/http://books.google.com/books?id=LWK59Z68ZGoC&pg=PA79 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/stgiles/tour/west/42.html |title=No. 42 |date=7 December 2011 |website=St Giles', Oxford |access-date=9 October 2013 |archive-date=16 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016124557/http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/stgiles/tour/west/42.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Lewis's brother Warren wrote: "For Jack the attraction was at first undoubtedly intellectual. Joy was the only woman whom he had met&nbsp;... 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."{{sfn|Haven|2006}} 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 [[Marriage in England and Wales|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.<ref>Schultz and West (eds), ''The C. S. Lewis Reader's Encyclopedia'' (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1988), p. 249.</ref>

Gresham's cancer soon went into [[Remission (medicine)|remission]], and the couple lived together as a family with [[Warren Lewis]] until 1960, when her cancer recurred. She died on 13 July 1960. Earlier that year, the couple took a brief holiday in Greece and the [[Aegean Sea|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 he originally released it under the pseudonym N. W. 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 and Faber|Faber]], with the permission of the [[Literary estate|executors]].{{sfn|Lewis|1961|loc=jacket notes}}

Lewis had adopted Gresham's two sons and continued to raise them after her death. [[Douglas Gresham]] is a Christian like Lewis and his mother,<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/at-home-in-narnia/2005/12/03/1133422143366.html?page=fullpage |title=At home in Narnia |date=3 December 2005 |work=The Age |location=Melbourne, Australia |page=2 |access-date=4 May 2009 |archive-date=3 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803000509/http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/at-home-in-narnia/2005/12/03/1133422143366.html?page=fullpage |url-status=live }}</ref> while David Gresham turned to his mother's ancestral faith, becoming [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] in his beliefs. His mother's writings had featured the Jews in an unsympathetic manner, particularly on ''[[shechita]]'' (ritual slaughter). David informed Lewis that he was going to become a ''[[shohet]]'', a ritual slaughterer, to present this type of Jewish religious [[Official|functionary]] to the world in a more favourable light. In a 2005 interview, Douglas Gresham acknowledged that he and his brother were not close, although they had corresponded via email.<ref name="theage.com.au">{{Cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/at-home-in-narnia/2005/12/03/1133422143366.html?page=4 |title=At home in Narnia |date=3 December 2005 |work=The Age |location=Melbourne, Australia |page=4 |access-date=4 May 2009 |archive-date=29 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829072433/http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/at-home-in-narnia/2005/12/03/1133422143366.html?page=4 |url-status=live }}</ref> 

David died on 25 December 2014.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48600470 | jstor=48600470 | title=David Gresham (1944–2014) | last1=Santamaria | first1=Abigail | journal=VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center | date=2015 | volume=32 | pages=11–13 }}</ref> In 2020, Douglas revealed that his brother had died at a Swiss [[mental hospital]], and that when David was a young man he had been diagnosed with [[paranoid schizophrenia]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/09/c-s-lewis-and-his-stepsons | work=First Things | title = C.S. Lewis and His Stepsons | date=3 September 2020}}</ref>

===Illness and death===
[[File:20210418 C.S. Lewis grave-1.jpg|thumb|upright|Lewis's grave at [[Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry]]]]
In early June 1961, Lewis became infected with recurrent [[nephritis]] which progressed to chronic low-grade [[sepsis]]. His illness caused him to miss the autumn term at Cambridge, though his health gradually began improving in 1962 and he returned that April. His health continued to improve and, according to his friend [[George Sayer (biographer)|George Sayer]], Lewis was fully himself by early 1963.

On 15 July that year, Lewis fell ill and was admitted to the hospital; he had a heart attack at 5:00&nbsp;pm the next day and lapsed into a coma, but unexpectedly woke the following day at 2:00&nbsp;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 1963.

Lewis's condition continued to decline, and he was diagnosed with [[end-stage kidney failure]] in mid-November. He collapsed in his bedroom at 5:30&nbsp;pm on 22 November, at age 64, and died a few minutes later.<ref>{{Cite book |title=C. S. Lewis – A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet |last=McGrath |first=Alister |publisher=Tyndale House Publishers, Inc |year=2013 |page=358}}</ref> He is buried in the churchyard of [[Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry|Holy Trinity Church]], [[Headington]], Oxford.{{sfn|FoHTC}} His brother [[Warren Lewis|Warren]] died on 9 April 1973 and was buried in the same grave.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cslewis.drzeus.net/multimedia/ |title=Picture Album |website=Into the Wardrobe |publisher=Dr Zeus |access-date=7 October 2010 |archive-date=27 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527054913/http://cslewis.drzeus.net/multimedia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Media coverage of Lewis's death was largely overshadowed by news of the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy]], which occurred on the same day (approximately 55 minutes following Lewis's collapse), as did the death of English writer [[Aldous Huxley]], author of ''[[Brave New World]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/ultimateislandon0000rudd |title=Ultimate Island: On the Nature of British Science Fiction |last=Ruddick |first=Nicholas |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0313273735 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ultimateislandon0000rudd/page/28 28] |url-access=registration}}</ref> This coincidence was the inspiration for [[Peter Kreeft]]'s book ''[[Between Heaven and Hell (novel)|Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley]]''.{{sfn|Kreeft|1982}} Lewis is commemorated on 22 November in the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)|church calendar]] of the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Grossman |first=Cathy Lynn |date=27 January 2006 |title=Parish to push sainthood for Thurgood Marshall |work=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-01-26-marshall-sainthood_x.htm |url-status=live |access-date=28 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831072608/http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-01-26-marshall-sainthood_x.htm |archive-date=31 August 2010}}</ref>