QUOTE: C. S. Lewis put it this way in Mere
Christianity: “Creatures are not born with desires
unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there
is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing
as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find
in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most
probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
AUTHOR: Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 –
22 November 1963), commonly called C. S. Lewis and known to his friends
and family as "Jack", was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist,
literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist. Born in
Belfast, Ireland, he held academic positions at both Oxford University
(Magdalen College), 1925–1954, and Cambridge University (Magdalene College),
1954–1963. He is best known both for his fictional work, especially The
Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his
non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The
Problem of Pain.
Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were
close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University,
and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the
"Inklings". According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been
baptized in the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion) at birth,
but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of
Tolkien and other friends, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to the Anglican
Communion, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of
England". His faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime
radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.
In 1956, he married the American writer Joy
Davidman, 17 years his junior, who died four years later of cancer at the age
of 45. Lewis died three years after his wife, from renal failure, one week
before his 65th birthday. Media coverage of his death was minimal; he died on
22 November 1963—the same day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated, and the same day another famous author, Aldous Huxley, died. In
2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lewis will be honoured with a
memorial in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Lewis's works have been translated into more than
30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The books that make up The
Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been popularized on stage, TV,
radio, and cinema.
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