by Imants Teobalds

Created on: March 04, 2007   Last Updated: October 06, 2008

Have any of you stumbled upon a book that was so intriguing, fascinating and satisfying that you read it eight more times in the same year? When I was in high school this is what happened to me when I read my first non-fictional work of Clive Staples Lewis. I read one book of his eight times in one year and each time I read it I gained some new insight that I hadn't seen before.

C. S. Lewis, as he came to be known, has become one of the most, if not the most, influential writers on religious thought in the late 20th century English-speaking world. However, he has not been admired only by religious people. He has been respected as an intellectual - a thoughtful and imaginative writer by many atheists, agnostics and other intellectuals of the twentieth century. There is something to be found in his writings for everyone, whether it be thoughtful arguments for ideologies, children's fantasy, science fiction or beautiful poetry.

I'd like to share with you a brief history of his early life, adult life, a brief discussion of a few of his writings, and some of his influence on America. I'll begin with an overview of his childhood through college years.

Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. He was the younger of two sons. His mother died at age nine of cancer and he was left alone with his father and his brother. He began his education at a boarding school that same year, 1908, in Watfordshire, England. Two years later he attended Campbell College but had to leave because of respiratory difficulties. He then entered Malvern College where he was classically educated with a tutor and by the time he was fourteen he could read fluently German, Italian, French, Latin, Greek, a little Hebrew, and English. At age fifteen his father's schoolmaster became his tutor, William T. Kirkpatrick, also known as "The Great Knock." This education prepared him for his upcoming studies at Oxford but because he was so badly prepared for the exams, the equivalent of the SAT's, in mathematics, he failed them every time he took them. Only after being sent to war at age 18 was he able to become exempt from the exams because he was recognized as a veteran of the first World War.

After finishing his studies at Oxford and receiving three firsts on the final exams, which means literally perfection, as well as graduating with honors, he decided to devote the rest of his life to study and ideas.

Lewis began his adult life teaching as a professor at Magdalene College in 1925. It was during his time

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