From the book “The Man and the Message”,:
These are doctrinal insights from multiple Latter-day Saint theologians and authors:
. . . . C. S. Lewis is a thinking man’s theologian, a writer whose views are crisp and sharp and challenging; his presentation is neither syrupy nor sentimental on the one hand, nor tedious on the other. His discussions are both spiritually satisfying and intellectually enlarging. He, himself, once described his task and his achievement: “When I began, Christianity came before the great mass of my unbelieving countrymen either in the highly emotional form offered by revivalists or in the unintelligible language of highly cultured clergymen. Most men were reached by neither. My task was therefore simply that of a translator, one turning Christian doctrine, or what he believed to be such into the vernacular, into the language that the unscholarly would attend to and could understand.”13
In short, as Professor Tony Kimball, a Latter-day Saint has written in tribute: “Lewis was able to deal with fundamentalists without becoming fundamentalistic. He sought to revive Christian beliefs in the minds of men (and women) without being revivalistic. In this disposable age of paper plates and paper philosophies which are good for one purpose only, Lewis insisted that all things had to be tested spiritually, rationally, and experientially before an honest man could give allegiance to them. He believed that Christianity met every test.”14
Now again, I hasten to add that C.S. Lewis was not a Latter-day Saint, and not all of what he taught and believed is in harmony with what we believe. It does not take a nuclear scientist to point out differences. When we look seriously at his writings, however, there are a surprising number of similarities. Lewis was not an ordained apostle, though he certainly had a testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ. He was not a prophet though his writings have relevance about that make them both timely and timeless; Lewis’s writings seem to anticipate, for example, much of the foolishness we see today in the so-called “Jesus Seminar.” Thus Latter-day Saints do not turn to Lewis for the final word on doctrinal expansion or clarification or interpretation, not do we measure truth by his insights. At the same time we are eager to find truth whenever we can and are excited to acknowledge it from whomever if flows. Joseph Smith stated: “One of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism’ is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.”15
As Latter-day Saints we are in an interesting and somewhat awkward position in the Christian world. We claim divine apostolic authority and claim to be possessors of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time, we fully acknowledge that God is working his will through men and women throughout the earth, and that everything that inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ is sent forth by the gift and power of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge that it is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God” (Moroni 7:16) President Ezra Taft Benson explained that our Heavenly Father uses people of the earth, especially good people, to accomplish his purposes. “It has been true in the past, it is true today, it will be true in the future.”
As we read C. S. Lewis let us open our minds to new truths and our hearts to new applications of those truths. Let us avoid narrowness and encourage in ourselves that breadth and openness that fosters growth and engenders humble gratitude for God and for those whose works point us more clearly to God. C. S. Lewis had a brilliant mind, one that might well have been devoted exclusively to other fields in the academy. Criticized for many years for turning his gifts and training to the defense of Christianity, he nevertheless felt that Christianity was worthy of an intelligent defense, a labor that deserved his best effort. This was his legacy to the Christian world, a legacy we share with our brothers and sisters of other faiths, a legacy that fosters appreciation for a significant life.~~edited by Andrew C. Skinner and Robert L. Millet (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1999), p.5-7
