On Tuesday we left Jack Lewis at the beginning of World War I. He fought as a second lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry in the mud of northern France. In April, 1918, he was wounded n the Battle of Arras near Lillers, France. He was injured on the back of his left hand, his thigh just above the knee, and his left side below the armpit. A piece of shrapnel lodged there which was not removed until 1944, when it became a danger to his heart. Even during these terrifying days, Lewis later remarked that he "never sank so low as to pray."

Following the war's end, Lewis returned to Oxford. In 1919 he published his first book, Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics; he was 21 years old. He graduated in 1925 with three "firsts" (we would say summa cum laude), one of only a handful in the history of the University to do so. He took "firsts" in Greek and Latin Literature, Philosophy and Ancient History, and English Literature. Imagine a person graduating from Harvard, Princeton, or Stanford with three majors, at the top of his class in each.

Lewis was then elected to a prestigious teaching post in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin) College, Oxford. He remained at Oxford for 29 years before becoming a professor of medieval and renaissance literature at Cambridge in 1954.

Lewis was a renowned and brilliant scholar in his field of medieval literature. The Allegory of Love, published in 1936, is a history of love literature from the early Middle Ages to Shakespeare's time, and is still considered a classic in the field. A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942) is an excellent introduction to Milton's epic, still widely used in the field. His scholarly masterpiece was English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, excluding Drama (1954).

At the time of his mother's death, Lewis was nominally Christian. But her death was such a setback for him that his faith would not recover for decades. When he did come to personal commitment to Christ, he ended what Warnie called his brother's "spiritual illness of long standing."

At the age of 17 Lewis wrote his friend Arthur Greeves, "I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best." What would change his mind and produce one of the most famous conversions of the 20th century? Let's see tomorrow.

Copyright © 2007. Godissues.com. All rights reserved.