Our worlds are broken worlds - and so was Jack Lewis’. BUT even an imperfect person can - with God’s help - make perfect their will, as T.S Eliot said.Īnd to will with our Maker that the world be what it is, can be enough - for to inure ourselves to its imperfect essence is a necessary exercise in faith.įor living life simply, without all of its omnipresent bells and whistles and distractions is perhaps all the spiritual discipline we need. We all expect our heroes to be really ROCK-SOLID people.īut let’s just look at ourselves honestly - are WE ourselves really solid - through & through?Īnd it’s unavoidable. No one’s perfect, no matter what Christian media might say or imply. WHAT TEMERITY! I said inwardly - that some so-called close friend would so humanize this man, the Unimpeachable Icon of the Moral Majority, by displaying his foibles and follies! Lewis groupie (and still am)! My membership in that exalted group had been confirmed during my initial post-cube-farm passion with Amazon, when I had (very wisely) invested some of my severance pay in the complete three-volume set of Lewis’ correspondence.īut then - I only skimmed through THIS book at first, when it arrived in the mail. I read ‘Jack’ not long after I retired, nearly twenty years ago. This book is an intimate account of the man who helped―and through his works, continues to help―generations hear and understand the heart of Christianity. Offering glimpses into Lewis's extraordinary relationships and experiences, Jack details the great scholar's life at the Kilns days at Magdalen College meetings with the Inklings marriage to Joy Davidman Gresham and the creative process that produced such world-famous works as the classic Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters. Sayer draws from a variety of sources, including his close friendship with Lewis and the million-word diary of Lewis's brother, to paint a portrait of the man whose friends knew him as Jack. He was a devout Christian, gifted literary scholar, best-selling author, and brilliant apologist. He was interesting but he was more than just that.

'You'll never get to the bottom of him.' Over the next twenty-nine years, author George Sayer's first impression about C. I think he will be a most interesting tutor to have.' 'Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that,' said the man, who I later learned was J. As I walked away from New Buildings, I found the man that Lewis had called 'Tollers' sitting on one of the stone steps in front of the arcade.

George sayer