Fifty seven years ago today, C.S. Lewis died. Like Mother Teresa in 1997, who died the same day as Diana, Princess of Wales, his death was almost completely overshadowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the same day.
Best known for his children's series, The Narnia Chronicles and his Space Trilogy, he also wrote other fiction, as well as theology, philosophy, and philology.
He wrote a small book that should be required reading for anyone studying the middle ages, The Discarded Image. Subtitled 'An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature', it was his last book and deals with medieval cosmology and the Ptolemaic universe. It portrays the medieval conception of a "model" of the world, which Lewis described as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe."
His Pilgrim's Regress is an allegorical autobiography of his journey from the Church of Ireland Calvinism of his boyhood through the philosophies common in his young adulthood, to his conversion to semi-High Church Anglicanism in the Church of England.
He was close friends with J.R.R. Tolkien who always regretted that he was not able to bring him 'Home to Rome'.
Despite his protestantism and indifferentist heresy in Mere Christianity he has been instrumental in helping myriads of others on their journey to Rome.
May he rest in peace.
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