Did You Know C.S. Lewis Was a Big Fan of St Athanasius?

To call Lewis simply a "children's author" is to dismiss him. He wrote theology, philosophy, and adult fiction as well. He is one of my favourite authors, just as St Athanasius is one of my favourite Saints.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

The well-known children's author of the Chronicles of Narnia also wrote an introduction to a book featuring the writings of St. Athanasius.

Many are familiar with C.S. Lewis due to his popular children's series, the Chronicles of Narnia, a work that will be revisited later this year through a Netflix adaptation.

Lewis is also well-known because of his Christian faith and his apologetic writings, detailing various truths of the faith. While Lewis was a firm Protestant, he certainly was not afraid of dipping his toe into early Church writings and appreciated much of what he discovered.

In particular, Lewis had a keen interest in St. Athanasius, often called the "Father of Orthodoxy." Athanasius is a saint that is venerated by both Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.

Lewis saw great value in St. Athanasius' writings and ended-up writing a full introduction to a book that contained St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation.

"A Masterpiece"

Lewis explains in his introduction his first impression when he discovered On the Incarnation (in Latin called, De Incarnatione):

When I first opened his De Incarnatione I soon discovered by a very simple test that I was reading a masterpiece.

What really held Lewis' attention was St. Athanasius' words on miracles:

His approach to the Miracles is badly needed today, for it is the final answer to those who object to them as "arbitrary and meaningless violations of the laws of Nature." They are here shown to be rather the re-telling in capital letters of the same message which Nature writes in her crabbed cursive hand; the very operations one would expect of Him who was so full of life that when He wished to die He had to "borrow death from others."

Furthermore, Lewis states that, "The whole book, indeed, is a picture of the Tree of Life - a sappy and golden book, full of buoyancy and confidence."

Christian unity

What's probably more interesting is how Lewis spends most of his introduction writing about Christian unity and how it is easy to get caught-up in all the divisions of Christianity in the modern world.

He laments the division, but also points out that there is hope and that there is more unity than we may think:

We are all rightly distressed, and ashamed also, at the divisions of Christendom. But those who have always lived within the Christian fold may be too easily dispirited by them. They are bad, but such people do not know what it looks like from without. Seen from there, what is left intact despite all the divisions, still appears (as it truly is) an immensely formidable unity.

It's a reminder that when we are all on the same path of searching for the truth, we will inevitably be united when we reach the same destination.