Talk:C.S. Lewis

C of E and Catholic
The current wording of this article misrepresents the Church of England, in a couple of ways; first of all, it is quite diverse, with individual churches on a spectrum ranging from 'high' (close to Roman Catholicism) Anglicanism -- which C. S. Lewis practised -- and 'low', which is practically evangelical. The other thing is the misunderstanding of the meaning of 'reformed' and 'catholic' in this context. It has nothing to do with sectarian identity. The word 'reformed' is self-explanatory (it was changed), 'catholic' though means something specific that has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic church, and is a Greek word which appears in the Nicene Creed ("I believe in one holy catholic church"). It is sometimes translated 'universal' (which isn't exactly what it means). Because it appears in the Nicene Creed, churches which take that as a declaration of faith call themselves catholic. So, for the sake of accuracy, I'm correcting this error :) 80.7.84.248 (talk) 08:24, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Racism Ottoman Empire
It's been nearly 20 years since I've read the parts of the Narnia series which have "Calormen" - or whatever they're called. C.S. Lewis doesn't come off to me as an overtly racist kind of guy, nor does he seem like the type who would be rabidly opposed to it. However, I present this picture from an old Children's book. The picture contains a gnome walking under the notoriously poisonous and dangerous fly amanita mushroom. It's extremely common to characterize longstanding enemies in children's books so that the children know that those people will not be nice to them. The Ottoman Empire was a belligerent in WWI against Britain, so it's not surprising that Lewis would criticize Islamic cultures, and there's a lot to criticize about the Islamic Caliphate. Furthermore, Islamic cultures have been a historical enemy of western cultures ever since Muhammad started conquering Saudi Arabia. You'll find similar portrayals of Islamic barbarism in literature dating all the way back to the dark ages, including, for example, Chaucer. Some of this is definitely religious bias of Christianity vs. Islam, but it's also religious bias in the sense that Islamic cultures, for centuries, have attempted to conquer Christian cultures. There have also been retaliatory military actions as well, such as the Crusades. The fly amanita is in children's literature so children can be told "don't eat that, ever, it will kill you." (e.g. Mario eats fly amanita to grow) The same principle applies to historical western presentations of Islamic cultures in children's literature. It's unfortunate to see people on something called "rationalwiki" catering to politically correct historical revisionism in an attempt to remove the long-standing historical warnings our academics and greatest authors have passed down. To say that C.S. Lewis was "just an ignorant racist" is to seriously undermine the absolutely established credibility of Oxford University as well as the fact that Lewis, due to his area of study, would have a fairly decent knowledge of Islamic collisions with the west in history. The west has interfered with Middle-Eastern cultures throughout history, that's true, but Islamic cultures have, also, frequently been aggressors against European. Take heed from people smarter than you like Dawkins and Hitchens and Lewis, assume, when they criticize Islam, they are trying to protect people in their culture. If Rush Limbaugh criticizes something, ignore it, he's a moron, but never just sit back and dismiss an author because he puts in a giant red mushroom with white spots on it. 12:37, 17 January 2014‎ (UTC)

New Section
Should we have a section devoted to problematic themes and ideas in his books? Off the top of my head, there's the idea that women couldn't fight, and in The Last Battle, it bugged me that skepticism on the part of the dwarves was depicted as a bad thing. And as mentioned, the Calorman thing. --ShorinBJ (talk) 13:54, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

C.S LEWIS Christianity overload
I think this article reads too much like a hit piece to be objective. It hardly focuses on what most people would care about. Narnia seems to take a backseat to the man's religion.

include His Essay: The Abolition of Man
I think it should be included, as part of his non-fiction work. 108.21.201.169 (talk) 11:42, 8 January 2020 (UTC)(Krashlia)