C.S. Lewis with Jeremy W. Johnston

·1 hr 13 min·5 clips

Why C.S. Lewis insisted the Chronicles of Narnia are not an allegory like Pilgrim's Progress.

The episode begins with host Austin welcoming back guest Jeremy Johnston, a teacher and lay elder who has previously discussed J.R.R. Tolkien. Johnston updates on his teaching roles at Heritage College and Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario, and his writing projects on Anne Bradstreet and G.K. Chesterton. The host then asks Johnston to describe C.S. Lewis's life. Johnston details Lewis's birth in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland, his mother's death at age nine, and abusive boarding school experiences. He explains Lewis's tutoring under the atheist 'Great Knock,' which honed his logic but led to atheism. Johnston recounts Lewis's service in World War I, where he was wounded by friendly fire, and his pact with friend Paddy Moore to care for each other's families, which Lewis honored by supporting Moore's mother and sister financially. After the war, Lewis became a don at Oxford University, where he taught literature. Johnston describes Lewis's conversion in 1931 after a walk with Tolkien and Hugo Dyson, where Tolkien argued the Christian story was a 'true myth.' Lewis then joined the Inklings, a group that met in Oxford pubs to discuss literature and theology, where works like The Screwtape Letters and The Lord of the Rings were shared. Johnston outlines Lewis's writing career, including his academic work, apologetics like Mere Christianity, and the Chronicles of Narnia. He explains that Narnia is not an allegory but a 'portrait' of the gospel in a different cosmos, intended as preparatio evangelium. Johnston highlights themes like penal substitution in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and sanctification in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He addresses the controversial character Emeth in The Last Battle, describing Lewis's inclusivism as a theological misstep. The host asks about Lewis's apologetic value, and Johnston praises Lewis for speaking to head, heart, and body, making complex theology accessible. Johnston recommends top Lewis books: Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, the Narnia Chronicles, Surprised by Joy, and his preface to Paradise Lost, with an honorable mention for Letters to Children. The episode concludes with Johnston emphasizing how Lewis helps Christians become better communicators and enlarges their view of God.

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A focused church-history discussion that locates C.S. Lewis in his letters, friendships, and theological tensions.

The Covenant Podcast treats C.S. Lewis less as a monument of church history than as a man formed by habits, friendships, and an astonishing attention to correspondence.

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Want C.S. Lewis by way of fan letters, Joy Davidman, and the uneasy edges around his civil marriage?

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