Day 31 – Saint C.S. Lewis (1898–1963)

Saint Clive Staples Lewis, known to the world as C.S. Lewis, was born in Belfast, Ireland. Brilliant from an early age, he became a scholar of literature at Oxford and later Cambridge. For much of his youth and early adulthood, he lived as an atheist, convinced that faith in God was wishful thinking. Yet through friendships with believers like J.R.R. Tolkien and long reflection on truth and longing, Lewis came to faith in Christ, describing himself as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

Once converted, Lewis’s faith took wing. He became one of the most influential Christian writers of the twentieth century. His works spanned genres: Mere Christianity presented the reasonableness of faith; The Screwtape Letters exposed the subtlety of temptation; and The Chronicles of Narnia clothed deep theology in stories beloved by children and adults alike. His gift was not only his intellect but his ability to make faith accessible, showing that Christianity is both reasonable and deeply beautiful.

Lewis’s writings were shaped by honesty about suffering and longing. After losing his beloved wife, Joy, to cancer, he wrote A Grief Observed, a raw exploration of pain and trust in God. He understood that faith does not erase sorrow but gives us hope within it.

For us today, Saint C.S. Lewis reminds us that faith speaks to the whole person — mind, imagination, and heart. His life challenges us to be unafraid of hard questions, to use the gifts of reason and creativity for God’s glory, and to see all our longings as echoes of our true home in Christ.