Jan/Feb 1998

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C. S. Lewis: Mere Christian
by Kathryn Lindskoog
Cornerstone Press Chicago
292 pp.; $19.99

Journey into Narnia
by Kathryn Lindskoog
Hope Publishing House
P.O. Box 60008,
Pasadena CA, 91116
227 pp.; $15.95, paper

C. S. Lewis: Lightbearer in
the Shadowlands:
the Evangelistic
Vision of C. S. Lewis
edited by Angus J. L. Menuge
Crossway
399 pp.; $17.99, paper

Simply C. S. Lewis:
A Beginner's Guide to
His Life and Works
by Thomas C. Peters
Crossway
270 pp.; $11.99, paper

In 1998, Christians all over the world will be celebrating the centennial of the birth of Clive Staples Lewis. This year-long Lewisfest will be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it will yield fresh insights. (Look for David Downing's essay on Lewis and postmodernism in a forthcoming issue of B&C.) And the hubbub will attract new readers, not a few of whom may find their way into the kingdom. On the other hand, the sheer volume of talk about Lewis is bound to grate, even when it is free of the unctuous accents of hagiography.

Four new books give a taste of what we can expect in the coming year. The first is not really a new book but rather a new edition of Kathryn Lindskoog's widely used guide. Lindskoog commands an encyclopedic knowledge of Lewis's life and works, and she writes with contagious passion. She is also highly combative, particularly in her judgments against Walter Hooper, one of Lewis's literary editors and the editor of many of his posthumously published works. Don't miss the six appendices to Lindskoog's book, the last of which is a lovely essay on Lewis and Christmas.

Lindskoog's Journey into Narnia is also a combination of old and new, though here the proportion of new is much higher. This volume combines an early work, The Lion of Judah ...