Originally posted by King KandyWasn't Mark Twain christian?
I gave a second link where he gives innumerable atheist texts. Even in his autobiography he insults Christianity. So I don't think that theory holds much water. We know C.S. Lewis was a Christian because he wrote many Christian texts, Mark Twain devoted much of his later life to these sort of polemics. So the answer seems clear to me.
Originally posted by Digi
Yeah, wasn't Lewis a very open and devout Christian, and weren't his writings specific apologetics for Christianity?
Then one day he had an informal debate with an American philosopher who utterly trounced him on the subject. The fact that she was actually a devout Christian as well convinced him that his arguments sucked and he wasn't a very good Apologist so he stopped writing them and moved on to fiction.
Tolkien wasn't terribly devout from what I've read on him, which isn't comprehensive but is fairly extensive. It was just the period of time. Science hadn't caught up with religion yet, so percentages of theists were much higher, even in a traditionally less religious country like England.
But yeah, Lewis is one of the more well-known Christian apologists in recent history.
Originally posted by Digi
Tolkien wasn't terribly devout from what I've read on him, which isn't comprehensive but is fairly extensive. It was just the period of time. Science hadn't caught up with religion yet, so percentages of theists were much higher, even in a traditionally less religious country like England.But yeah, Lewis is one of the more well-known Christian apologists in recent history.
I think its pretty clear that Lewis became much more gung-ho than Tolkien ever was. I mean I'm reading the Chronicles of Narnia right now for the first time (assigned reading) and in comparison to LOTR the Christian symbolism and the fact that they're Christian books is a thousand times less subtle and honestly feels rather forced.
Of course the fact Tolkien was also just straight up a better writer than Lewis might have something to do with it.
Well, The Chronicles are direct allegory for "The Christian Story," all the way through from Genesis to Revelation, and The Lord of the Rings is only indirectly allegorical [several characters have "Jesus" in them - Frodo, saving the world when he's just a hobbit, Strider, being half/elvish and re-conquering his kingdom from Denethor, Sam, sacrificing himself all across the journey, etc.]
And both men were very good friends, although their arguments were intellectually epic. However, Lewis's wife died very young, and he began to write other, less family-oriented fiction, notable "Till We Have Faces."
Obviously, Tolkien was rather upset with Middle Earth, and wrote and wrote about that place.