C.S. LEWIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH by Joseph Pearce

Ignatius, 2003 175 pages, $14.95 To order: (800) 651-1531 www.ignatius.com

Why did C.S. Lewis never become a Catholic? That is the question at hand in this new title from Joseph Pearce, writer in residence at Ave Maria University and author of biographies of J.R.R. Tolkien, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

As Pearce recounts, Lewis was raised an Ulster Protestant, but he accepted many distinctly Catholic doctrines and practices as he grew in his faith. Three examples are purgatory, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and sacramental confession. Yet Lewis consistently eluded questioners about, for example, the significance of Mary in salvation history. His position seems to have been clear: He wanted to be “a uniter, not a divider.”

As Lewis' renown has only expanded in the 40 years after his death, not a few biographers have recently attempted to find the “real” Lewis. Pearce, a prolific and talented biographer, here makes a significant contribution by detailing the Catholic influences in Lewis' life and writing.

It's apparent that Pearce is a great admirer of Lewis, a fact that adds considerable heft to his criticisms of the Oxford don. He begins his thesis — that Lewis was, whether he perceived it or not, progressing toward Catholic belief — by pointing out that Lewis' famous declaration of “mere Christianity” is, despite its attention to detail, not without gaps, loopholes and contradictions. Pearce calls Lewis' book Mere Christianity “a politician's approach to Christianity. The kissing of the Baby but the refusal to recognize his Mother!” (meaning the Church, not Mary).

Pulling no punches, Pearce also contends that Lewis did not follow the theological facts before him to their logical conclusion. “[John Henry] Newman genuflected before Authority and its Author,” he writes. “Lewis kowtowed before the traditions of his family and its prejudices, no longer believing what they believed but unwilling to make the break from them.”

But is it not entirely accurate that Lewis “no longer believed what they believed.” Although he abandoned many Protestant beliefs, he still shared one essential belief (or disbelief) — the authority of the pope. As Pearce quotes from a letter Lewis wrote to a Catholic priest, Blessed Don Calabria: “We disagree with nothing more than the authority of the Pope: On which disagreement almost all the others depend.”

I found the book fascinating, although I would have preferred a less-rhetorical approach. Pearce deflects this criticism when he writes in his preface: “[W]hen I have felt that Lewis has himself been culpable, I have highlighted his culpability in a somewhat rhetorical fashion.” Although Pearce draws a fine line between an argument and a quarrel, it will seem to some that his writing occasionally morphs from persuasive to polemical. Rather than change the tone, he apologizes in advance. To those who think he is “stooping” to “make points for the Catholic Church,” he says, “If this causes offense, I utterly regret that it has done so.”

Where C.S. Lewis and the Catholic Church succeeds most notably is in offering a cogent presentation of the reasons Lewis might have accepted the Catholic faith. The case for the eventual conversion of C.S. Lewis is, of course, speculative. Yet Pearce has succeeded in showing that it is plausible. And, even without this achievement, the biographical documentation and literary insights make this book worthwhile.

Robert Trexler writes from Cheshire, Connecticut.