C.S. Lewis and the Apologetics of Story

Some have claimed that C.S. Lewis drifted towards fiction the last decade of his life because he was failed as an Apologist and no longer able to keep up with the complex philosophical questions of his day. In fact, fiction was always part of Lewis’s output. He wrote, “The imaginative man in me is older than the rational man and more continually operative.” Lewis used story as one of the tools in his rhetorical tool box because he knew that some people will not listen to a coherent and reasonable presentation of the Gospel. Their rejection of the things of God is buttressed with rationalization and self-justification. Reason stands before these people’s hearts like dragon sentries preventing even the best apologetic arguments from getting through. But, Lewis believed, sometimes story can get past watchful dragons. This talk will explore Lewis’s use of story as a rhetorical and apologetical tool for the Gospel.