In the late seventies I was not only living primarily for myself, I was foolishly apathetic about the presence of God in my life. God, of course, would not allow this choice to proceed unchecked, yet in His mercy He allowed me a rope of some substance, so that when I reached its end the pain would be substantial enough as to generate a recalibration of my passions and priorities.
Yet what I find interesting is that even during this time of rebellion of The Truth, I found myself drawn to the books of C.S. Lewis, on of the great apologists of our time. My first journey into his creative world was found through his science fiction series, "The Cosmic Trilogy" and then his seven volume series, "The Chronicles of Narnia", followed by "The Great Divorce", "The Screwtape Letters", "Mere Christianity," and finally what I consider one of the pinnacles of his writings, "The Problem of Pain." (My personal favorite among his non-fictional works)
It was still early in my discovery process of his writings that I researched his creative output for the sake of my essay and I remember calculating the sum of his writings that started in 1940 and culminated around the early 1950's. It was later in life that my appreciation for his work grew in proportion as I looked anew at his volume of work during that ten year period.
Allowing for a little context, in 1939 Great Britain declared war on germany followed by an intensive eight month bombing of London and other strategic cities in England. Lewis had fought in WWI and so he took to the radio airwaves to help comfort and most importantly to point his fellow citizens to the goodness of God even during a period of national suffering. So to recap, while in the middle of a world war, with his home country being subjected to almost nightly bombing for over eight months, teaching at Oxford, and broadcasting an national radio series, he wrote the following books, which by the way is not even an exhaustive list of his works during this period.
1940 - The Problem of Pain (Written against the backdrop of historical evil being pursued against a large portion of the world's population)
1942 - The Screwtape Letters (Such a creative outline describing the enemy that we all share and his daily attempts to corrupt our choices, passions, and ultimately our eternal destinies.)
1943 - Mere Christianity (Truly one of the greatest defenses of the existence of God I have ever read - “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”)
1944 - 1945 - Perelandra and That Hideous Strength (Volumes 2 and 3 of his wonderful space trilogy, "The Cosmic Trilogy".) An astounding work of world building fiction.
1945 - The Great Divorce (“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find.”)
1947 - Miracles (“He is not the soul of Nature, nor any part of Nature. He inhabits eternity: He dwells in a high and holy place: heaven is His throne, not his vehicle, earth is his footstool, not his vesture. One day he will dismantle both and make a new heaven and earth. He is not to be identified even with the 'divine spark' in man. He is 'God and not man.”)
1950 - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis first book in his masterpiece of a series, "The Chronicles of Narnia - “Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” – Aslan)
Is there another author who had a more creative ten year period? Against the backdrop of a World War? Faced with almost a year of nightly bombings of his home country? I'm sure there probably exists such a time and author but in my humble opinion I find this list difficult to surpass.
