C. S. Lewis: The Romantic Rationalist

Abstract

The paper “C. S. Lewis: The Romantic Rationalist” presents the way C. S. Lewis gives an account in his first fictional (allegorical) book, The Pilgrim’s Regress, of how he discovered Christianity on the converging paths of romanticism and rationalism. The outstanding scholar and author whose intellectual and spiritual development has turned him into one of the most influential Christian writers of the twentieth century became an atheist in his teens and after a long journey through different philosophical convictions he converted to Christianity in his early thirties, a change that affected his entire work. His love of literature was essential in discovering both the rational and the imaginative appeal of Christianity, which led him into a vision of the reality of the world and of life that satisfied the longing of his heart and the hunger of his imagination.