Doubt and C.S. Lewis

In Reason & Imagination in C. S. Lewis: A Study of "Till We Have Faces" Peter Schakel tells of a formal face-to-face debate between C.S. Lewis and Elizabeth Anscombe in 1948 at the Socratic Club in Oxford. The debate centered on some Christian apologetic claim of Lewis'. As I remember, Schakel argues, contra some critics, that Lewis was surely shaken by his "defeat" in the debate, but neither crushed nor driven to anything near apostasy. But the effect on me, as a proud and zealous devotee of Lewis, was nearly crushing.

Reading "Prisoner of Narnia" by Adam Gopnik (The New Yorker, Nov. 21, 2005) brought back those feelings of shame, fear, doubt - and hope.

More later.