A good friend of mine has recently published a new book titled "Second Friends--C.S. Lewis and Ronald Knox In Conversation". I would highly recommend that you buy it and read it. It covers the overlapping worlds of two Christianity's best thinkers and writers of the last century. While nearly everyone has heard of Lewis, Knox's story is less well known. My friend describes him as a sort of "Catholic Lewis". The historical record shows little about their actual meeting, but their lives were lived near one another physically, with many of the same friends and interests. The book flows from the interaction between them--that may, or may not, have ever happened.
Ignatius Insight published an interview with the author, Fr. Milton Walsh, which you can read here. I would recommend that you do just that. Without giving too much away, it's a great primer for the book. One of my favorite parts is the discussion about Lewis and Knox's similarities and differences:
Ignatius Insight: In additional to being contemporaries (Knox having been ten years old than Lewis), what are some of the important similarities between the lives and work of the two men?
Fr. Walsh: Although Lewis and Knox ended up in different places as regards religious affiliation, they had a great deal in common. Their families embodied a strongly Evangelical expression of Anglicanism, but both men took a decidedly Catholic direction in their maturity. They were both very logical thinkers, but with a great appreciation for the power of imagination and the place of the heart in religious discourse. They were very much at home in the academic world of their day, but neither considered himself a professional theologian. Rather, they were evangelists who sought to express their faith in an engaging and thoughtful way to the general public.
As I delved into their writings more deeply, I was frequently surprised to find them making the same arguments, and at times even employing the same images. (In fact, I found myself wondering at times: "Did he steal this idea from the other guy?" ... and I would rather playfully put the question in terms of what biblical scholars have to say about the "Synoptic Problem": did Matthew borrow from Mark, or vice-versa. Knowing the reserve with which both Lewis and Knox viewed the assertions of "higher critics", it was enjoyable to imagine their own writings being explained in this way!) In fact, I think much of their similarity of thought and expression can be explained by their common cultural and educational formation.
Ignatius Insight: What are some of the key differences between Knox's life and thought and that of Lewis?
Fr. Walsh: Much could be said about this, but I would primarily address myself to two differences: their spiritual journey and their profession. As regards the first, each man underwent a profound conversion. However, in the case of Lewis this was an experience of faith lost and found; he went through a long period of atheism. For Knox, the conversion was from one expression of Christianity (Anglicanism) to another (Roman Catholicism). In retrospect, Knox believed that his profession of the Catholic faith marked the mature expression of what he had always believed. Lewis, on the other hand, experienced two dramatic shifts in his life—from a notional sense of Christian faith to atheism, and then from atheism to a passionate commitment to Christian faith.
Secondly, their lives were taken up with two very different professions, although they both did many of the same things—public speaking, popular writing, broadcasting and so on. Lewis was an Oxford don, whose religious writings were carried out between commitments to tutoring and lecturing. Most of his closest friends were also academics. Oxford and Cambridge were always the backdrops; even though many of his confreres looked askance on Lewis's forays into popular religious thought, they recognized his expertise in his chosen field of medieval and renaissance literature. Knox was a priest, both as an Anglican and as a Catholic: for him, speaking and writing about Christ and the faith was at the heart of his vocation.
And on their lives of faith:
There is much more that can be said (read my book!), but finally I think Knox and Lewis are both great examples of an integrated life. Their intellectual skills, imaginative gifts, humor and insight are held together by their deep love for Jesus Christ and His Gospel. They were extraordinarily gifted men, and we can read their writings with admiration. But they both saw themselves as ordinary, because they realized that, while those gifts may distinguish them from many others, ultimately this did not matter. What mattered was God's love, and in this regard we are all equal. Their great abilities make them inspiring authors; but their sense of their own "ordinariness" makes them enjoyable company.
Congratulations to Fr. Walsh on this publication! And make sure you order your own copy and enjoy.
Thomas More
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