That Hideous Strength and Till We Have Faces : C.S. Lewis, Evangelism, and the Role of Story

Abstract

C.S. Lewis and other Christians have often struggled with the apparent conflict between culture, or the arts, and evangelism. Lewis, however, concluded that while evangelism is the duty of all Christians, culture could serve as a road to conversion for some, particularly as a praeparatio evangelica. Evangelicals, however, approach culture and evangelism with the desire to use the work as an explicitly evangelistic tool and therefore tend to interpret Lewis's works in such a light. Using Lewis's own conversion narrative, non-fictional writings, and his fictional depictions of conversion in That Hideous Strength and Till We Have Faces, this article explores conversion as a necessary but gradual process in which the non-believer is prepared both imaginatively and mentally, through works of literature, for a more explicit and direct gospel presentation. These works are each inseparable from the influence of literature, fairy-tale, story, and myth, demonstrating how culture may act as a pre-conversion stimulus, but also, as a work itself, may also stimulate such a transformation in the reader.