C.S. Lewis is More Popular Than Ever

And that could be a bad thing.

Last week, the New York Times ran a story about HarperOne's new C.S. Lewis Bible, which I am a tad wary about.

Mark Oppenheimer, who wrote the story, presents the new Bible with heavy skepticism, taking every opportunity to slight Lewis, including a mis-placed and inconsistent rebuke of Lewis's famous "Liar, Lunatic, Lord" apologetic. All of that aside, I think Oppenheimer brings up a more important idea: Lewis is being sold as a personality cult.

The C.S. Lewis Bible is a simple idea: publish a Bible and throw Lewis quotes from both his published and unpublished works next to verses or sections of Scripture. It's somewhat helpful and I really don't have much against it. Harper is a publishing company that makes most of their money off of the 150,000 Mere Christianity copies they sell every year - they're making another C.S. Lewis buck. I get that.

But there is still a problem.

I get worried about using quotes that are put in places Lewis never intended them to go. It's like putting just "Carry That Weight" on the Best of the Beatles album; It wasn't meant to go there, it was meant to be one piece of the greater work called Abbey Road. And it needs to stay there. In fact, it doesn't really make sense unless it is there.

People will buy this Bible and read more of the Bible and Lewis and that's great. But they won't necissarily get either in its proper context. For example, many people mis-read and mis-interpret Lewis (like many Christian thinkers) by taking a single quote out of an entire work. Lewis is a brilliant writer because his books tell stories, make arguments, and build theologies over an entire piece.

My worry is that people will continue to say, "I love C.S. Lewis," when they really love the idea of C.S. Lewis from the quotes they get from their Twitter feed or C.S. Lewis Bible. This is not the end of the world or the end of Lewis by any means, I just don't think it's very helpful for readers of the Bible or of Lewis.

Lewis wrote great, complete books and we should read them, not cut them up and sell them in different packages.