Why C.S. Lewis Never Became a Catholic

[Michie]

Was it his upbringing in Belfast, or something else entirely?

The great Anglican apologist C. S. Lewis (my favorite writer) was raised in Belfast. I believe it’s “hearsay”, but for what it’s worth, I once heard Catholic philosopher and apologist Peter Kreeft in a radio interview speak about a discussion between Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame), in which Lewis was asked why he hadn’t become a Catholic.

Lewis is reputed to have replied (paraphrase): “If you had grown up in Belfast, you’d understand and wouldn’t ask me that question.” Tolkien also is reported to have referred tongue-in-cheek to Lewis’ “Ulsterior motives” for not becoming Catholic.

If this is a true report, I think it is at least admirable of Lewis to honestly admit his biases (we all have them), and to acknowledge that they had a sort of irrational but profound effect on his position. Several Lewis biographers allude to very similar themes. The question comes up, among other reasons, particularly because there are reports that C. S. Lewis was very close to conversion to Catholicism especially around 1950.

For example, Joseph Pearce, in his book, C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003) stated:

In summary, Lewis’ religious upbringing seems to have been characterized by an inherited anti-Catholicism, whether implicit or explicit ...

Peter Kreeft in a written interview (Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, October 2003), observed:

Continued below.

Why C.S. Lewis Never Became a Catholic

Was it his upbringing in Belfast, or something else entirely?

www.ncregister.com

 

[jas3]

There is one more notable writing from Lewis on why he didn't become Catholic that wasn't mentioned in the article. From Christianity StackExchange:

The real reason, I take it, why you cannot be in communion with us is not your disagreement with this or that particular Protestant doctrine, so much as the absence of any real "Doctrine", in your sense of the word, at all. It is, you feel, like asking a man to say he agrees not with a speaker but with a debating society.

And the real reason why I cannot be in communion with you is not my disagreement with this or that Roman doctrine, but that to accept your Church means, not to accept a given body of doctrine, but to accept in advance any doctrine your Church hereafter produces. It is like being asked to agree not only to what a man has said but to what he's going to say.

To you the real vice of Protestantism is the formless drift which seems unable to retain the Catholic truths, which loses them one by one and ends in a "modernism" which cannot be classified as Christian by any tolerable stretch of the word. To us the terrible thing about Rome is the recklessness (as we hold) with which she has added to the depositum fidei - the tropical fertility, the proliferation, of credenda. You see in Protestantism the Faith dying out in a desert: we see in Rome the Faith smothered in a jungle.

I know no way of bridging this gulf.

This comes from an unpublished essay, "On Christian Reunion," which can be read in full here: C.S. Lewis on “Christian Reunion” - A Pilgrim in Narnia

 

[Bob Crowley]

I was going to say something along the same lines as I'd previously read the passage which Jas3 posted above.

I believe Lewis (Anglican) and Tolkien (Catholic) fell out at one stage, although I think they eventually got together again. It was probably about Lewis's refusal to become Catholic.

And the real reason why I cannot be in communion with you is not my disagreement with this or that Roman doctrine, but that to accept your Church means, not to accept a given body of doctrine, but to accept in advance any doctrine your Church hereafter produces. It is like being asked to agree not only to what a man has said but to what he's going to say.

To you the real vice of Protestantism is the formless drift which seems unable to retain the Catholic truths, which loses them one by one and ends in a "modernism" which cannot be classified as Christian by any tolerable stretch of the word. To us the terrible thing about Rome is the recklessness (as we hold) with which she has added to the depositum fidei - the tropical fertility, the proliferation, of credenda. You see in Protestantism the Faith dying out in a desert: we see in Rome the Faith smothered in a jungle.

I sometimes wonder (idly) if Lewis might have reconsidered had he lived long enough to see Vatican II complete its course, with its more open approach.

It began on 11 October 1962 and closed on 8 December 1965. Lewis died on 22 November 1963 which was the same day JFK was assassinated, and so his death went almost unnoticed by the media. But Vatican II still had a long way to go when he passed.

 

[Rely_942]

Was it his upbringing in Belfast, or something else entirely?

The great Anglican apologist C. S. Lewis (my favorite writer) was raised in Belfast. I believe it’s “hearsay”, but for what it’s worth, I once heard Catholic philosopher and apologist Peter Kreeft in a radio interview speak about a discussion between Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame), in which Lewis was asked why he hadn’t become a Catholic.

Lewis is reputed to have replied (paraphrase): “If you had grown up in Belfast, you’d understand and wouldn’t ask me that question.” Tolkien also is reported to have referred tongue-in-cheek to Lewis’ “Ulsterior motives” for not becoming Catholic.

If this is a true report, I think it is at least admirable of Lewis to honestly admit his biases (we all have them), and to acknowledge that they had a sort of irrational but profound effect on his position. Several Lewis biographers allude to very similar themes. The question comes up, among other reasons, particularly because there are reports that C. S. Lewis was very close to conversion to Catholicism especially around 1950.

For example, Joseph Pearce, in his book, C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003) stated:


Peter Kreeft in a written interview (Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, October 2003), observed:

Continued below.

Why C.S. Lewis Never Became a Catholic

Was it his upbringing in Belfast, or something else entirely?

www.ncregister.com

I'm almost wondering how bad the Church in Belfast was treating people in Lewis' early years. It's not that Lewis' experience is the typical one, it's just that I know in Galatians 2 (?) we see St. Paul have an argument with St. Fr. Peter over what appear to be ethnocentric tendencies in the then Pope.

Infallibility in behavior depends on the grace and providence of God and the Christian character of the Catholic.