AN EVENING WITH C.S. LEWIS
With David Payne
Christian Heritage London, Friday 2 June
David Payne’s portrayal of the winsome, thoughtful and provocative man of letters has been well received internationally.
American audiences have been thrilled, reviewers have been effusive, and he sold out at the Edinburgh Festival last year. So there was a great deal of anticipation in the sold-out crowd on Friday evening at Christian Heritage London for their one-night-only performance.
Showcasing Lewis’s writings, Payne put together a first-person narrative in which, through biography and anecdote, we witnessed an engaging and moving portrayal of the man. The autobiographical perspective charting his early years and the powerful influence of his loving mother and her early death, and the distant father with whom Lewis had a challenging relationship, served to introduce the evening powerfully.
Gospel resonances
His relationship with his brother Warnie was a recurring and warming theme, with stories of Betjeman and Tolkien shedding light and colour. But his marriage to Joy Gresham absorbed the most concentrated attention, drawing out poignant and articulate reflection among well-chosen and hilarious anecdotes.
Gospel resonances hinged on the issues of satisfaction and beauty known to so many readers of Lewis, and well known in our time from their having been mined in the preaching of Tim Keller, John Piper and others. The message certainly warmed the hearts of believers, and one would hope that the same will be said of unbelievers who had been invited. A memorable gospel moment was the reluctance of Lewis to be considered to be a Christian apologist: ‘more like an apology for a Christian’!
The event was put on by Christian Heritage London, whose ambition is to serve London’s churches, and with The Globe Church, whose Phil Tinker ended the evening with a brilliantly-chosen quote from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which we are told of how the four children react to first hearing the name Aslan: ‘At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in his inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realise that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.’
