Friday, November 22, 2013

A N Wilson, C S Lewis and conversion

On the day that C S Lewis gets his own stone in Westminster Abbey, fifty years to the day since he died, it was interesting to read of A N Wilson's conversion back to the Christian faith, which he wrote about in 2009.

Wilson wrote a biography of Lewis when Wilson was converting the other way. I have not read this biography but according to Amazon reviews, it seems to have been spoilt by Wilson's dislike of Lewis, his desire to undo the hagiographical accounts, and his enthusiastic conversion  to Atheism.

But in an engaging article, Wilson confesses he didn't make a good swivel-eyed atheist and offers this suggestion as to why he turned back to Christianity:

The existence of language is one of the many phenomena - of which love and music are the two strongest - which suggest that human beings are very much more than collections of meat. They convince me that we are spiritual beings, and that the religion of the incarnation, asserting that God made humanity in His image, and continually restores humanity in His image, is simply true. As a working blueprint for life, as a template against which to measure experience, it fits.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

'The existence of language is one of the many phenomena - of which love and music are the two strongest - which suggest that human beings are very much more than collections of meat. They convince me that we are spiritual beings, and that the religion of the incarnation, asserting that God made humanity in His image, and continually restores humanity in His image, is simply true.'

Only a god could have created AN Wilson, and only a god could have created the English language.