C. S. Lewis Plays it Cool (Sectarians Rage)

Throughout his life as a Christian, CS Lewis tried his best to avoid intramural debates among other Christians. He was an Anglican because he was not convinced of the claims of the Roman Catholic Church, but he never went out of his way to attack Roman Catholicism. But some folks are married to sectarianism and cannot abide to have anybody stand outside their particular dichotomy and refuse to argue. Apparently Joseph Pearce is one of those folks.

Pearce's C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church is well-written, but unfortunately poorly-thought-out. Pearce spends the entire book being surprised when Lewis, who was a Protestant, holds Protestant views. Every disagreement with Roman Catholic theology is anti-Roman Catholic bigotry for Pearce. Everything Lewis thought or practiced that isn't typically Protestant is crypto-Catholic and proves that Lewis really wanted to be a Catholic. Everything Lewis ever said or did or any doctrine he held to that was typically Protestant shows Lewis to be a hypocrite and a bigot. . .somehow.

Pearce also has a problem with Lewis's influences. He takes every Roman Catholic that Lewis read and enjoyed and emphasizes them as literary and theological influences. Every person Lewis knew who even considered converting to Catholicism is put forth as a super-influence. But Lewis's Protestant influences are strangely downplayed, especially George MacDonald.

At the end of the book, Pearce goes on a long rant against the Anglican church. Ironically, his complaints about changes in the Anglican church, and his subsequent inability to understand why Lewis didn't leave it, sound exactly like Luther and others in response to changes in the RCC just prior to the Reformation.

Pearce is simply unable or unwilling to take Lewis on his own terms. He wants to measure Lewis by his own terms. As a Catholic, Pearce is used to asserting the authority of his church, but what he fails to see is that he had to decide for himself that the RCC was authoritative, thus making himself the very thing he accuses Protestants (Lewis among them) of being: self-authoritative.