Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
The Most Reluctant Convert : C. S. Lewis Secondary Studies Series - David C. Downing

The Most Reluctant Convert

By: David C. Downing

Hardcover | 7 May 2021

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $77.00

$67.75

12%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $16.94 with

 or 

Ships in 7 to 10 business days

In his teens, a young man wrote, ""I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them."" After serving in the trenches of WW1, the same young man said, ""I never sank so low as to pray."" To a religious friend, he wrote impatiently, ""You can't start with God. I don't accept God!"" This young man was C. S. Lewis, the ""foul-mouthed atheist"" who would become one of the most eloquent Christian writers of the twentieth century. David C. Downing offers a unique look at Lewis's personal journey to faith and the profound influence it had on his life as a writer and eventual follower of Christ. This is the first book to focus on the period from Lewis's childhood to his early thirties, a tumultuous journey of spiritual and intellectual exploration. It was not despite this journey but precisely because of it that Lewis understood the search for life's meaning so well.
Industry Reviews
“An excellent and robust idea that has been skillfully and convincingly realized. I very much appreciate the elegant and sparing way that David writes, and was dazzled by the powerful speculative ending to the last chapter.”
- Colin Duriez, author of The C. S. Lewis Encyclopedia

“Downing has carefully traced the story of Lewis’s conversion as found in both published and unpublished writings. He balances the suddenness of Lewis’s final decision for Christ with the slow maturing of mind and heart within the context of literature, myth, and European Christian tradition. Especially valuable is Downing’s discussion of ‘The Quest of Bleheris,’ one of Lewis’s first attempts to write fiction.”

- Doris T. Myers, author of C. S. Lewis in Context

“Here’s a book that deals with the most important and neglected aspect of C. S. Lewis’s life—his conversion. Its value can’t be overestimated. It’s really good—no, it's BRILLIANT.”

- Walter Hooper, editor of C. S. Lewis: A Companion & Guide

Other Editions and Formats

Paperback

Published: 7th May 2021

More in Literary Biographies

Wifedom : Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life : Our July Book of the Month - Anna Funder
The Hate Race - Maxine Beneba Clarke

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$20.75

10%
OFF
On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
The Tower and the Ruin : J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation - Michael DC Drout
Always Home, Always Homesick - Hannah Kent

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Night : Penguin Modern Classics - Elie Wiesel

RRP $26.99

$20.75

23%
OFF
Wifedom : Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life - Anna Funder

RRP $26.99

$20.75

23%
OFF
Book of Lives : A Memoir of Sorts - Margaret Atwood

RRP $69.99

$52.75

25%
OFF
How to End a Story : Collected Diaries 1978-1998 - Helen Garner

RRP $59.99

$45.00

25%
OFF
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Memorial Days - Geraldine Brooks

Hardcover

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
Boy : Tales of Childhood - Roald Dahl

RRP $19.99

$17.75

11%
OFF
Wild for Austen : A rebellious, subversive and untamed Jane - Devoney Looser
The Place of Tides - James Rebanks

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
A Life in Letters - John Updike

RRP $95.00

$67.99

28%
OFF
The White Album - Joan Didion

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Mermaids Singing and Peel Me a Lotus - Charmian Clift

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF