When was C. S. Lewis born and where was he born?

Clive Staples Lewis was born on the 29th of November 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. He was born to a family that would later experience significant loss and trauma during his childhood.

Why did C. S. Lewis change his name to Jack?

C. S. Lewis adopted the name Jack at the age of four after his family dog Jacksie was fatally struck by a horse-drawn carriage. He chose this name to honor the memory of his beloved pet and answered to no other name for a time.

When did C. S. Lewis convert to Christianity and what influenced his conversion?

C. S. Lewis converted to Christianity on the 22nd of September 1931 after a late-night walk with J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. His conversion was influenced by the arguments of his Oxford colleagues and the writings of G. K. Chesterton.

When did C. S. Lewis marry Joy Davidman and when did she die?

C. S. Lewis married Joy Davidman in a civil ceremony on the 4th of May 1956 and in a Christian marriage on the 21st of March 1957. Joy Davidman died on the 13th of July 1960 from terminal bone cancer.

When did C. S. Lewis die and what caused his death?

C. S. Lewis died on the 22nd of November 1963 at 5:30 pm from end-stage kidney failure. His death occurred at The Kilns in his bedroom and was largely overshadowed by the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

C. S. Lewis: the story on HearLore

Clive Staples Lewis was born on the 29th of November 1898 in Belfast, Ireland, but the name he would carry for the rest of his life was not the one given to him at birth. It was a name he chose for himself at the age of four, inspired by the tragic death of his family dog, Jacksie, who was fatally struck by a horse-drawn carriage. The four-year-old boy, overwhelmed by grief, decided to adopt the name Jacksie for himself, answering to no other name for a time. Eventually, the name was shortened to Jack, a moniker that would follow him through his childhood, his years at Oxford, and into his fame as a writer. This early act of self-naming foreshadowed a life defined by a constant struggle to define himself against the expectations of others, whether they were the rigid English schoolmasters who despised his Irish accent or the atheist philosophers who dismissed his later theological arguments. The boy who became the world's most famous Christian apologist began as a child who simply could not bear to lose the memory of his beloved pet, a moment of profound emotional vulnerability that would echo through his later writings on grief and love.

By the age of fifteen, the boy who had once named himself after a dead dog had become a fervent atheist, yet his hatred of God was as intense as his belief in his non-existence. Lewis described his young self as being paradoxically very angry with God for not existing and equally angry with him for creating a world that was so frail and faulty. This anger was not a quiet skepticism but a raging rebellion against a deity he felt had abandoned him, a sentiment that grew from the trauma of his mother's death from cancer when he was only nine and the subsequent coldness of his father. He spent his teenage years immersed in Norse mythology and the occult, finding solace in the stories of the North and the beauty of nature, which reminded him of the ancient legends he loved. It was during this period of spiritual exile that he developed a deep longing, which he would later call joy, a feeling that would eventually lead him back to the faith he had rejected. The atheist who hated God was not a man who had found peace in his disbelief but one who was in constant, furious dialogue with a God he refused to acknowledge, a state of mind that would persist until his conversion at the age of thirty-two.

On the 15th of April 1918, as a Second Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, Lewis was wounded in the village of Riez du Vinage during the German spring offensive, an event that would fundamentally alter the trajectory of his life. Two of his colleagues were killed by a British shell falling short of its target, and Lewis himself was left depressed and homesick during his convalescence. The horrors of trench warfare, combined with the loss of his mother and the unhappiness he had experienced at school, became the basis of his pessimism and atheism. He was demobilized in December 1918 and returned to Oxford, but the scars of the war remained. The experience of the front line had stripped away any illusions about the nobility of war or the goodness of the world, leaving him with a deep sense of loss and a conviction that the universe was fundamentally broken. It was from this place of profound despair that he would eventually be drawn back to faith, not through a gentle persuasion but through a long, difficult struggle that would involve the influence of close friends like J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson.

The turning point in Lewis's life came not from a grand theological treatise but from a late-night walk along Addison's Walk with his close friends J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson on the 22nd of September 1931. For years, Lewis had resisted conversion, kicking and struggling against the idea of Christianity, but the conversation with Tolkien and Dyson finally broke down his defenses. He records making a specific commitment to Christian belief while on his way to the zoo with his brother, Warren. This conversion was not a sudden epiphany but the culmination of a long process that had been influenced by the arguments of his Oxford colleagues and the writings of G. K. Chesterton. The friendship with Tolkien, in particular, was crucial, as they shared a love of mythology and a deep commitment to the power of story. The two men became the core of the Inklings, an informal literary group that met at the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, where they would read their works to one another and challenge each other's ideas. The friendship that changed everything was built on a foundation of mutual respect and a shared belief in the power of imagination to reveal truth.

In 1956, Lewis married Joy Davidman, an American writer of Jewish background who had converted from atheism to Christianity, in a civil ceremony at the register office on 42 St Giles', Oxford. The marriage was initially a contract to allow her to live in Britain, but it quickly developed into a deep emotional and spiritual bond. Joy was the only woman Lewis had met who had a brain that matched his own in suppleness, in width of interest, and in analytical grasp, and above all in humour and a sense of fun. When she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, the relationship deepened further, and they sought a Christian marriage, which was performed at her bed in the Churchill Hospital on the 21st of March 1957. Her death on the 13th of July 1960 left Lewis devastated, and he wrote A Grief Observed to process his loss, originally publishing it under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk to protect his privacy. The raw and personal nature of the book revealed a side of Lewis that few had seen, a man who was not just a brilliant thinker but a deeply grieving husband. The story of their marriage and his subsequent grief became one of the most poignant chapters of his life, a testament to the power of love and the pain of loss.

From 1941 to 1943, Lewis spoke on religious programmes broadcast by the BBC from London while the city was under periodic air raids, providing a key to the meaning of the universe for civilians and servicemen alike. His wartime radio broadcasts, which were later anthologized in Mere Christianity, were appreciated by many, including Air Chief Marshal Sir Donald Hardman, who wrote that Lewis provided the key to the meaning of the universe that many were seeking. The broadcasts were a response to the chaos and despair of the Second World War, and Lewis used them to present a rational and compelling case for Christianity. He was invited to become the first President of the Oxford Socratic Club in January 1942, a position he held until he resigned on appointment to the University of Cambridge in 1954. The broadcasts were not just theological lectures but a form of pastoral care, offering hope and meaning to a nation in crisis. The voice that emerged from the airwaves was one of clarity and conviction, a voice that would go on to influence millions of readers and listeners around the world.

On the 22nd of November 1963, at 5:30 pm, Lewis collapsed in his bedroom at The Kilns and died a few minutes later, at the age of sixty-four, from end-stage kidney failure. His death was largely overshadowed by the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which occurred approximately 55 minutes after Lewis's collapse, and the death of the English writer Aldous Huxley. The coincidence of these three deaths inspired Peter Kreeft's book Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley. Lewis is commemorated on the 22nd of November in the church calendar of the Episcopal Church, and in 2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, he was honoured with a memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. The man who had spent his life writing about death and the afterlife died in obscurity, his passing lost in the chaos of a nation in mourning. Yet his legacy endured, and his works continued to be read and studied, a testament to the power of his ideas and the depth of his insight.

C. S. Lewis

The Atheist Who Hated God

The War That Broke Him

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The Friendship That Changed Everything

The Woman Who Matched His Mind

The Voice of the War Years

The Death That Was Overshadowed