A Thumbnail of C.S. Lewis’s Troubling Theology...orthodox or heterodox?

Was Lewis an orthodox Christian? On many points of doctrine he was not and it leaves one disturbingly wondering. Lewis's theology is so strewn, it is hard to understand his biblical logic and beliefs on many issues. My personal conclusion is that Lewis was plagued, confused and haunted with his religious entanglement of Romanism, Anglicanism, Darwinism, Arminianism and his deficient view of the authority and veracity of the Scriptures.

I hope before he died he repented.

Here are his theological underpinnings that give voice to those conclusions:

The Bible
1. He espoused Darwin’s theory of human biology forcing a different view of some parts of the Bible than the historic orthodox accepted evangelical viewpoint.

2. Though affirmed divine inspiration, the following statement would seem to categorize Lewis as neo-orthodox in his understanding of the Bible: "Naivete, error, contradiction, even (as in the cursing Psalms) wickedness are not removed [from the pages of the Bible]. The total result is not ‘the Word of God’ in the sense that every passage, in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God…"

3. After researching such preceding material, Edgar Boss concluded: "Lewis does not accept the plenary verbal theory of Inspiration." Similarly, Lewis analyst Richard Cunningham deduced: "Lewis did not believe in the infallibility or the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures."

God and His Work
1. In the matter of God’s creation, Lewis had no difficulty in being committed to theistic evolution. Lewis called man "the highest of the animals." He also acknowledged: "If by saying that man rose from brutality you mean simply that man is physically descended from animals, I have no objection." Elsewhere he said: "What difficulties I have about evolution are not religious…."

Christ
1. The doctrine of Christ’s divinity seems to me not something stuck on…but something that peeps out at every point [of the New Testament] so that you have to unravel the whole web to get rid of it…and if you take away the Godhead of Christ, what is Christianity all about?" In Mere Christianity Lewis includes his belief in "the Virgin Birth of Christ."

2. He was emphatic about retaining the full deity and humanity of Christ as addressed in the early Christian creeds.

Humanity and Sin
1. Concerning the doctrine of "total depravity," Lewis wrote: "I disbelieve that doctrine."

2. Though Lewis believed that “men are sinners” – he didn’t believe in the doctrine of original sin.

Salvation
1. Lewis said, “In the Incarnation we get…this idea of vicariousness of one person profiting by the earning of another person. In its highest form that is the very center of Christianity." Lewis’s apparent devaluing of substitution led Edgar Boss to conclude that Lewis held "the Example Theory [of the Atonement] with a very important modification. Mr. Lewis is a supernaturalist, while the Example Theory is usually held by Naturalists." For Lewis this was the bottom line: "Christ’s death redeemed man from sin, but I can make nothing of the theories as to how!"

2. J. I. Packer spoke of Lewis’s "failure ever to mention justification by faith when speaking of the forgiveness of sins, and his apparent hospitality to baptismal regeneration…."

3. Lewis wrote: “On the Protestant view one could not, and by God’s mercy, expiate one’s sins. Like an accepted lover, he feels that he has done nothing, and never could have done anything to deserve such astonishing happiness. All the initiative has been on God’s side, all has been free, unbounded grace. His own puny and ridiculous efforts would be as helpless to retain the joy as they would have been to achieve it in the first place. Bliss is not for sale, cannot be earned, "Works" have no "merit," though of course faith, inevitably, even unconsciously, flows out into works of love at once. He is not saved because he does works of love; he does works of love because he is saved. It is faith alone that has saved him; faith bestowed by sheer gift.”

4. Lewis was an Arminian and believed you could lose your salvation just as he believed, “"All may be saved if they so choose" (which included people on the bus ride from hell). He held to the skewed doctrine of Purgatory.

5. Beyond the parameters of traditional Arminianism, however, Lewis expected that some non-Christians would be saved. This is most troubling when he said: "Though all salvation is through Jesus, we need not conclude that He cannot save those who have not explicitly accepted Him in this life." On the radio he announced: "We do know that no [one] can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him." Inclusivism is showing its ugly head here.

6. Lewis said: "I couldn’t believe that 999 religions were completely false and the remaining one true." Similarly he stated: "We are not pronouncing all other religions to be totally false, but rather saying that in Christ whatever is true in all religions is consummated and perfected."

7. Lewis believed in baptismal regeneration and The Eucharistic Presence (transubstantiation).

8. As a member in good standing of the Anglican Church, Lewis accepted an Anglican position on purgatory and prayers for the dead, as well as practicing auricular confession of sins. He believed in a substantive reality to heaven and hell but was agnostic about matters such as the precise dimension and duration of hell.