As I am between steps in the publication of a book about C.S. Lewis’s thought, I find myself coming back to my bookshelf with a bit of mental space. I have been following Charlie W. Starr’s work for almost as long as I have been blogging. I reviewed his ground-breaking book Light: C.S. Lewis’s First and Final Short Story, which launched his Lewis Handwriting Chart (LHC). Light and the LHC seemed to come at exactly the right time for me, and I tested out his in the archives over the next few years. In “What Art is For: With C.S. Lewis and Dr. Charlie Starr,” I had an opportunity to reflect upon what I am doing here on A Pilgrim in Narnia in dialogue with other artists-writers-critics. And as I talked about in my last post on “The Other Side of Screwtape,” I worked with him to publish an important piece of Lewis’s papers, the “Archangel Fragment.”

More than anything, I suppose, is that we have become friends. Charlie’s publisher, Kent State University Press, reached out to me for a blurb of The Lion Country, a companion to an earlier intriguing book about C.S. Lewis and myth: The Faun’s Bookshelf The request came at a point in my life where I was not capable of responding well. I read the book and wrote the blurb, but alas, I missed the publication deadline. Unfortunately, I still don’t have the ability to write a full review because there is more I want to say. Ch. 4, “The Apologetical Decade,” is breathtaking in its concision and clarity–though is new research that clarifies the timeline of Lewis’ spiritual journey to Christian faith. There is also something niggling me about one key aspect of Charlie’s argument.

Still, I would like to share how The Lion’s Country is a thoughtful discussion that helps readers dig deeper into Lewis’s life, work, and thought. Thus, for you dear reader, Still, I would like to share how The Lion’s Country is a thoughtful discussion that helps readers dig deeper into Lewis’s life, work, and thought. Thus, for you dear reader, I give you my unblurbed blurb–conscious of the lateness but not conscience-stricken!

The Faun’s Bookshelf by Charlie W. Starr (Kent State University Press, 2022)

Two of the great questions of human thought are tucked into many of the social debates of our generation: “What is really real?” and “How can I know what is true?” These questions were among C.S. Lewis’ central concerns–not just in his philosophical works but also in his literary criticism, popular essays, and world-famous, life-transforming fiction like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters. Charlie Starr engages C.S. Lewis to address these critical questions of “epistemology” in a smart and accessible conversation in The Lion’s Country. Besides providing a resource for those who have been moved by Lewis’ life and works, The Lion’s Country equips everyday readers to resist two cultural pressures to equate “truth” with “reality.” On the one side are those who state that their scientific theory, moral belief, biblical interpretation, political ideology, historical understanding, or conspiracy theory simply is the truth. On the other side are those who reduce all truth and morality to their personal or cultural experience. A culture lost in either pathway will lead to what C.S. Lewis calls the “Abolition of Man,” the loss of our humanity in willing but unwitting slavery. In a winsome style and an earnest commitment to clarity, Charlie Starr offers readers an invitation to a deeper way of living that resists the thin worldviews of the popular imagination.

For more great reading, see these pieces: