Tumnus’s Bookshelf:The NarniaFans Book reviews. “A Year With CS Lewis.”

Hey everybody! Welcome back to Tumnus’s Bookshelf where we review any and all books by and about CS Lewis and the world of Narnia. Today we will be looking at the devotional book “A Year With CS Lewis” edited by Patricia Klein.

Title: A Year With CS Lewis

Author: CS Lewis

Editor: Patricia Klein

Publisher: HarperOne

ISBN-10: 0060566167

ISBN-13: 978-0060566166

Review

Collecting brief excerpts form some of CS Lewis’s most profound works, A year with CS Lewis is a handy devotional guide providing 365 day by day readings from one of the 20^th centuries Greatest arm chair theologians, CS Lewis.

Summary:

CS Lewis’s books make for the perfect companions to read during a devotional time, so it is only fitting that some excerpts form his own writings be collected into a handy, concise devotional book. A Year With CS Lewis is one of two devotional books out there containing his writings, and it is a very wonderful collection. Best of all, unlike many daily devotional books, there is an extra reading for the month of February to be read on Leap Day when that fourth year rolls around.

The daily readings come from Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain, A Greif Osberved, The Weight of Glory , miracles and Abolition of Man. Of his fiction, only The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce faces are represented, perhaps because they have far more direct theological insights for a devotional guide then say the Narnian Chronicles, the Space Trilogy or Till We Have Faces. While the absence of his fiction writings, especially Narnia, may sadden many fans, in a way it reminds readers that there was much more to Lewis then just Narnia.

Many of Lewis’s more challenging essays are also featured in this collection, and that is one of the things that make it so great .instead of just throwing readers a few soft balls, the editors wisely chose to make this collection as thought provoking as Lewis’s texts themselves. After all, devotional time should not just be about happy warm feelings, but also broadening your mind for Christ and for thinking deeply about Him and His ways.

Also editor Patricia Klein includes on certain days trivia pertaining to CS Lewis. For fans wondering what day he was born, the year a specific book by CS Lewis was published or when he married Joy or even when Charles Williams, Owen Barfield or JRR Tolkien were born this book includes all of those facts.

For the most the excerpts appear as is. Every so often material is truncated, but it doesn’t damage the overall flow of the point of the expert and in fact helps it for its devotional purpose. The point and the message of Lewis’s writing is still intact and it will only enhance the readers devotional experience. Klein has done an exceptional job both to CS Lewis and his fans in putting this collection together. I have used my copy for the past nine years and I am sure for other readers as well that it will become a treasured and valuable part of their daily quiet times.

Five out of Five Shields