The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis Audiobook By Jason M Baxter cover art

The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis

How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind

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The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis

By: Jason M Baxter
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the 20th century. Many know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world. Here, listeners will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Jason M Baxter (P)2022 Oasis Audio
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Loved it.

Loved Narnia. Love Lewis. Loved this book. Insightful. Deep. Listening again very soon. Narrator was great.

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Excellent

An excellent recording of a fascinating analysis of CS Lewis and his literary influences. Dr. Baxter writes in a fluid and engaging style which is augmented my Vance's sonorous reading.

Any fan of Lewis will find this recording a must-have addition to their collection.


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5 people found this helpful

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Fantastic

This exploration of “C.S. Lewis the medievalist” is so brilliantly done. It’s primarily it’s the tour through Lewis’s favorite literature and the demonstration that medieval cosmology and poetry was constantly in the mind and writings of Lewis that you learn just how much a “dinosaur” (in the best possible way) he was.

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3 people found this helpful

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Beautifully Written

A must read if you want to dive into the mind of the great C.S. Lewis.
Narration is expertly done.

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The Third Lewis

Baxter provides fascinating insights into a little explored side to Lewis. His professional interest and personal passion for medieval literature reveals a greater appreciation for an understanding of the universe and of being that has largely been lost to us since the advent of modernity. What does medieval cosmology have to teach us in a post Copernican age? How did his long-standing love of Dante's epic poetry inform Lewis' classic, The Great Divorce? What literary antecedents inspired his depiction of the heavens in Our of the Silent Planet? Read (or listen) to find out. Vance, as always, is a delight to listen to in his narration of Baxter's book. Highly recommended, though I think I will now have to get a copy of the paperback, as well, for further study!

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Outstanding description that brings the reader into the brilliant and fantastical mind of Lewis

Loved listening to Baxter retell why Lewis so loved nostalgia and the great minds of those who saw the world and humanity’s place in it so differently than the modern view. Filled with hope and beautiful poetic language that grips the mind to think.

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Helpfully makes connections to understand Lewis

Summary: Discussion of how understanding the Medieval world and its books help to understand CS Lewis.

Over the years, I have read an enormous amount by or about CS Lewis. I am not Lewis scholar, I have not been systemically enough and I certainly haven’t read enough to know what the academy thinks of Lewis, but I have read read about 25-30 books by or about Lewis since starting this blog.

One of my complaints about the biographies of Lewis is that they say very little about Lewis’ discipleship, including Devin Brown’s which is about the spiritual life of Lewis. Part of what Baxter is doing in The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis is suggesting that a significant part of Lewis’ discipleship was the result of reading old books. That makes sense to me, although I do think that Lewis’ work with a spiritual director likely mattered to making that real.

What is helpful about The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis is the explanations of the references that are missed when we don’t know about them. I have read a bit of Dante, but I don’t know Dante well. I have never read Boethius and many others referenced here. What I love about reading young adult writer, KB Hoyle, is that she always has references and hints in her books. You can read her books without knowing any of the references and you get a good story. But as an adult reading her books, I get a lot more because I get the references. There is depth to the stories and the depth encourages rereading. That just isn’t the case for a lot of current pop fiction. A lot of pop fiction assumes that the reader isn’t paying attention, doesn’t care about reference and is simply looking for an escape. Reading for escape isn’t bad, I read for escape all the time. But I don’t want to always read for escape. (It is not surprising that KB Hoyle taught at a Classical school before becoming a full time writer and publisher.)

I found The Medieval Mind of CS Lewis very helpful and if you like CS Lewis and want to understand more, you likely will like it as well. But I do have a concern, not about the book as much as the way that classical education is sometimes used. Recently a number of atheist or agnostics have been calling themselves cultural Christians, this trend seems to not be about Christianity as much as it is about shared culture. I get very wary of arguments for shared culture. I think there is real value in retelling fairy tales and old stories and finding traditional archetypes in those stories. That is part of what a good education should include.

But too often that encouragement to understanding western classics is not about understanding history, but to encourage a particular view of western cultural superiority. Doug Wilson is one of the biggest proponents of the Christian Classical school movement and the publishing company that he started and which publishes a good bit of curriculum for the Christian Classical School movement also published Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism. Wilson and Wolfe and many others have been strongly influenced by Rushdooney (Christian Reconstructionist movement) and Robert Lewis Dabney (a proponent of white racial superiority as a requirement for being Christian.) The Christian Classical School movement does not need to promote western superiority, and people like Jessica Hooten Wilson (first link in this paragraph) are actively trying to promote a vision for Christian classical schools that is not rooted in western cultural superiority. But people like Thomas Achord are common in the Christian Classical School movement.

My second concern with the way that understanding references to classics goes wrong is when they are stripped of their history and context. Jordan Peterson’s new book, We Who Wrestle With God, was reviewed by Rowan Williams and Brad East. I have not read Peterson’s books so I am relying on their reviews for context. Peterson’s book is about reading the Torah. But his Torah reading is about finding the archetypal stories and reinterpreting them for meaning. East’s review suggests that he does that by stripping them of their Jewish context and interplay, which even as a non-christian, ends up promoting a type of supersessionism. Rowan Williams (retired Archbishop of Canterbury), mentions similar concerns, but is more concerned about the way that divinity is stripped from the stories. God is simply a concept for Peterson, not a being. That makes sense since Peterson does not claim to be a Christian or Jewish. However, the result of that is that it is simply stories which we place meaning on. And that meaning is limited by our perspective. Williams’ central critique is

“there is a risk of losing the specificity of the narratives, of ironing out aspects that don’t fit the template. Every story gets pushed towards a set of Petersonian morals – single-minded individual rectitude, tough love, clear demarcations between the different kinds of moral excellence that men and women are called to embody, and so on.”

I do not think that Rowan Williams is as wary of the natural law as I am, but I do think what he is pointing out with Peterson is exactly why I am wary of natural law. Natural law can end up being reduced to our feelings about how things are and finding reasons for why things are the way they are. Peterson, unsurprisingly to anyone paying attention, find archetypal reasons for preserving patriarchy in the story of Adam and Eve. And Doug Wilson has previously found similar natural law arguments for Christianity being rooted in patriarchy and hierarchy (“every biblical Christian holds to patriarchy.”)

I do not think that understanding classical influences on Christianity is inherently supporting western superiority or supersessionism. But it can lead to that. I think part of how we avoid that is by paying attention not just to classical influences on Christianity but reading eastern Christian tradition as well. And reading modern authors like Nnedi Okorafor, who are referencing African mythology in similar ways to how Lewis was referencing Greek and Norse mythology. It will take work to keep ourselves aware of ways that we can go wrong, but it is worth it.

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Dante, myth, revelation and revealing in the beauty of the divine

I have always loved Lewis; he brings difficult concepts in the light via story and imagery. Discovering how his ability to do so is rooted in his love of the Medieval poet brought clarity and insight into his writings I had not understood before. I’m inspired to reread Dante with Lewis’s mindset. Also after listening to this book I want to reread and listen again to grasp all the intricacies.

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A wonderful introduction Lewis's influences.

I loved hearing about the books that influenced Lewis. I have so many more books to read now.

The narrator did a beautiful job reading the book.

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Too often neglected

An excellent book focusing on Lewis's scholarly work, especially regarding the "Medieval Model" - the specific subject of Lewis's Discarded Image. But this short book is far more, integrating into its insights various Lewis essays, his love for Dante, all of his fiction, and more. Lewis as a kind of modern Boethius was an intriguing insight! Very well done.

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