Dr Alister McGrath is a mainstay of both C.S. Lewis scholarship from Oxford University and science and religion scholarship. However, we have never benefited from a work addressing the great thinker’s attitude towards the relationship between science and religion from a theological or historical perspective. Therefore, I am delighted to see McGrath himself rise to this challenge to deliver a deep but highly accessible book addressing the subject. Before reading, I drew a list of the key themes and issues I hoped to see addressed in a book on the topic and was delighted to find that McGrath had pre-empted this by addressing each of them in these chapters. There is nothing significant missing from this book, and those interested in either Lewis or the theme of science and religion will enjoy it immensely.
McGrath’s motif is to write books that are narrow in focus but both broad and deep enough in scope, in the 200-page range. He has always been adept at producing books that are not too long but seem to say more than the sum of the pages. He has succeeded again in this work and, in doing so, has shed light on just how much can be said on the topic of Lewis, science and religion. Lewis is not only an underrated Anglican intellectual but also a phenomenon in framing science alongside imagination in a theological context, and there are very few writers who achieve this. McGrath has opened the Pandora’s box of work that could be explored on Lewis’s value to science and religion thinking, and one is left with questions that need pursuing by the book’s end.
McGrath builds his work around historical and fictional sources. These include Lewis’s research on Medieval and Renaissance science, his engagement with other writers such as H.G. Wells and his fellow Inklings, through to his science fiction writing. McGrath focuses primarily on the same key themes (imagination, science, epistemology) but gives due emphasis to his apologetic contributions too. For particular praise, one notes the focus on The Abolition of Man, a Lewis work that every Christian should read at least once, where Lewis brings some of his fiercest critiques of the misplaced philosophy of the age. The book climaxes with Lewis’s apologetic work drawing on science. Though written the better part of a century ago, it remains relevant despite the progress of science since his time.
McGrath homes in on Lewis’s attitude of drawing on science as well as human experience, spirit and imagination to build the best mental model of the universe. It is very well done. To many, thinking of Christianity as a model, a theory or a grand overarching narrative to frame reality may be alien. We conceive of faith in terms of relationship and in personal terms. However, this alternative viewpoint is the scientific one: that of building models, constructing theories and asking if they best account for the data is a useful way of seeing Christianity. Lewis, as a non-scientist, does this extremely well, and the book presents this clearly. Laypeople will benefit from McGrath’s use of Lewis’s works to showcase Christianity as a grand unifying theory and a mental model.
The strengths of this book lie in its accessibility as well as its depth. Though one can read it in a few hours, it is preferable to take it slowly as McGrath produces a wealth of sources and footnotes for the reader. One need not be a scientist, historian or even a prolific Lewis scholar to appreciate this work. The greatest value of the book lies in McGrath’s teasing out of the role of imagination in conceptualizing science and religion. As a scientist, I shudder at thinking of the role of imagination in understanding science, but Lewis has something valuable to say here. The human element of science can be overemphasized by sociologists and undervalued by the hard sciences, but Lewis strikes an outstanding balance and shows us the benefits of faith.
Lewis is well presented as an Anglican mediator of science and faith, a bridge between scientific modernity and Anglican theology. He is no general Christian apologist but a premier thinker at a crucial time in the history of science, crossing the revolutions in physics and biology that came in the early and mid-twentieth century. Lewis balances reason and imagination with skill and clarity and so builds a bridge for the reader between science and narrative. McGrath allows us to see this easily, showing the liturgical and theological benefits of the Lewis perspective. I wonder if he slightly underplays the ecclesial context in Lewis? There is room for another book here to further examine this.
Overall, this book is beneficial to many and a valuable addition to Anglican scholarship on science and religion. Despite its accessible and popular writing style, it is a deeply researched source for those investigating Lewis or theology and science. I hope it is the first in a wide range of books that can address each of the chapter focuses that are worthy of further attention.
