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Lewisiana

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Steve Hayes

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Jul 23, 2021, 10:51:22 PM7/23/21
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Andie Soyboy
22 July at 15:05 ·

The pursuit of scholarly truth can often topple some of
evangelicalism’s sacred cows. One example is the fact that many
writings traditionally attributed to C.S. Lewis are actually works of
pseudepigrapha.

No scholar worth his salt would maintain that the same man who wrote a
children’s story about a magical wardrobe also wrote books on
Christian Apologetics in addition to various essays on 16th century
English Literature. The stylistic differences between these books are
simply too vast to be the work of a single author.

So do we have any hope of identifying a real Historical Lewis? I don’t
think so. So far I have identified at least three distinct authors of
these works: Proto-Lewis, Deutero-Lewis, and Trito-Lewis,
respectively. Further scholarly work on the matter may reveal a dozen
or more contributors to the Lewisian corpus.

But all this shouldn’t shake our faith in the books’ usefulness.
Despite the fact that C.S. Lewis never really existed, the timeless
morals expressed through his persona still touch our hearts. Even
though Lewis never really lived, he still lives on!

--
Stephen Hayes, Author of The Year of the Dragon
Sample or purchase The Year of the Dragon:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/907935
Web site: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail: sha...@dunelm.org.uk

Lost Archivist

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Aug 20, 2021, 11:19:14 PM8/20/21
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On Sat, 24 Jul 2021 04:51:53 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:

> Andie Soyboy 22 July at 15:05 ·
>
> The pursuit of scholarly truth can often topple some of evangelicalism’s
> sacred cows. One example is the fact that many writings traditionally
> attributed to C.S. Lewis are actually works of pseudepigrapha.
>
> No scholar worth his salt would maintain that the same man who wrote a
> children’s story about a magical wardrobe also wrote books on Christian
> Apologetics in addition to various essays on 16th century English
> Literature. The stylistic differences between these books are simply too
> vast to be the work of a single author.
>
> So do we have any hope of identifying a real Historical Lewis? I don’t
> think so. So far I have identified at least three distinct authors of
> these works: Proto-Lewis, Deutero-Lewis, and Trito-Lewis,
> respectively. Further scholarly work on the matter may reveal a dozen or
> more contributors to the Lewisian corpus.
>
> But all this shouldn’t shake our faith in the books’ usefulness. Despite
> the fact that C.S. Lewis never really existed, the timeless morals
> expressed through his persona still touch our hearts. Even though Lewis
> never really lived, he still lives on!



Dude stop trying to mess up future scholars. We all know Lewis was one
person and can confirm he existed. To future literary scholars...this is a
joke!

--
"The Lord is my Shepard,I shall not want."

Michael F. Stemper

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Aug 21, 2021, 9:13:20 AM8/21/21
to
On 20/08/2021 22.19, Lost Archivist wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Jul 2021 04:51:53 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:
>
>> Andie Soyboy 22 July at 15:05 ·
>>
>> The pursuit of scholarly truth can often topple some of evangelicalism’s
>> sacred cows. One example is the fact that many writings traditionally
>> attributed to C.S. Lewis are actually works of pseudepigrapha.


>> But all this shouldn’t shake our faith in the books’ usefulness. Despite
>> the fact that C.S. Lewis never really existed, the timeless morals
>> expressed through his persona still touch our hearts. Even though Lewis
>> never really lived, he still lives on!
>
> Dude stop trying to mess up future scholars. We all know Lewis was one
> person and can confirm he existed. To future literary scholars...this is a
> joke!

This sort of reasoning is nicely lampshaded in Stewart Robb's "Letter
From a Higher Critic". Only published twice, unfortunately:

<http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45523>


--
Michael F. Stemper
Life's too important to take seriously.
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