Lewis’s Intellectual Framework

Abstract Chapter 1 defines a worldview as a unified, coherent understanding of reality and includes the image of an “intellectual framework” for interpreting the key phenomena of life and the world. The chapter then unfolds to explain that Lewis’s approach to worldview thinking was shaped by a handful of key factors—such as his philosophical training, academic background, and literary skill—which he masterfully put into the service of crafting an adequate worldview, a process that eventually focused on classical orthodox Christianity. One important emphasis is that Lewis’s Christian worldview cannot be reduced to Lewis’s own creation but is rather his way of packaging a transcending and enduring point of view—that is, the philosophia perennis. Lewis’s attraction to Platonism and Neoplatonism in connection to Christianity is also critically engaged. The unfolding discussion further reflects on Lewis’s sense of being sought by a God who seeks relationship, which set the stage for his “reluctant conversion.” After becoming a Christian, the culmination of a twenty-year intellectual search, Lewis felt that his greatest contribution and source of fulfillment—indeed, his calling—would be writing and addressing the key issues of his day as well as enduring philosophical, theological, and humanistic topics.