William Empson and C. S. Lewis: The Atonement

ABSTRACT Literary critics, Milton scholars in particular, tend to register C. S. Lewis and William Empson as opposites on account of their sharply contrasting views about Christianity. Although Lewis had been an atheist as a young man, he converted to Christianity around 1930. Empson, too, may be said to have undergone an adult conversion around the same time—from the mere atheism of his youth to an increasingly strident anti-Christianity. His critical writings repeatedly describe belief in hell and atonement through Christ's sacrifice as sadistic. Lewis, for his part, enjoys widespread fame precisely for his popular writings in rational defense of Christian theology. Despite their indeed striking differences, there is more common ground between them as literary critics than is generally recognized, even when it comes to Christian theology and specifically the doctrine of the Atonement.