One of my favorite authors has always been C. S. Lewis. I might offend some by saying this, but of all his books, the Narnia Chronicles are my least favorite. Many of his other works were much more meaningful to me when I read them, and continue to be so.
However, with that said, his imaginative work in all of his writings is extraordinary. In fact, his imagination was extraordinary. From his poetic writings, before he became a Christian, to his deepest theological efforts, the power of his imagination shines through all of them.
That is the focus of The Surprising Imagination Of C. S. Lewis, by Jerry Root and Mark Neal. In this book, the authors take a thorough look at all of Lewis’ writings, and examine the different forms of imagination used in each of them.
C. S. Lewis found that there are many facets to the imagination, and he made use of almost all of them in his writings. From the baptized imagination he used in Surprised by Joy, to the shared imagination found in Mere Christianity, to the penetrating imagination and the material imagination found in the Narnia stories, and more, Lewis took these different aspects of the imagination and utilized them to a tremendous extent.
