Thoughts on the New Film About C. S. Lewis’ Journey from Atheism to Christianity
This is a movie that all Christians should see, whether or not they have a particular interest in C. S. Lewis. And there’s a fair chance that if they don’t have that interest “going in,” they will “coming out!”
Furthermore, it is a movie skeptics and non-believers should see as well, for they have nothing less than their souls to gain. But it would be best for them to go with a knowledgeable Christian with whom they can discuss what they have seen.
The title, “The Most Reluctant Convert,” comes from a book by David C. Downing published in 2004 that traces Lewis from childhood through his final conversion to Christianity in 1933. From the book it was made into a stage play by Max McLean who performed it widely under the auspices of the Fellowship for Performing Arts (FPA) that he himself had established in 1992 in New York City as an outlet for Christian art. The company has produced well-regarded renditions of two of Lewis’ more notable books, The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters, in addition to Shadowlands, a stage play that depicts Lewis’ relationship with Joy Davidman Gresham, the woman whom he eventually married.
As the pandemic took hold and opportunities for live performances dwindled, the FPA looked for other outlets and settled on making “The Most Reluctant Convert” stage production into a movie. They hired British director Norman Stone who had done Shadowlands among other relevant productions. Together, MacLean and Stone conceived of the movie and wrote the screenplay.
I say “wrote” advisedly, because there are few words in the script that were not from Lewis’ own pen. And MacLean, having acted the part for many years, probably knew most of them by heart already! His and Stone’s collaboration did lead to one important decision — that of making the movie almost about making the movie itself. Neither wanted to leave the stage aspect of the production behind, and so the movie begins on the set and introduces many of the actors whom viewers will later meet in the film. There’s a great deal of “hustle and bustle” with cameramen, lighting and sound people, makeup and costume staff all swirling around when finally the camera focuses on MacLean/Lewis, the clapperboard “claps,” and we are off into the movie. It’s all done very effectively.
With MacLean’s long familiarity with Lewis, his mastery of the material is simply “pitch perfect.” I gather that other renditions of Lewis have shown him to have a more argumentative side, but here he is someone with whom you would love to share a drink in the pub. And oddly enough, at one point Lewis enters a pub, talking to you personally through the camera, and invites you for a beer. If you didn’t feel like you were being talked to up to that point, you will in the pub!
Two other actors share the responsibility of portraying Lewis: one in his childhood years, and the other as a young adult. The central character of the adult Lewis, although present in almost every scene, has a role solely as commentator and narrator. But what a narrator! Every tone of voice, every expression, the pace of the drama, all work together to weave these separate vignettes into a compelling story.
Lewis is, of course, known for having abandoned his childhood and family faith fairly early in life mostly in response to the death of his mother from cancer. His father, devastated by the loss, became all-the-more strict and overbearing. So Jack and his older brother Warnie made the best of it as a kind of team. Boarding school was no better, and home had lost its attraction for Lewis save for his brother’s presence.
Lewis was sent off to Surrey, England in his mid-teens to board with and be tutored by William Thompson Kirkpatrick, known to generations now as “The Great Knock”. Lewis’ father thought it would be good for him, and he was ever so right. Lewis would tell you that his mind and his way of thinking was forever influenced by both the content he absorbed but also by the sharpness he developed in his analytical and rhetorical skills in hours of disputation with his tutor. Kirkpatrick trained him to treat facts as primary and opinions as unworthy of a properly ordered mind.
There were many stages in Lewis’ development. The major stopping points were his youthful turn to atheism, his decision at age 31 to become a theist, and finally to Christianity. First came his recognition that his atheistic materialism could not be responsible for what we see in the abilities and resources that make up human personhood. He came to the conclusion that these could never have been the product of a purely materialistic process of “atoms crashing together in skulls.” That got him to theism, but he still harbored resistance to recognizing Jesus as Lord.
Several things brought about this second momentous change of heart and mind. One, according to the movie, came from his Oxford friend and colleague J. R. R. Tolkien who first proposed to Lewis what we today call “The Great Trilemma”: that Jesus was either “Liar, Lunatic or Lord.” The one thing he could not be was simply a great moral teacher.
But equally critical to his acceptance of Christ as Lord came through a casual discussion of historical oddities with T. D. “Harry” Weldon, a Magdalen College lecturer and a hardcore cynic who remarked that there was good evidence supporting the historicity of the Gospels. “Rum thing,” Weldon said, “that stuff of Frazer’s about the Dying God. It almost looks as if it really happened once.” (Note: Weldon was referring to The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer, a study of comparative religions first published in 1890 based on the idea that many religions focused on the worship of the periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Hence Weldon’s unexpected observation.)
Lewis was astonished by Weldon’s comment, and he resolved to investigate the evidence for himself. Rereading and ruminating on the Gospels, he concluded that they were not mythical legends but historical narratives. Impulsively, he began attending church, and two years later he became a member.
The movie ends with the thirty-five-year-old Lewis attending and participating in a Christmas service in a local church. Our narrator walks into the back and sits down, taking in the view of his young self in submission to God. After a few well-chosen words in summary from Lewis, the cameras pan outside to Lewis’ grave, a hint that we are about to reenter the “present.” And when the elder Lewis leaves the church he walks out into the movie set with all its hustle and bustle. At that point the credits roll. It was wonderful.
My only critique might be that most modern Americans don’t recognize the damage that materialist atheism has done to us as individuals and as a culture. We don’t understand what is under attack. Most modern Americans probably take materialism to mean simply that we are products of natural forces and perhaps there is no God. As if that’s not bad enough.
There are academics, serious scholars at major universities, teaching that there is no such thing as free will, and that self-consciousness is a figment of our brains. That leads to the conclusion that there is no meaning and even no clear standard for right and wrong, let along truth.
In resisting this, Lewis was farsighted and effective. But I, for one, would like to have seen his contribution credited more specifically. But perhaps that’s why I don’t make movies. This was about HIS life and HIS conversion. And in that regard it hit every right note. He did become, after all, the greatest defender of Christianity in the twentieth century.
Just FYI, the film originally came out on a one-day release in selected theaters on November 3rd. Tickets were difficult to obtain as theaters quickly sold out. Finally, however, additional opportunities showed up for November 13th. But perhaps the notice was too short as when I saw it at the Atlantic Station Theater in Atlanta there were all of seven people in the audience. What a lost opportunity.
Presumably the film will become available as a DVD, or else it will show up in other media channels. It certainly deserves wider distribution. As an informative and inspiring work of art, I truly hope it is destined for a long and productive life.
