Hillsdale College Podcast Network Superfeed
Episode: C.S. Lewis on Christianity: Prayer and the Bible
Date: December 17, 2025
Host: Hillsdale College
Main Speaker: Dr. Michael Ward
Episode Overview
This episode explores C.S. Lewis’s understanding of prayer and the Bible, drawing from his personal experiences, published works, and correspondence. Dr. Michael Ward delivers the main lecture, highlighting how Lewis’s journey from childhood faith to mature Christianity shaped his reflections on spiritual practice. Central themes include the distinction between enjoyment and contemplation in religious life, the proper approach to prayer, and the nature and reading of Scripture. The episode also examines key biblical verses and literary distinctions Lewis made regarding the Bible.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
C.S. Lewis’s Early Experience with Prayer
[00:12–03:30]
- Childhood Struggles: As a boy, Lewis saw prayer as a matter of sheer will—believing the right things, composing perfect words, and praying with sufficient effort. This approach burdened him and led to eventual disenchantment.
- “He believed, as a child, that willpower was what was necessary in order to get his prayers answered, and that was very burdensome to him.” – Juan Davalos [00:12]
- Biblical Guidance: Lewis later reflected on the verse Romans 8:26, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness... the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”
- This scriptural insight helped Lewis realize prayer is not about getting words right or exerting willpower, but about faithful participation.
- “So Lewis is saying, don't be burdened by it. Enjoy it.” – Juan Davalos [01:20]
- Enjoyment vs Contemplation: Reiterating a theme from previous lectures, the hosts connect Lewis’s distinction between ‘looking at’ (contemplation) and ‘looking along’ (enjoyment) with prayer, encouraging believers to “put ourselves in the moment” and enjoy God’s presence.
Lewis’s Journey from Skepticism to Mature Faith
[03:30–20:51]
- Prayer as Spiritual Wrestling: Lewis didn’t find prayer easy. After his mother’s death despite fervent prayers, he struggled with “technique,” obsessing over sincerity and vividness, which made prayer “intolerable” and contributed to his adolescent loss of faith.
- Cycle Imagery: Lewis’s early poetry (Spirits in Bondage, 1919) expresses feelings of being trapped in a cycle of hopelessness, reflecting his spiritual alienation.
- Prayer as Posting into the Void: In an early letter, Lewis likened praying to sending letters that never receive a reply, symbolizing his sense of spiritual isolation.
- “The trouble about God is that he's like a person who never acknowledges one's letters. And so in time one comes to the conclusion, either that he does not exist or that you've got the address wrong.” – C.S. Lewis (read by Dr. Ward) [12:45]
- Turning Point: Lewis’s path back to faith was gradual, moving from belief in a distant God (deism) in 1929 to distinctly Christian faith after a pivotal conversation with Tolkien and Dyson on Oxford’s Addison’s Walk, described as a circular path—again invoking the image of escaping a cycle.
- Escape from Selfhood: Lewis ultimately saw Christian faith as escape from the “spell of imprisonment within the circle of his own selfhood.” The “breath” of the Holy Spirit broke this cycle and allowed full participation in divine life.
- “We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.” – C.S. Lewis, from “What the Bird Said Early in the Year” [17:10]
Prayer: Participation in Divine Speech
[22:33–30:00]
- Prayer as God Praying in Us: For Lewis, Christian prayer is not psychological effort but participation in a divine cycle: “As the Christian prays, God speaks to God…by the Spirit that we cry Abba, Father.”
- Invitation to Enjoyment: Rather than endless self-examination or striving for perfect technique, Christians are invited into “the dance”—the participation in the Trinity’s life and love.
- “We may tend to think that our prayers are just a one way street, us speaking to God, but actually they're also God speaking to us and in us and for us.” – Dr. Michael Ward [24:30]
- Imagery from Narnia: Ward draws on “The Silver Chair” to illustrate how God’s calling precedes and enables our own responses in prayer.
- “‘You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you.’ The Christian's faithful response is made within the ring of faithfulness God has cast round us.” [25:34]
- Participation, Not Performance: Prayer is best seen as “the union of wills…our will and God's will, which under grace is reached by a life of sanctity” [23:30], not as “psychological gymnastics.”
C.S. Lewis’s Understanding of the Bible
[30:00–39:00]
- Lewis’s Humility: Lewis confessed he had no “clearly worked out position about the Bible or the nature of inspiration”; he wasn’t a theologian or biblical linguist, but reflected deeply on Scripture.
- Major Distinctions:
- Christ vs. the Bible as the ‘Word of God’:
- Primary reference of ‘Word of God’ in scripture is the second person of the Trinity—Jesus Christ—not the text of the Bible itself.
- “It is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him. Christ is not the Bible.” – C.S. Lewis (via correspondence, 1952) [31:52]
- Failing to distinguish these risks “bibliolatry,” mistaking the means for the divine end.
- Scriptural Variety (Genres):
- Bible is a “library,” not a monolith; genres include poetry, prophecy, parable, biography, apocalypse, etc.
- Literary form determines interpretation: e.g., Jonah as “moral romance” vs. Gospels as historical narrative.
- Not everything requires historical verification; some texts are intended as sacred fiction or myth.
- “The value of some things, for example, the Resurrection, depended on whether they really happened, but the value of other things, for example, the fate of Lot's wife in the Old Testament, hardly at all.” – Dr. Michael Ward [35:15]
- Christ vs. the Bible as the ‘Word of God’:
- Unity in Multiplicity:
- The Bible’s unity is found not in monotony but in diverse genres pointing toward Christ—the hermeneutical key.
- Jesus himself interprets Scripture as pointing to him (Luke 24, Road to Emmaus).
- Practical Approach:
- Lewis urges us to “approach the Scriptures as a library,” and not expect it to provide “ultimate truth in systematic form, something we could have tabulated and memorized and relied on, like the multiplication table.” [36:40]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- On Lewis’s childhood misconception:
“He believed that willpower was what was necessary in order to get his prayers answered, and that was very burdensome to him.”
– Juan Davalos [00:12] - On the purpose of prayer:
“So Lewis is saying, don't be burdened by it. Enjoy it.”
– Juan Davalos [01:20] - On unanswered prayer:
“The trouble about God is that he's like a person who never acknowledges one's letters. And so in time one comes to the conclusion either that he does not exist or that you've got the address wrong.”
– C.S. Lewis (read by Dr. Ward) [12:45] - On escaping spiritual isolation:
“We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.”
– C.S. Lewis, What the Bird Said Early in the Year [17:10] - Divine initiative in prayer:
“‘You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you.’ The Christian’s faithful response is made within the ring of faithfulness God has cast round us.”
– Dr. Michael Ward (paraphrasing The Silver Chair) [25:34] - On distinguishing Christ and the Bible:
“It is Christ himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him. Christ is not the Bible.”
– C.S. Lewis (correspondence, 1952) [31:52] - On Scriptural genres:
“The whole book of Jonah has to me, the air of being a moral romance, a quite different kind of thing from, say, the account of King David or the New Testament narratives.”
– Dr. Michael Ward [34:00] - On the diversity of Scripture:
“We should respect God’s authorial intention and do our best to understand the unity of the Bible as a unity in multiplicity, not a unity of monotony.”
– Dr. Michael Ward [36:00]
Timestamps for Important Segments
- 00:08 – Introduction by Jeremiah Rican and Juan Davalos
- 00:56 – Romans 8:26 and participation in prayer
- 03:30 – Dr. Michael Ward begins lecture on Lewis, prayer, and Bible
- 12:45 – Lewis’s “posting into the void” analogy for prayer
- 17:10 – The Addison’s Walk experience and “escaping the circle”
- 22:33 – Theological meaning of Christian prayer and Narnian imagery
- 30:00 – Transition to Lewis’s view of the Bible
- 31:52 – Christ as the true Word of God, not the Bible
- 34:00 – Literary genres and interpretation of biblical texts
- 36:00 – The Bible’s unity-in-diversity and focus on Christ
- 39:00 – Episode close and encouragement to continue learning
Conclusion
This episode offers a rich and nuanced exploration of C.S. Lewis’s evolving understanding of prayer and Scripture:
- Prayer is a movement from self-focused technique to joyful participation in God’s ongoing communication.
- The Bible is best approached as “a library,” with diverse genres, all intended to lead us into relationship with Christ—the true Word of God.
- Lewis’s personal journey, literary analysis, and spiritual insights collectively invite believers to deeper enjoyment of faith and Scripture.
Listeners are encouraged to embrace prayer as enjoyment rather than burden, to read the Bible with discernment and humility, and to see both as means of entering into the divine dance.