C.S. Lewis: Christian History Timeline

His Life

Nov. 29, 1898 Born in Belfast, Ireland

1901 Queen Victoria dies

1908 Mother Flora dies of cancer

1911 Ceases to be a Christian while studying at Cherboug House, a preparatory school for Malvern College

1912 The Titanic sinks

1914-1918 World War I

1914-1917 Studies with W. T. Kirkpatrick (“the Great Knock”); during this time he reads George MacDonald’s Phantastes, which “baptizes” his imagination

1917 Begins studies at University College, Oxford; meets Paddy Moore and his mother Mrs. Janie Moore; joins army and is sent to France

1918 Wounded in action and hospitalized in London; Paddy Moore is killed in battle

1919 Returns to University College, Oxford

1924 Begins tutorial work at University College

1925 Elected Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford

1925 G. K. Chesterton publishes The Everlasting Man

1926 Meets J. R. R. Tolkien.

1929 Confesses on his knees in his Magdalen rooms that “God is God”; father Albert dies in Belfast

1930 Lewis and Moores move into The Kilns

1931 Accepts truth of Christianity while riding to Whipsnade Zoo

1932 Warren Lewis retires from the army and moves into The Kilns

1933 Circle of friends called “the Inklings” forms

1936 Meets Charles Williams

1939 First evacuated children arrive at The Kilns

1939-1945 World War II

1940-41 Gives lectures on Christianity for the Royal Air Force

1941 Preaches famous sermon “The Weight of Glory” at the church of St. Mary’s in Oxford

1941-1944 Gives 25 talks on BBC radio; these talks will eventually become Mere Christianity

1942 First meeting of the Oxford Socratic Club

1945 United Nations founded

1945 Charles Williams dies

1946 Awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity by University of St. Andrews

1947 Featured on the cover of Time magazine

1949 George Orwell publishes 1984

1950 Receives first letter from Joy Davidman Gresham

1951 Mrs. Moore dies

1952 Meets Joy Davidman during her trip to London

1953 Joy moves to England with her sons David and Douglas

1954 J. R. R. Tolkien publishes The Lord of the Rings

1954 Accepts Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University

1956 Marries Joy in a legal ceremony

1957 U.S.S.R. launches “Sputnik” into orbit

1957 Ecclesiastical marriage at Joy’s hospital bed; Joy’s cancer goes into remission

1960 Joy dies

Nov. 22, 1963 Dies at The Kilns and is buried in the parish churchyard

Nov. 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated

1973 Death of brother Warren Lewis

His Works

1919 Spirits in Bondage: A Circle of Lyrics [under pseudonym Clive Hamilton]

1926 Dymer [under pseudonym Clive Hamilton]

1933 The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism

1936 The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition

1938 Out of the Silent Planet

1939 Rehabilitations and Other Essays

1939 The Personal Heresy: A Controversy [with E. M. W. Tillyard]

1940 The Problem of Pain

1942 The Screwtape Letters

1942 A Preface to ‘Paradise Lost’

1943 Perelandra

1943 The Abolition of Man

1945 That Hideous Strength

1946 The Great Divorce

1947 Miracles

1948 Arthurian Torso [poems by Charles Williams with commentary by C. S. Lewis]

1949 Transposition and Other Addresses

1950 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

1951 Prince Caspian

1952 Mere Christianity, combining Broadcast Talks (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944)

1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

1953 The Silver Chair

1954 The Horse and His Boy

1954 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama

1955 The Magician’s Nephew

1955 Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

1956 The Last Battle

1956 Till We Have Faces

1958 Reflections on the Psalms

1960 The Four Loves

1960 Studies in Words

1960 The World’s Last Night and Other Essays

1961 A Grief Observed [under pseudonym N. W. Clerk]

1961 An Experiment in Criticism

1962 They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses

1964 Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

1964 The Discarded Image

Posthumous collections includePoems (1964), Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. W. H. Lewis (1966), Of Other Worlds (1966), Christian Reflections (1967), God in the Dock (1970), Fern-Seed and Elephants (1975), The Dark Tower and Other Stories (1977)