Multi-faceted look at almost-Catholic, C. S. Lewis

Some know C.S. Lewis as a writer of science fiction and children’s fantasy through his popular Space Trilogy or The Chronicles of Narnia. Others know him as the author of some of the most beloved Christian spiritual classics of the past century, including Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce. Perhaps fewer realize that Lewis embraced Christianity only as an adult after a long and circuitous path, first of apathy and later of intellectual inquiry.

This journey of conscience is the subject of The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis, which began a limited theatrical run in November and will soon be available on streaming services. It’s an adaptation of Max McLean’s one-man show, a film version of which already is available for streaming as C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert. McLean is the founder of the Christian live-theater group Fellowship for Performing Arts, and has performed solo stage dramatizations of Bible books as well.

In the new film, McLean portrays the older Lewis as he walks through well-acted scenes from his younger life, breaking the “fourth wall” with narration directed toward the film audience.

The younger Lewis’s intellectual journey is prodded along by friends and colleagues who challenge him, including the author J.R.R. Tolkien, with much of the script culled expertly from his published writings including Surprised by Joy and The Problem of Pain. The film recounts the trials and tragedies of his childhood, his nominally Christian upbringing, his lapse into atheistic materialism, his dalliance with the occult, and his distressingly slow but inexorable turn toward belief in God and, eventually, Christianity. The older Lewis narrates his conversion tale charmingly and movingly, with eloquent questions and discoveries worthy of our meditation.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,” Lewis says, echoing his words in Mere Christianity, “the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” The Most Reluctant Convert serves as a reminder that this is true of us all.

GERALD KORSON is a Legatus magazine editorial consultant and staff writer.