“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.”
— C.S. Lewis
If you’ve ever wondered why in the world people believe the Bible, then you 
might enjoy this book: If I Had Lunch with Lewis (as in C.S. Lewis), by Alister 
McGrath. If you’ve ever wished you could believe the Bible but just can’t seem to, 
then you might really enjoy this book. If you’ve ever wished you could justify 
your faith to others…well, good luck. We’ll never be able to justify our faith, 
although we can be justified by our faith! Still, If I Had Lunch with Lewis is one 
of the clearest apologetics for Christian faith that I’ve ever read. 
Hey, my word checker just made a dotty red line under “apologetics.” 
If Office Pro doesn’t know what apologetics is, then maybe you don’t either. 
“Apologetics” (according to Wikipedia, but I also agree) 
“(from Greek ἀπολογία, ‘speaking in defense’) 
is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) [but not always,KWA]
through the systematic use of information.” 
C.S. Lewis was an Oxford professor and one of the world’s greatest apologists… 
a man who reasoned his way from atheism as a wounded World War 1 vet 
to adoration of Christ in his mature years. 
It was through reading Lewis’ astute reasoning in Mere Christianity that both
my mother and her sister put their faith in Christ and became God’s children. 
Alister McGrath is another such apologist, but a scholar extant in our generation. 
In fact, McGrath is presently one of the world’s foremost theologians,
a professor at King’s College, London, and a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford. 
Although he was only 9 when C.S. Lewis died (on the same day that President 
Kennedy was shot and killed), and never met Lewis personally, Alister McGrath 
shared with Lewis a birthplace (Belfast), a profession (teaching at Oxford), 
a similar spiritual journey from atheism to faith in the God of the Bible 
and eventually to the triune God who was manifested to us as Jesus Christ.
For more than 30 years Alister McGrath has read and reflected on the works of 
C.S. Lewis, and this compact volume (just published in 2014) gives a wealth of 
insight into the life and thought of C.S. Lewis. If you’ve ever wished you could 
have a crash course on what this wise man believed on such topics as morality, 
the meaning of life,
friendship, 
education, 
pain, 
prayer,
suffering, 
and the hope of heaven, 
then may I recommend that you sit down with Alister McGrath’s latest book 
and join him in having Lunch with Lewis. 
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
(Romans 15:4) 
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
(Romans 15:13)
(The only picture that I took is the one of the book, If I Had Lunch with Lewis, as it sits beside my reading chair. All others were from googling images for C.S. Lewis and Alister McGrath.)
Summer Setting 