Longing plays a large role in C. S. Lewis’s conversion and writings—be it his poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. This paper examines the role and appeal of longing in the work of Lewis, specifically the longing for Joy, Beauty, and Meaning, by drawing from the longings expressed by a young atheist-Lewis in his first published poetry collection, Spirits in Bondage: a Cycle of Lyrics, and establish such desire as universal and intrinsic, an idea that would underlie his writing for the rest of his life. Lewis is not commonly known as a poet, yet in this unrenowned collection is a narrator conveying the same sentiments echoing in the nonbelieving world in our day—one of despair, darkness, anger, and discontent towards God for the sufferings of creation and the hopelessness of Man, revealing a deep-rooted longing that can only be answered by the God in the Bible. Having experienced this desire, this Sehnsucht, firsthand, and having been converted to Christianity by the satisfactory rational and emotional union of his reason and imagination, longing becomes a central aspect in his appeal to his readers to find their answers for Joy in Christ. His apologetics is, to quote the words of Malcolm Guite, one of “re-enchanting the disenchanted.”
In the examination of this specific aspect of Lewis’s apologetics, that is, his argument from longing, I will first, identify the common longings revealed in Spirits and build my argument for longing’s universal nature by drawing from the works of scholars such as Alister E. McGrath, Andrew Lazo, Joe Puckett Jr., and Peter S. Williams, and address objections raised by Gregory Bassham against this approach. Second, I will briefly evaluate the usefulness of Lewis’s argument in our postmodern age that is resolutely set against objective truth and dry reason, and offer the suggestion that perhaps appealing to innate human desires might be the first-step to re-enchant our generation to consider the truth of Christianity. Third, I turn to his post-conversion works to assess how his later-work answers the questions and accusations he has posted as a young atheist, focusing on the character of Orual in Till We Have Faces as a picture of his own spiritual journey, and ending with A Grief Observed to understand how longing, even post-conversion, needs to be constantly re-enchanted to the end of our lives until we meet God face to face. Lewis’s apologetic approach, rightly utilized, serves as an affective and effective alternate for a person who cannot be reached by the classical and traditionally rationale focused methods of apologetics, and would add richly to our apologetical efforts in reaching our emotionally driven age today.