C. S. Lewis and Penal Substitution: A Problem Case for New Calvinist Theology

I examine the general goodwill that the New Calvinist movement feels toward C. S. Lewis, and identify what I see as an anomaly in it. I argue that New Calvinists have good reason, based on their theology, to reject C. S. Lewis as an evangelical Christian on account of his doctrine of the atonement,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Anderson, Trevor (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2016
In: The Evangelical quarterly
Year: 2016, Volume: 88, Issue: 4, Pages: 285-304
IxTheo Classification:KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KDD Protestant Church
NBK Soteriology
Further subjects:B C. S. Lewip
B Douglas Wilson
B Atonement
B New Calvinism
B Calvinism
B Scripture
B The Gospel
B WILSON, Douglas
B LEWIS, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963
B John Piper
B PIPER, John
B Penal Substitution
B Liberalism
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Summary:I examine the general goodwill that the New Calvinist movement feels toward C. S. Lewis, and identify what I see as an anomaly in it. I argue that New Calvinists have good reason, based on their theology, to reject C. S. Lewis as an evangelical Christian on account of his doctrine of the atonement, and that their justification for not doing so is unsatisfactory. I engage the work of John Piper and Douglas Wilson as representatives of the movement, and show that in attempting to justify Lewis they misrepresent his beliefs. However, I then argue that they are nevertheless right in their insight that Lewis is 'someone special' who must be a Christian regardless of his problematic beliefs. Rather than engage in attempts to justify and explain away these important theological differences, I suggest that New Calvinists should think of them as anomalies which can be used to critically examine their own theology.
ISSN:2772-5472
Contains:Enthalten in: The Evangelical quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/27725472-08804001