Lewis thus suggests that ‘the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in’ consists in our knowledge of a moral law, and an awareness of our failure to observe it. This awareness ought to ‘arouse our suspicions’ that there “is a Something which is directing the universe and which appears in me as a law urging me to do right and making me feel responsible and uncomfortable when I do wrong.’ Lewis suggests that this points to an ordering mind governing the universe.”

He penned what is considered the most influential religious book of the 20th century – Mere Christianity.

A towering intellectual figure, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1947 in a story that described him as “one of the most influential spokesmen for Christianity in the English-speaking world.”

Displaying a universal literary talent, he also wrote the seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia fantasy series, which sold more than 100 million copies and inspired a global movie franchise that has generated billions of dollars in ticket sales.

Topping it all, he played a critical role in keeping J. R. R. Tolkien, a fellow “Inkling” at Oxford University, at work on The Lord of the Rings – the epic high fantasy novel (in three volumes) that became the second bestselling novel in history with more than 150 million copies sold and a film series that has generated nearly $3 billion in revenues.

Now, 50 years after his death on Nov. 22, 1963, no Christian writer has emerged to rival this “cultural and religious icon,” says Alister McGrath, the professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at King’s College London and head of its Center for Theology, Religion and Culture.

In his new book, C. S. Lewis – A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet, McGrath wrote Lewis’s prodigious literary works are far more influential today than a half century ago and the Oxford University lecturer and Cambridge University professor is viewed by many Christians “as their theological and spiritual mentor.”

“Engaging both heart and mind, Lewis opened up the intellectual and imaginative depths of the Christian faith like nobody else,” wrote McGrath, a former professor of historical theology at Oxford and a bestselling author of more than 50 books.

Not long before his death on the same day as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lewis remarked that he would be forgotten within five years.

Nonetheless, Lewis – whom U.S. News & World Report once called “God’s Storyteller” – is incalculably better known today.

“Lewis has become that rarest of phenomena – a modern Christian writer regarded with respect and affection by Christians of all traditions,” McGrath wrote. “A generation after his death, Lewis has become a cultural and religious icon for the movement. Some have now even spoken of Lewis as the ‘patron saint’ of American evangelicalism.”

In the 448-page book, McGrath paints a “definitive portrait” of the life of Lewis. After examining thousands of pages of recently published Lewis correspondence, Alister challenges some of the previously held beliefs about Lewis. The Tyndale House book “paints a portrait of an eccentric thinker who became an inspiring, though reluctant, prophet for our times.”

“It’s a teasing subtitle, which tries to make the point that Lewis wrote from outside the centre of both the academy and church,” McGrath told to the source. “He was an Oxford academic who didn’t quite fit the mold – largely because he wrote popular works that gained him a big audience. And he was a Christian layman, who wrote from the margins, not the center of the churches.

“And he was a reluctant prophet, in that he said things that needed to be said – but made it clear that he did so because those who ought to be doing this had failed to do so! He was doing this not because he wanted to but because it needed to be done.”

The book comes amid a series of events commemorating Lewis’ life. Over his lifetime, Lewis wrote more than 70 titles, including works of fantasy, science fiction, poetry, letters, autobiography and Christian apologetics. His best-known works include the Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.

On Nov. 22, Westminster Abbey officials unveiled a Lewis memorial stone at Poet’s Corner, a section of the South Transept of the abbey where statutes of William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens and other greats of English literature are located.

The event is one of several that have taken place this year. More are planned between now and the summer of 2014. This includes the C. S. Lewis Summer Institute (“Oxbridge 2014”) – “Reclaiming the Virtues: Human Flourishing in the 21st Century” – in Oxford and Cambridge, England from July 21-31, 2014; and the C. S. Lewis Tour – “In the Footsteps of C. S. Lewis” – in England and Ireland in August 2014. The conferences and tours are sponsored by the C. S. Lewis Foundation (www.cslewis.org).

Clive Staples Lewis was born on Nov. 29, 1889 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the son of a solicitor and a clergyman’s daughter – Albert and Florence Lewis.

In a letter of 1915, Lewis fondly recalls growing up in Belfast and in a culture “marked by a passion for storytelling.”

“The physical landscape of Ireland was unquestionably one of the influences that shaped Lewis’ fertile imagination,” McGrath wrote. “Yet there is another source which did much to inspire his youthful outlook – literature itself. One of Lewis’ most persistent memories of his youth is that of a home packed with books.”

In April 1905, Lewis, his brother Warren and the rest of the family moved to a new and more spacious home on the outskirts of Belfast – the “Leeborough House” or “Little Lea.”

“The Lewis brothers were free to roam this vast house, and allowed their imaginations to transform it into mysterious kingdoms and strange lands,” McGrath wrote. “Both brothers inhabited imaginary worlds, and committed something of these to writing. Lewis wrote about talking animals in ‘Animal-Land,’ while Warnie wrote about ‘India’ (later combined into the equally imaginary land of Boxen).”

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