Of This and Other Worlds

That is actually an issue I have with the man. I think that his essays about Christianity and Culture and Christianity and Literature are the worst stuff he ever wrote, and I cannot read his statement that there is no intrisic difference in merit between the work of Shakespeare and that of a cleaner without feeling a real breath of self-contempt. Culture leads to understanding, and understanding is not only good in itself (and praised all over the Old Testament) but a path to truth, that is to God. Too often, Lewis' God sounds like He is there to say: "Shut up, and do as you're told". Although it is interesting that Lewis himself deprecated the attitude of "be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever", and said that it would be much better to say "be good, sweet maid, and never forget that that involves being as clever as you can". So he understoond the importance of understanding; and that makes his occasional anti-intellectualism the harder to understand.