Editing C. S. Lewis (section)

==="My Irish life"<!--Note to editors: Lewis described this as "My Irish Life" see the bottom of this section for the title's meaning-->===
[[File:CSLewisPlaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque on a park-bench in [[Bangor, County Down]]]]
Lewis experienced a certain [[Culture shock|cultural shock]] on first arriving in England: "No Englishman will be able to understand my first impressions of England," Lewis wrote in ''[[Surprised by Joy]]''. "The strange [[Regional accents of English speakers|English accents]] with which I was surrounded seemed like the voices of demons. But what was worst was the English landscape&nbsp;... I have made up the quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for England which took many years to heal."{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=24}}

From boyhood, Lewis had immersed himself in [[Norse mythology|Norse]] and [[Greek mythology|Greek]] mythology, and later in [[Irish mythology]] and [[Early Irish literature|literature]]. He also expressed an interest in the [[Irish language]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Beyond the Shadowlands: C. S. Lewis on Heaven and Hell |last=Martindale |first=Wayne |publisher=Crossway |year=2005 |isbn=978-1581345131 |page=52}}</ref>{{sfn|Lewis|1984|p=118}} though there is not much evidence that he laboured to learn it. He developed a particular fondness for [[W. B. Yeats]], in part because of Yeats's use of Ireland's [[Celtic mythology|Celtic heritage]] in poetry. In a letter to a friend, Lewis wrote, "I have here discovered an author exactly after my own heart, whom I am sure you would delight in, W. B. Yeats. He writes plays and poems of rare spirit and beauty about our old Irish mythology."{{sfn|Lewis|2000|p=59}}

In 1921, Lewis met Yeats twice, since Yeats had moved to Oxford.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|pp= 564–65}} Lewis was surprised to find his English peers indifferent to Yeats and the [[Celtic Revival]] movement, and wrote: "I am often surprised to find how utterly ignored Yeats is among the men I have met: perhaps his appeal is purely Irish&nbsp;– if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish."<ref name="On Yeats">Yeats's appeal wasn't exclusively Irish; he was also a major "magical opponent" of famed English occultist [[Aleister Crowley]], as noted extensively throughout Lawrence Sutin's [https://archive.org/details/dowhatthouwiltli0000suti/page/69 <!-- quote=aleister crowley yeats. --> ''Do what thou wilt: a life of Aleister Crowley'']. New York: MacMillan (St. Martins). cf. pp. 56–78.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/magicalworldofal00king |title=The Magical World of Aleister Crowley |last=King |first=Francis |publisher=Coward, McCann & Geoghegan |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-698-10884-4 |location=New York}}</ref> Early in his career, Lewis considered sending his work to the major [[Dublin]] publishers, writing: "If I do ever send my stuff to a publisher, I think I shall try [[George Roberts (publisher)|Maunsel]], those Dublin people, and so tack myself definitely onto the Irish school."{{sfn|Lewis|2000|p=59}}

After his [[conversion to Christianity]], his interests gravitated towards [[Christian theology]] and away from [[Ancient Celtic religion|pagan Celtic mysticism]] (as opposed to [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic Christian mysticism]]).<ref name="Thomas">{{Cite book |title=Simply C. S. Lewis: A Beginner's Guide to the Life and Works of C. S. Lewis |last=Peters |first=Thomas C. |publisher=Crossway Books |year=1997 |isbn=978-0891079484 |page=[https://archive.org/details/simplycslewisbeg0000pete/page/70 70] |url=https://archive.org/details/simplycslewisbeg0000pete/page/70 }}</ref>

Lewis occasionally expressed a somewhat [[tongue-in-cheek]] [[chauvinism]] towards the English. Describing an encounter with a fellow Irishman, he wrote: "Like all [[Irish people]] who meet in England, we ended by criticisms on the invincible flippancy and dullness of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] race. After all, there is no doubt, ''ami'', that the Irish are the only people: with all their faults, I would not gladly live or die among another folk."{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p= 310}} Throughout his life, he sought out the company of other Irish people living in England{{sfn|Clare|2010|pp=21–22}} and visited Northern Ireland regularly. In 1958 he spent his honeymoon there at the Old Inn, [[Crawfordsburn]],{{sfn|The Old Inn|2007|p=}} which he called "my Irish life".{{sfn|Lewis|1993|p=93}}

Various critics have suggested that it was Lewis's dismay over the [[Partition of Ireland|sectarian conflict]] in his native Belfast which led him to eventually adopt such an [[Ecumenism|ecumenical]] brand of Christianity.{{sfn|Wilson|1991|p=xi}} As one critic has said, Lewis "repeatedly extolled the virtues of all branches of the Christian faith, emphasising a need for unity among Christians around what the [[Catholic Church in the United Kingdom|Catholic]] writer {{nowrap|G. K. Chesterton}} called 'Mere Christianity', the core doctrinal beliefs that all [[Christian denomination|denominations]] share".{{sfn|Clare|2010|p=24}}

Paul Stevens of the [[University of Toronto]] wrote an opinion that "Lewis' mere Christianity<!-- not a book title --> masked many of the political prejudices of an old-fashioned [[Ulster Protestants|Ulster Protestant]], a native of middle-class Belfast for whom British withdrawal from Northern Ireland even in the 1950s and 1960s was unthinkable."<ref>Paul Stevens, review of "Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in British Literature" by Christopher Hodgkins, ''[[Modern Philology]]'', Vol. 103, Issue 1 (August 2005), pp. 137–38, citing Humphrey Carpenter, ''The Inklings'' (London: Allen & Unwin, 1978), pp. 50–52, 206–207.</ref>