C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis

Lived

1898–1963

Era

Twentieth century and after

Where

Oxford and Cambridge

Tradition

Anglican

Mere Christianity, and Narnia

An Oxford medievalist and an atheist until his early thirties, argued back into belief in part by Tolkien, who then spent the rest of his life explaining Christianity to people outside it — first in wartime BBC talks, later in books that have never gone out of print.

Why it matters

Mere Christianity, assembled from those broadcasts, deliberately argues only for what the traditions hold in common, which is why it is quoted equally by Catholics, evangelicals and Orthodox. The Narnia books have sold over a hundred million copies. A Grief Observed, written after his wife's death and published under a pseudonym, is the least consoling and the best of them.

All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.