More and more in our modern and postmodern culture the twin concepts of beauty and truth have been separated both from each other and from their individual connection to the divine source of Beauty and Truth. Even as our public schools move further and further away from their connection to the universal moral code, the world of art (both high and low) embraces an aesthetic that privileges ugliness over beauty, nihilism over form, and radical self-expression over the pursuit of higher truth. As both an effective apologist for truth-based education and as a sub-creator of his own beauty-enhancing fiction, C.S. Lewis is the ideal guide for those who would seek to restore truth and beauty to their proper place and role in our modern world. Sections one and two analyze Lewis' eleven novels, showing how Lewis counters the growing cult of the ugly and helps restore a clearer understanding of the nature of good and evil. Sections three and four turn to Lewis' nonfiction works to assess whatadvice Lewis can give educators at all levels who would steer their students away from chronological snobbery and values-free education toward a true re-engagement with the past. The book concludes with a commentary on Screwtape Letters that exposes what Satan's main temptation tactics have been since the 1960s and a detailed bibliographical essay of books by and about Lewis.



Louis Markos (PhD, University of Michigan) is professor of English and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University, where he holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His many books include From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics, From Plato to Christ: How Platonic Thought Shaped the Christian Faith, The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes, Apologetics for the 21st Century, Atheism on Trial, From Aristotle to Christ, and On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis.



Preface 1



Part I: Restoring Beauty

Chapter 1: Fractured Fairy Tales and the Cult of the Ugly

Chapter 2: The Space Trilogy I: The Beauty of Hierarchy

Chapter 3: The Space Trilogy II: The Beauty of the Normal

Chapter 4: Narnia I: The Beauty of Complementarity

Chapter 5: Narnia II: The Beauty of Clarity

Chapter 6: Narnia III: The Beauty of Light and Truth

Chapter 7: Till We Have Faces: The Beauty of Beauty



Part II: The Good Guys andthe Bad Guys

Chapter 8: The Nature of Good and Evil

Chapter 9: Further Up and Further Down

Chapter 10: Heroes and Villains

Chapter 11: Courage along the Road

Chapter 12: The Heirs of Nietzsche



Part III: Men without Chests

Chapter 13: Losing the Tao

Chapter 14: The Dangers of a Values-Free Education

Chapter 15: From Tao-less Students to Tao-less Citizens

Chapter 16: The Scientist and the Magician

Chapter 17: The Chest-less Tyrant

Chapter 18: The Death of Language



Part IV: Aslan in the Academy

Chapter 19: Restoring the Past

Chapter 20: The Renaissance Never Happened

Chapter 21: Dinosaurs in the Classroom

Chapter 22: Genial Criticism

Chapter 23: The Historical Point of View

Chapter 24: The Professor as Public Educator

Chapter 25: Restoring Virtue



Epilogue: Know Thy Enemy

Screwtape?s Millennial Toast

Lewis on Education and the Arts: A Bibliographical Essay