Skip to main content
Cover of A Hebraic Inkling

A Hebraic Inkling

C. S. Lewis on Judaism and the Jews

  • Theology
  • Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
  • Published: 2021

FritzSearch.com earns a commission on purchases made through Bookshop.org links.

Publisher's Description

An apologist, philosophical theologian, and Oxford academic, C. S. Lewis valued the Jewish religious tradition. Underpinning Lewis's corpus is an enlightened, foundational respect for the Jews as God's chosen people. Much of Lewis's mature understanding came from his wife, Joy Davidman (Lewis referred to her as a Jewish Christian), born to American Jewish parents; she was an adult convert to Yeshua Ha Mashiach--Jesus Christ. A Hebraic Inkling, examines this Jewish-Hebrew heritage in Lewis's life and works, by analyzing key texts: theological and philosophical, literary and apologetic, biblical. As a boy and young man he reflected much of the implicit anti-Semitism inherent to the public school educated Edwardian establishment; this is replaced by deep respect when he became a Christian. Along with the Hebrew Scriptures, we examine Lewis on Hebraic poetry (Reflections on the Psalms), the "The Incarnation Nation," the Messiah in the Hebrew scriptures, supersessionism, Israel, his rigorous stand against anti-Semitism, and how Christians are enfolded into the chosen people. With marriage revelation gets deeply personal: a familial witness. When one of Joy's children--David--sought to return to his mother's birth-faith, Lewis moved all to accommodate his wishes and raise him as a Jew, after Joy's untimely death.


Endorsements (2)

Foreword

“I am and have been a Jewish believer in the gospel for close to fifty years. . . . Lewis played a formative role in that faith decision. Like many others before me, I was much taken by the patient and friendly tone of Lewis’s apologetic writing as he adduced the arguments to make his case. . . . C. S. Lewis’s God was integrally connected with both the history and the destiny of the Jewish people, and so was he.”

Alan Shore

“A Hebraic Inkling is the first book-length study focusing upon Lewis’s understanding of Jewish attitudes toward Scripture. In addition to offering a comprehensive view of Lewis’s theological understanding of God’s selection of the Hebrews as his chosen people, Brazier deftly demonstrates the personal influence Joy Davidman had upon Lewis’s mature understanding of Jewish culture, ideas, and traditions. Well-researched, erudite, and articulate, A Hebraic Inkling is a welcomed addition to Lewis scholarship.”

Don King

See something wrong on this page? Report a problem