Is Your Lord Large Enough? by Peter Schakel (Book Review)
Finishing with grad school allowed me to get back to some of the important things of life, like sleeping and having a life of the mind. If you know me, chances are good you’re aware that I love the writing of C.S. Lewis. It’s one of those primary facts, like “Lindsay is my wife,” “I’m a Kansas Jayhawk fan,” and “My jump shot is probably better than yours.”
Is Your Lord Large Enough? is the first book on C.S. Lewis I’ve read since the ground-breaking Planet Narnia (review), and it went a long way toward refreshing my mind via the thinking of Lewis, who has kind of served as a mentor in my spiritual life.
What Peter Schakel does is a welcome variation on the usual approach to Lewis, which typically examines his life (biography) or accumulated writing (theology) or apologetics (philosophy). While Schakel is certainly an adept scholar, he deliberatly mines Lewis’ collected works to write a book with strong devotional momentum. Rather than simply clarifying what Lewis meant here and comparing it with what he said there, Schakel ransacks C.S.’s life and books for insights into lived-out theology.
To do this, Schakel poses questions like, How did Lewis pray? What advice did he offer to people struggling with prayer? What help does he extend to people who need help forgiving and loving? What did he say about Heaven, and our expectations of it?
The practical thrust of each chapter gets help from follow-up questions from Schakel that, in my opinion, were really excellent, as opposed to the lukewarm “discussion” stuff that often gets tacked on to books. All told, Is Your Lord Large Enough? was a great restorative for my tired mind and a good kick in the pants for my walk with Jesus. Lewis, a man as practical as he was imaginative, would approve. Highly recommended.
