Why C.S. Lewis1 Never Goes Out of Style

By Aaron Cline Hanbury

C.S. 刘易斯

Last November marked the 50th anniversary of a bizarre day in history. Three men of significant importance each died on November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy, author Aldous Huxley, and author and scholar C.S. Lewis.2. John F. Kennedy： 约翰·菲茨杰拉德·肯尼迪，美国第35任总统。1963年11月22日在达拉斯遇刺身亡；Aldous Huxley： 阿尔多斯·赫胥黎，英国作家，著有《美丽新世界》，是20世纪最经典的反乌托邦文学作品之一。

用c*(x)表示一个面或一个顶点x赋值规则转移后的结果, c(x→y)表示从x到y的所有权值。 下面将验证对所有的V∪F,都有c′(x)≥0。因此矛盾。

On that day, the developed world (appropriately) halted at the news of the assassination of the United States’ 35th president.3. halt： 停止，暂停；assassination： 暗杀，行刺。Huxley’s death, meanwhile, made the front page of The New York Times the day after Kennedy’s coverage4. coverage： 新闻报道。began. The news of Lewis’s death, though, didn’t appear in print until Nov. 25, and it appeared in the normal obituary5. obituary： 讣告，讣闻。section of The New York Times weekday paper. At an earlier point in his life, Lewis enjoyed vibrant community with family, friends, and colleagues displayed famously in his writers’ club, the Inklings—which included, among others,J.R.R. Tolkien.6. 刘易斯年轻的时候从不孤单，身边围绕着他的家人、朋友，还有那些他的名为“墨迹”的作家俱乐部里举足轻重的同仁们，其中包括J.R.R.托尔金。J.R.R.Tolkien： 约翰·罗纳德·瑞尔·托尔金，牛津大学古英语学家，著名作家，1937年出版《霍比特人》，其后又耗时16年完成了魔幻小说巨著《魔戒》三部曲。By the time Lewis died, however, many of those relationships had fizzled out7. fizzle out： 逐渐消失。, and only a handful people even knew about Lewis’s funeral in time to attend. In one of the new biographies of Lewis by Alister McGrath(the now-definitive C.S. Lewis: a Life), the writer lists eight attendees, and assumes others, at the funeral for Lewis.8. biography： 传记；attendee： 出席者，参加者。No immediate family members were present—his brother, Warnie, stayed in bed, too drunk and distraught to venture to the ceremony.9. 他的直系亲属一个都没到场——他的兄弟沃尼当时躺在床上烂醉如泥、神志不清，根本无法出席葬礼。immediate family member： 直系亲属；distraught： 神志不清的，心烦意乱的。Lewis’s stepson, Douglas Gresham, represented the family at the understated memorial.

C.S. 刘易斯

近年来随着《哈利·波特》系列和《魔戒》三部曲系列的流行风潮席卷全球，我们认识了J.K.罗琳和J.R.R.托尔金。在这股魔幻、神话、史诗的风潮下，同样火爆的还有《纳尼亚传奇》。你是否了解它的作者C.S路易斯呢？你是否知道罗琳在写《哈利·波特》时，曾有意向路易斯致敬，也正是路易斯帮助托尔金完成了《魔戒》三部曲呢？如今路易斯作品的光芒已经穿越时空，无论是追求创新奇炫的好莱坞还是坚守深厚内涵的独立书店，到处都有路易斯的影子，他的作品得到了所有人的认可，成为西方人文文化影响世界的强大力量。谁能想到，这样一位伟大的作家在当年却并未得到人们重视，甚至连他的葬礼都是门庭冷落。时间会沉淀经典，证明什么才是文字和文化的巨大价值。

But amid all of the attention to these three men during the past year—new biographies, films, conferences, magazines, articles—the legacy of Lewis stands out in relation to both those of the 35th U.S. president and of the prescient Brave New World author.10. 纵观过去一年三个人受关注的程度——新传记、电影、会议、杂志、文章——刘易斯的精神遗产与第35届美国总统和有预见力的《美丽新世界》作者比起来要丰富耀眼得多。prescient： 未卜先知的，预知的。

In honor of his achievements as a writer, officials of Westminster Abbey announced that they will honor Lewis in the prestigious Poets’Corner alongside literary figures such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Dickens.30. Westminster Abbey： 威斯敏斯特大教堂，坐落在伦敦泰晤士河北岸；Poets’Corner： 威斯敏斯特教堂内的“诗人之角”，因埋葬 14 世纪诗人乔叟和文艺复兴时期诗人斯宾塞而得名。后来，英国著名的文学家、艺术家，如狄更斯、哈代等都在这里建有墓室或墓碑。Geoffrey Chaucer：杰弗雷·乔叟(1343—1400），英国文学之父，被公认为中世纪最伟大的英国诗人，也是首位葬在“诗人之角”的诗人；Charles Dickens： 查尔斯·狄更斯（1812－1870），19世纪英国最伟大的小说家之一，代表作包括《双城记》、《远大前程》等。The memorial stone displays Lewis’ famous summary of his faith: “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen. Not only because I can see it but because by it I can see everything else.”

Lewis helped Tolkien finish perhaps the best work of literature from the century, “The Lord of the Rings”; another biographer suggests the “Harry Potter” series is kind of homage12. homage： 崇敬，敬意。to the “Narnia” stories.

In a culture that views the world more as charcoal29. charcoal： 木炭画，此处指并非黑白分明的。than black-andwhite, Lewis’s vision of the world speaks to a whole new mind of the 21st century as well as his native 20th.

C.S. 刘易斯和J.R.R. 托尔金

电影《指环王：双塔奇兵》海报

Lewis, a native of Belfast, Ireland, taught English literature at Oxford and Cambridge during the middle of the 20th century. Beginning in his teenage years and up through his early career, he was an atheist13. atheist： 无神论者。—but an uncomfortable one.In 1931, he became convinced that the Christian faith was more than a series of rational deductions; that it offered him a narrative that not only answered intellectual questions, but also satisfied his spiritual longings—what he described as the “god-sized hole” in his life.14. 从1931年起，他开始深信基督教义并不仅仅是一套基于理性的推理演绎；其提供的叙述不仅回答了思想上的疑问，而且满足了他的灵性上的渴求——他将这种渴求比喻为他人生中“唯有神能够填满”的空洞。From that point on, he dedicated a significant portion of his energies to this idea that Christianity transcends facts and experience—Lewis believed Christianity wedded facts and experience in a deeper logical and emotional reality.15. 从那时起，刘易斯绝大部分时间致力于一个想法，即基督教信仰是超越事实与经历之上的——刘易斯相信基督教信仰是在更深层的逻辑和情感实际中将事实和经历结合起来。dedicate： 奉献，致力于；transcend： 超越；wed： 结合，交融。

由于联合制动系统所具有的高低速均可有效制动的优点，自主研制的煤层气钻机车上使用了基于该方法所组成的速度控制系统，该系统由发动机ISM440(含发动机制动)、自动变速箱(串联液力缓速器)和控制器三部分组成，并在某航天公路试验场进行了车辆性能综合试验，如图5所示，试验状态：车辆满载总质量60 t，坡度10%，距离2 000 m。

Lewis’s writing flowed in three streams: scholarly works, defenses of the Christian faith, and fiction. His canon16. canon：（作家的）真作（集），书目。, in addition to hundreds of essays and short writings, consists of more than 30 books, including widely celebrated criticisms on English literature and widely read works of fiction, poetry, and children’s stories. Today, several of these titles are familiar even to those with only a cursory17. cursory： 粗略的，浅薄的。interest in literature—such as “The Chronicles of Narnia” (which includes 1950’sThe Lion,the Witch, andthe Wardrobe), 1956’sTill We Have Faces, 1952’sMere Christianityand 1942’sThe Screwtape Letters.18.Till We Have Faces：《裸颜》；Mere Christianity：《返璞归真》；The Screwtape Letters：《地狱来信》。以上三部作品均是刘易斯基督教思想的代表作品。

This vision for a Christian lens to the world permeates31. permeate： 渗透，弥漫。Lewis’s stories, because, for him, the best stories hinted at the deep structures of reality, helping humanity in the journey for truth and significance. Good stories point to an ultimate story. And as Farrer—but few else—might have predicted, Lewis appears more relevant today than ever.

对于广大网球运动员的专项体能训练，应确保他们训练内容与实际比赛需求相吻合，必须要结合具体训练目标，只有这样，才能真正发挥出专项体能训练的积极作用。假设专项体能训练内容与实际网球比赛规定相违背，将会直接并且严重地影响运动员的比赛成绩。例如，在实施耐力方面的训练时，应尽可能确保在网球训练场地、有球拍和球的状况下进行，这样能够加强集体训练项目与网球运动员真实技术水平之间的紧密性，同时还能让运动员感受到真实比赛的氛围。在日常专项体能训练中，应让网球运动员体会到真实比赛中所需的强度、力度以及节奏，这将能够充分锻炼运动员临场发挥的能力。

And Lewis’s stories seem just as comfortable in Hollywood as they are in a corner bookstore. In recent years, three stories of “The Chronicles of Narnia” appeared as major film adaptations20. adaptation： 改编。, with a fourth in development.And other films based on his life and works have materialized, too—such asShadowlands, which casts Anthony Hopkins as Lewis and tells the story of his marriage to Joy Davidman, and a forthcoming film version ofThe Great Divorce, currently in the development stage.21. 基于他生平和作品的电影还有很多，比如《影子大地》，该片讲述了刘易斯和乔伊·戴维德曼的婚姻生活，由安东尼·霍普金斯饰演刘易斯，还有电影版的《梦幻巴士》，该片目前正处于后期制作阶段，即将上映。

Last November, a writer forThe Guardiansuggested that Huxley was actually the more “visionary” of the two writers who died on Nov.22, 1963. He points out specifically how Huxley’sBrave New Worldhints at today’s social networking websites that exchange services for members’ “intimate details.” He writes: “So, even as we remember C.S.Lewis, let us spare a thought for the writer who perceived the future in which we would come to love our digital servitude32. servitude： 劳役，奴役。.” Still, he admits that, compared to Lewis, “Aldous Huxley never attracted that kind of attention.”

Lewis’s works also appear onstage:Shadowlandsbegan as television film and later turned into a play, and the theater production ofThe Screwtape Letterswill continue its current tour in California recently.

Traces of Lewis even appear in the works of other writers. Most significantly, he helped Tolkien finish perhaps the best work of English literature from the century, “The Lord of the Rings”; McGrath calls Lewis the “chief midwife23. midwife： 促成因素，催生因素。” to the stories. Another biographer suggests that J.K.Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series includes seven volumes as a kind of homage to the “Narnia” stories. Rowling’s character Dudley sounds and acts like Lewis’s Eustace Scrubb (from “The Chronicles of Narnia” series), and in an interview with theSydney Morning Herald, Rowling said she found herself “thinking about the wardrobe route to Narnia when Harry is told he has to hurl24. hurl： 猛投，用力冲向。himself at a barrier in Kings Cross Station.” Lewis’s work also shapes, axiomatically,the stories of Christian writers like N. D. Wilson (also the screenwriter forThe Great Divorceadaptation) and Andrew Peterson, and has also influenced writers like Lloyd Alexander—who said, “In our times, every fantasy realm must be measured in comparison with ‘Narnia’.”25.刘易斯的作品同样影响了诸如基督教作家N.D.威尔逊（《梦幻巴士》编剧）和安德鲁·皮特森的作品，同样受其作品影响的作家劳埃德·亚历山大曾作出如是评价，“在我们所处的时代，‘纳尼亚系列’为魔幻作品树立了标杆。”axiomatically：不言自明地；N.D.Wilson： 内森·大卫·威尔逊，美国职业作家，著有《一百个橱柜》三部曲；Lloyd Alexander： 劳埃德·亚历山大，当代美国作家，著有多部奇幻小说和青少年读物，其中《高大的国王》曾获得美国纽伯瑞儿童文学奖。

One of the few men who did attend Lewis’s funeral was the English theologian and philosopher Austin Farrer. In his eulogy that day, Farrer effectively described the combination of logic and emotion—of fact and imagination, of prose and poetry—that made Lewis’s writings resonate with many demographics of readers.26. 法雷尔当天的悼词精准扼要，他认为正是逻辑与情感、事实与想象和散文体与诗歌体的结合使刘易斯的作品能让众多读者产生共鸣。Farrer said, “There lived in his writings a Christian universe that could be both thought and felt, in which he was at home and in which he made his reader at home.” In other words, readers found—andstill find—that Lewis narratives both answer intellectual questions and satisfy spiritual longings; Lewis demonstrates the importance of images and stories for the life of faith, without forgetting the necessity of reasoned, coherent belief, as well.

But Lewis’s appeal clearly reaches further than his Christian audience and draws appreciation from adherents of other faiths and the nonreligious.27. appeal： 感染力，吸引力；adherent：拥护者，追随者。There’s a profound reason for that. As the flamboyant, avant garde theater critic Kenneth Tynan, a proud proponent of amorality,wrote in his diary after reading Lewis’s novels, “How thrilling he makes goodness seem—how tangible and radiant!”28. flamboyant： 夸张的，浮夸的；avant garde： 前卫的，先锋的；proponent： 拥护者，提倡者；amorality： 与道德无关，不属于道德范畴；tangible： 重要的，显著的；radiant： 明亮的，灿烂的。And after reading a work of nonfiction, he wrote, “C. S. L. works as potently as ever on my imagination.”

[6][7][8][9][10][26][36][37][38][44][45][46][49][50][51][52]《马克思恩格斯文集》(第1卷)，北京：人民出版社，2009年，第220、221、195、530、528、500、499、499、499、500、500、192、162、501、532、501页。

But even those numbers seem small compared to the more than 100 million copies (in at least 30 different languages) of “The Chronicles of Narnia” series sold.

As Henry L. Carrigan, Jr. puts it in Publishers Weekly, “While Huxley is now largely forgotten and Kennedy remains a symbol of lost promise, Lewis lives on through his novels, stories, essays, and autobiographical works.”While I think that oversimplifies Kennedy and underestimates Huxley, the underlying point is worth considering: In one of the great ironies of history,Lewis at his death received less attention than Huxley, and far less than Kennedy.11. 尽管我认为这一观点过分简化了肯尼迪的成就，也过分低估了赫胥黎的价值，但其深层含义还是值得思考的：刘易斯去世的时候得到的关注少于赫胥黎，更没法和肯尼迪相比，这是历史的一大讽刺之一。But it may be true that Lewis’s ideas claim the most lasting in fluence, both on the Christian tradition and on the Western culture beyond.

Just about any list of the best Christian books in the English language, of course, will include at least one Lewis title. In fact, whenChristianity Todaymagazine asked more than 100 Christian writers and leaders to rank the most in fluential religious books of the 20th century, they named Lewis’sMere ChristianityNo. 1 by far—which explains why readers have purchased the around 18 million copies of the book. And Harper Collins19. Harper Collins： 哈珀·柯林斯出版集团，全球最大的英文书籍出版商之一，总部位于纽约。, which distributed some 10 million in unit sales since it acquired the rights to most of Lewis’s titles in 2001,reports more than 150,000 copies ofMere Christianitysold in the past year.

Lewis’ narratives both answer intellectual questions and satisfy spiritual longings; he demonstrates the importance of images and stories without forgetting the necessity of reasoned, coherent belief.22. reasoned： （想法、观点等）合乎逻辑的；coherent： 连贯的，清晰一致的。

当然，想要在真正意义上开展生态循环经济活动，企业需要投入相应成本，不仅要投入维护生态环境的技术和成本，而且还要积极修复因为经济发展而被破坏的环境。通过综合利用各种因素，从而打破传统的“表象”理念，实现经济效益与保护环境的结合。

回到竹溪街，何牦第一件事是写遗嘱。他共有五万元存款。这次去北京的旅费加住院费，花了一万六，何美宁办出院手续时，他站在何美宁身后，见何美宁把九千元钞票塞进医院的收银台时，心痛得快要流眼泪了。这些钱都是计划留给橘红的，是让橘红过上好日子的希望和保证，上次在滨湖三医院住院，大病医疗出了百分之八十，自己还交了三千五，这次是全费，百分之百的自己交。交的不是钱，是希望，是性命。他活着的希望和意义，就是赎回年轻时的过失，让橘红过上好日子，把钱都花了，就算找到橘红，还有能力、条件让橘红过上好日子吗？那一把把的钱交得他心里发颤，好像受了惊吓似的，抖动。

截至2010年，我国共建成再生水厂343座，再生水管道总长5 519 km，再生水生产能力1 967万m3/d，当年城市污水处理回用总量为28.3亿m3。再生水利用主要用于农业灌溉、工业、景观环境和市政等方面。我国再生水利用事业的特点有：

And assessments of Kennedy’s ideas, in turn, remain mixed.His actions, certainly, caused massive repercussions33. repercussion： 反响，影响。on the nation:In part, his term shaped the future of presidential campaigns, as television became a normal aspect of elections campaigns. And his celebrity-type appeal added style, in addition to substance, to the list of essential characteristics of a United States president.34. 肯尼迪拥有名人般的气质魅力，这使得美国总统的基本条件在实力内涵之外，又增加了个人风格。But crises like the Bay of Pigs debacle, the Cold War, the convoluted situation in Vietnam, and racial discord around the country arguably mark his time in office more than his Camelot White House.35. Bay of Pigs： 猪湾事件，指1961年4月17日，在美国中央情报局的协助下逃亡美国的古巴人在古巴西南海岸猪湾向菲德尔·卡斯特罗领导的古巴革命政府发动的一次失败的入侵。猪湾事件标志着美国反古巴行动的第一个高峰；convoluted： 复杂曲折的；discord： 意见分歧，争执；Camelot： 卡米洛，是传说中的英国城镇，中古不列颠传奇国王亚瑟王的宫廷和圆桌会议所在地，此处用以比喻肯尼迪的卡米洛王朝时期，即1961年至1963年间肯尼迪任美国总统时哥伦比亚特区华盛顿的繁荣。

“Assessments of Kennedy’s presidency have spanned a wide spectrum36. spectrum： 范围。,” according to Kennedy scholars at the University of Virginia. “Early studies, the most influential of which were written by New Frontiersmen close to Kennedy, were openly admiring.They built upon on the collective grief from Kennedy’s public slaying—the quintessential national trauma.37. slay： 杀戮；quintessential： 精髓的； trauma：创伤。Later, many historians focused on the seedier38. seedy： 不愉快的，低级的。side of Kennedy family dealings and John Kennedy’s questionable personal morals. More recent works have tried to find a middle ground.” So, the legacy of Kennedy’s ideas remains ambiguous; today, he is perceived by many as an intriguing national figure who lost his opportunity to fulfill many promises.39. ambiguous： 模糊不清的，模棱两可的；intriguing： 迷人的，令人非常感兴趣的。

Back 50 years ago, no one reading the news headlines from November 1963 would predict that the ideas of an English scholar and children’s writer would wield40. wield： 施加（影响），运用（权力）。(arguably) greater influence on European and American cultures than Kennedy’s or Huxley’s. After all, Lewis’s funeral only included one family member, related by marriage.

Huxley once wrote that “the prophet41. prophet： 先知，预言者。must make a selection of the facts that are more significant, that will have the greatest effect on the greatest number of future human beings.” And Kennedy famously said that a “man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”

And that’s why, in 1963, Lewis left us a legacy with influence that reaches far beyond 1960s England: He wedded significant facts with ideas that live on.

刘易斯作品《返璞归真》