AP

One of the lesser-known aspects of C.S. Lewis’ writings is his poetry. Lewis was obviously a prolific author whose novels and essays are still widely read today with much benefit. However, there is one little-known poem in particular which has proven to be quite prescient. It was titled, “The Apologist’s Evening Prayer”.[1]

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more

From all the victories that I seemed to score;

From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf

At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;

From all my proofs of Thy divinity,

Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead

Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.

From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,

O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.

Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,

Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.

Poetry was once of Lewis’ great loves and he apparently only just missed out on becoming the professor of poetry at Oxford in 1951. Interestingly, the person who was awarded the position in his place was named Cecil Day Lewis, the father of the actor Daniel Day Lewis!

There is still much we can learn from Lewis today, even if what he wrote was first published more than seventy-five years ago. While being well before Lewis’ time, the invention of internet has been a wonderful blessing in that now, more than ever before, we are able to instantaneously and freely communicate with people from every nation around the globe.

This has been especially advantageous in being able to share the Gospel. People who were once isolated and not able to hear the good news of salvation are now able to be reached. We have also witnessed the opportunity to defend the faith like never before being able to share videos, articles and other resources.

But the meteoric rise of social media has also brought with it a plethora of problems as has is being increasingly recognised.[2] One of the most consistent challenges though involves that which occurs inside our own hearts – namely, a spirit of judgmentalism, lack of self-control and most of all, self-righteousness.

While in person, and especially online, apologetics brings many wonderful opportunities for believers to share Christ, there are also a number of insidious dangers which we need to avoid. For example, the temptation to win the argument but tragically lose the person we’re conversing with in the process.

This was one of the issues which Lewis—one of Christianity’s foremost and popular apologists in the last hundred years—identified in his own day. Lewis once wrote in a paper, Is Theology Poetry? given to The Oxford Socratic Club: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.”

But precisely because Christianity is true, there can be a pride in defending the light of Jesus Christ since knowing Him reveals the darkness of every false thinking. As such, it’s easy to be haughty and disparaging of those with whom we share the Gospel. But as the apostle Peter commands us:

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to given an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Pet. 3:15-16)

Crucial to Christian apologetics then is not only to be right in what we say but to also act righteously in how we say it. In short, we should seek to explain the Gospel in such a way that people hear, see and even feel why the good news is so ‘good’.

What this all means in practice is that our goal should always be to win the person and not just the argument. That we should most of all gentle and respectful in how we speak to those who do not currently believe. For as Lewis observed, it is unfortunately possible to make the earthly audience who hear us laugh, while at the same time angels in heaven are weeping over at how we have conducted ourselves.

Let us seek to represent Christ therefore not only by the courage of our convictions but also through our likeness to the One whom we claim to represent. For more guidance in this area see the following excellent video by Gavin Ortlund below.

– Mark Powell

[1] C.S. Lewis, Poems, ed. Walter Hooper (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1964), p. 129.

[2] See, for example, Jonathan’s Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Penguin Press, 2025).