Purest Fiction

The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints by Jessica Hooten Wilson
reviewed by Louis Markos

As a C. S. Lewis scholar, I am afforded the opportunity of publishing articles in journals from a variety of different denominations. As a traditionalist, I tend, when writing my articles, to refer to Paul and Augustine as St. Paul and St. Augustine. It was only after many years of doing so that I noticed that different journals reacted differently to my traditional naming practice.

When the journal was Catholic or high Protestant, my use of “St.” would be maintained. But when the journal was Evangelical, St. Paul and St. Augustine would invariably be changed to Paul the Apostle and Augustine of Hippo. As an Evangelical myself, I fully understand why this is done. The Bible calls all believers saints (Rom. 1:7), and to save that appellation for only a few “super-Christians” risks a theological slide into works righteousness. And yet, is that really the whole story?

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Louis Markos , Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities. His 19 books include Lewis Agonistes; Restoring Beauty: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the Writings of C. S. Lewis; On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis; and From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis.

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