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Before C. S. Lewis became one of the twentieth century’s most influential Christian writers, he spent the Second World War speaking to Royal Air Force personnel - often in cold, makeshift huts, addressing skeptical young men facing fear, violence, and death.
Those demanding encounters helped transform Lewis from an Oxford academic into a communicator who could make Christianity vivid, persuasive, and accessible to ordinary readers. They also left their mark on the ideas that would later shape Mere Christianity and the world of Narnia.
Meticulously researched and deeply engaging, From Airmen to Aslan with C. S. Lewis uncovers this largely forgotten chapter of Lewis's life, exploring his work with RAF chaplains, his ministry to wartime airmen, and the evacuee children whose time at The Kilns helped awaken his literary imagination.
A major contribution to Lewis scholarship, this is an inspiring portrait of faith, service, and creativity forged in a time of war.
— Canon Professor Michael Snape FBA, author of God and the British Soldier
"With so many books about C. S. Lewis already in print, it is rare to find one that not only adds substantially to our understanding of Lewis but also gives us cause for celebration. From Airmen to Aslan with C. S. Lewis is one such book. Thoughtful, measured, perceptive and clear, it weaves together biography with history, fact with analysis, head with heart. I lost count of the fresh insights I gathered from these pages. I love this book."
— Diana Pavlac Glyer, author of Bandersnatch: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collabor
"From Airmen to Aslan with C. S. Lewis is a remarkable achievement! Through carefully researched and captivating accounts of aircraft and apologetics, Johnson illuminates the important and often overlooked role that Lewis's work with the Royal Air Force played in shaping Lewis's influential approach to apologetics and his inimitable literary imagination."
— Adam Pelser, Professor of Philosophy, US Air Force Academy
"This book is unique in that it is the first publication to begin to explore the people, culture and dynamics of the Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch during the Second World War. Bruce Johnson beautifully defines the nuanced and complex relationships between intellectual thought, faith and service as experienced by C. S. Lewis and the RAF. There is a sense of the experimental in much of the programme conceived by the chaplaincy and developed by Lewis. What is still more striking, perhaps, is the revelation of the significance of this relationship for Lewis himself. This book is sure to appeal to a wide audience - from the devotees of Lewis and his writing to those continuing to grapple with the complexities of faith in a time of conflict."
— Canon Eleanor Rance, former RAF chaplain
"The scholarship is impeccable and the narrative is captivating and easy to read. I spent 38 years serving in the uniformed services as a US Army Green Beret and Air Force Chaplain. Johnson captures the spirit and flavour of the British military's chaplaincy that was born in the crucible of prior conflicts. That culture still permeates their chaplain corps today and is reflected in this compelling and overlooked piece of history."
— Chaplain Colonel George Youstra USAF, retired
"The pilots of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, those few young men who held the future of mankind between their sweating palms and did not let it go, have often (and rightly) been celebrated. Rarer have been the treatments of that other band of brothers, the chaplains of the RAF, who ministered to those pilots. And rarer still, indeed unprecedented, and extremely welcome, is this book-length study, which examines the role C. S. Lewis played supporting the chaplains' work. Thorough, clear, well researched, tightly focused, this is an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of Lewis and a fascinating sidelight on the history of the Second World War. Highly recommended."
— Michael Ward, University of Oxford, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis
"Bruce R. Johnson has made an admirable contribution to the study of C. S. Lewis. Diligently researched and eminently readable, From Airmen to Aslan with C. S. Lewis documents and bears witness to the vision of service, in wartime and beyond, which suffused every aspect of Lewis's life and thought."
— Carol Zaleski, co-author of The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings
"From Airmen to Aslan with C. S. Lewis is a fascinating and inspiring book. As a retired Air Force chaplain, I was fully able to identify with all Lewis experienced while working with the RAF. As a Christian, I was able to be fully affirmed in my beliefs and faith. And as citizen of the world, I was fully convinced that the logic on which we build our world also proves the existence of a rational and compassionate God. I commend this book to any who wish to be inspired and extended in their thinking and faith by a remarkable man with a towering intellect and a humble life – C. S. Lewis."
— Anthony 'Ants' Hawes, former Principal Defence Force Chaplain, New Zealand Defence Force
"Wonderfully researched, this book recounts Lewis's remarkably extensive and demanding work with RAF airmen and chaplains during the Second World War. It shows the lengths to which he was willing to go to present the Gospel message and suggests what he learned from ministering to often sceptical laymen."
— George Marsden, author of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity: A Biography
"In this meticulously researched study, Bruce Johnson examines with lucidity and accessibility the influence that the Royal Air Force had on C. S. Lewis's evolution as a notable Christian apologist. It also surveys with integrity the impact that Lewis had on the RAF in general and RAF chaplaincy in particular. The Afterword, written by a serving RAF chaplain, is contemporaneous and scholarly."
— Stephen Ware, former RAF chaplain and author of A History of RAF Chaplaincy
Intoduction1
1 Modern-day knights (1939-40) 7
2 Taking Off (1941) 41
3 All my lame defeats (1942) 63
4 Map and ocean (1943) 91
5 Answers that belonged to life (1944) 113
6 More deserted camps (1945) 131
Afterword by David Richardson, RAF Instructor 153
Appendix 1 Wartime radio audience of C. S. Lewis 159
Appendix 2 RAF and WAAF ranks in the Second World War 162
Appendix 3 Questions for modern chaplains 164