Although a Christian apologist, Lewis, like Ayn Rand, believes unselfishness is a vice, not a virtue, and he skewers democracy for its pandering to the average, for its leveling effect, and its disdain for excellence. He does this all in the context of his marvelously witty and trenchant work, The Screwtape Letters, a series of "found" letters of advice from a senior devil to his young nephew, a junior devil just learning the ropes.

Lewis and Tolkien both taught English literature at Oxford. Lewis left the school in 1954 after 25 years to take the chair in Mediaevel and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, where he remained until his death in 1963.

The Narnia series is said to be a Christian allegory with Aslan the lion representing Jesus Christ, but, ironically, Lewis was an atheist for over 15 years. He became an atheist at age 15, and it was not until 1929 that he became a theist and 1931 when he became a Christian, influenced by the writings of G.K. Chesterton and conversations with his good friend J.R.R. Tolkien, a devout Christian and later author of The Lord of the Rings.