C.S. Lewis and the Bible

For many contemporary readers of the Bible, C.S. Lewis is looked to as an inspiration and authority. The 20th century Oxbridge don, Christian essayist and author of The Chronicles of Narnia wove the Bible into all of his works. But was Lewis a good reader of the Bible? How did Lewis respond to the challenges of New Testament scholarship? And in what ways did Lewis put the Bible to use in his legendary chronicles?

To find out, Helen and Lloyd take a trip in the Time Machine with New Testament Professor, Leslie Baynes, whose recent book, Between Interpretation and Imagination: C.S. Lewis and the Bible (Eerdmans, 2025) is the first full-length treatment of how C.S. Lewis engaged the Bible.

Leslie Baynes is Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University and a translator for the Catholic American Bible (CAB, 2027). She earned her PhD at the University of Notre Dame and is the author of The Heavenly Book Motif in Judeo-Christian Apocalypses 200 BCE – 200 CE (Brill, 2012), among many other contributions to New Testament studies.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 + 5 produced by John Nelson.