Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
101. C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
This is one of Lewis’s shorter and less well-known works. It takes the format of a series of letters to Malcolm, a (supposed) dear friend of Lewis’s. I don’t know whether Malcolm is an actual person, or whether Lewis just used this format as a way of disseminating his thoughts in an informal way. Be that as it may, this little book contains Lewis’s thoughts on several issues surrounding Christian prayer, such as: what are we doing when we pray? Why pray at all, if God is omniscient and already knows what we want and need? What should we be praying for? This book is certainly not a manual for how to pray; it simply contains some thoughts on what prayer is and why Christians should do it.
I’m a great admirer of C. S. Lewis, and this book is a good example of why: he is able to discuss profound - and often difficult - theological concepts in an accessible, straightforward way. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of this book, and I often found myself pausing to ruminate over individual paragraphs and sentences. I was very interested to read Lewis’s thoughts on communal prayer (i.e. church services) and the doctrine of purgatory. The book also challenged me on a personal level, since my own prayer life could definitely use some improvement! Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book to fans of Lewis, and I think I’ll get even more out of it upon re-reading.