Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism


Muggeridge, Malcolm | Jeffrey Hart (review date 2 December 1969)

Jeffrey Hart (review date 2 December 1969)

SOURCE: Hart, Jeffrey. “The Conversion of Malcom Muggeridge.” National Revew 21, no. 47 (2 December 1969): 1228-29.

[In the following review of Jesus Rediscovered, Hart praises Muggeridge for his lively portrayal of Jesus and his harsh criticisms of contemporary liberalism, but criticizes him for failing to treat important theological issues seriously.]

In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis tells us in some detail about his conversion, and, since he was a complicated person, the process of his conversion was far from simple. Yet at a pivotal moment he had to answer a simple, if overwhelming, question: Was Jesus actually God? He returned to the gospel narrative and one thing struck him forcefully: that the claims made by Jesus would ordinarily be evidence of madness, but that the person who made them here in fact radiated sanity. From this contradiction Lewis deduced that the claims...

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