C.S. Lewis Letter

In 1943 J.B. Phillips was a minister in south-east London, directly in the path of German bombers. It was a time of real danger. In his autobiography The Price of Success he talks about the origins of his translation work at this same time, and the early influence of his correspondence with C.S. Lewis. 

Some of my happiest memories of this period are connected with the youth club. This was a flourishing group of young people known as the King's Own which met at the vicarage on weekdays, and after evensong on Sunday evenings, for all sorts of activities from ballroom dancing to making lamp-shades. At the close of these activities I used to read some verses of Paul's epistles. After all, I thought to myself, much of this was written by one Christian in difficulty to other Christians in difficulty, and surely these young people will find them appropriate to their situation. But I was met by polite but complete lack of comprehension. These youngsters, who were by no means unintelligent, simply did not understand Bible language. All my old passion for making truth comprehensible, and all my desire to do a bit of real translation, urged me to put some relevant New Testament truths into language which these young people could understand. This I did and was rewarded beyond my expectations as they realised for the first time, not merely that the epistles of Paul really could make sense, but that the inspired words were extremely relevant to life as they knew it.

It was out of these Sunday evening meetings that Letters to Young Churches was born. I sent a copy of my new translation of Colossians to C. S. Lewis, whose work I had been admiring for the last few years. His reply was short and encouraging.

Here is a copy of the actual letter I received from the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford (published with permission from The C.S. Lewis Company).

Aug. 3rd 1943

Dear Mr. Phillips, Thank you a hundred times. I thought I knew Colossians pretty well but your paraphrase made it far more significant - it was like seeing a familiar picture after it's been cleaned. The third paragraph on p.4 and the first on p.5 helped me particularly. The only thing I thought unfortunate is "Life from nothing began with Him" at the bottom of p.3. This might mean that Christ was created ex nihilo, instead of begotten. I hope very much you will carry on your plan of doing all the epistles. Of course you'll be opposed tooth and nail by all the "cultured" asses who say you're only spoiling "the beauty" of A.V. - all the people who objected to Green Pastures and Man Born to be King and who are always waffling about reverence. But we must kill that! I hope you'll add a little plain preface - all popular theology, no gas about St. Paul's "personality" or the wild flowers of Palestine - and a really full analytical index. The index by itself will blow to bits all the modern exaggerations of the difference between Pauline and Johannine theology. Heartiest good wishes, yours sincerely C. S. Lewis

P.S. Thank you for all your kind references to my own works.