C. S. Lewis on Scripture by Michael J. Christensen (1979, Book)

It is not every day that a young graduate student gets a recommendation from Owen Barfield (a friend of C S Lewis and fellow Inkling), AND Clyde S. Kilby (recognized authority on C S Lewis). But this is what happened to Michael J. Christensen in 1979. The book "C. S. Lewis on Scripture" came about as a result of a research project of Christensen's during his Senior year at Point Loma College. His professors encouraged him to seek publication, and Barfield and Kilby provided the Foreword and Introduction. (As of 2007, Christensen has written a total of nine published books, as well as numerous articles and contributions to reference books and other volumes.)
Lewis spoke about the mythical nature of the Bible. By this he did not mean that the Bible was untrue, but that is has a certain quality that is found in "pagan" mythology. He believed that God used mythology to reveal Himself to the pagan world before Christ. Realizing that the modern conception of "myth" is far from what Lewis meant, Christensen suggest the term "literary inspiration" for Lewis's view of the way the Bible is inspired. "The Bible is to be approached as inspired literature. Its literary element--images, symbols, myths and metaphors--are actual embodiments of spiritual reality, vehicles of divine revelation." This does not mean that the significance of a passage should be dismissed. The Bible must be accepted at "face value" just as any other piece of literature.
Christensen does a marvelous job of synthesizing Lewis's ideas about the Bible in a way that is understandable to the layman as well as profitable for the scholar. Whether you agree with Lewis on every point or not, this book is a invaluable resource on the subject of Biblical Inspiration.