The Last Romantic by Jeffrey Barbeau is based on the 2023 Hanson Lectures at the Wade Center. Barbeau asks us to think a little differently about Lewis—while the popular presentation of Lewis is as a logical defender of the faith who didn’t let emotion cloud reason, Barbeau asks us to look at the ways Lewis was influenced by Romanticism.

Barbeau doesn’t argue that Lewis isn’t logical; rather, he expands the picture. Lewis wrote nonfiction and fiction, articulated his faith with logic and imagination. Lewis was widely read in the Romantics and enjoyed them—the title of his spiritual autobiography “Surprised by Joy” is a line taken from that most famous of Romantics William Wordsworth.

The book was deep and even philosophical at points—it made me want to dig out my British Lit notes on Romanticism—that engages with Lewis’s thoughts and beliefs. One of the fun and really worthwhile parts was the inclusion of Lewis’s annotations in several books, the kind of thing you’d normally have to travel to a research center to see for yourself. Even in my @netgalley ARC it was fun to see the photos of his notes.

I enjoyed reading about this aspect of Lewis and thinking about the influence of this school of thought on how Lewis wrote.

The Last Romantic Romantic: C. S. Lewis, English Literature and Modern Theology is a study of the works of C. S. Lewis and the influences that affected his views and writings. It is taken from a series of essays and lectures in which they looked at how English Romanticism and German philosophy had an impact on his views. They looked at some of the footnotes in Lewis books as well as things that he had written about people such as Wordsworth or Coleridge.

C.S. Lewis had a way of reaching his readers as a common man rather than an Oxford scholar as was noted in the book. He did this sometimes by downplaying his own knowledge and understanding.

This also goes into various books of C.S. Lewis and the views expressed in them and influence upon them. So much so that his book Surprised by Joy, the title was taken from a Wordsworth poem. One of the Romantics that had influenced his thought processes.

It also goes into some detail relating to his views on how personal feeling and such things as organized religion correlate. Lewis gave an example of an individual’s experience of swimming in the ocean compared to a map of the ocean. There is much to be gained, learned and felt, from the experience. But without the map, if we needed to navigate upon the ocean we would be lost. So like a faith based only on feeling might cause us to lose our way. But combining it with a faith tradition and a moral basis, would serve as a course correction. Lewis doesn’t discount the need for feelings or a personal relationship in our faith but recognizes the need for more than feeling or love of nature to find our way to God.

This is quite a deep study of Lewis, his thoughts, works and the influences upon him. For me, this is book requires going more in depth into it and studying it and reading even re-reading the works of C.S. Lewis. There is definitely much food for thought here.
Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read it for an honest review.
#netgalley #thelastromantic

The Last Romantic
C. S. Lewis, English Literature, and Modern Theology
by Jeffrey W. Barbeau
Pub DateJan 28 2025
IVP Academic
Christian| Nonfiction \(Adult\)| Religion & Spirituality



Netgalley and IVP Academic provided me with a copy of The Last Romantic for review:




Most readers are familiar with C. S. Lewis's logical arguments for Christianity. Yet Lewis often began his study and writing with experience, intuition, and religious feelings rather than dogmatic assertions. The theologian and literary critic Jeffrey Barbeau argues that Lewis' quest to understand the relationship between personal experience and the truth about the world around him is the most profound question of his life.




In his book, Barbeau examines how 19th-century Romanticism influenced C. S. Lewis. As Barbeau shows in his autobiographical writings, Lewis is deeply influenced by Romantic notions of imagination and subjectivity. In his writings on Christian faith, he explores beliefs about nature and Christian sacraments, and opens up new perspectives on memory and personal identity. .This study of Lewis's theology and literature reveals Lewis as a profoundly modern thinker and illuminates his relevance to contemporary theological debates.


The Marion E. Wade Center's collection of S. Lewis's most beloved works offers Barbeau a fresh understanding of the influence of modern theology and Romantic poetry, especially Wordsworth and Coleridge. Essays and responses include:

C. S. Lewis and the "Romantic Heresy," with response from professor Sarah Borden,
C. S. Lewis and the Anxiety of Memory, with response from professor Matthew Lundin, and
C. S. Lewis and the Sacramental Imagination, with response from professor Keith L. Johnson.


I give The Last Romantic five of five stars!


Happy Reading!

First of all, Thank You Netgalley for the ARC granted. I really thought that I wuld like this book, since I am a enthusiast of C.S. Lewis works and wasn't disapointed by that. Altough it is a study( that includes the controversial about Lewis being relevant for Theology debates or not, since He wasn't a theologist himself), it has a compelling narrative, and strong reasearch fundamental base abut Lewis lines of thinking and his literature and philosphy inspirations, and I have enjoyed the reading completely.

I love C.S. Lewis and I love literary criticism and analysis so this was definitely the read for me. I haven't read all of Lewis' work nor am I a very big theologian and I still got a lot out of this read and have a couple people I plan to recommend it to!

This was a little more book than I bargained for. I read an earlier one in the series a while ago (<i>George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles</i> by Timothy Larsen), and I remember it being pitched a bit lower. In comparison, <i>The Last Romantic</i> took me by surprise. Barbeau traces C. S. Lewis's literary, theological and philosophical influences by tracing the annotations in Lewis's books. Honestly, I struggled to keep up with its dives into 19th-century developments in German philosophy and English literature. Maybe that highlights the disparity between my intelligence and those of Lewis's generation. Maybe it's a sad commentary on the way media has eroded attention spans and cultural literacy between then and now. Even so, I wish this volume had been pitched a bit lower.

Even with those times when I was in over my head, though, this book has been really helpful for my thinking. In three essays, Barbeau tells the story of Lewis's influences from his work with Lewis's library. After each essay, a colleague responds.

Sarah Borden's response to the first essay is the high point of the book for me. Where Barbeau is concerned with documenting where Lewis falls within the history of philosophy, Borden comes at Lewis's philosophy and theology directly -- for me, that's the stuff. I appreciate Barbeau's work, and he walked me through some historical stuff that is really helpful, but I run out of patience for the historical angle. Borden's response cuts through some of the clutter to clarify Barbeau's points, and together that essay and response are a great combo.

The second essay is another high point for me. In this section, Barbeau considers the role of spiritual autobiography in discipleship literature. This genre is common in the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition, but Lewis's apologetic literature uses it too (Surprised by Joy and A Grief Observed). I was raised in the Holiness section of the Wesleyan tradition, and I've wrestled with the role of spiritual autobiography in spiritual formation for years now. In the Holiness Movement, personal narratives are often used as theology, as a way to explore how God works in/with our lives. This essay explores the ways C. S. Lewis used personal narratives to offer a map to fellow travelers, and I think it provides some helpful insights for the way Holiness people theologize experiences. I hope to make the ideas here part of my thinking and teaching.

Barbeau has taken me deeper than I wanted to go, and I've missed some stuff along the way, but I'm grateful for this book. I'll be chewing on it for a while. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Very interesting to learn about Lewis and the concepts of romanticism within his writing. Worth reading for anyone familiar with his books!

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

A must-read for C.S. Lewis fans, revealing how 19th Century Romanticism influenced his writings and his faith. Highly recommended!