INTRODUCTION

This is the 3rd in a series devoted to clarifying whether or not C.S. Lewis wrote something you’ve seen quoted in a book and/or shared on social media. Each post examines one quote that I became aware of examining since my book, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis came out in early 2018 and another quote that I did mention in that work.

Last time I told you about a quote that included the words, “towards a cliff” and reminded you about one with “go back and change” in it.

The new quote examined each time usually originates from a question asked by members of my Confirming C.S. Lewis Quotations Facebook group. Finally, if you want to see the online versions of quotations I’ve previously explored, then you can see a list at this central online location.

3.1 – “Jesus is…”

“Jesus is what the Father has to say to us.”

This expression is like many I’ve examined attributed to Lewis, they are very good statements and I completely agree with them. However, giving credit to Lewis for something he didn’t write doesn’t make something more true. As best as I can determine, this quote was only recently attributed to Lewis, because the earliest reference to it is from a book from 2017 entitled Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence. I reached out to the author, Gregory A. Boyd back in May, 2020 via Facebook Messanger and haven’t received an answer. In his footnote, he cites Mere Christianity and says it is from page 17 of the 2001 edition from HarperCollins.

While I don’t own that edition of Mere Christianity, I have the electronic edition and the name of Jesus is mentioned nine times. In the preface, Lewis states “…there is one God and that Jesus Christ is His only Son.”

The word “father” is used 44 times and it does not always refer to God. Lewis does state, “…what God the Father begets is God…” and “The First Person is called the Father and the Second the Son.” He also states “The Son exists because the Father exists…” and mostly similar to the quotation in question, in chapter four (Good Infection) of book four (Beyond Personality), Lewis did write, “He is the self-expression of the Father–what the Father has to say.” This DOES sound a lot like what Boyd is quoting; so he probably was paraphrasing it.

In conclusion, because Boyd credited Lewis and given I was not able to find another possible author for the quote, then I would categorize this as an “almost” Lewis quote. If you are not familiar with this label, then check my introduction to the online series from a few years ago.

3.2 – “Be weird, be random…”

“Be weird. Be random. Be who you are. Because you never know who would love the person you hide.”

C.S. Lewis made a lot of unique and fascinating statements, however, I question whether or not a person has actually ever read him if they believe he said the above statement. You might as well said this expression is from Shakespeare because it is just as unlikely. Even though Lewis is obviously more contemporary than Shakespeare, neither would use the words “weird” or “random” in the way it is in this quote.

It’s unclear why Lewis was falsely given credit for this expression. While you can easily find his name on many memes, some places online stated the author is unknown. Find out more by checking out what I wrote back in 2016 about this saying, and/or read about it in my 2018 book, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis.