C.S. Lewis and the Meaning of Salvation

This is from A Taste for the Other: The Social and Ethical Thought of C.S. Lewis by Gilbert Meilaender, and concerns the idea that Lewis emphasizes union with God rather than faith as the key to his theology:

Faith as trust is not for Lewis the foundation stone on which to build an exposition of Christian theology. Hence, the Christian life is not conceived largely as a turn from consciousness of sin to the proclamation of grace. Instead, it is conceived as a journey, a process of sanctification. The Christian is one who has found in Christ what he yearned for: the way to community with the Father. And he is one who has now entered upon an imitation of Christ. From start to finish his journey is the work of grace, but it remains true that grace is conceived not as the announcement of a right relationship with God but as the means by which one may travel the path which leads to such a relationship. …



…It should be obvious, however, taht we here touch upon an aspect of Lewis’ theology which might properly be termed “Anglo-Catholic.” It is the vision of God, not justification by grace through faith, which is the cornerstone of his theological system. (pp. 37-38, 1st edition)

An Episcopal priest once said something very similar to me – that I was already a Christian in virtue of my baptism, and that the rest of life was the journey toward sanctification (I’ve got a long way to go, by the way). Protestants often emphasize a particular “moment” of conversion where one is “saved.” And they tend to understand salvation in forensic terms, as an act whereby God decrees that we are right with him. Anglicans, Catholics and Orthodox, it seems to me, are more likely to see the life of faith as a journey on the path to union with Christ in the manner Lewis (at least as interpreted here by Meilaender) seems to be getting at.