Art Quote by C. S. Lewis
“I am perfectly convinced that whatever the gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear they are not that sort of thing…Christ bent down and scribbled in the dust with His finger. Nothing comes of this. No one has based any doctrine on it. And the act of inventing little irrelevant details to make an imaginary scene more convincing is purely a modern art.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis, 1942
Lewis argues that gospel accounts are historical, not mythic legends, and that adding fictional details is a modern tendency.
In simple terms: Gospels are factual, not legends.
Key Takeaway
Recognize the difference between history and myth.
Themes
faith
history
mythology
Mood
thoughtful
critical
Type
theoretical
analytical
When to use this quote
- Bible study
- academic research
- religious education
Key Concepts
Christianity
historicity
literary criticism
Questions to Reflect On
- How do we differentiate historical fact from later embellishment?
- What impact does mythologizing have on belief?
A Different Perspective
Modern embellishment can distort original meaning.
![“It was The Gospel From Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space...[who] made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New…” quote by Kurt Vonnegut](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e53/kurt-vonnegut-41_bible_it-was-the-gospel-from-outer-space-by-ki_77926.jpg)
![“Burridge goes on to say, “[T]rying to decode the Gospels through the genre of modern biography, when the author encoded his message in the genre of ancient [biography], will lead to another nonsense—blaming the text for not containing modern predilections which it was never meant to contain.”286…” quote by Trent Horn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f71/trent-horn-66792_last-supper_burridge-goes-on-to-say-t-rying-to-decod_76757.jpg)
