C.S. Lewis On Porn And Masturbation

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the most famous and prolific Christian writers and scholars in modern history. His popular writings include The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He was also a close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Did you also know that C.S. Lewis wrote on masturbation?

Lewis was one of the most influential Christian apologists whose works refuted popular objections to Christianity. His thoughts are still highly regarded and studied by Christians around the world.

Mere Christianity

Among his wide range of topics, Lewis expressed his views on pornography and masturbation. He stated in Mere Christianity that one factor in the growth of pornography was culture’s greed:

“There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying your food: there would be everything to be ashamed of if half the world made food the main interest of their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food and dribbling and smacking their lips…. We grow up surrounded by propaganda in favor of unchastity. There are people who want to keep our sex instinct inflamed in order to make money out of us. Because, of course, a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance. God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome.”

Related Article: Record Number of Americans Think Porn is ‘Morally Acceptable’

The Weight of Glory

In The Weight of Glory, Lewis summarized a man’s battle with pornography as wanting to settle for rewards and satisfaction far below what God offers:

“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Lewis admitted to having a struggle with masturbation in his early years, and even confided in a personal letter to a friend:

“Lying on that study sofa…I had sensations which you can imagine. And at once I knew that the Enemy would take advantage of the vague longings and tendernesses to try and make me believe later on that he had the fulfillment that I really wanted. So I balked him by letting the longings go even deeper and turning my mind to the One, the real object of all desire, which (you know my view) is what we are really wanting in all wants… “

The Real Evil Of Masturbation

In another letter, he suggests that masturbation primarily results from a man’s desire to withdraw into his own selfish world.

“For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back; sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides.