The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature is non-fiction and the last book written by C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...

. Multilayered, it is on one level a work that deals with medieval cosmology

Cosmos

In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...

 and the Ptolemaic universe, the "model" of the world used by the medievals – "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe."

Themes

The central themes of the book include the structure of the medieval universe, the nature of its inhabitants, the notion of a finite universe, ordered and maintained by a celestial hierarchy, and the ideas of nature. At the same time, Lewis takes his reader on a tour of some of the pinnacles of medieval thought (some of them inherited from Classical Paganism

Graeco-Roman paganism

Graeco-Roman paganism may refer to:* Ancient Roman religion* Ancient Greek religion* The polytheistic religious beliefs and practices of the Greco-Roman world...

) that have survived into the modern cultural and theological

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 landscape.

Selected reviews

Several reviews of the book were positive, for example,

• "Wise, illuminating, companionable, it may well come to be seen as Lewis’ s best book." The Observer
  The Observer
  The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
  
  
• "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind."

See also

• The Waning of the Middle Ages