C. S. Lewis’s Letter on Fear (April 2, 1955)

On April 2, 1955, C. S. Lewis wrote to Mary Van Deusen, an American correspondent whose letters often shared the weight of illness, discouragement, and anxiety. Lewis, then widely known for works such as Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, answered not as a lecturer but as a fellow pilgrim. In words later published in Letters to an American Lady, he addressed fear with unusual tenderness: “Fear is horrid, but there’s no reason to be ashamed of it. Our Lord was afraid (dreadfully so) in Gethsemane.”

Lewis grounded comfort not in personality or optimism, but in the plain truth that Jesus Christ is truly human. The scene he named—Gethsemane, a garden on the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem—stands as one of Scripture’s clearest portraits of sinless sorrow. Christ’s anguish was not moral failure; it was holy suffering at the edge of the cross. Scripture describes that dread without embarrassment: “And He said to them, ‘My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.’” (Mark 14:34). Lewis’s point was pastoral and bracing: trembling is not the same as unbelief, and the presence of fear does not cancel the presence of faith.

In this light, Christian courage is not the absence of fear but obedience in the midst of it. Lewis’s counsel quietly honors the kind of heroism most believers actually need: getting up, praying again, enduring another day, refusing despair. Gethsemane also teaches honesty before God. Jesus prayed with open desire and perfect submission: “Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). That prayer dignifies the believer’s tears while anchoring them to trust.

Lewis urged a suffering saint toward steady confidence in the Savior who entered dread to redeem it. Because Christ bore sorrow without sin, the fearful Christian may confess weakness without shame, ask for help without pretense, and keep walking without pretending the road is easy. The letter remains a small monument of pastoral clarity: fear is real, Christ is nearer, and endurance—quiet, praying, faithful endurance—is a form of love.