184 Lewis, Clive Staples
where they influenced the parliamentary revolution of
- Most of the English Levellers flourished in the
1640s–50s during the commonwealth period of En-
glish civil wars and Oliver CROMWELL. In fact, many of
the Levellers came out of Cromwell’s parliamentary
“New Model Army” of small farmers, traders, artisans,
and GUILDapprentices. John Lilburne, William Wal-
wyn, John Wildman, and Richard Overton were their
chief spokesmen; a prominent political pamphlet of
Leveller literature was Man’s Moralitie(1643).
Besides LIBERALsocial-contract themes, much Lev-
eller thought rested on the ideal of the ANCIENT CONSTI-
TUTION,a REPUBLICANsociety that supposedly existed in
England before the Norman Conquest (1066) and that
the Levellers sought to restore. Later, Algernon Sydney,
Henry St. John BOLINGBROKE, and William BLACKSTONE
(as well as Thomas JEFFERSONin America) developed
these antimonarchy ideas. Opposition to royal charters,
trading companies, the state bank, and IMPERIALISM
became associated with the CLASSICAL republicanism
paradigm developed by J. G. A. POCOCK.
Besides this particular group of political thinkers
and activists, levelleris a term used to describe anyone
who believes in evening out social, political, or eco-
nomic inequalities. So, radical LEFTISTS, populists, lib-
erals, socialists, and communists are often described as
levelers—wanting to ban all distinctions and differ-
ences in society. CONSERVATIVESattack this philosophy
of levelling all social distinctions as destructive of
excellence, TRADITION, and well-earned merit and
wealth. Edmund BURKEresponds this way toward the
radical democrats of the French Revolution of 1789
(as punishing the prominent, accomplished people),
and James MADISONregards this COMMUNITARIANegali-
tarianism as reflective of sinful pride and social envy
(and designs the U.S. CONSTITUTION to avoid such
“tyranny of the majority”). Jefferson accepts the Lev-
eller critique of hereditary aristocracy but believes that
a “Natural Aristocracy” of merit and VIRTUEexists in
society and should be elevated to higher positions in
government. Joseph STALINand MAO TSE-TUNG’s com-
munist attacks on all social HIERARCHYand distinction
can be seen as 20th-century expressions of Leveller
philosophy.
Further Readings
Bernstein, Eduard. Cromwell & Communism. New York:
Schocken Books, 1963.
Haller, William. The Leveller Tracts, 1647–1653,William Haller
and Godfrey Davies, eds. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith,
1964.
Lewis, Clive Staples (C.S.) (1898–1963) Bri-
tish classicist and Christian apologist
A teacher at Oxford (and later Cambridge) University,
C. S. Lewis is regarded as one of the greatest MODERN
CHRISTIAN philosophers, who especially appealed to
intellectuals. Author of numerous theological treatises
and books, (Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters), chil-
dren’s fantasy stories (Chronicles of Narnia), and works
of scholarship (Oxford History of English Literature, The
Allegory of Love: a Study in Medieval Tradition) Lewis’s
writings have sold in the millions. His contribution to
political thought was to apply EVANGELICALChristianity
to 20th century politics. Like Reinhold NIEBUHR,he
rejected the subordination of religion to political ideol-
ogy (of the LEFTor RIGHT) and insisted that the politics
of the Gospels of Jesus would be very radical in some
ways (economic EQUALITY, charity, SOCIALISM), but very
conservative in other ways (respect for AUTHORITY, rev-
erence, moral purity), what today would be called a
“fiscal LIBERAL” but “moral CONSERVATIVE.” This political
orientation most resembles that of contemporary
CATHOLICsocial thought. Though Lewis was an Angli-
can PROTESTANTChristian, his basic writings on theol-
ogy, psychology, and social problems are read by a
wide range of religious denominations.Further Readings
Hart, Dabney Adams. Through the Open Door: A New Look at C.
S. Lewis.Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
———. The Great Divorce.New York: Macmillan, 1963.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity.New York: Macmillan, 1960.
———. The Screwtape Letters.New York: HarperCollins, 1962.
Mills, David, ed. The Pilgrim’s Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of
Witness.Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Schakel, Peter J., and Hutar, Charles A., eds. Word and Story in C.
S. Lewis. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991.
Sims, John (John A.). Missionaries to the Skeptics: Christian
Apologists for the Twentieth Century: C. S. Lewis, Edward
John Carnell, and Reinhold Niebuhr.Macon, Ga.: Mercer
University Press, 1995.
Walsh, Chad. C. S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics.New York:
Macmillan, 1949.liberalism/liberal
A major school of political thought dating from the
1600s, often referred to as British liberalism or philo-
sophical liberalism. Its main thinkers are John LOCKE,
Thomas HOBBES, John Stuart MILL, Robert NOZICK, and
John RAWLS(“liberals”). This strain of political thought
is not to be confused with “American LIBERALISM” that
arose in the 20th century and is very different in its