If we keep going back through the sources, it becomes clear that not only was the sentiment common before Miller’s Canticle made it to print, but the exact phrasing can be found in multiple independent sources. Miller’s 1959 science fiction novel, in which one of the characters asserts, “You don’t have a soul, Doctor. Many who have suspected the Lewis reference to be apocryphal credit the quotation to A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. And the gods will not meet us until we have faces. The trees are alive the animals speak a roaring lion appears most clearly to a small child.
![we are not human beings c.s. lewis we are not human beings c.s. lewis](https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/3840x2160/450578-C-S-Lewis-Quote-The-discomfiture-we-feel-may-be-our-most-accurate.jpg)
Readers and fans know that the worlds he created are deeply physical. Given the central themes of Lewis’ fiction and non-fiction, we can safely say that he would never intend to convey the belief that our bodies are simply temporary shells. While several sources ascribe it to Mere Christianity, more responsible writers concede that the primary source is unknown. The quotation cannot be found in Lewis’ writing. This pithy summation of the distinction between body and soul is almost exclusively attributed to Lewis, although a few recent authors baldly claim it as their own. It can also be found in several New Age handbooks, a guide for psychics, and a devotional for fathers. John Piper tweeted it last year Ravi Zacharias included the quotation in at least one of his books. You have a body” makes the rounds, in a seemingly cyclical pattern, on the internet and in print. In an odd twist, however, one of his most famous quotations is not even his.
![we are not human beings c.s. lewis we are not human beings c.s. lewis](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1381692105l/17343.jpg)
Lewis’ death, his writing has profoundly influenced the way many Christians understand their faith. You should follow her tumblr, because it’s one of the best, and on Twitter too. I am grateful to Hannah Peckham for doing such an excellent job writing this. You have a body.” In recent years, the attribution has taken on a life of it’s own and it is our hope to clear Lewis’s name of it. Editor’s note: Below is the definitive take-down of the idea that C.S.