J.R.R. Tolkien helped influence C.S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity through their conversations. The two writers were colleagues and friends at Oxford, where they discussed literature, myth, and religious belief.
Lewis’s conversion was a gradual process, and Tolkien was one influence among several rather than the sole cause. Hugo Dyson also took part in important conversations with Lewis, particularly in September 1931.
The friendship had a lasting literary dimension. Lewis and Tolkien belonged to the Inklings, an informal Oxford group that met to read and discuss works in progress. Tolkien later wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while Lewis created The Chronicles of Narnia.
Lewis and Tolkien did not agree on every matter, and their friendship became more distant in later years. Nevertheless, Tolkien’s role in Lewis’s return to Christianity is well documented.