While C.S. Lewis never stepped into a boxing ring, his profound writings on spiritual warfare offer remarkable insights for modern combat athletes. From his academic works to the battles in Narnia, Lewis’s understanding of conflict, courage, and character provides valuable lessons for today’s fighters.
The Nature of Combat
In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis writes, “There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan.” Sound familiar? If you’ve ever been in the ring, you know this truth in your bones. There’s no such thing as a neutral corner when you’re fighting – whether it’s a physical opponent or a spiritual battle. Every moment matters, every position counts, and letting your guard down for even a split second can cost you dearly.
There are no neutral corners in spiritual combat, either, just as there are no truly safe spaces between the ropes. Every moment requires vigilance, every position demands awareness.
There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan
Training the Will
If you’ve spent any time in a boxing gym, you know it’s the small things that make or break you. Lewis captured this perfectly in Mere Christianity when he wrote, “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.”
Think about your own training journey. It’s not the big moments that define you. It’s dragging yourself out of bed at 5 AM when your body’s screaming for more sleep. It’s pushing through that last round of sparring when your arms feel like lead. It’s saying no to that late-night snack when you’re trying to make weight. These seemingly tiny decisions compound day after day, just as Lewis described, until one day you look in the mirror and see a completely different fighter looking back at you.
Understanding Your Opponent
“The devil… is a fighter,” Lewis warns in The Problem of Pain. Any seasoned boxer will tell you that understanding your opponent is key to winning, but how many of us apply this same principle to our spiritual battles? When you’re watching fight tape of your next opponent, you’re looking for patterns, tendencies, and weaknesses. Lewis suggests we need to be just as strategic in our spiritual fights.
Remember that tough sparring partner who always seems to have your number? You probably spent hours analyzing their style, working out how to counter their best moves. Lewis would argue we need to bring that same analytical mindset to our mental and spiritual battles. What are your personal weak spots? Where does your guard tend to drop? These are the questions that matter both in and out of the ring.
The Heart of a Warrior
Through characters like Peter and Edmund in The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis shows us something every fighter knows deep down: true warriors aren’t born – they’re forged. Think back to your first sparring session. Remember that mix of excitement and fear? That’s exactly where Peter started in Narnia. When he first received his sword from Father Christmas, he was just a schoolboy thrust into a world of combat, not unlike a rookie fighter getting their first pair of gloves.
Lewis paints this transformation beautifully in the build-up to Peter’s first real battle. When faced with a wolf threatening his sister Susan, Peter’s hands shake on his sword. He’s never been in real combat before – just like those nerve-wracking moments before your first fight. But when Aslan calls out, “Do not delay. Your sister’s life hangs in the balance,” Peter steps forward despite his fear.
It’s not about feeling ready – it’s about answering the call when it comes. In that moment, as Lewis writes, “Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that made no difference to what he had to do.” Every fighter knows this feeling. That moment when you have to step up, regardless of whether you feel ready.
Mental Warfare and the Battle Within
Edmund’s story in Narnia hits close to home for many fighters dealing with inner demons. Remember how Edmund started – bitter, resentful, betraying his family for Turkish Delight? It’s like those moments when you’re tempted to skip training, to take shortcuts, to let your ego make decisions. But Lewis shows us something powerful through Edmund’s redemption. After his rescue from the White Witch, Edmund becomes one of Narnia’s most thoughtful and just warriors. Why? Because he’s fought the toughest opponent there is none other than – himself.
You’ve probably met fighters who’ve gone through similar transformations. Maybe you’re one of them. Like Edmund, they’ve faced their inner witch, so to speak – their pride, their anger, their fear – and come out stronger on the other side. As Lewis writes, “Edmund had gotten past thinking about himself and how impressive he looked fighting.” That’s when real growth happens in the ring too – when you stop fighting for show and start fighting for something bigger than yourself.
The Discipline of Combat
“The cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning.” – C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
If that quote doesn’t sum up a fighter’s life, I don’t know what does. Glory in the ring is sweet, but you know what comes next? Monday morning roadwork. Back to the grind. Back to the basics. Lewis understood that glory doesn’t come cheap.
The Ultimate Fight
Every time you wrap your hands, every round you spar, every battle you face – it’s all part of something bigger. As Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity, “This world is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there’s a rumor going around that some of us are someday going to come to life.”
That’s what we’re all fighting for, isn’t it? Not just victories in the ring, but that deeper transformation that happens when we push ourselves to our limits and beyond. Whether you’re throwing punches or fighting spiritual battles – or like many of us, doing both – remember that every fight is shaping you into something greater than you are today. So, by all means, take a moment to reflect on where you’ve been over the last year or two, but keep your eye on 2025.
The Courage to Face Giants
Remember Lucy’s battle with the giants in The Horse and His Boy? She’s tiny compared to them, but she never backs down. Ok, maybe this parallel is even a little too obvious. But consider. Every fighter knows what it’s like to face someone who seems insurmountable. Lucy teaches us something crucial about courage. It’s not about being the biggest or strongest. It’s about standing your ground when everything in you wants to run.
Lewis writes, “Lucy, who was the most truthful person in the world, now stripped the truth to its barest bones.” In the ring, that’s exactly what happens – all pretense gets stripped away. You can’t fake it when you’re facing a stronger opponent. Like Lucy, you have to work with what you’ve got, trust your training, and face the giant in front of you.
This battle echoes an older story that every fighter should know. When the Israelite spies first glimpsed the Nephilim in the Promised Land, they reported back, “We saw the Nephilim there… We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33).
Sound like fight night? Ten spies let fear overcome their faith, but Joshua and Caleb saw something different. They understood what every underdog fighter needs to grasp – it’s not about the size of the giant in front of you, but the size of the faith within you. Just like Lucy facing her giants in Narnia, and just like you facing that intimidating opponent in the ring, victory often comes down to who believes they belong there, regardless of the odds.
victory often comes down to who believes they belong there, regardless of the odds.
The Ultimate Fight
Just as Aslan’s sacrifice on the Stone Table seemed like defeat but led to ultimate victory, sometimes our toughest losses in the ring become our greatest victories in character. This paradox of strength through surrender, victory through apparent defeat, runs through all of Lewis’s work. He had a gift for taking profound truths and making them tangible through story and metaphor.
That’s why Lewis’s work resonates so deeply with fighters. In everything he wrote – from the academic weight of Mere Christianity to the imaginative power of Narnia – Lewis understood that the physical realm mirrors spiritual truths. He knew that every great story, like every great fight, is about transformation. “This world is a great sculptor’s shop,” he writes in Mere Christianity, “We are the statues and there’s a rumor going around that some of us are someday going to come to life.” As fighters, we understand this viscerally. Every training camp chips away at us. Every bout reshapes us. Every victory and defeat carves us into something new.
Through his masterful use of allegory and his unflinching honesty about spiritual combat, Lewis gives us a framework for understanding our own battles. He reminds us that when we wrap our hands, touch gloves, and step into the ring, we’re participating in something ancient and sacred – the warrior’s journey toward transformation. Every fight is part of that great sculptor’s work, shaping us into something greater than we were yesterday.