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===Orthodox Theology===
Lewis is subtle about revealing the manner in which his theological ideas significantly diverge from the Roman Catholics and the Protestants around him. Much of his theological thought is expressed in allegories and fantasy rather than in religious exposition. Moreover, even in his religious works, he wrote in a colloquial style, avoiding the terminology and jargon of theologians which would be a dead give-away for his Orthodox theology. His work was not to destroy the false, except as it came in the way of building the true. Therefore Lewis sought to speak only what he believed, saying little concerning what he did not believe; trusting in the true to cast out the false, and shunning dispute. But a close reader who is familiar with the fault lines of theological debate will distinctly perceive from what Lewis says and leaves unsaid that Lewis was much more sympathetic to Orthodox theology than he was to standard Roman Catholic and Protestant theology. To get a sense of these differences, please see [http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/2004-hughes-sin.php Ancestral Versus Original Sin].
In particular, in ''Mere Christianity'', Lewis emphasizes the "Christus Victor" model of Christ's work to the ''exclusion'' of the standard Roman Catholic model which holds that Christ was "penalized" by God as a substitute for all those who believe in this theory of penal substitution. Lewis's personal favorite metaphor of the "atonement" was St. Athanasius's "Mystical Theory" which states that what Christ actually did when incarnated was to infuse His deity into humanity, thus giving humanity the thing needed to counteract and overcome the death and impending corruption which were introduced into the human race through Adam. Men who are saved become partakers of this purified humanity. Lewis in ''Mere Christianity'' describes this by saying that Christ brought the "Good Infection" that spreads the "Christ-life." This book also describes the operation of St. Maximos's "Vicarious Repentance Theory" of the atonement. In ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'', we see Lewis's adaptation of St. Gregory of Nyssa's "Fishhook Theory" of the atonement whereby Christ conquers Satan by a divine ruse. Throughout his writing career, Lewis illustrated and affirmed each ancient theory of atonement, while conspicuously ignoring the modern western theory which he described as "immoral" and "a very silly theory" in ''Mere Christianity''.
===Criticism===
The late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a respected Calvinist theologian opined in Christianity Today, Dec. 20, 1963, that C.S. Lewis's view of salvation was "defective" because Lewis "was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal theory of the Atonement." Lloyd-Jones would have the very same criticism of Orthodox theology as represented by such theologians as John Romanides Vladimir Lossky and Christos Yannaras. The Protestant and Roman Catholic penal theory of the atonement and its associated understanding of a penal hell is denied by the Orthodox and C.S. Lewis. See [http://aggreen.net/beliefs/heaven_hell.html "Heaven & Hell in the Afterlife, According to the Bible."]
Several other evangelicals became cognizant that Lewis's approach was different from theirs: A. N. Wilson asserted: "If the mark of a reborn evangelical is a devotion to the Epistles of Paul and, in particular, to the doctrine of Justification by Faith, then there can have been few Christian converts less evangelical than Lewis." J. I. Packer complained of Lewis’s "failure ever to mention justification by faith when speaking of the forgiveness of sins." Orthodoxy does not believe in "Justification by Faith" in the sense spoken of by these men. The Greek term for justification (dikaiosunee) is not understood by Eastern theologians to mean being pardoned of one's sins. This justice is understood as applying to the concepts of ''actual'' (rather than imputed) righteousness, virtue, and morality. See the popular lecture [http://www.stnectariospress.com/parish/river_of_fire.htm "The River of Fire."]
