"I distrust folks who have ugly things to say about Karl Barth. I like old Barth. He throws the furniture around." Flannery O'Connor One of the Historian Mark Noll's new book about the reception of C. S. Lewis among the first U.S. American readers historicizes the way Lewis has become a beloved figure especially in American evangelicalism. One way to understand this unique moment is to compare it with the reception of Karl Barth's theology.