Lewis is subtle about revealing the manner in which his theological ideas diverge from the Roman Catholics and the Protestants around him, but a reader who is familiar with the fault lines of theological debate will perceive (from what Lewis says and leaves unsaid) that Lewis was more sympathetic to Orthodox theology than he was to standard Catholic and Protestant theology. In particular, in ''Mere Christianity'', Lewis emphasizes the Orthodox "Christ Victorious" model of Christ's work to the exclusion of Of all the Roman Catholic model which holds that Christ was "penalized" by God in our place. In that booktraditional theologies, Lewis also emphasizes Orthodoxy bears the Orthodox "theosis" understanding of salvation closest resemblance to the exclusion universalism of the Roman Catholic thought that salvation includes being "pardoned" or "forgiven" by GodGeorge MacDonald who C. Finally, Lewis did not believe in a penal hell, choosing instead the Orthodox understanding that hell is the experience of divine love by a person who did not develop the capacity to love on earth, regardless of their professed religion (see ''The Great Divorce'' and ''The Last Battle'')S. In short, Lewis was a universalist in the way that Orthodox Christianity accepts universalism, believing that God loves all regarded as his creatures throughout eternity, and we experience hell only as much as, and so long as, we don't conform ourselves to divine love. Like the Orthodox, Lewis believed that we could hope for and expect (but not predict) apokatastasis, universal salvation (see ''The Great Divorce'')spiritual "master."

In particular, in ''Mere Christianity'', Lewis emphasizes the Orthodox "Christus Victor" model of Christ's work to the exclusion of the Roman Catholic model which holds that Christ was "penalized" by God in our place. In that book, Lewis also emphasizes the Orthodox "theosis" understanding of salvation to the exclusion of the Roman Catholic thought that salvation includes being "pardoned" or "forgiven" by God. Finally, Lewis did not believe in a penal hell, choosing instead the Orthodox understanding that hell is the experience of divine love by a person who did not develop the capacity to love on earth, regardless of their professed religion (see ''The Great Divorce'' and ''The Last Battle''). In short, Lewis was a universalist in the way that Orthodox Christianity accepts universalism, believing that God loves all his creatures throughout eternity, and we experience "hell" only as much as, and so long as, we don't conform ourselves to divine love. Like the Orthodox, Lewis believed that we could all legitimately hope for (but not predict with certainty) apokatastasis, universal salvation (see ''The Great Divorce''). Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a staunch Calvinist who had the opportunity to speak personally with Lewis about these matters and who was critical of Lewis, said in Christianity Today, Dec. 20, 1963, that C.S. Lewis's view of salvation was "defective" because, like Orthodox theologians, Lewis "was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal theory of the Atonement." Lloyd-Jones would also have the ''very same '' criticism of such modern Orthodox theologians as Vladimir Lossky and Christos Yannaras, and such ancient Orthodox theologians such as St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Athanasius. The novel penal theory of the atonement is taught by Roman Catholics and Protestants but is still denied by the Orthodox and C.S. Lewis(and George MacDonald).