129 © 2021 The Author. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. AUC THEOLOGICA 2021 – Vol. 11, No. 1 Pag. 129–144 SACRAMENTAL REALISM OF CHESTERTON AND LEWIS PAVOL HRABOVECKÝ ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to present G. K. Chesterton’s and C. S. Lewis’s understanding of sacramental realism and its possible adoption in pre-evange- lisation. It is demonstrated that G. K. Chesterton’s works infuenced C.S Lewis’s conversion, his Christian literary thinking, and his apologetics. Both Chesterton and Lewis ofered sacramental perceptions of the world, available through the baptism of imagination. In their works, imagination helps reason to expand and recognise the supernatural in the natural. Therefore, imagination is an essential part of their apologetics of Christianity, which still appeals to contemporary man. In this way, new imaginative apologetics can serve as a suitable preparation for the proclamation of the Gospel today. Keywords C. S. Lewis; G. K. Chesterton; Pre-evangelisation; New Apologetics; Symbol; Imag- ination DOI: 10.14712/23363398.2021.7 T wo Englishmen, two writers, two converts, two apolo- gists who changed their times and infuenced the view of Christianity among their contemporaries. Without exaggeration, G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis could be described in such a way. Their importance raises the question of whether and how they could address the con- temporary proclamation of the Gospel – at least in the pre-evangelisa- tion phase, when it is necessary to answer the criticism of Christianity in a clear but comprehensible way. This study examines Chesterton’s infuence on Lewis, their common sacramental vision of the world, and