Goodreads | The Great Divorce,

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religion without preaching	2	11	03/24/2008 09:31PM

Derek rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

03/01/08

Read in January, 1998

I read lots of C.S. Lewis as a teen - and his popular books are insightful for explaining Christianity, but not really useful in debates. On the other hand, this book and "The Abolition of Man" (better) are valuable for debate, for different reasons. The former provides insight into religious epistemology and the noetic effects of sin and the latter is a useful critique of the consequences of naturalism for those who think you can jettison God and keep morality, meaning, mind, free wil...more I read lots of C.S. Lewis as a teen - and his popular books are insightful for explaining Christianity, but not really useful in debates. On the other hand, this book and "The Abolition of Man" (better) are valuable for debate, for different reasons. The former provides insight into religious epistemology and the noetic effects of sin and the latter is a useful critique of the consequences of naturalism for those who think you can jettison God and keep morality, meaning, mind, free will, human rights, etc. intact.

The Great Divorce helps you to be more bold in affirming the truth of what you believe in public, (in the teeth of pluralism). Today, there is a lot of pressure to affirm a postmodern-relativist view of religious pluralism - all religions are "true" for each individual because the individual's sincerity and niceness makes it true "for them".

Today, the popular view is that each person's will to believe is the truth-maker of their worldview, not logical consistency and correspondence to the external world. Everybody wants to be liked so it's very tempting to just say that religion is like ice cream - choose what you like, instead of like medicine - choose what solves the real problem.

This book highlights how Christianity's purpose differs from the popular conception of what religions are for. It's not about you. The purpose of Christianity is knowing God as he actually is in fact and responding by re-prioritizing your life to address his goals. You will take off your jersey and wear his. You will (at your own pace) get better and better at playing on his team - not your team of one person.

First, we Christians are willing to make our case on testable claims - which many people are not interested in investigating. Just ask someone raised into a religion that assumes an eternal universe and see how much they care about the discovery of Big Bang theory and the evidence for the creation of the universe out of nothing. The findings of astronomy has not constrained their choice of worldview, and they are not excited to bring their choice of religion into compliance with the latest scientific discovery, either. Just try it and see! My point is that the decision to think of religion as personal preference or cultural loyalty or whatever IS A DECISION. It is a decision that religion is the kind of thing that should not be subject to logic and evidence. That is not neutral, that is taking a position.

Second, even if you can win a debate with X, there is still the problem of X's re-orienting their own goals to imitate Christ (which is none of my business, I just argue for facts for you and love you). Again, the decision by a subject to agree with the truth claims of Christianity on the merits and yet still not re-orient themselves is a decision that has been made. That is not neutral, it is taking a position.

These 2 insights into the human condition are vital for understanding how people respond to your presentation of Christianity as being objectively true. In my understanding, only one religion is going to square in most or all respects with the real world, and only one religion is going to insist on "following Jesus" as an implementation strategy. With a little investigation of the views of others, (as portrayed in this book), you find out that the whole project really is different - and more difficult - in Christianity.

I think this book goes really well with the concept of love presented in the early chapters of Lewis' "The Problem of Pain", i.e. - love is willing the best for the beloved. Love is not looking at someone who is playing in the bathtub with a toaster and saying, "that's your truth". Love is actually wanting what's best for other people, even if you have to disagree. Just make sure you can make your case, and don't skimp on a personal investment in the other person's day-to-day struggles. It's all one-on-one after all, and it takes years, sometimes decades, of speaking the truth and showing love in order to win your case by reason and evidence. Also there is the duty for you to check yourself to make sure that you are being honest about that the case you are making to others is warranted - which involves keeping abreast with the arguments and evidence against your view. ...less

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Lucy rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

04/29/08

Read in July, 2006

Not my usual read. In fact, this is the first C.S. Lewis book I have ever read other than "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." Of course, being LDS, I have read and heard innumerable quotes of his from articles and talks. We are a C.S. Lewis loving society. I read this because this book was chosen for the bookgroup I belong to this month. Dread is much too strong of a word but I admit that I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. And it isn't because I choose to read f...more Not my usual read. In fact, this is the first C.S. Lewis book I have ever read other than "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." Of course, being LDS, I have read and heard innumerable quotes of his from articles and talks. We are a C.S. Lewis loving society. I read this because this book was chosen for the bookgroup I belong to this month. Dread is much too strong of a word but I admit that I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. And it isn't because I choose to read fluff either. I like a deep novel. Perhaps intimidated is the closet description of what I felt. After all, if general authorities quote him, how readable could it be?

Overall, I really liked this book. The text was easy to read and the story flowed. That surprised me. Not that I wasn't expecting Lewis to be a great author but this book is definitely not limited to advanced readers. It begins with an unnamed man in line for a bus ride to somewhere unmentioned. His fellow passengers don't seem to be the kind of people anyone would enjoy being seated next too -- each with an obvious character flaw. The bus takes them to what is described at first as obviously Heaven but we later learn is just the "Valley in the Shadow of Life" or kind of the intro to Heaven. The grass is too hard to walk on for the newbie feet and each who has arrived is greeted by an angel who pretty much tries to convince them to follow them into the mountains where the real Heaven lies. In Lewis's afterworld, there are many who see what Heaven is like and decide not to be there. It is too hard or too different than what they want it to be like. They don't want to be different from who there were on earth and can't understand why they must let go of certain characteristics.

I think my favorite paragraph in this book is when this unnamed man's angel tells him, "...There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened."

Isn't that great? There were many moments in this story that I wanted to get out my highlighter pen and get busy. It was a very quick read: it only took a little over 2 hours to read. Of course, if you want to get serious and really ponder it would take much longer. But I read it like a novel...wanting to get a sense of the whole story. In that way, it was a bit disappointing. He doesn't do much creating a whole story as he does put a narrator in to eavesdrop on different peoples' first experiences with Heaven. When that person was clearly past convincing he moved on to the next "ghost" struggling. In the end, the book floundered a bit (I can't believe I am actually using that word in critiquing the great C.S. Lewis but then again....it is my blog!). His angel leads him on and eventually he sees a big chess table and suddenly real experience, time, space and all that is into question. Just for the last chapter, mind you. I found myself being a bit Sethesque and thinking, "what the..." something about lenses and visions and dreams and eventually he woke up. So we never were able to see what Lewis's deeper Heaven was like. And he scolded him to not report this experience as anything more than a dream. His angel says, "....see ye make it very plain. Give no poor fool the pretext to think ye are claiming knowledge of what no mortal knows. I'll have no Swedenborgs and no Vale Owens among my children....He has forbidden it" I guess in Christian theology, there have been experiences where visions were to go untold. It just didn't sit well with me. And that was the end. He woke up. To what end for this man? Did it make him better? More ready for the glory of God? I don't feel that unanswered question was necessary for the story....less

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Elaine rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

03/08/07

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2007

Some concepts:
- leaning on a teacher to grow till we can be on our own.
- defective love

Quotes & Excerpts from C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce:

You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey, even your right hand or right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore gradually draw nearer and finally meet at the center: rather ...more

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Gabriel rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

09/13/07

As a story, this isn’t that amazing, as very little “happens.” As a collection of images about theology, and especially about sin and how it can keep one away from union with God, it is very insightful. Lewis, in my view, provides the best explanations of how heaven works, or more specifically how it can be that a loving God and hell can coexist. The “dwarves in the stable” from The Last Battle are the best depiction of this; reading them I first understood how one could ever choose to...more As a story, this isn’t that amazing, as very little “happens.” As a collection of images about theology, and especially about sin and how it can keep one away from union with God, it is very insightful. Lewis, in my view, provides the best explanations of how heaven works, or more specifically how it can be that a loving God and hell can coexist. The “dwarves in the stable” from The Last Battle are the best depiction of this; reading them I first understood how one could ever choose to reject God, even when honestly given a choice in light of the possibility of truly seeing God as God is. What happens is that when one is presented with God, one says: “That’s not God! I know what God looks like, and that’s not it! No thanks.” In any case, in the Great Divorce the various encounters illustrate ways people can put other things in the way of God, ways to deceive oneself or preoccupy oneself away from God, away from what is most important. True idolatry, and quite real even today.

There is a definite clarity to Lewis’s vision of things; the truth is to be had by anyone who will listen, yet the problem is that folks over- or under-think it, and manage to miss out. I wonder if it really is that simple. Lewis writes at a time when the certainly of the Enlightenment framework has fallen apart, and Lewis fits into the group which insists that the correct response is to move back, to return to what theology had already figured out, to shake off the “gains” of the “enlightened mind.” This position remains very attractive today: that all the fancy theories and of course chaos of recent years are simply a symptom of abandoning the truth that has always been securely held by faith; the only thing novel these days are new ways to avoid that truth and to seem very smart yet smarmy in doing so.

But there is another alternative, one that is truly on the other side of modernity, that isn’t so quick to throw away the penetrating gains of the modern mindset, only its onetime certainty. And it is from this perspective that I suspect Lewis makes it too simple, that Lewis calls us back to a universe that never really did hold it all together, even if it did once exist.

But yes, the Lizard image is quite wonderful. And apt. What I would give for a nice stallion!
...less

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Zinta rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

09/11/08

bookshelves: fiction

With each and every book I read by C.S. Lewis, I become an ever more admiring fan. While I cannot say this is my favorite of his works (for that spot, I reserve "Mere Christianity," followed by "A Grief Observed"), it is as fascinating and insightful a ride as any of his. C. S. Lewis is exceptional in his ability to take the most complicated human issues and make them understandable.

Blending into a queu awaiting a bus ride without fully understanding to where or why (how...more With each and every book I read by C.S. Lewis, I become an ever more admiring fan. While I cannot say this is my favorite of his works (for that spot, I reserve "Mere Christianity," followed by "A Grief Observed"), it is as fascinating and insightful a ride as any of his. C. S. Lewis is exceptional in his ability to take the most complicated human issues and make them understandable.

Blending into a queu awaiting a bus ride without fully understanding to where or why (how many of us blend sheepishly with the masses this way?), the narrator, George, takes a fantastical ride through heaven and hell. Just two possible end points on this trip, and with that, Lewis makes it clear: as much as we try to rationalize and wiggle, there is no gray area in life, or, in this case, the after life. You choose. Black or white, good or evil.

With a cast of colorful characters, ghostly figures and helpful angels who only wish to give the undecided one final chance to decide, we ride along with those who, we soon realize, resemble everyone we know. Including you and me. The whiner and the complainer, the cheater and the liar, the rationalizer, the egotist, the shortchanger. Even the overly devoted mother, who, upon closer examination, clings to her son more to serve her own selfish needs than to let him go in a loving manner for his wellbeing is not the marytr she believes herself to be.

It is not in the big falls that we lose our way to heaven. It is, more often than not, in the petty details of our lives, all those grand intentions come to nothing, all those shortcomings and shortcuts taken, all those more challenging routes avoided, where we take wrong turns that will land us only in hell. A stern Father reminds us, "Your will be done," rather than His. And so, for all who did not trust in Him, but stubbornly held to their own willful ways, the bus has only one last stop.

As amusing as this little tale (novella) is to read, the message is heavy duty. If you don't recognize yourself in at least a few of these lost souls, look harder. And then give your future bus stop some careful thought... ...less

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grantonio rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

01/25/08

Read in January, 2008

Huh. I've actually read this before, but had forgotten.

What to say about this short little parable? I'm not sure that this is ultimately any more mature than the rest of Lewis' apologetic corpus, but it is equally as palatable, and definitely more thought-provoking. Lewis has always struck me as sort of a gentle, grandfatherly type (in his writing at least), and can make even some pretty twisted ideas seem momentarily palatable.

The book is designed as a series of thought experiments on...more

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Gwenevere rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

07/26/08

Synopsis
On a journey from Hell to Heaven Lewis introduces a realm of reason, which allows the reader to see the ties that bind us to sin and hell. In this illustration Lewis shows how these ties may be severed and the great divorce achieved.

Review
For the sake of brevity, I will not write about everything I learned from this book, however watch the comments, I may make some posts there. (I have pages and pages of notes.)

First off, it seemed as if I were settling in for a bedtime sto...more

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Zachary rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

01/13/08

I'm not quite sure what I had in mind when I picked this book up, but a full length analogical story definitely was not in my mind when I started. But that really didn't matter, because that's exactly what Lewis wrote in "The Great Divorce".

In it, Lewis used a rather interesting vision of what heaven and hell are (not) like. I say "(not) like" because Lewis admits in his introduction that this was intended from the first to be a moral story, not an exploration of what mig...more

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Crystal rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

10/01/07

bookshelves: classics, own-these

recommends it for: fans of classics and/or theology and/or a different way to look at things

This book is a classic, and deserves the title in every way possible. Despite Lewis' method of writing dialogue mostly indirectly, much like Jane Austen, the book doesn't seem passive. it kept my attention the whole way through the book, every time I read it, and even once when I saw the entire book performed/ recited by a single person.
Perhaps it's so fascinating and engrossing because it deals with timeless questions of heaven and hell, of what earns us a place in either location, and what...more

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Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0060652950)

06/20/08

bookshelves: read-more-than-once

This is a book that is very dear to my heart. I read it as a late teenager. The metaphor story was so profound, and reached far deeper to me than the story itself.

*The next part has a spoiler, but I have a point to it*

It's a story about a bus ride to the very edge of "heaven" where you could stay if you want, but for some reason or another, everyone chooses to get back on the bus because even this far edge of heaven is too difficult to bear. Some have pets they cannot bear...more

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Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

11/09/07

bookshelves: fantasy-horror, religion

The Great Divorce" is a strange allegorical novel written by the well-known Christian writer C.S. Lewis, who was also a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien.
The novel is about Heaven and Hell. Hell turns out to be a boring, great city, where the sun never really rises. An angel operates a bus that takes people from Hell to Heaven. Anyone who likes can go onboard the bus. In Heaven, the denizens of Hell are met by angels who call upon them to enter. The offer of salvation is (almost) free. Despite thi...more

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Nick rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

09/18/07

C.S. Lewis’ creative imagination has left a greater impact on my life than most other writers in this genre. In The Great Divorce, Lewis presents a fictional glimpse into the afterlife that includes various portrayals of individuals encountering significant consequences of decisions made on earth. The story takes place within the context of a dream, inviting readers to follow the dreamer’s exploration into a realm of supernatural proportions that comes to life through the main character’s ...more

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Anne rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

07/12/08

I LOVE reading everything C.S. Lewis. I read this book a few years ago and I couldn't put it down. The section of the book that stands out most to me is when the main character observes a conversation between two people (one who lives in heaven and one who is just visiting to see what it is like). The one who lives in heaven had killed someone while he was living on earth and the person visiting could not believe that the murderer had actually made it to heaven-The visiting man basically decided...more

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Stephen rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

04/11/08

bookshelves: spirituality

Read in March, 2008

The Great Divorce is a short science fiction novel by C.S. Lewis. It is difficult to divine the story in the first few chapters, but not long thereafter one figures out that a collection of souls has taken a bus from hell for a tour of heaven. Some ambiguity is left as to what hell actually is, and this is the intent of the author. Hell is a place after death, and it can also exist before death. Lewis intended to imply the parallel as well, that Heaven, too, can exist before death, but he...more

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John rated it:

(review of isbn 0060652950)

06/17/08

bookshelves: religion

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 1976

This is my favorite work by C.S. Lewis. I’d give it 8 stars, . . if ‘twer possible.

In it, Lewis reacts to moral relativism (the Marriage of Heaven and Hell) by suggesting that “you cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and your right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.” He astutely notes that the “great divorce” of good and evil is utterly voluntarily. And he does so by conjuring up this simple tale of a bus r...more

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Nikki Faith rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

07/14/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: everyone!!!!

I just listened to the audio of "The Great Divorce." It was my first reading of this book, and I know there will be many re-readings in my future. I feel a first reading was really just a glimpse of what it will be like to delve into it again and again. First of all, I must say that I adore Lewis's writing style and that his stories really resonate with me. And I know I'm just beginning to touch the surface. I have read Narnia a couple times and I read "The Problem with Pain&qu...more

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Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

05/29/08

Once again C.S. Lewis shows us how deft he is at cracking open the mysteries of human spirituality and motivation. This book is an allegory for heaven and hell and as he describes each of the characters and how they ultimately choose their eternal reward, we can glimpse a bit of ourselves.

My favorite part is when he describes a woman who has chosen heaven but whose husband refuses to give up the little devil sitting on his shoulder and ultimately chooses to return to hell. The narrator ...more

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Michelle added it (review of isbn 0006280560)

08/31/08

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: anyone who loves a good allegory

Really loved this book. It was the second time CS Lewis has managed to put a new and different picture of heaven in my head. When the word heaven is mentioned, this is now the image I will see, next to the images from the Chronicles of Narnia.

I love his qualifiers in the introduction that this is not by any means what heaven WILL be like, but just an allegory. Nonetheless, it is now a vivid picture in my head.

To add to that, it was really convicting. I saw myself in many of the chara...more

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Arryn rated it:

(review of isbn 0006280560)

07/26/08

Read in June, 2008

If you've never read C.S. Lewis, this is a great place to start. If you have read other books by Lewis, you'll find this one particularly readable and thought-provoking. Lewis explores the assertion that Heaven is open and available to one and all, yet in spite of its accessibility, it remains woefully underpopulated. In the preface, Lewis states, "We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually near...more

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Jen rated it:

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