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Surprised by Joy, Reflections on the Psalms, The Four Loves, and The Business of Heaven
Compiled works of C. S. Lewis. The works are Surprised by Joy, Reflections on the Psalms, The Four Loves, and The Business of Heaven. Gold leaf book edge.
523 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
C.S. Lewis
1,032 books47.9k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]
Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 18, 2020
Surprised by Joy: 4 stars
Reflections on the Psalms: 4 stars
Reflections on the Psalms suffers somewhat from Lewis’s rejection of Biblical inerrancy, yet I still found it spiritually edifying, especially the last three chapters relating to the second meanings of the Psalms.
“Plato in his Republic is arguing that righteousness is often praised for the rewards it brings - honor, popularity, and the like - but that to see it in its true nature we must separate it from all these, strip it naked. He asks us therefore to imagine a perfectly righteous man treated by all around him as a monster of wickedness. We must picture him still perfect, while he is bound, scourged, and finally impaled (the Persian equivalent of crucifixion). At this passage a Christian reader starts and rubs his eyes. What is happening? Yet another of these lucky coincidences? But presently he sees that there is something here which cannot be called luck at all. [...] Plato is talking, and knows he is talking, about the fate of goodness in a wicked and misunderstanding world. But that is not something simply other than the Passion of Christ. It is the very same thing of which that Passion is the supreme illustration. If Plato was in some measure moved to write of it by the recent death - we may almost say the martyrdom - of his master Socrates then that again is not something simply other than the Passion of Christ. The imperfect, yet very venerable, goodness of Socrates led to the easy death of the hemlock, and the perfect goodness of Christ led to the death of the cross, not by chance but for the same reason; because goodness is what it is, and because the fallen world is what it is. If Plato, starting from one example and from his insight into the nature of goodness and the nature of the world, was led on to see the possibility of a perfect example, and thus to depict something extremely like the Passion of Christ, this happened not because he was lucky but because he was wise” (184-85).
The Four Loves: 5 stars
Business of Heaven Favorite Days
January 2 - The First Job Each Morning
January 9 - Half-Hearted Creatures
January 14 - The Divisions of Christendom
February 11 - God’s Love Has no Limits
February 16 - Life on Other Planets
February 26 - The Forgiveness of Sins
March 1 - Charity and Fairness
March 7 - A Fully Christian Society
March 8 - The Modern Economic System
March 9 - Giving to the Poor
March 17 - Training the Habit of Faith
March 27 - Chastity
April 8 - Miracles
May 16 - The Death of Lazarus
May 29 - Can You be Happy when Some Reject God?
May 31 - Two Kinds of People in the End
June 6 - Hell
June 7 - There are no Ordinary People
June 28 - One Spiritual Danger in Eros
July 17 - First and Second Things
July 21 - Democracy
August 28 - St. Augustine of Hippo
September 5 - Our Need of Knowledge
September 28 - The Necessity of Tribulation
October 21 - The Shocking Alternative
November 12 - Prayer and ‘Predestination’
November 13 - The Efficacy of Prayer
November 22 - St Cecilia, Patroness of Church Music
November 25 - The Christian and the Materialist
November 30 - St Andrew, Apostle
December 15 - Natural Gifts are Not Enough
Reflections on the Psalms: 4 stars
Reflections on the Psalms suffers somewhat from Lewis’s rejection of Biblical inerrancy, yet I still found it spiritually edifying, especially the last three chapters relating to the second meanings of the Psalms.
“Plato in his Republic is arguing that righteousness is often praised for the rewards it brings - honor, popularity, and the like - but that to see it in its true nature we must separate it from all these, strip it naked. He asks us therefore to imagine a perfectly righteous man treated by all around him as a monster of wickedness. We must picture him still perfect, while he is bound, scourged, and finally impaled (the Persian equivalent of crucifixion). At this passage a Christian reader starts and rubs his eyes. What is happening? Yet another of these lucky coincidences? But presently he sees that there is something here which cannot be called luck at all. [...] Plato is talking, and knows he is talking, about the fate of goodness in a wicked and misunderstanding world. But that is not something simply other than the Passion of Christ. It is the very same thing of which that Passion is the supreme illustration. If Plato was in some measure moved to write of it by the recent death - we may almost say the martyrdom - of his master Socrates then that again is not something simply other than the Passion of Christ. The imperfect, yet very venerable, goodness of Socrates led to the easy death of the hemlock, and the perfect goodness of Christ led to the death of the cross, not by chance but for the same reason; because goodness is what it is, and because the fallen world is what it is. If Plato, starting from one example and from his insight into the nature of goodness and the nature of the world, was led on to see the possibility of a perfect example, and thus to depict something extremely like the Passion of Christ, this happened not because he was lucky but because he was wise” (184-85).
The Four Loves: 5 stars
Business of Heaven Favorite Days
January 2 - The First Job Each Morning
January 9 - Half-Hearted Creatures
January 14 - The Divisions of Christendom
February 11 - God’s Love Has no Limits
February 16 - Life on Other Planets
February 26 - The Forgiveness of Sins
March 1 - Charity and Fairness
March 7 - A Fully Christian Society
March 8 - The Modern Economic System
March 9 - Giving to the Poor
March 17 - Training the Habit of Faith
March 27 - Chastity
April 8 - Miracles
May 16 - The Death of Lazarus
May 29 - Can You be Happy when Some Reject God?
May 31 - Two Kinds of People in the End
June 6 - Hell
June 7 - There are no Ordinary People
June 28 - One Spiritual Danger in Eros
July 17 - First and Second Things
July 21 - Democracy
August 28 - St. Augustine of Hippo
September 5 - Our Need of Knowledge
September 28 - The Necessity of Tribulation
October 21 - The Shocking Alternative
November 12 - Prayer and ‘Predestination’
November 13 - The Efficacy of Prayer
November 22 - St Cecilia, Patroness of Church Music
November 25 - The Christian and the Materialist
November 30 - St Andrew, Apostle
December 15 - Natural Gifts are Not Enough
February 5, 2021
Overall, I really enjoyed learning about C.S. Lewis' life but towards the end it is dogmatic in nature, but that was his purpose overall.
His journey from atheism into christianity, to me, seems anticlimactic, but maybe that's just what it's like for most people, or maybe should be.
His journey from atheism into christianity, to me, seems anticlimactic, but maybe that's just what it's like for most people, or maybe should be.
October 3, 2018
Lewis is, as ever, fantastic. The edition of this I have contains a rather high amount of typos and editing errors.
June 17, 2019
My favorite in this collection is “Surprised by Joy”. Although I enjoy devotional, I would have preferred that the devotional section, “The Business of Heaven” had not been a part of this book.
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May 6, 2009So engaging. I particularly enjoyed 'Surprised by Joy' for its unique angle on his childhood as a journey to understanding fulfillment and the root of Joy.
'The Four Loves' echoes much of his Christian-focused writing, but the piece on friendship should be quoted much, much more in our modern world.
As with nearly every C.S. Lewis work, a fast and often surprisingly funny read!
'The Four Loves' echoes much of his Christian-focused writing, but the piece on friendship should be quoted much, much more in our modern world.
As with nearly every C.S. Lewis work, a fast and often surprisingly funny read!
November 1, 2012
I'm enjoying making this a part of daily devotional reading -- there are daily readings collected as "The Business of Heaven," and I've started in on some of his "Reflections on the Psalms" and his autobiography "Surprised by Joy" a bit as well.
July 11, 2011
This book includes a history in the life of C.S. Lewis telling us what made him write and think as he did. I am not finished with the book, but intend to re-read.
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May 20, 2015Fantasy
July 8, 2016
It is a great read he is wonderful author.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews