The Collected Works of C.S. Lewis

The first part, a Pilgrim's Regress is a critique on many modern philosophies. Overall it's quite well written, with only a few parts that are so transparent as to leave your intelligence feeling a tad insulted. The other two thirds of this tome is a collection of Lewis' writings from several sources, correspondence, essays, transcripts from radio talks etc. A few of them are dry, but many of them are excellent. It's remarkable that the very same issues which we in the Catholic Church today are facing, are being discussed by this Anglican a century earlier. Women's ordination, the secularization of Christmas, etc. Why are we so incapable of learning from the mistakes of others?! A few quotes worth sharing: from "Priestesses in the Church: "The Church claims to be the bearer of a revelatio. If that claim is false then we want not to make priestesses but to abolish priests. if it is true, then we should expct to find in the Church an element which unbelievers will call irrational and which believers will call suprarational...If we retain only what can be justified by standards of prudence and convenience at the bar of enlightened common sense, then we exchange revelation for that old wraith Natural Religion." from "Xmas and Christmas(an allegorical narrative, hence the Crissmass, and Exmas)" "But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared to me inconvenient, But the priest replied, It is not lawful O stranger, for us to change the date of Crissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatriibians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. " (which beautiful backs up a point I had made in a post a few weeks ago on why we should not move Christmas) Apparently this book is now thought of as out of print or hard to find, but I'm sure other editions of it's three component works: The Pilgrim's Regress, Christian Reflections and God in the Dock have come out.

Personally, I don't know how Inspirational Press stays in business! They have all of these high-quality books for bargain-barrel prices. And the printing aspects are high-quality-the binding holds up to my vicious attacks with the pen and constant pondering and page-turning and re-page-turning!This is a "tree-fer," containing some of C. S. Lewis's best work."Pilgrim's Recess" is Lewis's proto-work or Q-document, where he give in allegorical form a thumbnail of his thought, or rather his Thought, since he is consistant ans unified in this thinking."Christian Reflections" and "God in the Dock" are two books with one theme, that is defense of the faith and answering questions to and about the faith. Lewis is a mind awake and does notshirk from sharp and jagged questions, and he gives substantive and serious answers.If you have thought about buying even one of these books, get this trilogy since you will always want more of Lewis!

For the cost of this book, I would have gladly paid the same price for "God in the Dock" alone. Yet, with this compilation, you get "God in the Dock" along with two other CS Lewis classics. The Pilgrim's Regress is a fictional story with an autobiographical twist. The main character, John, is in search for his island, something he has been drawn to his entire life, but never could quite put "his finger on it". Knowing CS Lewis' past, and how he went from atheist to Christian, and you'll see this book reflects his own personal struggles as he searched for the truth. Christian Reflections (14 essays) and God in the Dock (48 essays) are compilations of a plethora of essays CS Lewis has written on a large number of issues. From the justifiability of war (CS Lewis wrote a large number of essays during the World War II period), to answers to atheistic questions, ethics, prayer, common theological questions and church music, Clive Staples Lewis leaves no stone unturned. The Pilgrims Regress is a perfect introduction to CS Lewis, and will get you geared up for the theologically heavier fare that you will get with the other two books. Reading the two other essay driven books is easy, once you get accustomed to CS Lewis' mannerisms, and the essays vary anywhere from 4 to 5 pages in length, to 20 or more. The prose is rich, and CS Lewis is one of the greatest Christian authors of all time, and after reading this compliation, you'll know why.

How should I describe C S Lewis's work? Influenced by Chesterton, MacDonald, and a large amount of Medieval writers; and influencing authors such as Borges, Tolkien, and a whole generation of writers, C S Lewis ranks as the foremost Christian apologist of this century, and one of the greatest of all times. Lecturer and professor at Cambridge and Oxford, he was ranked as a superb scholar, specialized in the Medieval literature area; was a famous children literature writer; but it is in his apologetical essays that he's at his best. Mr. Lewis, mastering his Thomas Aquinas and Augustin, proposes a witty and light approach to the discusion of theology. It is like an erudite Chesterton, an easy Kierkegaard, or a short Dostoievski. Even if you do not sympathize with morals or faith, Lewis will pull out a smile of your face, and make you think for a while. I recomend this book specialy for Christians who want to understand and non-Christians who want to believe. To both of them, take the risk, and read this book.