Lewis and Human Suffering: Light Among Shadows

Publisher Description

C. S. Lewis and Human Suffering seeks to understand the "why" of human suffering through an evolution of Lewis's thought in three broad movements. In his young adulthood, Lewis considered himself an atheist. As he himself notes in the "Introduction" to The Problem of Pain, pain is not a problem (in the theological or philosophical sense) for the atheist, but only for one who is going to insist on the existence of God. The second movement flows out of Lewis's midlife conversion experience, his return to "joy." His Christian commitment became so complete that he declared without hesitation that pain was "God's megaphone" to rouse us out of complacency, or God's "chisel" to perfect our form. Then Joy Davidman entered and, all too soon, left his life. Lewis was shattered. The journey described in the little journal A Grief Observed is the third movement and the culmination of this evolution of understanding. Book jacket.