Even Non-Believers Have to Respect This Book and Its Author

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	• The Great Divorce C. S. Lewis HarperOne, 2001 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 217 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Even Non-Believers Have to Respect This Book and Its Author

I'm not a Christian. In fact, I'm a fairly resolute atheist, and I bear a particular grudge against Christianity.

That said, no author has ever made me wonder about the possible truth to Christianity, nor appreciate the religion as a potentially beautiful thing, more than C.S. Lewis.

In this book, The Great Divorce, and in his non-fiction Mere Christianity, Lewis presents a Christianity that is both sensible and moral. The Great Divorce brilliantly answers a non-believer's moral objections to Christianity. How can a moral God condemn man to Hell? He doesn't; instead, God invites all to come to Heaven--it is man who chooses Hell, despite God's repeated invitations. Lewis shows portraits of people that most atheists and agnostics usually feel are "harmless," and certainly not deserving of Hell... and then he shows how they are not harmless at all. In short, he makes an excellent case for Christian ethics. All of Lewis' many character portraits here have the ring of truth to them. The plot, having some lost souls take a trip from Hell to Heaven, is a wonderful device.

This is a highly charged and profound philosophical read. As such, it's probably best for those who have a philosophical bent; it's not the same kind of fiction as Lewis' Narnia, etc.

While this book didn't "convert" me, I must confess that no one but Lewis has come closer. And even though it didn't change my belief system, it did give me some insight into and new found respect for views that I do not share. A wonderful read. My highest recommendation.

Incidentally, regarding the other reviewer who complained about "Purgatory" being in this novel, it isn't. Instead, Lewis postulates that even those in Hell have choices, and opportunities to be saved, and that those who finally graduate from Hell to Heaven will feel that the place they came from--Hell--was actually Purgatory. Lewis is making the case that what we label Heaven and Hell depends a lot on our perspective. Besides being insightful and sophisticated in its own measure, this is Lewis' way of presenting an ecumenical Christianity, without trying to force one sectarian view down peoples' throats. Lewis feels that the important part is bringing people to Christ... not promoting one particular view on, say, the existence or absence of Purgatory. Whether Christian, or atheist, or whatever you are, reading this book well requires an open mind.

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This is just what I needed and it works great.

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Wonderful, even for the Seasoned Christian!

An excellent book. I read this even before I became a Christian and it really spoke to me. "The Great Divorce" is pretty much the story about a group of people in hell taking a one day vacation to the "entrance" of heaven. In it, Lewis paints a vivid image of what the "truth" of heaven would look like from the point of view of the weak and faiding souls who are too scared to leave the pitiful "comforts" of hell. Lewis, as always, gives deep insight and clear understanding of the various tactics and lies we use daily to "protect ourselves" from hearing, seeing, and believing the Lord's Truth.

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Entertaining and thoughtful

C.S. Lewis had a knack of titling his works with either extreme modesty or with seemingly unrelated terms. This is the case with "The Great Divorce," which sounds like a romance novel, but is meant to reveal the separate nature of the two realms of Heaven and Hell, yet speaks very little to the actual content of the work.

The short fictional piece is a fantastic journey through, what at first could be taken as any dreary British town, complete with gray architecture and quarreling citizens. Until the point when the bus on which these citizens are riding is lifted off the ground, the reader may take the setting to be home. The setting is definitely not home, but the personalities are the same. The characters throughout are used as a way to illustrate good and bad behavior and that which would get you in to the grand and beautiful Heaven or leave you in the small, pointless, and gray Hell.

Lewis is entertaining and thoughtful and once again comes up with brilliant points about human nature and the moral law, including Christianity (though this is but a subtle underlying theme). One interesting point Lewis makes that people will relate to is that given the clear choice between going to Heaven or Hell based on their beliefs, people will insist on maintaining their irrational beliefs and actually choose a pointless and brutal, yet familiar, Hell.

This is a great one-day read and part of a collection of Lewis' work that cannot be overestimated.

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An unforgetable little book

This is one of the little known but POWERFUL books by CS Lewis. He has a way of making you really think about your life and what you're letting control you. As he points out in this book, amazingly things that annoy and torment us we tend to cling to and keep around. Hmmmm, why do we do that? You will ponder this book and its message for years to come.

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