Cons: Many complex thoughts and theory, not for beginners, or those new to C.S. Lewis
The Bottom Line: If your looking for deep thought and points to ponder, this is a great book. For those looking for something light or inspirational, look elsewhere.
clarkie_in_ct's Full Review: C. S. Lewis - The Problem of Pain
This is the fourth C.S. Lewis book I’ve read this year, I got the five-book box set for Christmas last year. I have to say that this has been one of the shortest of the five books and the one that took the longest to read. Aside from it being summer here, the mere fact that this book is C.S. Lewis’s own ponderings, he seem to take the reader on deep, perplexing possibilities that, I have to admit, are sometimes hard to follow.
To net the book out to it’s simplest theme might be selling it a little short, but in the essence of time and for basic understanding, I think it’s the best method. The overall message is that men’s suffering is caused by distance from God and the Fall of Man, and is only mitigated by submission to God, which will also initially cause pain.
The book is ten chapters, which I would break into three main sections. Divine Omnipotence/Goodness, Human Wickedness/Pain, and lastly, Hell and Heaven, with an seemingly arbitrary chapter on Animal pain.
The first section, details the essence of God existence and purpose for creating man. And, it starts by implying that God is all knowing, across time, and that he has placed every human soul on earth to fulfill a God given purpose, and only by submitting to that purpose are we fulfilled.
”When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy.”
But that’s not to say that a fallen man, can’t ignore, or misinterpret that purpose. God has given each man a moral compass, and one of the indicators of going off course is human shame. “But shame is a dangerous and mischievous thing.” We humans have taken our shame, and those things that cause it, and assigned it to our “nature.” We have further taken that “nature” and stated that it is what we are. We’ve become proud of that which caused our shame. Completely bypassing the mechanism God gave us to stay on His path.
It seems to me that Lewis may be onto something here. (My editorial comments here) A mere generation ago when most thought we were creations of the Almighty, we acted more Godly. Now, when many believe we’ve simply evolved from animals and that we are mere animals, we act more like animals would act. You see without God we can’t be divine, and all that left is the animal vessel of our divine soul.
The next ‘section’ would be Human wickedness. These chapters talk about the fall of man. That man from that point on is spiritually flawed, and unable to live sinless in the post-Fall world. Lewis’s point and the major theme of the book is this. The only way to regain what we lost in the fall, and even then not completely, is submission to God. And then, only complete submission. Submission is a great cause of pain in humans; the loss of self-guided freedom in return for a God-led one. Lewis also talks about the essence of human pain (only existing after the fall) as a being created by humans toward other humans.
”When souls become wicked the will certainly use the possibility (of soul meeting one another) to hurt one another, and this accounts for perhaps four-fifths of the suffering of men. It is men, not God, who have produced racks, whips, prisons, slavery, guns, bayonet’s and bombs; it is by human avarices or human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature that we have poverty and overwork.”
In the last part of the book he speaks about the concepts of Heaven and Hell, and an seemingly arbitrary chapter on “Animal Pain.” I think this chapter on Animal pain may make a secondary point, that is really the key to the book. Lewis speaks of an animal like a dog being domesticated and trained by a human. While the dog will certainly undergo pain in the since of perhaps a choker, and in the sense of giving up on it’s old self and fully submitting to it’s human master. There is, however, a benefit to the dog. The benefit is that by submitting to its master, it becomes purposeful and fulfilled. It knows a companionship and a closeness it would never have known if it hadn’t submitted. So the dog experiences some pain, loses itself to its master, yet benefits to the greater for doing so. And here’s the key, if we humans also submit to our Master, God, we’ll also initially experience pain, but ultimately know a closeness and companionship with our Creator, of which, we’ll certainly benefit.
”Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow make to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the Divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions.”
Overall I enjoyed the book, despite the effort to finish it. I also would not recommend this book to anyone who was new to studying theology, as I think it is very complex and in the end, I only hope I understood what Lewis what thinking.
\Why must we suffer? If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?\ And what of animals, who neither deserve pain n...More at Christianbook.com
Why must humanity suffer? In this elegant and thoughtful work, C.S. Lewis questions the pain and suffering that occur everyday and how this contrasts ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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