I read this as a hard line Calvinist reformed Baptist.
It was too squishy to be memorable.
Decades later, I’m a squishy atheist open to all the wisdom traditions.
I now see why this book is a classic.
It presents a most charming version of this religion.
His all-or-nothing argument for the divinity of Jesus was unconvincing.
But otherwise, the book was illuminating.
His use of analogies is masterful.
He clearly explains esoteric concepts of the Christian cosmology in simple terms.
The original essays were BBC Radio lectures given during World War Two.
In publication, he preserved the informal manner of the broadcasts, and listening to it as an audiobook brought it back to life.
It was wonderful to listen to C. S. Lewis craft the English language at his highest levels.
Highly recommended, even though I have no interest in becoming a Christian.
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With an active war abroad and political tensions at home, the world and nation is no longer a coherent hegemony.
This book feels more at home in the 20’s than than in the 90’s.
It wasn’t enough to make me curious about practicing Christianity.
But enough to consider re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia, which I did not enjoy as a child.
I wonder what I might find as an adult and a father, knowing the author is a veteran of World War One.