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Average Rating:  out of 100 Reviews
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Price: $12.95
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Sale: $7.77
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Manufacturer: HarperOne
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780060652968
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: C. S. Lewis
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Publisher: HarperOne
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Dewey Decimal Number: 231.8
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Publication Date: 2001-02
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Reading Level: 176
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Description: The Problem of Pain answers the universal question, "Why would an all-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering?" Master Christian apologist C.S. Lewis asserts that pain is a problem because our finite, human minds selfishly believe that pain-free lives would prove that God loves us. In truth, by asking for this, we want God to love us less, not more than he does. "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." In addressing "Divine Omnipotence," "Human Wickedness," "Human Pain," and "Heaven," Lewis succeeds in lifting the reader from his frame of reference by artfully capitulating these topics into a conversational tone, which makes his assertions easy to swallow and even easier to digest. Lewis is straightforward in aim as well as honest about his impediments, saying, "I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine that being made perfect through suffering is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design." The mind is expanded, God is magnified, and the reader is reminded that he is not the center of the universe as Lewis carefully rolls through the dissertation that suffering is God's will in preparing the believer for heaven and for the full weight of glory that awaits him there. While many of us naively wish that God had designed a "less glorious and less arduous destiny" for his children, the fortune lies in Lewis's inclination to set us straight with his charming wit and pious mind. --Jill Heatherly
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: C.S. Lewis Classic |
Date: 2008-12-11 |
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Details: C.S. Lewis was a facinating writer. This is a hard read. Lewis challenges us to face and grip pain. Don't read this if you want something light. Read this if you want something more. |
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Review Summary: c.s. lewis is a classic |
Date: 2008-11-16 |
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Details: This book is amazing and it's very insightful. C.S. Lewis is very honest in this book and states clearly his view on pain. I truly enjoyed this book and recommend anything written by him. |
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Review Summary: The Probelm of Pain |
Date: 2008-10-02 |
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Details: This is an awesome book. I cant say anymore about it or I would take away from it. If you are struggling to understand why a loving God would allow pain and suffering, then you need to read this book. |
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Review Summary: Problem Addressed Amiably - But Solved? |
Date: 2008-10-01 |
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Details: On a recent trip from Europe to Australia, I re-read "The Problem of Pain" and was - as several years before - once again pulled in by Lewis' exquisite prose.
He starts off with a bang by describing how he used to see the world when he was an atheist, painting a bleak picture of the kind of universe we live in.
Most of it is empty space, he says, dark and cold. The heavenly bodies are really no more than a little dust in this great emptiness. Even if every speck of this dust were inhabited with happy creatures, "it would still be difficult to believe that life and happiness were more than a by-product to the power that made the universe."
As it is, however, so far Earth is the only speck we know of that is inhabited at all, and it is far from being a happy place. It is arranged in such a manner that every creature can only survive by annihilating other creatures. Lower forms of life are caught in this vicious cycle as much as higher forms, except that higher forms are so unfortunate as to experience years of pain before annihilation.
The most complex creatures of all - human beings - are beset with yet another curse, namely the ability to foresee their own suffering and death, which extends their physical pain into the mental arena. It also enables them in this vicious battle of mutual annihilation to come up with many cruel devices to inflict even more pain, both on one another and on less complex forms of life.
The conclusion of the old, atheist Lewis: "If you ask me to believe that this is the work of a benevolent and omnipotent spirit, I reply that all the evidence points in the opposite direction. Either there is no spirit behind the universe, or else a spirit indifferent to good and evil, or else an evil spirit."
Today's atheists such as Christopher Hitchens still make this same point, so "The Problem of Pain" has not lost its applicability in our times. It addresses a timeless theme.
But does Lewis succeed in providing an answer? That, I am not entirely sure of. Yes, I did feel myself being convinced by Lewis' force of writing, but I also couldn't help wondering whether that was due to his ability as an author or due to the actual points he was making. If you put down Lewis' main arguments in an unadorned list, would they still be convincing? Some, probably, but I fear not all.
Lewis himself said in a letter years after publishing "The Problem of Pain" that he wished he had known more when he wrote the book. It is, therefore, by Lewis' own admission, far from being a perfect work. For me, even after reading the book more than once, there still is a problem of pain.
But the book should be applauded all the same for its attempt to address the problem of pain and evil honestly, and it is definitely worth reading and re-reading.
- Jacob Schriftman, Author of The C. S. Lewis Book on the Bible: What the Greatest Christian Writer Thought About the Greatest Book |
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Review Summary: Of Human Suffering |
Date: 2008-07-04 |
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Details: The question or 'problem' that C.S. Lewis sets out to answer in "The Problem of Pain" is one that has confounded believers and non-believers alike: if God is good and loves his creation, why does he allow such pain and suffering to exist? How can that be good and exist within his creation? While Lewis' ponderings may not seem like straightforward answers to those questions, he paints a picture of a God revealed through his creation where even pain and evil can exist.
C.S. Lewis is perhaps the best person to examine this topic: a former atheist, he commences the book by speaking of what his former answer to that question would've been. It is only through his eventual conversion to a belief in Christ that he is able to see the order behind the seeming chaos. Lewis examines an array of issues, covering commonalities between religions but what sets Christianity apart, the Fall of Man, and why Heaven and Hell must exist. Moreover, he examines the distinct individuality that plays a role in our relation to our Creator.
Lewis' prose has the contradiction of being both dense and enlightening. His examinations are not necessarily for the ordinary reader, nor are they too lofty either, but they require a great deal of thoght and reflection. Therefore, "The Problem of Pain" is best read perhaps a chapter at a time, allowing the reader to meditate on what has been presented. The ultimate irony of human suffering might be that as believers, we have had every opportunity to not experience suffering, since Christ has already suffered supreme - but because of how God created us, we have the will to choose, no matter what that choice might be. |
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