Thursday, December 27, 2012

Thre Pretty Good Divorce

One of C.S. Lewis's most popular books is The Great Divorce.  I just read it.  It is a short book, really more of a long essay.  His point is interesting and clear, even if the title is not.

The Great Divorce is a story set in heaven.  Heaven, in Lewis's fictional account, is not much like we might expect.  It is not the portrayal of after-life that is the interesting part of the book, it is the concept of present-life that is presented.

Lewis seems to be answering an unspoken question, just as Jesus does in Matt 11:25.  The question seems to be, "What is life about?"  Why did G^d put us here on this terrestrial shore?  What does life on this small blue planet have to do with life eternal?  If G^d knows how it will all come out in the end (who wins), as He surely does, why bother to contest the game at all?

Lewis wrote another book, called The Problem of Pain.  I read that book a while back, and was largely disappointed.  In my mind,  The Great Divorce better solves the dilemma of the problem of pain and suffering than his book dedicated to that task.

But, then again, maybe I am totally wrong on all this, once again.

What do you think?  How do you handle these conundrums?  Let me know, as I still seek answers, though not with the fervency I once had.

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