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Summary: Lewis' depiction of death might startle conservatives.
Review: Many years ago C.S.Lewis attempted to moralize through a fantasy. Actually, it seems he did this quite often -- That Hideous Planet, etc. What he does in Great Divorce is to assume the role of one having recently died. He appears on the scene of what may be a holding area for the dead; specifically, he finds himself among persons awaiting transportation. An omnibus flies them through the air (space?), up into a frightening for some chasm toward a dawn of sorts. Arriving at the destination, some return to the bus, while others try to explore, and Lewis only seems to explore as he observes the others. His encounter with one of his benefactors -- George MacDonald of the previous century -- gives reason and grounding for Lewis' moralizing. Lewis' perspective on life after death should raise the hackles of the conservative Protestant who seems so often to idolize Lewis -- after death there is a process during which one has many chances to rectify one's lack of loving during life on earth. Is there a Hell? There is some sort of Purgatory!
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Summary: Our daily Great Divorces from God
Review: C.S. Lewis presents a story of one's journey towards God or away from God. The central characteristic in each of us is Free Will and our daily choices to embrace God or not. A much more succinct journey than Dante's, Lewis challeges us to look at the direction our life is headed based on the choices we make. Based on George MacDonald's definition of hell: I am my own, Lewis ' character is invited to embrace eternal Joy by giving himself to God. I use this book with high school seniors and they say it is a must read
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Summary: Theology made gripping
Review: A soul in a great gray city (purgatory) takes a bus trip to the edge of heaven. Those on the bus meet friends from their past lives who try to convince them to enter heaven. An exposition of Lewis' thesis that the 'gates of hell are locked on the inside'. The title is Lewis' response to "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
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Summary: Lewis' "The Great Divorce" proves exciting and enlightening.
Review: Very rarely does an author impact me more than does C.S. Lewis, and very few C.S. Lewis books have impacted me like "The Great Divorce." A tale both of the desperation of the human condition and the glorious mercy of God, it is presented as a narrative about a bus ride from a dismal town in which the sun is always about to set to a bright shining place of painful realities. The book deals with humbling yourself, dying to yourself, and putting to death all that is unholy in your life to be raised up again as glorious. I often wonder why sometimes it takes a book other than the Bible to describe things of God so plainly and simply. Reading "The Great Divorce" has made me see that in desiring God alone my desires for other things will die, only to be transformed into holy desires, good desires, true desires
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Summary: Superior, uplifting theology. Easy to read. His best!
Review: This is my favorite book. A fantasy tale about a soul that takes a trip from Hell to Heaven with other souls. Once in heaven, souls from heaven try to convince these visitors to stay, which is a harder task than most would suspect. Not at all a preachy or fire and brimstone type book as one might suspect. This book has some of the best dialogue and concepts regarding heaven and hell and the human condition you will find anywhere. If you read only one book by CS Lewis, this is the one
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Summary: One of the best books by Lewis
Review: The Great Divorce is one of a kind, indeed. Like that of his Screwtape Letters, it is a fantasy book, but based on a real belief in the Truth - Christianity and everything therein. C.S. Lewis definitely wrote a lot on Christianity (his apologetics), but this relatively small book puts those beliefs and convictions into a real story and situation. We are not necessarily expected to believe in the story as the Truth about the afterlife, though it is probably a good guess, but we are to realize that it is very hard to let ourselves go, to let God rip and peel off the black soot from our shoulders. I highly recommend it for anyone either strong or weak in their faith. It is also a great piece of literature for those athiest-postmodern people out there!
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Summary: If you like C.S. Lewis . . .
Review: . . . like I do, I strongly suggest We All Fall Down, by Brian Caldwell. Like Lewis, Caldwell takes an intellectual aproach to the concept of Christianity. His novel is very much in the vein of The Screwtape Letters and The Great divorce. I highly recomend it for discriminating Christian readers.
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Summary: What is Heaven and Hell, anyway?
Review: The brilliance of "The Great Divorce" is Lewis' focus on the spiritual aspects of Heaven and Hell and not just the literal aspects. The very day I became a Christian, the thought entered my mind that the very worst things about Hell had to be the absence of love and the absence of Christ. That was as far as my thinking went. Lewis took me much further with this book-- The lustful man lives in a kind of Hell already. The woman with a forgiving and humble heart lives in a kind of Heaven already. In the Bible, believers are described as already seated with Christ in Heavenly places-- spiritually, they have already arrived at their eternal destination. The converse is true of unbelievers. They dwell in the dark shadows of the underworld-- willingly without love and without Christ, burning in the flames of their own selfishness. An excellent read!! Lewis mentions his predecessor, George MacDonald, in "The Great Divorce." I have read that Lewis derived much of his theology from MacDonald's interpretations. I recommend MacDonald's book "Phantastes," the very book which Lewis partly credits for his conversion. I also recommend highly, and I do mean highly "Castle of Wisdom" by Rhett Ellis.
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Summary: Scary But Hopeful
Review: It is almost absurd to write a review about a Lewis book because everything he wrote is worth reading and pondering. But I write this review to encourage the prospective reader. In this book, we are challenged to radical conversion, to turn away from our own comfortable assumptions and wisdom, to "get off the bus" we have been riding in all our lives and to get off at a new and challenging stop. The surprise is that the new and off-putting stop is heaven. The even greater surprise is how hard it is to get us to accept the gift.
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Summary: Provocative and Consistently Underestimated
Review: Reading "The Great Divorce" was formative for me the first time I came across it (some years ago); and with each re-reading, I'm reminded of just how apt are Lewis' descriptions of human interaction and the often blurry lines between what he terms "brass" and "gold" -- that which we might otherwise accept as a "natural" virtue, and that which is of everlasting, divine makeup.
Of all the books CS Lewis wrote, I think "The Great Divorce" is the most often passed over-- regrettably so. I don't know why that's the case, but I do know that those who are introduced to "The Great Divorce" after having read other Lewis classics (such as "Mere Christianity" or "Screwtape") are often left with a new favorite in their Lewis collection. That was certainly true of me.
What I find most powerful about "The Great Divorce" is Lewis' ability to distill examples of human conversations that reflect some of the most basic realities of our engagement with each other and the divine. That gift of Lewis' is what made the Narnia Chronicles so popular; with equal imagination here, he draws out even more subtle theological precepts. I often use the vignettes from this text as illustrations for not only those who ask for a thoughtful consideration of Christianity, but also a thoughtful consideration of human nature.
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