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Rating: 
Summary: Promising, but Somewhat Underdeveloped
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book: In one aspect, I enjoyed it greatly, but in other areas, I thought it was flat and niether appealed to academics, C.S. Lewis fans, or laymen. Ultimately, there are some great things and great writing, mixed with at times a flat presentation and underdeveloped presentation.
First, the book starts out very promising. The first two chapters are well presented, but the first chapter "Some Reasons fo Lewis' Success" is an example of the problem I had with this boo. It is written well, some nice insights, but is too shortand feels incomplete (to someone who has read many other works by Lewis and on Lewis, it is too short, whetehr someone reading this book as a first on Lewis would feel the same, I do not know).
Purtill dos do a fine job in showing the different writings of Lewis, both his fiction, non-fiction, and letters, and how they support his ideas in Christian theology. He does a great job in showing Lewis' thought on "mind and expierences" in accounting for how ideas, never expierenced, can be truthful. He does explain well Lewis' exposition on the Trinity(but Lewis' explaination fo the Trinity stands on its own; however, because of the chapters purpose, it was needed in this chapter).
On the chapter, "Who is Christ", Purtill's chapter is too small and does not do justice on Lewis' thoughts and ideas.While "Miracles and History" is a nice chapter, "death and Beyond" is hardly noticable both in length and impact.
All in all, the price is right so one cannot go wrong adding thsi to the C.S. Lewis section of teh home library, but the work is hardly exicting, nor completely boring. Just an average read.
Rating: 
Summary: Mere C.S. Lewis
Review: In the unending spate of books about C.S. Lewis, this book deserves pride of place. Why? Because it came first. Well, not exactly first, but rather early on. Except for updates, this new Ignatius Press edition is an exact reprint of the earlier Harper and Row edition which appeared in hardback and paperback, was used by a bookclub, and then unaccountably went out of print. Ignatius Press, never to be stopped by the unaccountable, brought back Purtill's book on Tolkien last year (now an Ignatius best seller and also available on audio tape), and this year, with little fanfare, quietly slipped out his book on C.S. Lewis. I'll leave it to others to comment on the book and merely mention that in reprinting it, Ignatius Press has released a timebomb, for there is sure to be demand for Dr. Purtill's other related books, Reason to Believe and Lord of the Elves and Eldils (not that Richard Purtill?) not to mention his fantasies based on Greek mythology, The Kaphtu Trilogy, which have also just returned to print (that's the same Richard Purtill?). Search on the web and you find numerous references to his textbooks on logic, philosophy, ethics and religion (he wrote those too?). You could find used copies of his DAW books science fiction novel, The Parallel Man, or his Doubleday sci-fi themed mystery, Murdercon. In fact you'd find references to twenty published books (five of which are currently back in print, with a new novel to appear next year). All from the same prolific professor who wrote short stories in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, was feted as guest of honor at Mythcon, and packed the classroom of his SRO college class, "Fantasy and Philosophy." As reviewers of his books on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien noted, Dr. Purtill has something unique in common with his subjects: that he not only writes about fantasy, like them he also writes it. Ignatius, that most intrepid of publishers, has taken the dangerous step: first the book on Tolkien, now the Lewis book. And how hold back the landslide?
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