Seeing Eye and Other Selected Essays from Christian Reflections

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and intelligent
Review: This collection C.S. Lewis' essays contain many deep thoughts on some very specific subjects. In this collection, essays spend time comparing Christianity and Culture, Christianity and Literature, and many more of the less than fundamental aspects of Christianity. He proves his depth of knowledge in the works by citing numerous references in each essay. This book was not intended for the pleasure reader. The content is very specific and Lewis refers to a plethora of people and works that may be unknown to many people.

Rating:
Summary: A Redundant Collection
Review: This is a completely dispensable work. It is "Christian Reflections", with "On Church Music" left out. To be sure, "On Church Music" isn't much of a work, but it hardly seems worthwhile to put out a new collection with no other purpose than to omit it.

So what should you get instead?

If you are interested in Lewis's shorter works, my best advice is to get "Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces", which, as of the time of this writing, is available from Amazon UK but not Amazon US. That collection consists of about 130 short works by Lewis. The works in that collection are mostly, but not exclusively, Christian.

If your interest is restricted to Lewis' works on Christianity, and your budget or enthusiasm does not run to "Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces", then my second-best advice is to get any or all of the following (they don't overlap significantly, and between them they include most of Lewis's shorter Christian writings):

"God in the Dock - Essays on Theology and Ethics"*

"The World's Last Night and Other Essays"

"Christian Reflections"

"The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses"

* Be careful - there is a UK Fontana paperback lurking about called "God in the Dock - Essays on Theology" that is substantially shorter than the "God in the Dock - Essays on Theology and Ethics" collection. A full version of "God in the Dock - Essays on Theology and Ethics" was published in the UK under the title "Undeceptions - Essays on Theology and Ethics".