[AYX]≫ PDF God in the Dock Essays on Theology and Ethics C S Lewis 9780802808684 Books

God in the Dock Essays on Theology and Ethics C S Lewis 9780802808684 Books

Download As PDF : God in the Dock Essays on Theology and Ethics C S Lewis 9780802808684 Books

God in the Dock Essays on Theology and Ethics C S Lewis 9780802808684 Books

This is a collection of essays by Lewis, all on religious topics or related to it. Unlike his more unified apologetics, this book includes discussions about hymns, whether the purpose of punishment (for crimes) is desert or remedial, all sorts of things. Some of the essays are less interesting than others, but all are packed with his wisdom and compact style. I particularly like his take on the language evangelism should use: he makes the point that if a minister cannot explain anything in the Bible in simple language that he probably doesn't understand it well enough himself. He goes on to call for seminarians to be tested on their ability to put complex biblical themes or theological subtleties into "vulgar" language, much as we would expect them to learn to speak Bantu before ministering to the Bantu people..

Towards the end is a collection of letters, mostly to magazines and journals commenting on this or that paper. Some are funny in his dry way, others show that he was engaged in lots of different areas.

No one can go wrong reading anything he wrote. But this volume should not be your first exposure to him.


Tags : God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics [C. S. Lewis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Lewis struck me as the most thoroughly <em>converted</em> man I ever met, observes Walter Hooper in the preface to this collection of essays by C. S. Lewis. His whole vision of life was such that the natural and the supernatural seemed inseparably combined. <br/><br/>It is precisely this pervasive Christianity which is demonstrated in the forty-eight essays comprising <em>God in the Dock</em>. Here Lewis addresses himself both to theological questions and to those which Hooper terms semi-theological,C. S. Lewis,God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics,Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,0802808689,Christian Theology - General,Ethics & Moral Philosophy,Christian Theology - Ethics,French,Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963,Modern fiction,Philosophy Ethics & Moral Philosophy,Religion,Religion - Theology,Religion Christian Theology Ethics,Religion Christian Theology General

God in the Dock Essays on Theology and Ethics C S Lewis 9780802808684 Books Reviews

Many do not know that C.S. Lewis was a University Don in dead languages that started as an Atheist. After becoming a Christian he used his academic discipline to try and make the theological/philosophical understandable to the average man of his day. Does he have all of the answers? He would tell you, and does in this book, he does not. He does however have some ideas he is willing to share with us. During WWII the BBC put him on a regular radio program to talk about faith and belief. It is claimed he was the second most listened to individual on the radio, right behind Winston Churchill. He wrote several books that have become extremely popular in the fiction category. "Screwtape Letters", "Chronicles of Narnia" being probably the widest know and discussed, This book is a collection of his more serious papers and transcripts of his radio "talks" on the need and understanding of Christian faith during a time of sever and rampant fear and uncertainty. Worth while reading even if not a Christian or Church goer.
Great book. Seller was great and the book was better than described. But the content is really good. Of course, I'm a fan of C.S. Lewis. I love his logic. He usually takes me somewhere and gives me good perspective on the cross and life itself. In so doing, he has a way of minimizing any current stressors. They come back for sure. But the respite he gives by adding perspective is a good thing. This collection of essays will be read numerous times by me. One in particular ("Man Or Rabbit") has already been read numerous times.
I find that the more I read the writings of C. S. Lewis, the more I find myself admiring his skill as a writer and thinker. I do not know of another writer who is so good at getting straight to the heart of whatever subject he is considering and working out every logical implication of a position held by himself or someone else. Thus, I found this collection of essays by Lewis titled God in the Dock to be a special treat.

These forty-eight essays written over a period of some twenty years and published in a variety of publications provide excellent examples of Lewis’s clear thinking and uncompromising defense of his Christian beliefs. Although there is some diversity of subject in these writings, the editor, Walter Hooper, has sorted them out into three parts and included a fourth part containing a few letters Lewis wrote. As he explains, the first two parts deal mostly with theology while the third has essays dealing more with Christian ethics or behavior. These essays are not so easily differentiated and Lewis is always as much concerned with Christian living as much as Christian beliefs. Ethics and theology blend together more than are separated in these essays.

Lewis does tackle a variety of subjects in these essays, but always he returns to the same themes. He defends the concept of miracles against the idea that science disproves the miraculous by pointing out that science only studies the regularities found in nature. Given that the miraculous is not part of the regularities, science can tell us nothing about it. Lewis also argues against reducing everything to mechanistic naturalism. He insists that to study a thing is not the same as to experience it and one must not assume that either process tells us everything about the thing. A person in love experiences the emotion of love. A doctor studying his brain might perhaps learn something of the chemicals that produce the feelings of being in love, but cannot know what it is to be in love unless he actually experiences it.

C. S. Lewis defends dogma in religion against those who would do away with it in favor of a loose theism by pointing out that a religion with no beliefs is hardly worth the trouble. He writes of the difficulties of spreading the Christian message to a contemporary audience and of the necessity of speaking the common people’s language in order to teach them. The essay God in the Dock notes that unlike the pagans in first century Rome, most people today do not believe themselves to be sinners in need of repentance and instead of fearing the judgment of God, is more inclined to put God in the dock and judge Him.

One of the themes throughout C. S. Lewis’s writings is his contention that it is what is true that matters, not what is modern or progressive or practical. In Bulverism, he attacks the twentieth century fashion of refuting an argument not by proving it is wrong, but by attacking the motives of the debater. (Check your privilege?) He insists that a point is either right or wrong, regardless of the motives of the person stating it, and it can only be shown to be right or wrong using reason.

There is a lot more to this collection and I have only scratched a very shallow line on the surface of the profound riches to be found in reading these essays. I think that any follower of C. S. Lewis will find that reading God in the Dock to be a rewarding experience.
This is a collection of essays by Lewis, all on religious topics or related to it. Unlike his more unified apologetics, this book includes discussions about hymns, whether the purpose of punishment (for crimes) is desert or remedial, all sorts of things. Some of the essays are less interesting than others, but all are packed with his wisdom and compact style. I particularly like his take on the language evangelism should use he makes the point that if a minister cannot explain anything in the Bible in simple language that he probably doesn't understand it well enough himself. He goes on to call for seminarians to be tested on their ability to put complex biblical themes or theological subtleties into "vulgar" language, much as we would expect them to learn to speak Bantu before ministering to the Bantu people..

Towards the end is a collection of letters, mostly to magazines and journals commenting on this or that paper. Some are funny in his dry way, others show that he was engaged in lots of different areas.

No one can go wrong reading anything he wrote. But this volume should not be your first exposure to him.