Customer Reviews

C.S. Lewis' Case for the Christian Faith

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"C. S. 'Jack' Lewis was merciless in debates. At Oxford University
Jack Lewis was much feared by opponents. Some feared him so much -
like the geneticist and avowed atheist J. B. S. Haldane - that they
fled an encounter with Jack. In fact he had a photographic memory, a
mind trained in logic that raced far ahead of his usual opposition and
a deep, booming voice. Jack's fights for truth were utterly sincere.
In his early days his only acceptable companions were those who could
give him a good scrap. They not only had to defend their opinions with
logic, but with feeling. Yet, even brilliant, passionate dialectics
was not enough; any who showed flippancy or cynicism Jack dismissed as
lightweights" (Wellman). And author Dr. Richard Purtill is no
lightweight! (Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at WWU is the author of
twenty books, including "J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion"
and this gem: "C.S. Lewis' Case for the Christian Faith").

Dr. Purtill utilizes the work of C.S. Lewis' and delivers a vibrant
and wide-ranging exposition of Lewis' defense of Christian truth. He
surveys Lewis' theological and apologetic thought as he discusses God,
Jesus Christ, miracles, and the reality of death. "C.S. Lewis' Case
for the Christian Faith" is a winsome and enlightening overview of
Lewis' work.

Chapters include:

- Reasons for Lewis' success
- Reasons for belief in God
- Who is Christ?
- Miracles in history
- Faith and Reason
- Rivals of Christianity
- And more!

Purtill states: "I read a lot of C.S. Lewis' nonfiction and
apologetics before I read his well-known fantasies, The Chronicles of
Narnia. Somewhere along the line I read his science fiction trilogy."
He adds: "C.S. Lewis has been called "the apostle to the skeptics."
He's probably the best apologist of the twentieth century. He's a key
figure in apologetics, which means, showing people the rational basis
for Christianity, and that you don't need to simply say, `it's just a
matter of faith.'"

Dr. Purtill is a fine apologist, a cogent reviewer, and a compelling
writer of fantasy. He writes: "One thing we could say about the
possibility of the universe simply coming into existence from nothing
is to declare that "nothing comes from nothing." There is not just a
factual impossibility involved ... but a kind of logical impossibility."

I concur with C.S. Lewis' observation that "ancient man approached God
... as the accused person approaches his judge. For modern man the roles
are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. ... The trial many
even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on
the bench and God is in the dock." Moreover Lewis' observation that "I
believe in God as I believe in the Sun; not so much that I see the
Sun, it's more like without the Sun, I cannot see anything at all"
builds upon Augustine as he helps build my faith.

Dr. Purtill does some of his best work in demonstrating that
accounting for reason, ideas, and knowledge require a theistic view as
Lewis argues. I enjoy Purtill's work, and this may be one of his
finest efforts. If you are a fan of Lewis or Purtill, I encourage you
to purchase this volume.

"Unless thought is valid we have no reason to believe in the real
universe" (C.S. Lewis).
Truth, Knowledge and the Reason for God: The Defense of the Rational Assurance of Christianity

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.

I was challenged, touched, and inspired by this book about C.S. Lewis and his ideas about God, faith, the Bible, etc. There are some real gems in this volume, I was pleasantly surprised by the author's presentation. It is written for the layman in mind which is extremely helpful when reading Lewis. He was an extraordinary writer, and a man of deep faith and love for God. His writings are just endlessly fascinating to me!

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?

The reason for me not liking this book is partly my fault. I was under the impression that CS Lewis wrote this book. I got over that pretty quick, but found this book frustrating, still. There are snipets of CS Lewis writings, but then they abruptly end and don't really have a poper lead up. The author decides to give you his own opinion on everything. They have two dramatically different writing styles, so going from one to the other was very choppy and really not that enjoyable. But, this book would be good if you just want a light overview of Lewis' arguments.