Customer Reviews

C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness and Beauty

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'C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty' is a valuable contribution to the critical literature of a neglected aspect of Lewis' work. Owen Barfield once said that everything Lewis thought was evident in anything he wrote; to get at the heart of his popular fiction, juvenile and adult, and his Christian apologetics, the Lewis reader needs to understand at least in part Lewis' philosophic positions because he was, by training and at least partially by disposition, a philosopher.

This collection of essays delivers on its promised explorations of Lewis' ideas about 'Truth, Goodness, and Beauty' in the breadth of its explorations, the depth and cogency of its arguments, the beauty of the book inside and out, and the clarity and crispness of the prose, which, though written predominantly by professional philosophers, is mercifully free of academic jargon.

Three essays I enjoyed very much and which stretched my thinking as well as my understanding and appreciation of Lewis were Victor Reppert's 'Update on Lewis' Argument from Reason,' Gregory Bassham's 'On the Power of the Imagination,' and Peter Kreeft's opening work on 'Truth, Goodness, and Beauty' that sets the engaging, challenging tone of the collection. What I learned from this fraction of the whole (a fifth!) justified many times the cost of the book.

Again, Lewis as Philosopher and Lewis as Social Critic are the neglected aspects of this brilliant Renaissance Man (as much as the Medievalist might have disliked that term). 'C. S. Lewis as Philosopher' is a valuable addition to the growing awareness of this don and his relevance in understanding virtue, art, and reality. I recommend it with enthusiasm to individuals who are serious readers of CSL and to libraries and schools with collections of Lewis' books, critical and fictional. This is a text to help the neophyte and scholar to a greater appreciation of those books.

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