Man's Natural Powers: Essays for and About C. S. Lewis [Paperback]

Raymond P. Tripp Jr. (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 63 pages
• Publisher: Society for New Language Study (June 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0905019016
• ISBN-13: 978-0905019017
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,925,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for 2 of 10 essays, December 13, 2009

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cxlxmx - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man's Natural Powers: Essays for and About C. S. Lewis (Paperback)

This volume "Man's 'Natural Powers': Essays for and About C.S. Lewis," edited by Raymond P. Tripp is a collection of 10 essays in 63 pages of small type and thin margins. They are:
Lewis and Historicism by Owen Barfield;
Beastliness in Narnia: Medieval Echoes by John Unrue;
The Reception of Lewis' Scholarly Works in Germany by Joerg Fichte;
On Vitalism and the Scientific Imagination by Eugene Putala;
Chiliastic Agnosticism and the Style of C.S. Lewis by Raymond Tripp;
Lewis, Barfield, and Imagination by William Johnson;
Lewis' Argument for Natural Law Ethics by W. A. Myers;
The Conditions for Happiness in Our Age: A Japanese Impression of C.S. Lewis by Yasuo Tamaizumi;
Myth, Reality, and 'Til We Have Faces' by Dean Loganbill;
Old English Maxims and Narnian Gnomes by Loren Gruber.

The publisher is The Society for New Language Study, of which a few references can be found on the web. The introduction contains no apology for the publication, and there is no information about individual authors.

The ten essays are inconsistent and most of little interest. A real scholar of Lewis or the Inklings might be interested in Barfield's essay if it is not included elsewhere. Otherwise, the only two of lasting interest are those by Tripp and Tamaizumi. In particular, Tamaizumi's essay provides the most clearly stated and best critique of Lewis' entire corpus that I have ever read. Tamaizumi writes honestly of his uneasiness with Lewis devotion to medieval Europe and The West. Tripp also has incisive criticisms of Lewis argumentation.

If you can pick this volume up for a lost cost, these two essays are worth it. Otherwise, skip it.