Theism and Humanism: The Book that Influenced C. S. Lewis [Paperback]

Balfour (Author), Arthur J. Balfour (Author), Michael W. Perry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2000

In 1962, Christian Century asked the well-known Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, to name the books that had most influenced his thought. Among those that Lewis listed was Arthur J. Balfour¹s Theism and Humanism (1915). This was no passing whim. Almost twenty years earlier, in 1944, Lewis had written in "Is Theology Poetry" that Theism was "a book too little read." Unfortunately, until now it hasn't been that easy to find. Copies have been available ONLY on the used market and were thus rare and fairly expensive. This newly typeset edition makes it inexpensive and easy to get.

Balfour was a talented writer and perhaps the most intelligent British Prime Minister of the twentieth century. During World War One he replaced Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admirality and went on to become Foreign Secretary. In the latter office he was responsible for the 1917 Balfour Declaration committing Great Britain to the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It is no exaggeration to say that Israel owes its existence to Balfour.

Theism and Humanism is based on a 1914 Gifford Lecture that Balfour gave at the University of Glasgow. All the original text is included along with over 50 pages of additional material. There are 13 sketches of Balfour adapted from political cartoons in Punch magazine. There are four appendices taken from his other writings, including the marvelous "A Catechism for Naturalism" (which sent arch-agnostic Thomas Huxley, better known as "Darwin's Bulldog," into a fit of rage). There's also a glossary of people and terms mentioned in the book and a detailed index. Finally, this new edition includes brief quotes from Balfour's other writings to highlight what he is saying.

Balfour's topic is naturalism, the belief that all that exists are natural processes. He challenges those who believe in it to come up with a rationale for what they hold dearest--human reason, human rights, and the importance of art--based solely on naturalism. He believes that cannot be done and summarizes his book in these words:

"My desire has been to show that all we think best in human culture, whether associated with beauty, goodness, or knowledge, requires God for its support, that Humanism without Theism loses more than half its value."

This book is not light reading. But if you like philosophy and provocative ideas, it is perfect for you. The Cambridge-educated Balfour was very knowledgable about science. (He was for a time, the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.) That makes this book a useful complement to the Oxford-educated Lewis whose speciality was literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Inkling Books; 1st edition (June 15, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 1587420007
• ISBN-13: 978-1587420009
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,518,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars More Relevant Than Ever, January 27, 2009

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This review is from: Theism and Humanism : The Book that Influenced C. S. Lewis (Paperback)

It is another sign of deteriorating academic standards when recent bestselling books by celebrity atheists are praised for their cleverness by self-styled intellectuals of a generation which has very little grasp of intellectual rigour. Balfour was educated in a tradition which would never have tolerated the sloppiness or the ignorance of basic facts and principles which characterise the works of most of today's fashionable unbelievers. He was forced to be ruthlessly exact in his thinking by the fact that his opponents were men of the calibre of Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw, who would have jumped on any weakness - and who probably would have been appalled by the lack of intellectual discipline in their successors today. With a clarity of mind that is all too rare these days, Balfour goes back to first principles, and, starting from a position of philosophic doubt, ends in firm belief. He does not set out to "prove" anything, but he exposes the logical inconsistencies of atheism without mercy. He was not writing for the general reader and some of what he says may be difficult to follow unless one happened to obtain an Oxbridge degree in philosophy, or the equivalent, in the late 19th or early 20th Centuries - but this particular edition makes him easily accessible to most educated modern readers. The book is the first half of a series of Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow, delivered in 1914. The Lectures were interrupted by the First World War - in which Balfour was occupied elsewhere, serving in the War Cabinet and writing the Balfour Declaration, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel thirty years later. Balfour returned to Glasgow after the War and completed the second half of the Lectures, which was published separately as "Theism and Thought" - and which is also recommended.