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  • C. S. Lewis

  • Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces
  • By: C. S. Lewis
  • Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
  • Length: 38 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (64 ratings)

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C. S. Lewis

By: C. S. Lewis
Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
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Summary

This is an extensive collection of short essays and other pieces by C. S. Lewis that have been brought together in one volume for the first time. As well as his many books, letters, and poems, Lewis also wrote a great number of essays and shorter pieces on various subjects. He wrote extensively on Christian theology and the defense of faith but also on various ethical issues and on the nature of literature and storytelling. In this essay collection we find a treasure trove of Lewis' reflections on diverse topics.

©1973 C. S. Lewis (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
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What listeners say about C. S. Lewis

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A treasure trove

Lewis' thoughts on literature, living, religion, culture, science and education (among other things) are a delight. He writes so well. There's so much goodstuff here. And the fiction pieces open up some of Lewis' lesser known works. It's like being able to keep company with him, and the nearest any of will get to being party to a conversation with the man. You can dip in and out at leisure - chapters headings would make this easier but you can find a contents page from the printed edition online if you look to help you find your way. Ralph Cosham's naaration is clear, warm and has timbre of how one would imagine Lewis to have spoken; my one reservation is that his performance is very straight and doesn't always pick up on Lewis' humour. This collection is amazing value - so many hours of content for the price of one Audible credit! I thoroughly recommend it.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Thoughtful and Erudite Perspective of Christianity

A wonderfully erudite and intelligent perspective of Christianity. I am thoroughly enjoying this collection. Thanks!

Allthough many and various topics are covered , C S Lewis's thoughts about Christianity run throughout and pops up again and again.

These essays need to be listened to more than once, to get the full grasp the author intended for the listener, in my view.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Spending time with C.S.Lewis

Although this is a long (audio)book, it was a fascinating voyage into Lewis' mind. There are essays on a wide-range of theological, literary, apologetical, aesthetical and (then) contemporary topics. Some provide great life lessons, keen insights I will never forget. A few were a uninteresting. At first the length of the book seemed daunting. Now that I've finished it, I'm sorry it is not longer. Definitely recommend it and will definitely listen to it again soon.

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Contents

I am copying R. Valerius's very helpful list of contents to the audible.co.uk reviews so that it can be viewed from the app.

Essays
1) The Grand Miracle
2) Is Theology Poetry?
3) The Funeral of a Great Myth
4) God In the Dark
5) What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?
6) The World’s Last Night
7) Is Theism Important?
8) The Seeing Eye
9) Must Our Image of God Go?
10) Christianity and Culture
11) Evil and God
12) The Weight of Glory
13) Miracles
14) Dogma and the Universe
15) The Horrid Red Things
16) Religion: Reality or Substitute?
17) Myth Became Fact
18) Religion and Science
19) Christian Apologetics
20) Work and Prayer
21) Religion Without Dogma?
22) The Decline of Religion
23) Unforgiveness
24) The Pains of Animals
25) Petitionary Prayer: A Problem Without an Answer
26) On Obstinacy in Belief
27) What Christmas Means to Me
28) The Psalms
29) Religion and Rocketry
30) The Efficacy of Prayer
31) Fern Seed and Elephants
32) The Language of Religion
33) Transposition
34) Why I am Not a Pacifist
35) Dangers of National Repentance
36) Two Ways With the Self
37) Meditation on the Third Commandment
38) On Ethics
39) Three Kinds of Men
40) Answers to Questions on Christianity
41) The Laws of Nature
42) Membership
43) The Sermon and the Lunch
44) Scraps
45) After Priggery – What?
46) Man or Rabbit?
47) The Trouble With X
48) On Living in an Atomic Age
49) Lillies that Fester
50) Good Work and Good Works
51) A Slip of the Tongue
52) We Have No Right to Happiness
53) Christian Reunion: An Anglican Speaks to Roman Catholics
54) Priestesses in the Church?
55) On Church Music
56) Christianity and Literature
57) High and Low Brows
58) Is English Doomed?
59) On the Reading of Old Books
60) The Parthenon and the Optative
61) The Death of Words
62) On Science Fiction
63) Miserable Offenders
64) Different Tastes in Literature
65) Modern Translations of the Bible
66) On Juvenile Tastes
67) Sex in Literature
68) The Hobbit
69) Period Criticism
70) On Stories
71) On Three Ways of Writing for Children
72) Prudery and Philology
73) Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings”
74) Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to Be Said
75) It All Began With a Picture
76) Unreal Estates
77) On Criticism
78) Cross Examination
79) A Tribute to E.R. Eddison
80) The Mythopoeic Gift of Rider Haggard
81) George Orwell
82) A Panegyric for Dorothy L. Sayers
83) The Novels of Charles Williams
84) Learning in War-Time
85) Bulverism (or, The Foundation of 20th Century Thought)
86) The Founding of the Oxford Socratic Club
87) My First School
88) Democratic Education
89) Blimpophobia
90) Private Bates
91) Meditation in a Tool Shed
92) On the Transmission of Christianity
93) Modern Man and His Categories of Thought
94) Historicism
95) The Empty Universe
96) Interim Report
97) Is History Bunk?
98) Before We Can Communicate
99) First and Second Things
100) The Poison of Subjectivism
101) Equality
102) De Futilitate
103) A Dream
104) Hedonics
105) Talking About Bicycles
106) Vivisection
107) The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment
108) Behind the Scenes
109) The Necessity of Chivalry
110) The Inner Ring
111) Two Lectures
112) Some Thoughts
113) X-mas and Christmas
114) Revival or Decay
115) Delinquents in the Snow
116) Willing Slaves of the Welfare State
117) Screwtape Proposes a Toast

Letters
118) The Conditions for a Just War
119) The Conflict in Anglican Theology
120) Miracles
121) Mr. C.S. Lewis on Christianity
122) A Village Experience
123) Correspondence With an Anglican Who Dislikes Hymns
124) The Church’s Liturgy, Invocation, and Invocation of Saints
125) The Holy Name
126) Mere Christians
127) Canonization
128) Pittenger-Lewis and Version Vernacular
129) Capital Punishment and Death Penalty

Short Stories
130) The Man Born Blind
131) The Dark Tower
132) The Dark Tower (cont')
133) Ministering Angels **Lewis Chapter 132, Audible Chapter 133**
134) The Shoddy Lands **Lewis Chapter 133, Audible Chapter 134**
135) After Ten Years **Lewis Chapter 134, Audible Chapter 135**
136) Forms of Things Unknown **Lewis Chapter 135, Audible Chapter 136**

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting and Deep

This audiobook requires several forays. Not because it is disinteresting, but because it covers several topics and with such thoroughness, one sometimes feels quite unschooled!

I purchased this mainly for Lewis' Apologetics work, which I find fascinating and which gives me a script I can rely on when faced with a colleague or friends' agnosticism or atheism. However I found that he wrote about many and varied subjects, both at the request/behest of another, or because he felt that it should be addressed: So he addressed it. For me, the most fascinating of these dealt with corporal punishment, which was initially shunned in the UK, but addressed - quite seriously and studiously - in Australia.

Also worth a revisit are Lewis' 2 incomplete novels, at the end of this audiobook. I'm sure that I am doing Lewis an injustice in rating the content so lowly but, as a compilation of his many, many essays, on a first pass, this is a lot to absorb. I shall probably revise this review after my 3rd perusal.

If you are a C S Lewis fan - this is definitely a book for you. It does not disappoint. It is superbly read by the narrator whom, I've now begun to associate as the voice of C S Lewis, given that all of his work is written in the first person text.

Definitely worth the money for the time that you will be investing in this audiobook.

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