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As a member of Cindy Rollins' patreon and a devoted follower of the Literary Life podcast (and a member of their patreon) I knew I wanted to re-read The Abolition of Man in 2022. I looked on Audible and there, included in membership, was this combo. While we read The Great Divorce with the podcast in 2020, I thought it's short enough to revisit. I am glad I did! The first time I read it (20+years ago) I didn't like it. I gave it a chance with the podcast and "got" it so enjoyed it. This time, I
This was my 3rd or 4th time reading The Great Divorce, which continues to be one of my favorite books of all time. Lewis presents a vision of heaven, hell, divine judgment, and human response to God which is incredibly profound and yet easily digested. I highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it yet. It's a short read--about 3 hours perhaps. This audiobook version was excellent and made several hours of yard work quite enjoyable.The Abolition of Man sits on just about the opposite
(a repeat listen) As a duo listen this rates as 3 stars for me.Separately The Great Divorce , on audio, would be 2-3 stars, and, The Abolition of Man /i> is a solid 4 . I’m currently reading through TGD quickly, and then TAoM slowly.
Some fascinating wisdom here:- The Great Divorce needs some theological warning signs but it's still great at making you think.- The Abolition of Man is worthy of another read, a powerful argument that naturalism leads to disaster.2022 re-listen:- Again so much to think about in the Great Divorce, seeking to paint a picture of meaning to be seen everywhere.- The Abolition of Man is a really strong case that we need a source for morality must be identified that is not based on rationalistic mater...
This rating and review are for The Abolition of Man. I have already rated The Great Divorce.The Abolition of Man contains excellent arguments against relativism, for ultimate truth and morality. Three stars for enjoyment, four stars for value of argument.
The Great Divorce 5 stars, Abolition of Man a wobbly 3
The Great Divorce gets 5 stars! It gave me so much to think about, and just as it was starting to become depressing, it delivered hope in a big and beautiful way. I saw the stage show around 10 years ago, and I remembered several things from it, but 10 years is plenty of time to both forget a lot, and to grow and change (probably in some positive and some negative ways). Reading it in this season of my life was very helpful. I'm sure I'll come back and read it again. Abolition of Man gets 3ish s...
I really enjoyed The Great Divorce. The Abolition of Man made me want to take a nap. I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mindset (each freaking time I pushed play), but I never got into it, and never cared to give it the focus that I assume it needed. I did a little dance when I finally got to the end because it meant that I could move on to much more enjoyable things. And no, I still couldn't tell you what it was about.
Preserving Mankind Whole and Splitting up Heaven and HellThis pair of works by C. S. Lewis is a combination of fiction and non-fiction. The Great Divorce is read first, and is an imaginative dream sequence tale of a bus ride from hell to the foothills of heaven. The Abolition of Man is an essay in three parts that builds logically to a conclusion. Where the first book enmeshes the reader in fiction to express a point, the second book is open dialog that debunks faulty logic. Lewis wrote The Grea...
I'd read "The Great Divorce" (book version) before, and really appreciated listening to it this time round--talk about a different experience! :) Both have their perks, for sure, and the narrator did a fantastic job."The Abolition of Man" was new to me, and seemed fitting to listen to first since Lewis originally gave it as a series of 3 lectures. I think a fair bit went over my head, haha, and it would certainly merit a subsequent read/listen--it's not one anyone could get #allthethings from in...
The Great Divorce was a deep and beautiful philosophical imagining of the afterlife. I was less fascinated by The Abolition of Man, which was a sermon or lecture. I may try to re-read it at some point.
The Great Divorce is wonderful in the way Lewis characterizes Hell and something people choose for themselves, and which becomes purgatory to those who choose to leave it. Also, I would dearly love to be back in the classroom, if only to assign The Abolition of Man and watch the sparks fly!
I listened on Audible, and I’d say it was just okay. Might need to get the physical book to plow deeper, especially with the Abolition of Man. Lewis has some interesting thoughts, but several parts are hard to follow in an audiobook.
5 stars to the Abolition of Man and 3 to the Great Divorce.
Wow, this was great. I will have to read abolition of man again cause there was a ton there. I decided to to a quick overview read so I can come back later and have a baseline.
He's kind of like Shakespeare to me. So hard to understand at times - yet at the same time, he makes sooooo much sense.
"The Abolition of Man" is a must-read for Christian educators, as it provides Lewis's philosophy of education. Education is a moral act, shaping both the thought life and the spirit. To do less, especially willfully, is to create men (and women) "without chests:" heartless.A section describing the frightening consequences of trying to free mankind from the worst in human nature through totalitarianism, bioengineering, and political correctness, provides a convincing proof that they will only ens...
I LOVED the Great Divorce. Typical C.S. Lewis. Amusing while all the while imparting valuable Spiritual Truths that help everyone to take a second look at their lives. In this book, a world exists of ghosts and spirits. Heaven and Hell are but realms based on where we insist on putting our minds. What's not to like?
This particular work contained two short books. The Abolition of Man is a treatise on education and is packed with philosophy. I listened to the book and got the gist of it. In order to truly understand it, I would need to reread it slowly and carefully. The Great Divorce was equally hard to grasp. It is a fictional depiction of Heaven and Hell.
I borrowed this combined audiobook through my library via Libby.The Great Divorce is a thought provoking journey into the afterlife. Despite there being countless other books on the topic (Inferno, The Pilgram's Progress, No Exit, Lincoln in the Bardo, etc.) Lewis offers a unique take that's worth reading. This is a quick read that views people as more than just caricatured saints and sinners. Real life is more complicated. Lewis is a master of being simultaneously forceful and metaphorical. The...
In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis makes a compelling argument for the relevance of qualities that have become somewhat downtrodden in our day - qualities like courage, honor, faithfulness, and so forth. It is a short collection of three related essays. Like many of the best books I have read, it will bear repeated reading. This is my first, really a listen, since it is an audio book, and it gave me the outline of Lewis' thoughts and ideas. My next will be with a hard copy, with pen and noteboo...
From the ordering of the title, you would think that "The Abolition of Man" would come first, followed by "The Great Divorce". This is not the case.The Great Divorce:This is an allegory with slightly more substance than "The Screwtape Letters", but less than "Pilgrim's Progress". There is no real plot to speak of. The author imagined one version of what heaven and hell might be like, and filled the space with various examples of thoughtless behavior by self-centered people who think they are rig...
This review is on the audio presentation of the Great Divorce. The reader is fabulous. I am again humbled as I continue to mull over and attempt to comprehend all the richness of Lewis' written thought. It is overwhelming to my simple mind. I loved what I was able to glean, but I now must purchase the book and read, and re-read, in order to better wrap my mind's understanding around every word nugget and thought. It begins with the protagonist, C.S. Lewis, who boards a bus that flies off into th...
I had read a lot of CS Lewis in the eighties, but had not dipped into these until I checked out the audio book from my library. The premise of THE GREAT DIVORCE is a dream sequence where our protagonist isn't nature why he is in a gray world, why he getting onto a bus or where he is going. When he arrives at a very unusual landscape, he realizes that he and his fellow riders are almost insubstantial and those he meets in this new worlds are somehow greater and more real, in a sense, than he. Var...
The Great Divorce is a work of fiction in a similar vein as The Pilgrim's Progress. In this case, our unnamed narrator is on a bus that is traveling from a city to a wooded land near a mountain. When he arrives, he discovers everything about the land is hard. The grass is like spikes; falling water would kill him. The people are bright spirits which makes the translucence of the ghosts he is traveling with much more apparent. It's a fascinating look at heaven and hell, and the choices people mak...
The Abolition of Man is a series of lectures/essays that I had some difficulty truly understanding. (If I really want to comprehend them, I will need to go back and actually read them instead of listening to the book.) The gist of the book seemed to be about virtues and values and how individuals cannot create them anew as they already exist. The Great Divorce reminded me a bit of The Pilgrim's Progress in that it communicates a message about how our current life and decisions will be reflected
After having read the Divine Comedy, the Great Divorce is even better than the first time I read it, seeing the influence of Dante on Lewis’s work. In general, The Great Divorce is yet another Lewis book I could probably read and re-read and never get tired of. Listening to the Abolition of Man made me want to simultaneously want to pump my fist in the air and also cry in despair. I also listened to a 3-episode series on The Literary Life podcast where they discussed each essay in depth and it a...
This edition contained two of Lewis's writings. The first was The Great Divorce. I enjoyed this book. It gave a very unique perspective on Heaven and Hell and who will enter. Lewis did a great job portraying the negative aspects of the human life that plague people and keep them trapped in our own humanness. By using people, spirits and their conversations, the main character was able to see and hear how seemingly plausible perspectives from the people are jaded when it comes to their mindset of...
The Great Divorce was okay - a conglomeration of different Christian allegories and other non-Christian writing styles. A bit of a flavor of Alice in Wonderland. It was okay - I listened through it to get to the Abolition of Man.As another reviewer stated:"The Abolition of Man" is a must-read for Christian educators, as it provides Lewis's philosophy of education. Education is a moral act, shaping both the thought life and the spirit. To do less, especially willfully, is to create men (and women...
I listened to the audio version via the Libby app.I have always loved the writings of C.S. Lewis. I didn't know what to expect of The Great Divorce, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it is in the form of an allegory. After reading the Narnia series and his Sci-Fi series, I found this to be an interesting format. The Abolition of Man was pretty good to read, but it is hard for me to digest the heavy information in an audio format without the ability to make notes and meditate on what is said...