One of the books I read to close out 2018 was The Great Divorce by CS Lewis. I have attempted to read it before, but I just couldn’t get hooked. This time I read it with some friends, so I had to power through! It was worth it.
The Great Divorce is a dream about Heaven and Hell. There is much discussion regarding some of the aspects of the picture Lewis paints, however, I was stirred by the conversations therein.
Lewis has a way of connecting the everyday things of life to our relationship with God. In one of the conversations between one of the ghosts in limbo with one of the spirits from heaven, Lewis breaks down the selfishness of human love and relationships.
He also pushes back against the idea that the sin of lust is worse than the sin of loving your child (or nation) idolatrously. Lewis simply comments, “The false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion.” Those are true words.
There is much more that Lewis takes on like work for its own sake or the place of knowledge in life. The first three chapters are a little slow, but once you get through those, it really gets going!
The Great Divorce gets a 4.2/5 for me (5 for writing, 4 for content, 4 for enjoyment). Do you have a non-Narnia favorite work of CS Lewis?
