Freethought & Rationalism Archive

luvluv · 05-30-2003, 10:50 AM

Not that anyone ever listens to me about books, but...

Almost finished with a pretty good one. It's called Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft.

From the back cover:

"On November 22, 1963, trhee greate men died within a few hourse of each other: C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy, and Aldoous Huxley. All three believed, in different ways, that death is not the end of human life. Suppose they were right, and suppose they met after death. How might the conversation go?"

Kreeft uses Lews to represent the Christian theist, Kennedy to represent the pseudo-Christian humanist, and Huxley to represent the pantheist. They discuss the nature of Jesus and God in a Socratic dialogue.

Warning! it does start with the trilema and goes on with that for a signifigant amount of time, but Kreeft eventually does expand the trilema later in the book to deal with the possibility that Jesus never made the claim to be divine, and then he has Lewis address that argument. What was new to me in the book was Lewis' critique of Huxley's portrayal of Christ as an oriental guru figure. He does a good job of explaining how Christ cannot possibly be incorporated into eastern mysticism for various reasons: He believed God created the universe from nothing, he believed that God and the world were separate, etc.

At any rate, it's far from exhaustive, but it is entertaining, and it's only 100 or so pages. If you want to see what is basically Lewis' case for the divinity of Christ and for Christian orthodoxy against the claims of humanism and pantheism, this book is a pretty good summary. From what I can tell, Kreeft stuck pretty close to the arguments that C.S. Lewis actually made in life. I assume he did the same for Kennedy and Huxley, though I don't know enough about either to say for sure.

If you can find it, pick it up.

KnightWhoSaysNi · 05-30-2003, 10:57 AM

A Christian friend of mine lent this book to me recently. When I get a chance, I'll have a read of it.

luvluv · 05-30-2003, 08:55 PM

Actually, on the book jacket all the words are spelled correctly. That's what happens when you type looking away from the screen...

Can't edit it now. A little help administrators?

05-30-2003, 10:50 AM	#1
luvluv Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Planet Lovetron Posts: 3,919	Book reccomendation: Between Heaven and Hell Not that anyone ever listens to me about books, but... Almost finished with a pretty good one. It's called Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft. From the back cover: "On November 22, 1963, trhee greate men died within a few hourse of each other: C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy, and Aldoous Huxley. All three believed, in different ways, that death is not the end of human life. Suppose they were right, and suppose they met after death. How might the conversation go?" Kreeft uses Lews to represent the Christian theist, Kennedy to represent the pseudo-Christian humanist, and Huxley to represent the pantheist. They discuss the nature of Jesus and God in a Socratic dialogue. Warning! it does start with the trilema and goes on with that for a signifigant amount of time, but Kreeft eventually does expand the trilema later in the book to deal with the possibility that Jesus never made the claim to be divine, and then he has Lewis address that argument. What was new to me in the book was Lewis' critique of Huxley's portrayal of Christ as an oriental guru figure. He does a good job of explaining how Christ cannot possibly be incorporated into eastern mysticism for various reasons: He believed God created the universe from nothing, he believed that God and the world were separate, etc. At any rate, it's far from exhaustive, but it is entertaining, and it's only 100 or so pages. If you want to see what is basically Lewis' case for the divinity of Christ and for Christian orthodoxy against the claims of humanism and pantheism, this book is a pretty good summary. From what I can tell, Kreeft stuck pretty close to the arguments that C.S. Lewis actually made in life. I assume he did the same for Kennedy and Huxley, though I don't know enough about either to say for sure. If you can find it, pick it up.

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05-30-2003, 10:57 AM	#2
KnightWhoSaysNi Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Edmonton, Canada Posts: 2,767	A Christian friend of mine lent this book to me recently. When I get a chance, I'll have a read of it.

05-30-2003, 08:55 PM	#3
luvluv Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Planet Lovetron Posts: 3,919	Actually, on the book jacket all the words are spelled correctly. That's what happens when you type looking away from the screen... Can't edit it now. A little help administrators?

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