I'm just wondering if Charles or Elliot, or any of the rest of you interested have read those ol' gems "Mere Christianity," and/or "The Case for Christianity," by C.S. Lewis. Very interesting and well-presented.

I admire a lot of C.S. Lewis' writing, and even though his pro-Christian message does not persuade me, I can often respect the intelligence of his arguments.

However, I hated MERE CHRISTIANITY. As I recall, it started out as a series of radio broadcasts intended to familiarize the lay Christian with the fundamentals of his belief. Deprived of his natural milieu of academia, I found MC fussy, self-important, and plagued by some horrible gaps in logic. But then, I admire Henri Bergson's thought, and Lewis sophistically dismissed him in a couple of sentences, so that may have prejudiced me.

"The Screwtape Letters" is probably his masterpiece. At least as far as his non-fiction and theology based books go. One doesn't have to be a believer to appreciate his innovative take on seduction and temptation.

Mere Christianity was okay. It did have some good points, but I could easily see how others could slam it with little effort. As complex as it tried to be, it wasn't all that. It did, however, make me think.

The Problem of Pain (is the title correct?) was the one that helped me through a bad time, and I'm not a very religious guy. Some of the logic in that I enjoyed. Some of it was a retread from earlier thoughts, perhaps?

What gets me is his later work, and how a good bit of it changed when he did. Ah, well.

Walt