August 25: The Problem of Pain: Chapter 5-7

On Sunday, August 25, we'll continue our discussion of The Problem of Pain with Chapters 5-7: "The Fall of Man," "Human Pain," and "Human Pain, continued." Joel Heck will guide us through the chapters by presenting selected sentences from each chapter via a PowerPoint. This worked very well at our last meeting. Thank you very much, Joel, for your help with one of Lewis's early and more challenging books.

From Ch 5, "The Fall of Man," ¶ 8:

They wanted, as we say, to "call their souls their own." But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, "This is our business, not yours." But there is no such corner.

From Chapter 5, "The Fall of Man," ¶ 14:

The thesis of this chapter is simply that man, as a species, spoiled himself, and that good, to us in our present state, must therefore mean primarily remedial or corrective good. What part pain actually plays in such remedy or correction, is now to be considered.

Michael Ward explains the question addressed by The Problem of Pain and the book's main thesis in this 4-minute Hillsdale College video.

Arend Smilde provides his notes on quotations and allusions in The Problem of Pain on his Lewisiana.nl site.

Central Texas C. S. Lewis is a reading group that meets in Austin, Texas.
For meeting details, please send a request through our Contact Form. Thank you.