Rating: 5 stars
Cover synopsis: C.S. Lewis again employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory. The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus bound for Heaven. The amazing opportunity is that anyone who wants to stay in Heaven, can. Lewis's revolutionary idea is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside.
A friend gave me this book, and what a gift! C.S. Lewis has such an imagination, a testimony of Christ and a way with words. The premise of the bus ride took me a while to understand, and this is a book that I will probably have to re-read several times to fully comprehend. But I love the way Lewis thinks -- and how he is able to translate those thoughts into brilliant language to drive home the point.
The Great Divorce has nothing to do with matrimony. "Blake wrote of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell," says Lewis. He says that line of thought leads us to believe that there is no black and white, no good or evil. But, he warns that is "a disastrous error." He illustrates several points where mankind blurrs those lines, but he points out with clarity -- and an incredible eternal perspective -- where the lines truly are, and where we should stand. Especailly poignant to me were his dissections of love, pity, and joy -- and how our earthly interpretation of each can come between us and God.
Several great lines stood out to me:
-- "A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on."
-- "Errors which are sincere are not innocent."
-- "There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existance of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself...There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ...An organizer of charities that had lost all love for the poor? It is the sublest of all snares."
Definitely one to read -- and re-read, and re-read...
