Compelling Reason

Compelling Reason
C. S. Lewis

‘You can only find out the rights and wrongs by Reasoning – never by being rude about your opponent’s psychology.’ For C. S. Lewis, reason and logic are the sensible way to approach faith and ethics. Much of the 20th century’s ills are caused by ill-founded beliefs and opinions.Lewis’s original approach remains as vital today as ever. He is able to take the most convoluted subject, turn it side on and shed bright illumination on it. To be able to see along things rather than at them – just like a beam of sunlight that invades the darkness of a toolshed – is, to Lewis, the way to understanding.Written variously between 1940 and 1962, this collection of essays represents the best of Lewis’s considerable wisdom on the great ethical and theological concerns of the day.

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_74057df8-9b0e-5743-bc5d-dfd5613a02f3)

William Collins

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First published in Great Britain by Fount Paperbacks in 1996

This ebook edition published by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © 1996 C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd

Foreword copyright © 1996 C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd

Walter Hooper asserts the moral right to be identified as the compiler of this work

The material in this compilation was previously published in: ‘First and Second Things’, first published in Undeceptions by Geoffrey Bles, London 1971; first Fount Paperbacks edition published in 1985 (essays 2, 3, 6, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21); copyright © 1985 C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd. ‘Present Concerns’, first published in 1986 by Fount Paperbacks (essays 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 17, 22, 23); copyright © 1986 C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd. ‘Timeless at Heart’, first published in 1987 by Fount Paperbacks (essays 1, 12, 14, 19, 20, 24); copyright © 1970, 1980, 1987 C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008220884

Ebook Edition © June 2017 ISBN: 9780008228514

Version: 2017-05-24

CONTENTS

Cover (#u4d6f4633-8036-5fe5-89cd-44b6bdb9202d)

Title Page (#ue2f22162-f4f1-535c-a0bd-d5c50646b53b)

Copyright (#ulink_560492d6-fe34-5ae9-bd5c-ef7416db3075)

Foreword by Douglas Gresham (#ulink_3ef24c76-fdda-5303-a1cd-17a2d8157e50)

1 Why I Am Not a Pacifist (#ulink_2bbb8573-45b0-5993-9206-340e2f47e566)

2 Bulverism (#ulink_f4ade02e-1c73-582d-9777-6d9785de723f)

3 First and Second Things (#ulink_29f1849c-f260-5797-b25f-0d9817cb4500)

4 Equality (#ulink_ead0d68c-a786-50ca-aa5e-30cc0599ee2b)

5 Three Kinds of Men (#ulink_7b716459-37d7-553e-897b-c08661a333b6)

6 ‘Horrid Red Things’ (#ulink_d636b8e3-26f6-558e-8b70-d0124795eb6c)

7 Democratic Education (#ulink_7f3fec62-43f4-5989-bf58-5aaf295d1f65)

8 A Dream (#litres_trial_promo)

9 Is English Doomed? (#litres_trial_promo)

10 Meditation in a Toolshed (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Hedonics (#litres_trial_promo)

12 Christian Apologetics (#litres_trial_promo)

13 The Decline of Religion (#litres_trial_promo)

14 Religion Without Dogma? (#litres_trial_promo)

15 Vivisection (#litres_trial_promo)

16 Modern Translations of the Bible (#litres_trial_promo)

17 On Living in an Atomic Age (#litres_trial_promo)

18 The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment (#litres_trial_promo)

19 The Pains of Animals (#litres_trial_promo)

20 Is Theism Important? (#litres_trial_promo)

21 Xmas and Christmas (#litres_trial_promo)

22 Prudery and Philology (#litres_trial_promo)

23 Is History Bunk? (#litres_trial_promo)

24 Willing Slaves of the Welfare State (#litres_trial_promo)

Original Sources (#litres_trial_promo)

Footnotes (#litres_trial_promo)