24 pages • 48 minutes read
C. S. LewisA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Lewis, a committed Christian, struggles in A Grief Observed to reconcile his faith in God with his own emotional suffering following the death of his wife, and also the physical pain he watched her endure, during her bouts with cancer. While Lewis always felt God’s presence in times of happiness, he is unable to find solace or comfort in his immediate grief over Helen’s death, asking, “Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?” (6). Lewis is disappointed and deeply bitter about God’s perceived abandonment of Lewis, in Lewis’s time of greatest need. Significantly, Lewis never doubts God’s existence, only his benevolence and relationship to humans: “Not that I am in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him” (6). Lewis draws parallels to the experience of Christ on the cross who, “found that the being he called Father was horribly and infinitely different from what he had supposed (29-30). Lewis angrily rejects standard phrases of Christian comfort: “but if so, [Helen] was in God’s hands all the time, and I have seen what they did to her here” (27).
By C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet
C. S. Lewis
Perelandra
Perelandra
C. S. Lewis
Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian
C. S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy
Surprised by Joy
C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength
That Hideous Strength
C. S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man
The Abolition of Man
C. S. Lewis
The Discarded Image
The Discarded Image
C. S. Lewis
The Four Loves
The Four Loves
C. S. Lewis
The Great Divorce
The Great Divorce
C. S. Lewis
The Horse And His Boy
The Horse And His Boy
C. S. Lewis
The Last Battle
The Last Battle
C. S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis
The Magician's Nephew
The Magician's Nephew
C. S. Lewis
The Pilgrim's Regress
The Pilgrim's Regress
C. S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis
The Silver Chair
The Silver Chair
C. S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C. S. Lewis
Till We Have Faces
Till We Have Faces
C. S. Lewis