One of my life goals is to read everything that C.S. Lewis wrote. I’m a long way from meeting that goal, but inching along, book by book, essay by essay, article by article. I’m sort of going in order that the books were written—though not exactly. I’m putting off reading his fiction, the space trilogy, in favor of non-fiction. I may not stick with that, but that’s what I’m doing right now.

So, after finishing and reviewing my last book, I decided it was time for a C.S. Lewis book. The next one in order was The Problem of Pain, his 1940 book, written by request, to help explain to the common man what Christianity was all about. The world was at war—at least Europe was , so Lewis took up the challenge. Thus this was his first book written on what we call Christiam apologetics, a fancy word for defense of Christianity.

Alas, I struggled with the book, much as I did the first two or three times I tried to read Lewis’s later book Mere Christianity. Lewis lost me early on when he mentioned the “Numinous”. Here is, I think, his first reference to it.

In all developed religion we find three strands or elements, and in Christianity one more. The first of these is what Professor Otto calls the experience of the Numinous.

Huh? What the heck is a Numinous?

Lewis took a long paragraph to explain what Numinous was, but this brought no clarity to me. Since this was in the Introduction, it seemed, as I read, that grasping what that meant perhaps was essential to understanding the whole book. Since I didn’t understand it, I suspect it caused me to partially shut my mind off. I read the rest of the book, but truthfully I didn’t comprehend what I was reading.

Alas, I never really recovered from the partial mind shutdown. I say that to my shame. I know this is Lewis’s way, to bring up terms and -isms in a shorthand way, expecting his less-well educated audience to somehow grasp the concept. I kept feeling that in Mere Christianity, and in a very deja vu kind of way with The Problem of Pain.

So, how do I rate this book, is it a keeper, and will I ever read it again? 3-star, yes, and yes. I think I really need to understand this to understand Lewis. I’m sure there’s good stuff in it, stuff that will help me in my Christian walk. But I won’t get back to this very soon. It’s on to the next book, whatever that is.

It should be no secret to readers of this blog that I’m a fan of C.S. Lewis. I have a fairly good collection of his works as well as books about him. I always have one of those books on my current reading list, and almost every day read at least a few pages in it.

Part of that fascination includes the Inklings, the writers’ group that Lewis formed with Tolkien and others, of which he was probably the key member. Lewis and Tolkien got together to share their works as early as 1932, and slowly others joined them. The years of World War 2 was their heyday. They kind of disbanded around 1947 and became a semi-regular fellowship group for the next ten or so year. I reviewed a book about them, The Oxford Inklings by Colin Duriez. I’ve read that book twice, and am sure I will again.

Another book about the Inklings published the same year, 2015, was The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams. Written by Philip and Carol Zaleski, I came across this book while searching for something else. I thought the e-book was a little over-priced, but decided to get it anyway, using gift card money for the purchase.

I have to say this book didn’t disappoint in any way. While all the Inklings are mentioned, it covered the four main members listed in the title. They are the four who achieved literary distinction. The others were not all authors; some were merely friends of Lewis or one of the others. I think the weighting of each of these four in the book was about equal. Certainly Lewis and Tolkien achieved greater and longer-lasting distinction, but Williams and Barfield were no slouchers in the literary world.

I knew much less about Williams and Barfield going into this book, really not a lot more than that they were Inklings and friends of Lewis and did some writing.  I leave the book with greater appreciation of their life’s works and of their influence on fellow Inklings.

The Zeleskis delve into the private and professional lives of these four: their marriages, their children, their academic standing. Williams and Barfield had less than ideal marriages. One might say dealing with that was unnecessary in a book such as this, but I feel it helped me to understand them. Perhaps a full biography would give a more even-handed approach to those personal items, but what I read was useful.

I give this book 5-stars, and will take the time to cross-post this on Amazon.  I hope to read it again sometime. I have one other Inklings book I want to get and read, then will, someday, read all my Inklings books back-to-back. What a fun month that will be.