The Question of God

The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Armand M. Nicholi Jr.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Suppose Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis had met and conversed with one another? What would have been shared between them? Armand Nicholi poses this question as the basis of this work, written when he was an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Having some curiosity myself about Freud and some respect for Lewis, I dived into the work more-or-less a blank slate. It seems that both men experienced tragic loss and disappointment and exclusion as youth--driving both to a decision to adopt a "materialist" worldview, meaning they disbelieved in the Judeo/Christian God (among other things).

Freud held to this worldview til his death (by euthanasia)at age 83. Lewis's 'conversion' to Christianity at age 33 dramatically influenced his quality of life, 'til his death at the (comparatively young) age of 65, for the better. I suspect that Nicholi's purpose in the writing of this book is to explore the "proof in the (respective) puddings".

Using their writings and correspondence he sets a debate-of-sorts around the following big questions:
Is there an intelligence beyond the universe?
Is there a universal moral law?
What is the source of our greatest enjoyment in life?
Is the pursuit of pleasure our only purpose?
Is all love sublimated sex?
How can we resolve the problem of suffering?
Is death our only destiny?
Or, more simple put, the questions of a Creator, Conscience, Happiness, Sex, Love, Pain, and Death (as noted in the subtitle of this work).



View all my reviews Note to self: p.80 "Several years ago I (the author) conducted a research..." p.86 the paragraph containing "Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods" p.88 "Lewis argues that... influenced by Chesterton in The Everlasting Man..." p.89 "He would either be a... He did not intend to." p.104 "Lewis asserts that the primary purpose of our lives..." p.106 "Lewis keeps emphasizing ... increased..." p.121 "Lewis refers to pride as..." p.142 "He explains that the..." p.172 "Pride, Lewis points out..." p.177 Agape p.183 "No one is more likely to be arrogant than a ..." p.183 "After the great transition..." p.206 "If a thing is free to be..." p.207 "Did Lewis believe in..." p.211 "coterminous" (definition please)