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C.S. Lewis was perhaps the most popular and influential Christian
apologist of the 20th Century, and his work is full of
philosophical themes and arguments. Despite this, the main body of Lewis’
work has received only scant attention from academic philosophers.
Although countless books and articles have
been written about C.S. Lewis and his writings, we are without a balanced
and sustained evaluation of the philosophical themes and arguments to be
found in his works. This is unfortunate for, in the words of James Patrick,
the philosophical aspects of Lewis’ work “constitute the very texture of
his apologetic”. It is hoped that this dissertation goes some way towards
changing the situation.
The dissertation contains five main
chapters, addressing four issues in the philosophy of religion through the
writings of C.S. Lewis. Those issues are: the Euthyphro dilemma, the
philosophical status of miracles, the Freudian critique of religious
belief, and an argument from Lewis that has been dubbed ‘the argument from
desire’. While disagreeing with Lewis in some of the details, the
dissertation defends a broadly Lewisian (and therefore broadly Christian)
approach to each of these issues. Indeed, these Lewisian positions are
defended with refurbished versions of Lewis’ own arguments.
In addition to a
summary of some of the philosophical themes and arguments from C.S. Lewis
that are not addressed in this dissertation, the work also includes two
appendices. Appendix A is a short biography of C.S. Lewis. Appendix B
offers a few thoughts on Lewis’ general stance on the relation between
faith and reason.
Last Updated: 15th
March 2003
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