Study Guides by
C.S. Lewis
3 discussion guides available
The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis wrote The Problem of Pain in 1940 at the request of Ashley Sampson, who wanted a layman's defense of Christian faith in the face of suffering. Lewis — who had once been an atheist and cited pain as his chief argument against God — brings remarkable intellectual honesty to his task. The book's central thesis is that a world without pain would not be a world of unchallenged comfort, but a world incapable of producing genuine virtue, love, or knowledge of God. Far from being evidence against God's goodness, suffering is reframed as the instrument through which an omnipotent and loving God pursues our deepest good — our surrender, our humility, and ultimately our joy in Him. Lewis does not offer cheap comfort; he offers a rigorous and compassionate argument that invites the reader to reconsider what "good" and "love" really mean when predicated of God.
View Discussion GuideThe Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters is one of the most original and penetrating works of Christian apologetics ever written. Cast as a series of letters from the senior demon Screwtape to his bumbling nephew Wormwood, the book turns the usual perspective on temptation inside out: we see humanity not through the eyes of a saint or a pastor, but through the eyes of hell. The result is both darkly comic and deeply convicting. Lewis's central argument is that the Enemy (God, from hell's perspective) is relentlessly pursuing the love and free will of every human soul, while the demons work not through dramatic supernatural horror but through the quiet, corrosive power of distraction, self-deception, and spiritual complacency. Written against the backdrop of World War II, the letters expose how ordinary life — marriage, friendship, politics, pleasure, and even church attendance — becomes the battlefield for the soul.
View Discussion GuideMere Christianity
Mere Christianity began as a series of BBC radio talks delivered by C. S. Lewis during World War II, when the nation desperately needed a clear, confident articulation of the Christian faith. Lewis — a former atheist and Oxford don — was uniquely suited for the task. His goal was not to argue for any particular denomination, but to lay out the common hall of Christian belief that all major traditions share: the "mere Christianity" of his title. The book moves in four parts, from the universal moral law as evidence for God, to the nature of God and humanity's problem, to the person and work of Christ, and finally to the practical challenge of becoming the kind of person God designed you to be.
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