Week 1: Preface — Lewis's Starting Point

1.Lewis states in the Preface that he is 'not writing as a sufferer' but as someone trying to solve the intellectual problem of pain. Why do you think he felt it important to make that disclaimer? Does it raise or lower your confidence in what follows?

2.He also admits that the 'emotional problem of pain' — the feeling that suffering is intolerable — is not resolved by any intellectual argument, and that his own arguments would feel very different to him if he were suffering when he wrote them. What does this honesty tell you about the kind of book this is going to be?

3.Before you read any further, write down in your own words: What is your own version of the problem of pain? Is it primarily an intellectual puzzle or an emotional wound — or both?

4.Lewis was once an atheist who cited pain as a chief argument against God. How does knowing his background shape the way you receive this book? Does a former skeptic make a more or less convincing apologist on this subject?

5.What do you hope to gain from this study — intellectual clarity, emotional comfort, both, or something else entirely? Share that honestly with your group or write it in your journal, and plan to return to it in the final week.

6.Lewis notes that the book grew out of a request from a publisher who wanted a defense of Christianity. How might the origin of a work — written to answer a challenge rather than to explore freely — shape its content and tone? Is that a limitation or a strength here?