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?