Content area
Full Text
THE QUESTION OF GOD: CS. LEWIS AND SIGMUND FREUD DEBATE GOD, LOVE, SEX, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. NY: Free Press. Pp. 295. Reviewed by Gregory R. Schneller (McMurry University/Abilene, TX).
What if we were allowed to eavesdrop as two of the most influential (and diametrically opposed) thinkers of the 20th century engaged in a frank discussion of their worldviews regarding the existence of God? In this book, psychiatrist Armand Nicholi, Jr. provides a fascinating look at the lives and views of Sigmund Freud and CS. Lewis on topics such as morality, love, suffering, and the existence of God.
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, greatly influenced the development of the psychological sciences and his ideas continue to influence both professional therapy and popular culture today. Yet Freud devoted a significant amount of his professional energy to promoting his atheistic views and attempting to categorize belief in God as a form of mental illness. Like Freud, CS. Lewis spent the early part of his life as an uncompromising atheist. Unlike Freud, he experienced conversion to Christianity at age 31 and spent the remainder of his life as an apologist for the Christian faith. The lives of...