The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

We’ve talked a fair bit about C.S. Lewis on this newsletter recently — and after this entry, that will change. I like Lewis well enough, but writing about Lewis (like writing about Tolkien) gets tiresome. But still, allow me to recommend The Abolition of Man.

I think of Lewis’ nonfiction, The Abolition of Man is his best work. (For fiction, that would either be Perelandra or The Screwtape Letters.) The Abolition of Man reads like a lecture, and it has a rare virtue for Lewis’ work: it can be read and enjoyed by Christians and non-Christians alike. Where works like Miracles or Mere Christianity clearly has a target audience of Christians or future converts, The Abolition of Man really is for everyone. Here Lewis is trying to identify a moral and practical consensus across times and places, appropriating the term ‘Dao’ to describe this part of the world that many traditions seem to implicitly recognize. Along the way he finds time to be critical of modern technocracy and expressive or subjective views of things like taste, morality, and beaut

by Jared Henderson in Walking Away

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