The Devil's Hunting Grounds

by Harry Blamires

Book by Blamires, Harry

Genres: Christianity, Fantasy, Fiction

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Harry Blamires is an Anglican theologian, literary critic, and novelist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_B...


Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short novel reads like a "discount" version of C.S. Lewis' stories, particularly "The Pilgrim's Regress" and "The Great Divorce." Indeed, Blamires was friends with Lewis. Much of the novel is dialogue, as the characters debate worldview and belief (the protagonist visits the College of Gnostics and the Backwards Believers' Department). However, Blamires doesn't spend enough time detailing the visuals of his settings (I think of Lewis' imaginative vision in "Perelandra") and his protagonist remains fairly static (although this is book one of a trilogy).

[Ashley Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this intriguing book, the primary character ends up in heaven, or perhaps a type of purgatory, where he realizes his faith was in his head and not his heart. He discovers others along the way who had succumbed to Gnosticism or backslided in their own faith. The overall theme was refreshingly convicting, even though many of the references are now outdated.

However, many of the scenes and ideas posed don't stand up to biblical critique. If you take this book as a person's imagining of heaven (or purgatory), as a call to a faith-filled life, then these discrepancies are fine. In all things, it's important to ask, "What does the Bible say?" I encourage readers to experience the conviction of this book and then research what the Word says about it.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first in a supernatural trilogy, somewhat reminiscent of CS Lewis' "The Great Divorce." The author has a dream in which he dies and goes to (presumably) heaven and has to decide whether to teach at the Gnostics' College or take a writing job in the Backwards Believers' Department. It is wittily written, and gets into deep ideas about modern Christianity with a light-hearted touch.

[Abigail Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. One has to be careful when dealing with angels - or demons, for that matter - because not much is given to us in God's Word, but Blamires does a good job in this work.

Lamiel, a Guardian angel, guides the nameless protagonist on a trip through Purgatory. The basis of the story is to contrast good and right Christian thinking with fallacious, nominally-Christian thinking as the angel Lamiel explains how a Christian should think and act. Questions concerning Man, faith, nature, angels and demons, as well as God Himself are raised and thoroughly discussed. One such discussion came at the beginning of the book, where Lamiel berates the protagonist for "vaporizing" spiritual beings - in essence, making them less than real by picturing them as transparent globules of mist - and states rather vaguely that he hopes the narrator hasn't gone so far as to vaporize God. It brings out in an ominous way how Christians often stress that spiritual beings don't have physical bodies, and, though that is a correct premise, come away with fallacious ideas.

Even if the reader doesn't believe in Purgatory, or at least Blamires' representation of Purgatory, the philosophy in the book makes it a worthy read. The writing is excellent, with a touch of satire added to the philosophical mix, and it makes one think. It's also a good book to read alongside C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, by which Blamires was very impressed.