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They Asked for a Paper
This is a collection of essays, currently out of print, given by Lewis at various places over various years.
211 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1962
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About the author
C.S. Lewis
1,061 books48.2k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]
Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 6, 2025
Some writers are very good at expressing themselves. Some have something worth expressing. Lewis is one of the few who excels in both. The first few papers are more literary critiques of hamlet, Kipling or Walter Scott, I had only a cursory interest in having not much prior knowledge. However, it is more than made up for by the last four essays, being some the most insightful I have ever read.
‘Is theology poetry?’ was one I looked for is the most quotable but ‘Transposition’ is as close to a philosophical treatise I have read that perfectly encapsulates the platonic/non-naturalist sentiment.
‘Is theology poetry?’ was one I looked for is the most quotable but ‘Transposition’ is as close to a philosophical treatise I have read that perfectly encapsulates the platonic/non-naturalist sentiment.
December 17, 2017
I picked up this book from the Library of the University to celebrate that exams had ended and I was not disappointed. So many good essays! While the ones about literary criticism went over my head and the names mentioned in them sounded as foreign as my girlfriend's shopping list (vegan ;_;), "De Descriptione Temporum", "On Obstinancy in Belief" and "Is Theology Poetry?", among others, are some of the best texts I have read recently.
Some classic Lewis quotes are taken from this book: "Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of those things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else".
His argument from desire is also outlined in his sermon "The Weight of Glory": "A man's physical hunger does not prove that that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man's hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabited a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indiction that such a thing exists and that some men will".
Not the first book by Lewis I would recommend, but I don't know how I have not enjoyed it before.
Some classic Lewis quotes are taken from this book: "Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of those things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else".
His argument from desire is also outlined in his sermon "The Weight of Glory": "A man's physical hunger does not prove that that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man's hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabited a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indiction that such a thing exists and that some men will".
Not the first book by Lewis I would recommend, but I don't know how I have not enjoyed it before.
July 18, 2019
Kenko once said that there is no greater joy that sitting down, opening a book and having a conversation with a friend who died years before you were born. This collection of papers by C.S Lewis caused that joy. I constantly found myself finding that Lewis put into words thoughts that I have but have never been able to express. I love his theories (even when I don't agree with them), his way of explaining his ideas, and his writing style.
Not all of the papers were of the same quality, which is why I removed one star. Generally, the ones that dealt with theology or morality were better than his ones on literature. The papers are also very much of their time. Most of them were addressed to men at various classes or clubs in Cambridge in the mid twentieth century, and express the worldview of that time. This could be a stumbling block for readers.
Not all of the papers were of the same quality, which is why I removed one star. Generally, the ones that dealt with theology or morality were better than his ones on literature. The papers are also very much of their time. Most of them were addressed to men at various classes or clubs in Cambridge in the mid twentieth century, and express the worldview of that time. This could be a stumbling block for readers.
July 30, 2022
Some of these essays require some prior knowledge of the subject matter, like the ones on Kipling and Sir Walter Scott. But others stand well on their own, dropping you into Lewis‘ mind on a particular subject. “De Descripione Temporum” is a persuasive argument regarding the most important date in world history. “The Inner Ring” describes the deep human desire to move from outsider to insider. And the last three essays are especially powerful, “Transposition”, “On Obstinacy in Belief”, and especially the most familiar one of the book, “The Weight of Glory.”
July 1, 2019
A very eclectic collection of talks and essays. They cover literary criticism, day to day life and theology!
C S Lewis’ style is as engaging and enjoyable as ever. Some stand out moments are ‘On Obstinancy in Belief’ and ‘The Weight of Glory’ where he’s in full on Christianity-exploration mode!
C S Lewis’ style is as engaging and enjoyable as ever. Some stand out moments are ‘On Obstinancy in Belief’ and ‘The Weight of Glory’ where he’s in full on Christianity-exploration mode!
January 10, 2026
The second half of this book is just The Weight of Glory essays, so let me write a review that covers the first half: it stinks.
I'm too dumb for this. it's Lewis going off about classical literature, but I do not know if anyone on earth is well read enough to enjoy what he is saying.
I'm too dumb for this. it's Lewis going off about classical literature, but I do not know if anyone on earth is well read enough to enjoy what he is saying.
December 24, 2025
I read 9 of 12 of CSL’s papers. I wish I had read them earlier in my life. (The other 3 are technical/academic/literary papers.) Some of the content here is beyond fives stars. They are from various settings/contexts with disparate target audiences in mind.
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Quotes:
All men alike, on questions which interest them, escape from the region of belief into that of knowledge when they can, and if they succeed in knowing, they no longer say they believe. (112)
If human life is in fact ordered by a beneficent being whose knowledge of our real needs and of the way in which they can be satisfied infinitely exceeds our own, we must expect a priori that His operations will often appear to us far from beneficent and far from wise, and that it will be our highest prudence to give Him our confidence in spite of this. (114)
We trust not because “a God” exists, but because this God exists. (114)
When you are asked for trust you may give it or withhold it; it is senseless to say that you will trust if you are given demonstrative certainty. (116)
Our relation to those who trusted us only after we were proved innocent in court cannot be the same as our relation to those who trusted us all through. (116)
We may say that whereas all history was for our ancestors divided into two periods, the pre-Christian and the Christian, and two only, for us it falls into three — the pre-Christian, the Christian, and what may reasonably be called the post-Christian. (3-4)
When Watt makes his engine, when Darwin starts monkeying with the ancestry of a Man, and Freud with his soul, and the economists with all that is his, then indeed the lion will have gotten out of its cage. (5)
To be religious is to have one’s attention fixed on God and on one’s neighbor in relation to God. Therefore, almost by definition, a religious man, or a man when he is being religious, is not thinking about _religion_; he hasn’t the time. (60)
We remain conscious of the desire, which no natural happiness will satisfy. (120)
These things — the beauty, the memory of our own past — are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken, for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune, we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (120)
To be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son — it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is. (123)
There are no _ordinary_ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. (125)
Your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. (126)
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Quotes:
All men alike, on questions which interest them, escape from the region of belief into that of knowledge when they can, and if they succeed in knowing, they no longer say they believe. (112)
If human life is in fact ordered by a beneficent being whose knowledge of our real needs and of the way in which they can be satisfied infinitely exceeds our own, we must expect a priori that His operations will often appear to us far from beneficent and far from wise, and that it will be our highest prudence to give Him our confidence in spite of this. (114)
We trust not because “a God” exists, but because this God exists. (114)
When you are asked for trust you may give it or withhold it; it is senseless to say that you will trust if you are given demonstrative certainty. (116)
Our relation to those who trusted us only after we were proved innocent in court cannot be the same as our relation to those who trusted us all through. (116)
We may say that whereas all history was for our ancestors divided into two periods, the pre-Christian and the Christian, and two only, for us it falls into three — the pre-Christian, the Christian, and what may reasonably be called the post-Christian. (3-4)
When Watt makes his engine, when Darwin starts monkeying with the ancestry of a Man, and Freud with his soul, and the economists with all that is his, then indeed the lion will have gotten out of its cage. (5)
To be religious is to have one’s attention fixed on God and on one’s neighbor in relation to God. Therefore, almost by definition, a religious man, or a man when he is being religious, is not thinking about _religion_; he hasn’t the time. (60)
We remain conscious of the desire, which no natural happiness will satisfy. (120)
These things — the beauty, the memory of our own past — are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken, for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune, we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (120)
To be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son — it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is. (123)
There are no _ordinary_ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. (125)
Your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. (126)
May 14, 2008
See my review here: http://trebro.livejournal.com/243556....
November 30, 2015
first two chapters are fantastic
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews