Beyond the Shadowlands: C. S. Lewis on Heaven and Hell

by Wayne Martindale, Walter Hooper (Foreword)

Those who know Lewis's work will enjoy Martindale's thorough examination of the powerful images of Heaven and Hell found in Lewis's fiction, and all readers can appreciate Martindale's scholarly yet accessible tone. Read this book, and you will see afresh the wonder of what lies beyond the Shadowlands.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christianity

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2005

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average study on Lewis, drawing the usual connections across texts, this time with the theme of heaven & hell. Basically descends into a book report half the time. Still an enjoyable read.

[Josh Simons · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book. A few years ago, someone I knew tried to start a men’s group and call it the Inklings. Beyond the Shadowlands was the book we began going through but the group fell apart. I’m 2024, I’ve been having a “Year with CS Lewis,” and this was in my stack. I figured it would be nice to finish it and would be fine, but the book exceeded my expectations. This year of reading helped prime the pump and the chapters here just flowed for me. The topics landed with me at just the right time and I hope I’m able to squeeze more juice out of Lewis’ perspectives on heaven and hell as I finish out my Lewis reading this year. This is a recommend. There are some repetitive parts which I don’t mind because some things need to be read/heard multiple times to get the point across. It may fall a little flat if the reader isn’t familiar with Lewis’ fiction. Especially Narnia, the Ransom trilogy, the Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and Till We Have Faces.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband and I read through this book together in the evenings. The author did a wonderful job of summarizing CS Lewis‘s views on heaven and hell through the books that he wrote. The book had several sections. Part 1 was demythologizing heaven: the non-fiction. In this section, the author discussed seven myths about heaven, explaining why each one was false. The next part was called remythologizing heaven: the fiction. In that section, the author went through various books of CS Lewis’s to make his points. Parts 3 and 4 were about demythologizing hell, the non-fiction, and remythologizing hell: the fiction, again tackling myths and looking at Lewis’s written works about hell. An interesting discussion about purgatory was at the end of the book as well as an epilogue on who goes to heaven. We enjoyed this book quite a bit.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this read did not flow as nicely as I would have liked, it was full of good interpretation of Lewis's works. As I began reading it I hadn't considered that I would like to hang onto it as a resource for insight into various works by Lewis, but by the time I was half way through Beyond the Shadowlands I thought that I will have to come back to this next time I read through Perelandra, or The Screwtape letters or Mere Christianity etc. I appreciated the Biblical perspective that Martindale took in his interpretations.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very thought provoking book. And it pulled so much from all of Lewis' works that it gave me a good idea of which of his books I would like to read.

[KJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

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