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Book Review of The Great Divorce

The Great Divorce
reviewed on
Helpful Score: 2


I at first didn't grasp what the book was saying. It seems to say that even when in hell we can still choose to go to heaven. As I continued I came to understand that this is not the case, it is merely a playing out of choices that the people already made throughout their lives. It shows the folly of clinging so closely to the past that we cannot grasp onto the great glory that the Lord has ready for us. Or believing that we have always tried our best to be good and never taking anything that we didn't deserve, and how this stops us from accepting God's gift of life because we didn't "earn" it.
Overall I enjoyed the book immensely and found it's view refreshing in this age of relativism. Because ultimately it shows the kinds of things that keep people from accepting God's gift are the ordinary everyday events it's not the great sins alone that we have to be wary of but the things that we often feel are quite acceptable such as always being true to oneself can be just as much a hindrance to salvation as adultery would be. It's a very difficult book to describe, but at the same moment is also very much worth the read. It's a small book, I read it in an evening and an afternoon. I think it's one of Lewis's more underrated works, but it should not be overlooked.