The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by ARMAND M. NICHOLI JR - July 2003

Free Press, July 2003. Paper Back. As New. It is hard to find two better intellectual representatives in the twentieth century of belief and unbelief than C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud. This very readable book seeks to present their contrasting views objectively and lets the reader decide their merit. Besides the question of the existence of God, issues discussed include the problem of pain and suffering, the nature of love and sex, and the ultimate meaning of life and death. Remarkably dispassionate in approach, the author's clinical experience as a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School nonetheless reveals (without polemical apologetics) the practical benefit of Lewis' worldview. The fruit of a course he has taught for 25 years, Nicholi reveals some surprisingly similar backgrounds to Lewis and Freud: both men suffered the loss of their mother at an early age, hostility toward their fathers and teenage unbelief. The point at which they diverge, with Lewis' conversion, is a fascinating case study in the reasons for belief and unbelief.