Tumnus’s Book Shelf: The NarniaFans Book Reviews: “The Abolition of Man.”

Hey, everybody! Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we reveiw any and all books dealing with CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. For today’s review, we will be covering CS Lewis’ The Abolition of Man.

Title: The Abolition of Man

Author: CS Lewis

Publisher: HarperOne (March 20, 2001)

ISBN-10: 0060652942

ISBN-13: 978-0060652944

Summary: Written in response to a book dealing with the teaching of the English language, CS Lewis sounds a call to the preservation of society, our past and most importantly our moral truths. Citing prominent ancient thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Confucius and St .Augustine, Lewis reminds us that the chief purpose of education is to strengthen us not just intellectually but morally and emotionally.

Review:

Not all books by CS Lewis deal explicitly with the doctrines of Christianity. The Abolition of Man, is one such book. It deals with education, and it‘s role in teaching morals to young people. At a first glance of the title one may thing it is all about finding freedom in Christ from our bondage to sin. This book all begins with the subject of teaching the English language.

CS Lewis wrote this book in response to a book that he called “ The Green Book” by Gaius and Titius, which upon investigation was actually a entitled The Control of Language: A Critical Approach to Reading and Writing by Alex King and Martin Ketley. This is a feature of the book that is most appealing. Unlike so many current authors who will use there works as a public forum to bash other writers view points, and can distract from the over all work, Lewis takes a higher ground and shares the ideas with out revealing the authors. It is just as well as it is very likely that the book in question is no longer in print as like most books on education it gets disregarded once new theories set in.

Lewis was very displeased with “The Green Book” as it did not teach English grammar as it intended, but rather taught morals and schools of philosophy that he deemed dangerous. His book was meant to be the answer to that.

While Abolition of Man partly deals with teaching English, it deals more with what education should be about, which is not only broadening minds, but passing on of moral truths. There are even several warnings in the book about the “danger” of progress with out morals and where some of it could lead us, replacing morals with science and disseminating the then growing trend of moral relativity.

Lewis makes very few “Christian” statements about the Fall or Salvation. Lewis himself states that his book is not meant to direct any one towards a belief in God. He also quotes other sources such as ancient Norse, Egyptian, Chinese, Hindu proverbs and thinkers like Plato and Confucius to show how every ancient culture did believe in some form of absolute truth. He even appropriates the concept of the Tao- which according to Webster’s comes from the ancient Chinese word of Dao which loosely translated means the way, right way of life, or path of reason.”

The book is very well written, but it does get a little long winded at times ( this was after all, one of the main reasons JRR Tolkien based Treebeard the Ent in Lord of the Rings of off CS Lewis.) Some readers have admitted having difficult with this book, mostly due to this aspect, as well as it’s lack of Christian doctrine. Becasue of this, the book istelf is best suited for older readers and is highly recommended for educators. It must be read more then once if readers wish to understand the meaning of Lewis’s arguments. The ideas, much like many of Lewis’s are meant to be discussed, especially in a world that desperately needs some moral fiber.

4 out of 5 shields

Order the book from Amazon.com