Book Review: Between Heaven and Hell
Pages: 142
Publisher: Intervarsity Press
Year: 1982 (2008)
Author: Peter Kreeft
I believe this is the first major Socratic dialogue Kreeft published (1982) and, unlike the others published by Intervarsity Press, does not feature Socrates as the central character. But, instead, feature Lewis as the main character. Between Heaven and Hell is a dialogue between Christian author and apologist C.S. Lewis, American President John F. Kennedy and English author Aldous Huxley.
While the original was published in 1982, a revised edition was published in 2008 - the edition I own - and includes an Appendix (A World Without an Easter) and outline of the book. However as far as I know, the main text has not been altered between the two editions.
The basic premise of the book is described on the back cover:
On November 22nd, 1963, three great men died within a few hours of each other: C.S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. All three believed, in different ways, that death is not the end of human life. Suppose they were right, and suppose they met after death. How might the conversation go?
The three different views of death presented in the book are Western theism (Lewis), Western humanism (Kennedy) and ancient Eastern pantheism (Huxley). The quality of the dialogue here is excellent, and I suspect one might have trouble telling the difference between the C.S. Lewis of this book and the C.S. Lewis of "real life". I've never read (or really listened to) Kennedy or Huxley (in any sort of conversational text) so I'm not sure if they sound as they really would have sounded, but I can say that their views are presented accurately and articulately.
Lewis' dialogue with Kennedy considers "New Christianity" and "Old Christianity," the nature of Jesus, objections to miracles and the supernatural and whether there is such a thing as "objective truth". Lewis' trilemma is presented and explained, and Jesus' claim to divinity is examined. Lewis' dialogue with Huxley continues the examination of Jesus' divine claim (Huxley arguing that Jesus did not claim to be divine), and progresses the discuss into whether Jesus' claims of divinity were unique or similar to claims the sages of other religions have made. The new dialogue, A World Without Easter, is a short but worthwhile read and mostly examines the popular attitude that the resurrection wasn't a significant event.
So far Peter Kreeft has yet to fail to impress me. This is another well-written book, one that I highly recommend for those who are interested in seeing how the three different world views presented in the book would dialogue and interact with each other.
Related posts:
- Book Review: Beyond the Shadowlands
- Book Review: The Last Christian on Earth
- Book Review: The Making of an Atheist
- Book Review: The Naked Gospel
- Book Review: Making Sense of Suffering
