The Great Divorce.
Author: C.S. Lewis
Religious Belief of Author: Universalist
Published: 1945
Genre: Theological Fiction
*** We do not recommend C.S. Lewis as a source for theological truths. Lewis is better classified as a philosopher, apologist, and author. His work is helpful from an apologetic point of view and offers a general truth about humanity, and his fictional books are fun to read. However, C.S. Lewis had anti-Christian views, such as Universalism, which is a false teaching. He believed in purgatory, praying for the dead, believed that some unbelievers could find salvation after they had left this world, and did not believe that all parts of the Bible were equally the Word of God. In an article in Christianity Today, writer J.D. Douglas paraphrased Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, saying Lewis’ view of salvation was “defective in two key respects: (1) Lewis taught and believed that one could reason oneself into Christianity, and (2) Lewis was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal theory of the Atonement.” Read more here about the concerns of his theology.
C.S. Lewis’s book The Great Divorce was first printed as a series in an Anglican newspaper called The Guardian in 1944 and 1945 and was then printed in book form. It’s based on a theological dream vision where lost souls take a bus ride to Heaven, and the ultimate question is - Will they choose to stay? Or return to a life divorced from it? It’s a fictional meditation upon good & evil and grace & judgment and the Christian conceptions of Heaven and Hell.
The Great Divorce Study Guide (free pdf download)
The Great Divorce Book (free audiobook)
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake's poem
A Book Observed - The Great Divorce by Jerry Root (article + video)
Reflections: May I Kill It? by C.S. Lewis Institute (article) - one scene in the book is a visiting ghost with a lizard on its shoulder. This lizard represents the lust that has ruined the ghost’s life; however, the ghost won’t allow it to be killed. What little sin are you refusing to kill to surrender your life to Christ?
The Fellowship for the Performing Arts
Founded by award-winning actor Max McLean, FPA is a nonprofit “New York City-based production company producing theatre and film from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience.” FPA has brought to life the books of C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce. ….find out more about FPA and where you can see a show here.
Free Audio Book with Premium: The Great Divorce. C.S. Lewis's dazzling allegory about Heaven and Hell — and the chasm fixed between them — is one of his most brilliantly imaginative tales, where we discover that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside.
"The Great Divorce," by C.S. Lewis, recounts a bus trip to heaven. We discuss the Problem of Evil from the perspective of the book.
The Great Divorce is an unusual story told from the passengers' perspective on a 'day trip' from hell to heaven. Alister explains how the story and characters draw out Lewis' views on the nature of heaven and hell.
An interview about The Great Divorce.
Join the Rev. Brian McGreevy for an exploration of C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce" and what happens when people, even Christians, give in to worldly notions about Truth and insist that Truth is malleable and individual and a matter of opinion rather than firmly rooted in God’s Word.
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis employs his talent for fable and allegory. The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus bound for Heaven. The unique opportunity is that anyone who wants to stay in Heaven can. This is a starting point for a meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment. Lewis’s idea is the discovery that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his descriptive skills, Lewis’s The Great Divorce will change your thoughts about good and evil.
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