The Problem of Pain.

LEWIS, C.S. [Walter Hooper].

$2,000.00

Item Number: 149338

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1943.

First edition of Lewis’s classic discussion of the nature of good and evil. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth. Although not marked this copy is from the library of C.S. Lewis’s close friend, advisor and biographer Walter McGehee Hooper. American literary scholar Walter McGehee Hooper remains best known for his close association with C.S. Lewis. Originally from North Carolina, Hooper met Lewis in 1963 while serving as a chaplain in the U.S. Army and quickly became his personal secretary during the final months of Lewis’s life. Their connection was both professional and deeply personal, with Hooper developing a strong admiration for Lewis’s intellect, faith, and literary genius. After Lewis’s death later that year, Hooper dedicated his life to preserving and promoting Lewis’s legacy. He became the principal editor of many of Lewis’s posthumously published works and letters, ensuring that both academic and popular audiences could continue to engage with Lewis’s writings, co-authored C.S. Lewis: A Biography (1974) and later published C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide (1996), both of which offer detailed insights into Lewis’s life and thought. Hooper’s main contribution to Lewis’s legacy, however, was his extensive editorial work, as he compiled, edited, and introduced numerous volumes of Lewis’s writings, including The Letters of C.S. Lewis (with W.H. Lewis), All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C.S. Lewis 1922–1927, and C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide (1996), which served as both a reference and a biographical commentary. Near fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket. Rare in the original dust jacket.

In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis, one of the most renowned Christian authors and thinkers, examines a universally applicable question within the human condition: “If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?” Lewis states that his writing is "not primarily arguing the truth of Christianity but describing its origin - a task ... necessary if we are to put the problem of pain in its right setting". He begins by addressing the flaws in common arguments against the belief in a just, loving, and all-powerful God such as: "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both." Topics include human suffering and sinfulness, animal suffering, and the problem of hell, and seeks to reconcile these with an omnipotent force beyond ourselves. Lewis' philosophical approach in Problem of Pain bears some similarity to his later, more personal, approach to the problem of evil in A Grief Observed, a reflection on his own experiences of grief and anguish after the death of his wife.