The World's Last Night and Other Essays

“We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage. To play well the scenes in which we are "on" concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.”

In these seven witty, lucid, and tough-minded essays, the famous, infamous Screwtape makes a special appearance, proposing a toast that brilliantly explores the many opportunities for exploiting evil in the world. Lewis also considers the evidence for whether and how prayer works, plays with the meaning of the words “I believe,” and asks what happens to our concept of God when we send rockets into outer space. And, in a moving final piece, he forces us to wonder how we should live if any day might bring the world’s last night. Anyone who ever appreciated his unique blend of humor, paradox, and searing insight will find these further thoughts from C.S. Lewis richly illuminating and remember that he is, as ever, one of the greatest writers and challengers of living faith.

"[Lewis] addresses himself to the task of disputing belief with energy, humor, and intense conviction." —Los Angeles Times

"Reveals the expected wit, the Chestertonian ability to make Christian orthodoxy exciting and fit for the brave rebel, and an abundance of offbeat insights into the human scene." —New York Times Book Review

C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis (1898-1963), one of the great writers of the twentieth century, also continues to be one of our most influential Christian thinkers. He wrote more than thirty books, both popular and scholarly, including The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Screwtape Letters, The Four Loves, Mere Christianity, and Surprised by Joy.

Explores the questions of the relevance of Christianity to our modern scientific age. Contains a new Screwtape dialogue.

In seven witty, lucid, tough-minded essays, Lewis considers questions that challenge the faith of modern Christians. He discusses such topics as the efficacy of prayer, the various uses of the phrase “I believe,” the religious implications of life on other planets, the meaning of words like “culture” and “religion,” and the idea of the Second Coming.

C. S. Lewis was famous both as a fiction writer and as a Christian thinker, and scholars sometimes divide his personality in two. Yet a large part of Lewis's appeal, for both his audiences, lay in his ability to fuse imagination with instruction. "Let the pictures tell you their own moral," he once advised writers of children's stories. "But if they don't show you any moral, don't put one in."