After Humanity Bundle
After Humanity Bundle
A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man
by Fr. Michael Ward and C.S. Lewis
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This two part bundle includes the full text of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, along with an in-depth guide by Michael Ward.
After Humanity is a guide to one of C.S. Lewis’s most widely admired but least accessible works, The Abolition of Man, which originated as a series of lectures on ethics that he delivered during the Second World War.
These lectures tackle the thorny question of whether moral value is objective or not. When we say something is right or wrong, are we recognizing a reality outside ourselves, or merely reporting a subjective sentiment? Lewis addresses the matter from a purely philosophical standpoint, leaving theological matters to one side. He makes a powerful case against subjectivism, issuing an intellectual warning that, in our “post-truth” twenty-first century, has even more relevance than when he originally presented it.
Lewis characterized The Abolition of Man as “almost my favourite among my books,” and his biographer Walter Hooper has called it “an all but indispensable introduction to the entire corpus of Lewisiana.” In After Humanity, Michael Ward sheds much-needed light on this important but difficult work, explaining both its general academic context and the particular circumstances in Lewis’s life that helped give rise to it, including his front-line service in the trenches of the First World War.
After Humanity contains a detailed commentary clarifying the many allusions and quotations scattered throughout Lewis’s argument. It shows how this resolutely philosophical thesis fits in with his other, more explicitly Christian works. It also includes a full-color photo gallery, displaying images of people, places, and documents that relate to The Abolition of Man, among them Lewis’s original “blurb” for the book, which has never before been published.
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What People are Saying
“C.S. Lewis’s analysis of the anti-human trend of modern Western culture has perhaps even more and sharper pertinence now than when it was written. In this vigorous and widely researched book, one of our leading Lewis scholars helps us see this analysis in its full intellectual context, and confirms beyond doubt Lewis’s stature as a genuine public intellectual for our own day as well as his.”
—Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury, author of The Lion’s World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia
“Detailed, meticulous research and scholarship has made this the definitive book on The Abolition of Man. This book is to The Abolition of Man what Michael Ward's Planet Narnia is to the Chronicles of Narnia.”
—Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College, author of C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium: Six Essays on The Abolition of Man
“In After Humanity, Michael Ward reminds us that Lewis was a philosopher, gifted in asking the most important questions about the cosmos and our place within it. In exploring Lewis’s philosophical anthropology, Ward is lucid in every sense of the word. He writes in a manner as clear and accessible as it is illuminating. After Humanity deserves (and will reward) a readership as diverse and dedicated as Lewis’s own.”
—Rebekah Lamb, Lecturer in Theology, Imagination, and the Arts, University of St. Andrews, author of Out of the Shadows: C.S. Lewis on Education in The Chronicles of Narnia: A Spiritual Journey
“A fascinating, invaluable guide, going deep and wide to convey the thought of The Abolition of Man and the world of its author.”
—John Finnis, Emeritus Fellow in Law, University College, Oxford, and author of Natural Law and Natural Rights
“Michael Ward’s thorough commentary will long remain the essential companion to The Abolition of Man. His exegesis and analysis, including his own insights and the best from other commentators, show how Lewis’s classic still speaks to questions of finding moral principles in our ‘post-truth’ era.”
—George Marsden, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, author of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography