Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog between Lewis, Kennedy, and Huxley
“Either Jesus is God or a bad man”
On November 22, 1963, three great men died. C. S. Lewis died of kidney failure, Aldous Huxley of cancer, and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Almost 20 years later, Peter Kreeft wrote an intriguing little book titled Between Heaven & Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley.
It is book 44 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading challenges, and I have chosen this book to both get to know Kreeft’s three subjects and what their discourse might have sounded like.
Kreeft’s book reads much like a play, where the three great men are engaging in constant dialog with each other over the nature of heaven and hell. There are no chapter breaks, scenes, or intermissions, just simply 114 pages of constant theological, philosophical, and psychological debate. And yet, Kreeft manages not only to splendidly capture the reader's attention but also educate the reader on the nature of each man's convictions.
Each man represents the three most prominent views of Christianity at the time. C. S. Lewis portraying the traditional orthodox faith, Kennedy the modernist or humanist, and Huxley the mystical Christianity. The book clearly favors Lewis as the driver of the conversation, naturally due to the significant legacy of the unmatched debater and classical apologist.
I highly recommend this read as it is both exceptionally engaging and an intellectual stimulus for all backgrounds, Christian or not. The following are my two highlights.
Rational Escapism
“In fact, not to have prepared for this journey while we were living on earth would have been escapism. Don’t you agree?” (p. 14).
This statement is made as the three men are trying to decide where they are, somewhere between heaven and hell. Kennedy makes the offhanded remark that he never “bothered about transcendental mysteries or mythology” as he wasn’t trying to escape his world but take care of it.
Naturally, the Oxford professor has a word or two in rebuttal. Of which, he makes the claim that to not have given time, energy, and serious thought to the next journey in life (after death) is also, if not more, an act of escapism.
In other words, to say, "I am not concerned with trying to escape my life on earth, rather I am going to make the best of it!" without ever giving serious thought to what comes after this life, is an equal if not greater and more dangerous form of escapism.
Intellectual Dishonesty
“That you know it’s true and still refuse to believe it; that you simply don’t care about truth; that you don’t want to know the truth. In short, that you are dishonest” (p. 67).
This statement arises after Lewis has forced Kennedy to face the question, "either Jesus is God or a bad man." Lewis's argument is simple. If Jesus claimed to be God, he is either as he claimed to be, or he is bad since no man claiming to be God can be good.
After walking Kennedy through this discussion, and dodging a few oriental objections from Huxley, Lewis finally corners Kennedy to conclude that Jesus is God by the nature of mere logic. And yet, Kennedy does not believe it. To which, Lewis concludes, the only reason he cannot believe it is because he is dishonest. For if he was honest, he would want to know the truth regardless of its implication.
This short read will have you smiling to yourself on one page and the next scratching your head. It is truly a book that once you start, you will not want to put down until you read the final words from the fourth character, The Light, who says, “Are you coming?”
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John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.