Cindy Rollins's Reviews > The Abolition of Man

This book is definitely one that gets better the more times you read it. I can remember understanding very little of it except the famous paragraph at the end of the first chapter the first time I read it, “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Certainly, that paragraph itself is worthy of 5 stars.

This time around, my fourth or fifth reading, I read it with our new book club in view, underlining and making notes for our group. This helped me see it with fresh eyes. I remembered how confusing it was the first time I read it and I was happy to realize more of it made sense to me now. Still can't say the whole thing was wide open to me but more than before.

Let me add that today I believe the single most important message in this book is the use of the word 'debunking' by Lewis. As Christians we often guilty of being debunkers and I believe it is a way that we undermine our message even as we are giving it. We need to read this book often and ponder how we have joined the culture of debunking which is deadly.