The Abolition of Man - Book 6

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis is really a collection of two essays or lectures and an appendix. It is a fairly quick read. I read this on my Kindle.

In this book, Lewis addresses the purpose of education and the dangerous impact modern thinking has on true education. He begins by criticizing a grammar book that was sent to him for review. He finds that the authors of the textbook, thinking that are teaching the student skepticism about being unduly influenced by propaganda and advertisements, really have taught the students to fear or dismiss what is good, true and beautiful. The textbook authors do this by reducing human response to beauty or anything deeply appealing as something that is mere subjective feeling and has nothing to do with the truth of the thing being considered. The textbook authors, probably without even realizing it, have bought into the modern view of relativism and this is the gospel they preached in between the lines of teaching grammar and rhetoric.

Lewis then sets out to show that there are self-evident core values that every human culture has acknowledged. He looks at all different Ancient traditions from Babylonian, to Lao Tzu to the Ancient Greeks, the Old Testament, Buddhism and Christianity to show that humankind, independent of each other's societies, have each come to a realization of the Tao, as Lewis terms it. He uses this term because he is not particularly interested in converting anyone to his own faith, but rather is trying to show the universality of ethics, so he chooses a non-western word to convey his idea. In Christian terminology we would call the Tao, natural law.

Lewis' further point, once he establishes that there are these universal, self-evident standards of good and evil, is that the modern viewpoint wants to deconstruct these truths in the name of progress. Scientifically, the west has excelled because it has embraced the scientific approach of deconstruction and analysis, but morally we suffer from this because modern thinking wants to debunk everything! Lewis talks about how we want now to 'see through' everything. We think this will get us to the truth, but if even self-evident truths are 'seen through,' we will eventually see nothing. If everything is transparent the world is invisible! There's nothing there to guide us anymore.

Lewis paints a very dark picture of what becomes of man when he wants to 'progress' past natural law, or Nature. When mankind wants to become the final arbiter, the social engineer, the eugenic designer; when those few who gain that sort of power begin to manipulate the rest of society, because they concoct their own ad hoc law based on temporary things instead of following the natural law, they actually will cease to let humankind be human. Instead we will become pawns and less than human. That is the meaning of the ironic title of this book. This relativistic, scientific worldview which promises so much progress and freedom, will actually be the "freeing" of man from being human. Humankind will be diminished not elevated. He'll become less because he does not live by the Tao that allows him to be what he was created to be.

Of course, Lewis is much better at building an argument and conveying it than I am at summarizing it! As I read the book, I felt I needed a little guidance. I googled around and found this very helpful study guide. I know also that the blog Ordo Armoris had a book study not too long ago though I did not follow it.

The appendix to this book is very interesting. Lewis compiled quotes from ancient writings from all over the world to illustrate his point about the Tao. This collection reminded me of an exhibit that I saw several years ago at the John Paul II Cultural Institute in Washington DC. The exhibit was a collection of art work and quotes that showed how natural law existed in all different cultures. I found the exhibit so intriguing and ultimately comforting, for I think that though our world might go through periods of confusion where powerful but unwise people make decisions that guide us down that dark road towards Lewis' prophecy, because God's law is written on the heart of His children, that Tao can never be extinguished forever. It will always rear its surly head!

This gives me hope in our own time when abortion on demand has become such a precept of our culture, control over reproduction and our bodies to an unhealthy and ultimately destructive degree is seen as a right, and the fact that our government and all the politicos seem to buy into the very worldview Lewis warns against in this book. It is a dismal world out there, but as time passes, these things will pass too and once again the universal will somehow reassert itself. Eternal truths never die.

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