God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics

Note: this essay was originally read in the Oxford Socratic Club, then published in The Socratic Digest in June 1944.

Lewis coins the term “Bulverism” to describe the practice of assuming an opponent’s argument is incorrect and attacking the opponent’s motives, rather than addressing the argument itself. Lewis contends that logical fallacy is practiced by opponents of Christianity, who list reasons why Christians would want to believe, rather than addressing the belief itself.

In response to a question about the development of reason, Lewis insists that reason comes from God and cannot be a purely physical process.

Note: this essay was first published in Time and Tide in June 1942.

Lewis takes news that Germans ranked a Nordic villain as more heroic than Siegfried, the hero of the saga, as evidence that they misunderstand the myth. He claims that valorizing their cultural background has caused them to fundamentally misunderstand it. 

In the same way, Lewis attributes the problems of modern society to a collective obsession with society itself. Lewis argues that a healthy society can only exist if humanity is working towards some greater, original good. He suggests that finding and prioritizing that greater good is the only hope for humanity.